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HP-Compaq 8710W
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the HP 8710W laptop.
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the HP-Compaq 8710w. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the HP-Compaq 8710w page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the HP-Compaq 8710w specifications page.
| Name | HP 8710W |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4Ghz |
| Screen | 17” WUXGA Widescreen |
| RAM | 2GB |
| HDD | 120GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M |
| Network | Ethernet, Intel 4965 802.11abgn, Bluetooth |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | proprietary nvidia driver |
| Sound | Yes | Use snd_hda_intel kernel driver (2.6.25) |
| Ethernet | Yes | Use e1000e kernel driver (2.6.25) |
| Wireless | Yes | Use the iwl4965 driver |
| Bluetooth | No | Device not recognized |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Yes | Use ohci1394 kernel driver (2.6.25) |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| PCMCIA | Yes | Use yenta_socket kernel driver (2.6.25) |
| Fingerprint Reader | Yes | Use driver from http://home.gna.org/aes2501/index_en.html |
| SD card reader | Yes | Use kernel driver (ricoh_mmc, sdhci, mmc_block) |
| Synaptics Touchpad | Yes |
Notes
The Quadro FX 1600M in the 8710W needs the proprietary NVIDIA drivers for full support. Xorg does not yet support this card directly so you are forced to use the proprietary modules for any display at all.
Bluetooth doesn't work, there doesn't appear to be any drivers for it at the moment.
Summary
The HP-Compaq 8710W work quite well with Linux as long as you are comfortable installing and using the NVIDIA drivers.
Discussion
Hello !
I've that same 8710w (cg125#abf), works fine
I've installed Windows 7 ultimate x86, vmware 6.5.0, and ubuntu 9.10 x86 on a virtual machine
I don't have the sound out of the box.
Could you please tell me :
where to get the driver from
how to install it (if possible, a step-by-step procedure)
Thank you
Ubuntu works fine for me.. But the only glitch is whenever i try and do some sort of an operation with my keyboard, some 100'S of calculator windows are popped up. i am not able to reason out why.. i tried uninstalling the software, but the problem persists since it flashes an error box!
I've been using the 8710w with Ubuntu 9.04 every day for a little over 6 months now. It is a Core2Duo T7800 @ 2.66GHZ which varies slightly from the specs defined above. The machine has performed VERY well over that time. Wireless works just fine and as expected. You'll have to wait for NetworkManager to reconnect to the wireless network if you turn off the wireless by hitting the wireless touch area, but dmesg reports that it is connected within one or two seconds.
I have yet to be able to get the fingerprint reader to work under the 64bit OS because there are no 64 bit drivers. There are 32bit drivers, but I haven't tried them.
Everything else just..well…works…although there is a 'presentation' button and an 'info' button which I guess are specific to this make/model that does nothing under linux. If I could remap those buttons, that'd be nice, but definitely not needed.
All in all, this machine works extremely well with linux [specifically Ubuntu].
I successfully installed Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10 (64-bit Desktop) on my 8710W. (Latest kernel, latest Nvidia driver)
However, the specs above say that the CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4Ghz..?? However, my laptop has an Intel Core 2 Due T9500 2.6 GHz instead. Later model, maybe?
The Nvidia FX-1600M vga is based on the G84GL chip. It's very similar to the desktop Quadro FX-1700 card. In comparison to the GeForce series, it's similar to the 8700M GT laptop card (at half the memory clock), or the 8600 GT desktop card.
All in all a good vga, and the Nvidia proprietary driver installs easily and works well. (I picked this laptop in part because of its Nvidia vga, since the company is Linux-friendly, unlike some of its notable competitors! ;^)
My wireless worked out-of-the-box with no issues. Haven't tried the bluetooth yet…
VirtualBox 3.0.10 runs fine for doing Windoze things.
Fedora 11 works fine, bluetooth works just after automatic update.
OS: ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-13-generic, x86_64, nvidia 180 from repo.
Only one issue with some GTK apps like OpenOffice. The screen refresh is bad, some controls go blank, so you can see the control but no labels, anyone else having the same issue? I've had this issue since about two versions back on ubuntu. Everything else works and I don't need fingerprint and SD readers for now. Other than that, Im happy with the 8710w and linux combination.
Just tried out the Ubuntu 9.04 live CD & all is well.
Wireless, bluetooth work fine. No special NVIDIA drivers installed but GNOME works fine off the CD. I'm using the internet & using my bluetooth mouse while I try to get my partitions straightened out for install.
Rarely am I pleased with technology, but this laptop (HP 8710W, no uxga, bought c. 9/08) is the easiest,best performing computer i've owned. I look forward to using linux on it more often.
I recently Installed Ubuntu 8.04 on 8710w
Everything (including volume+wifi+calculator touchcontrols) works fine right away apart from
- smartreader
- fingerprint reader
Now I would like to make them work, too…
Being quite new to ubuntu..
Could someone indicate how I can activate the kernel driver(s) for the smartcard?
I searched it up on google, but without any luck.
