Re: HP laptop

[David Goodenough <david.goodenough@btconnect.com>]

On Wednesday 02 March 2005 03:01, David Mandelberg wrote:
> Dimitris E. Kiousis wrote:
> > Will I encounter any problems?
>
> Probably nothing immediate, most basic things (e.g. keyboard, monitor, hard
> drive, etc.) are supported. You may have problems with power management,
> the touchpad (increasingly unlikely), and peripherals. The centrino wlan
> chipsets don't work well with GNU/Linux, but should be ok with ndiswrapper
> (I think).
Actually HP are very good about using the proper DSDT compiler from Intel and
therefore not producing bad ACPI interfaces.  As to the Intel wireless chips 
they are properly supported by an Open Source driver distributed by Intel.  
Both the ipw2100-source and ipw2200-source packages are available from
Debian.
>
> > Are HP compatible with Linux and Debian?
>
> Not specifically, but many of the parts are.
HP are vocal supports of Linux, and do have some laptops that you can
buy from them which come preloaded with Linux.  Unlike many other 
large companies that support linux, HP do work with Debian.
>
> > Do I have to download any particular drivers?
>
> Install first, then if anything doesn't work, use google. E.g. if the
> touchpad doesn't work, search for 'linux "HP NX-9030" touchpad' or similar.
Most likely you will need the synaptics touchpad driver which seems to drive
all of the touchpads I have met recently.  It is packaged for Debian.

David