Re: Surprisingly cheap HP 255 G2 laptop; Wheezy possible?
On Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:02:19 +0100
Ron Leach <ronleach@tesco.net> wrote:
> List, good morning,
>
> There's an attractive offer in UK for an HP 255 G2 laptop, from Misco:
>
> http://www.misco.co.uk/product/Q730917/
>
> and I wondered whether anybody had had good experience running Wheezy
> on it?
I haven't had *any* experience running this notebook, but I have a
comment about the price...
It makes me sad that, since my kids went away to college in 2011, the
price of 4GB RAM laptops have remained stagnant. This laptop translates
into $361.32 USD, a price you could get in 2011 if you aggressively
shopped back to school sales, but a price that's gotten harder and
harder to find in the ensuing several years. Today, this is quite a
good price.
This laptop has an adequate 4GB RAM. The 1.5Ghz, four core is obviously
going to be slow on challenging apps, but if you're running lots of not
too CPU-challenging programs, it should be adequate. And adequate is a
great deal for $361, always assuming it will run Linux.
This laptop's A4-5000 processor uses 15 watts. Nice!
Here's some info on the processor:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A4-5000-Notebook-Processor.92867.0.html
> I had two queries, touchpad, and UEFI,
>
> Searching revealed that its Synaptics touchpad is causing problems in
> Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/+bug/1325992
>
> but I've no idea whether this meant problems were with the Synaptics
> driver and might occur with Wheezy.
I'm not good at looking at long listings, and the bug report doesn't
say *why* he suspects this involves the touchpad or what diagnostic
tests he's already performed, but I saw nothing that told me this had
anything to do with the touchpad. If I owned that computer, based on
that printout, my first move would be to de-install compiz, install
LXDE or Xfce, reboot, and log into a LXDE or Xfce, and see whether the
symptom changed.
> A sort-of assessment for Linux
> on it is here:
>
> http://www.linux-hardware-guide.com/uk/2014-07-12-hp-255-g2-notebook-15-6-zoll-1-gh
>
> I've two applications for this machine, one would be text based so
> the touchpad wouldn't be an issue, but the other would employ a
> graphical desktop, and be mounted on the top shelf of a cabinet, so
> an external mouse wouldn't be an option. So I wondered in particular
> whether anybody had Wheezy on this, and managed to use the touchpad?
I guess you could buy it for the text application, and while you're
setting that up, see whether the touchpad works. I'm betting that if
you don't have compiz and all that junk, you won't have a problem, but
that's pure guess.
>
> Could I ask about UEFI? It would, presumably, have a UEFI bios, as
> well and, while I've seen lots of postings about UEFI on the list, I
> have never used a UEFI system and didn't really understand what was
> being said. Are there still problems with UEFI, or will Wheezy
> install quite happily on UEFI these days?
No. Getting a Windows/Wheezy dual boot is neither intuitive nor
obvious. And given that your access to warranty depends on your having
a running Windows on the machine, that's a problem during the warranty
period. I see three ways around this:
1) Get *very* good with grub and UEFI and booting and all that stuff,
so you can Windows/Wheezy dual boot right. I got it wrong, but not
so wrong that I bricked Windows, and had to install Ubuntu.
2) Install Ubuntu. It detects Windows, detects that Windows is UEFI,
and just does the right thing (tm). I install Ubuntu on all my
laptops til they go out of warranty and I don't need their Windows
anymore.
3) Remove the Windows hard disk, substitute a different hard disk, and
install Wheezy on *that* hard disk. By the way, unless the new
hard disk is bigger than 2TB, you can MBR install it if you
want. Or, you can GUID install with confidence that there's no
other OS you risk wiping out. Then, if you ever need Windows for
warranty purposes, you can simply swap back the original hard disk.
SteveT
Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance
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