Thanks for any help
romanos
Romanos,
I know this doesn't answer your question, but I've been thinking about purchasing one of these. Did you get the ones on special from the laptop blowout sale with the WUXGA screen? How do you like that screen resolution for daily tasks?
Glad to hear Ubuntu installs fairly well on this machine as that is what I'm planning on doing.
BTW, did it come with windows 64 or 32 bit?
Thanks,
Carlos
Carlos,
Yes I have the WUXGA screen, purchased in germany though.
As an architect I work a lot on CAD and Design applications, so the 1920px wide come very handy for buttons etc, but in the long run I find the resolution too high… Or at least if your OS doesn't offer you the possibility of *really* adjusting icon + text sizes in “normal” user-environment. (xp lacks that..)
I believe the 1600px version is more optimal for the 17” screen provided.
Other than that, it's a great machine, I am very satisfied with it.
It came with XP Prof 32bit, now have dual boot Ubuntu 8.04 + XP, Ubuntu as default.
Does anyone have suggestions / ideas how to get the smartcard reader to work??
I hate having to boot xp only for copying new digital images from SD cards…
greets,
romanos
i intalled kubuntu 8.04 on my machine and it doesn't work well at all. the programs are taking a lot to open and run. and this especially i've installed nvidia proprietary drivers. i will change the distribution.
Ubuntu Ultimate_32-bit 2.0 works great for me, with Nvidia propriety drivers. Also working completely bluetooth and wireless
Wireles Works, state not read
hello guys, I've just installed the wireles driver, if you turn on the wireles(touch the wireless spot on the tap/touch thing) the light wil not start glowing as in windows, restart the machine an observe the light glowing for 2 secs while rebooting to confirm settings.
Finger Print sensor
For what its worth, I found a library for reading the fingerprint scanner:
http://www.reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Main_Page
It discovered that the 8710w use the Authentec AES2501 chip.
It reads the finger print ok, but I can get it to verify a registered finger print.
I'm running FC-9.
Ubuntu 8.04 worked for me
Right out from the boks. Including the wireless on off that some got problems with here
Any Linux no wireless
Hi Guys
i have the same problem as Dayle James where i can install everything and it alllooks good buy my wireless wont turn on with the tap touch on/off switch. desperate help
Problems… oh woe is me.
Can someone who has attempted this please help me ??
I have attempted an ubuntu 8.04 installation on my 8710w laptop, and mostly everything is fine.
The problem is wireless networking.
The network device seems to have been detected just find, and the driver seems to be in place just fine. The problem is the little tappy-pad button above the keyboard that acts as a wireless an on/off switch !!
It's completely unresponsive in Linux (works beautifully in Windows)… touching it doesn't change it's state, or cause it to light up blue, or anything.
This means that (or so it would seem) the wireless device is disabled and Linux can't use it. I've been looking for a solution to this for a few days now, and I fail to see how anyone can have gotten it working - unless I have some problem with my unit specifically, which is really going to annoy me.
Any help much appreciated. Cheers.
I had problems with the wireless. The light came on at boot, but then when out.To get it working I had to do:
ifconfig wlan0 up
Then
iwlist wlan0
shows networks around me.
The blue light came on. Pressing it turns it off, but won't come on again. Not sure why. Maybe something with udev?
Everything works out of the box with Ubuntu 7.10
First I tried Debian Etch, but I did not get the NVidia drivers to work and I only had the wrong screen resolution, making everything stretched. I tried to fix it, but thinking of the wireless which also needed drivers and configuration I though it better to try Ubuntu straight away. And with success. Everything worked straight out of the box: X, wireless, sound, etc. Even a a GUI pocket calculator pops up when I press the little button above the above the keyboard. Maybe I can configure this button to do something useful.
One thing that was confusing, both with Debian and Ubuntu, is the GRUB boot menu that is automatically installed. On boot up, besides the Linux entries, I got two identically named Windows entries: “Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)” one directing to (hd0,0) and one to (hd0,1) - but you can't see that unless you hit 'e'. The (hd0,1) got me into into the HP Recovery process, and canceling it got me into an infinite loop of rebooting, starting the recovery process, canceling it, reboot, etc., without GRUB. I had to reinstall GRUB into the master boot record from a Linux live CD and remove the (hd0,1) from /boot/grub/menu.lst.
But now, everything works just fine.
bluetooth opensuse 10.3
opensuse 10.3 bluetooth also well with default install (with update) and network manager interface control for network devices - included in kernel. though does appear less troublesome to connect and runs faster with windows on same machine (dual boot). expect updates will improve.
nvidia brilliant
nvidia updates excellent.no need download kernel and compile anymore.updates using yast also update,rebuild and reinstall nividia to current installed kernel.however recompile of other apps needed (as expected) e.g. vmware workstation.
Unfortunately no xen download available yet from yast.
Works with Fedora 8
Fedora 8 works out of the box on this guy, without installing any extra propriety nvidia drivers (just using nv). Bluetooth also appears to work; I could see 3 other computers and a phone by clicking on “Detect Devices”. I'm impressed.