HP Compaq 620

This is a template for a future guide to running Linux with the HP Compaq 620 laptop. If you have the HP Compaq 620 and are running Linux on it please consider editing this page or adding a comment below with your compatibility details. By contributing you will help other people running this laptop or trying to make a decision on whether to buy it or not.

This page is just for discussing using Linux on the HP Compaq 620. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the HP Compaq 620 page on LapWik.

If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.

For full specifications see the HP Compaq 620 specifications page.

You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the HP Compaq 620 here.

Specific Comments Guys:-
Phil L. - Mine was the 4GB DDR3 model with Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Series 4 Graphics and ralink 3090 wireless card.
1.Installed Kubuntu 11.04 from live CD (GUI Install)
2.Everything worked fine “out of the box” except wireless connection tended to drop out, changing wireless configuration caused a hardware crash. Faulty wireless driver causing great instability. (Easy Fix)

 a) Download and installed Markus Heberling's Ralink 3090 Driver .deb package from 
    https://launchpad.net/~markus-tisoft/+archive/rt3090
 b) Blacklisted the current driver 
    i)sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
    ii)add Blacklist rt2800pci to the text file
    iii)save and reboot

3. System stable everything functional.

Notes:

• Unordered List Item Battery life seems extended from original windows 7 install.
• Unordered List Item Intermittent crash of flash player when watching on-line videos, Fixed on Refresh.
• Unordered List Item All desktop graphical effects work without hindering performance

John B. mine was enhanced to 4mb compaq 620 wzo40pa
1. I loaded RHEA Entreprise Server 5 on HDD.
2. Go to BIOS and disable SATA option and enable IDE option before installing OS. Do it the Device Configuration part of the BIOS. - John B
3. GUI Install Failed… John B
4. Did a Text Install … John B
5. System GUI failed… upon installation… X server did not come up….John B
6. Spent next 18 hours to get this work around.

6a. Xorg -configure

 This creates xorg.conf.new file

6b. Xorg -config xorg.conf.new
6c. USB will work
6d. mount /dev/sda1 /media
6c. cp /root/xorg.conf.new /media/.

Take it to another system

Section “ServerLayout”

Identifier     "X.org Configured"
Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section “Files”

RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath     "unix/:7100"
FontPath     "built-ins"

EndSection

Section “Module”

Load  "extmod"
Load  "xtrap"
Load  "record"
Load  "dri"
Load  "vnc"
Load  "glx"
Load  "dbe"
Load  "fbdevhw"
Load  "freetype"
Load  "type1"

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

Identifier  "Keyboard0"
Driver      "kbd"
Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”

Identifier  "Mouse0"
Driver      "mouse"
Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"

EndSection

Section “Monitor”

Identifier   "Monitor0"
VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName    "Monitor Model"
ModelName    "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync    31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0
Option	    "dpms"

EndSection

Section “Device”

      ### Available Driver options are:-
      ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
      ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
      ### [arg]: arg optional
      #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
      #Option     "DefaultRefresh"     	# [<bool>]
      #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen" 	# [<bool>]
Identifier  "Videocard0"
Driver      "vesa"
VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
BoardName   "VESA driver (generic)"
BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"

EndSection

Section “Screen”

Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Videocard0"
Monitor    "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth     24
SubSection "Display"
	Viewport   0 0
	Depth     16
	Modes     "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
	Viewport   0 0
	Depth     16
	Modes    "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection

EndSection

Section “DRI”

Group        0
Mode         0666

EndSection

6c.mount /dev/sda1 /media
6d.mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xrg.conf.old
6e. cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
6f. startx

X server should start working. You will see a black screen and X mark
8.press power off button.
9.upon reboot
10. You will get stuck once again at command line
11. login: root
12. > init 5

  Switch to runlevel 5

—- John B Solomon

Still the Network adapter was not working.
Needed a Manual work around.
Bring down the NIC
1. /etc/rc.d/init.d/network stop
2. Download the Realtek linux driver 8101 from the net
2a.Procedure to install
2b../configure
2c.make
2d.make install
3./lib/modules/<KERNAL VERSION>/kernel/drivers/net
4.gvim /etc/modprobe.conf
5.alias eth0 8101
6.save
7.neat
8.configure

You NIC should be up - John B Solomon

Works pretty smooth with RHEA 5 Server and Ubuntu LTS 10.0.4 (Installed on a Flash no display Issues unlike RHEA) - John B Solomon

Works 90% out of the box with Kubuntu 11.04, a 5 minute fix (described above) brings this to 100% with no performance issues and an extremely smooth running system. Boots quickly, loads applications quickly,increased battery efficiency and less hassle all round compared to the original windows 7 install. Phil J Lange