HP-Compaq 6730B

Note on Ubuntu Jaunty: The laptop has an accelerometer that is detected as a joystick. Some games make use of a joystick automatically if one is detected, so the control goes haywire. To turn off the spurious input, you need to “sudo rmmod lis3lv02d” at the command line, this will remove the driver.

To permanently remove it, add “blacklist lis3lv02d” in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

I'm having trouble getting bluetooth to work - doesn't show in lshw, lsusb, lspci etc. (But does work in windows! :( ) - I'm running ubuntu 9.04.

I've pasted the output from these here: http://pastebin.com/f45aadeab

I've tried playing with the wireless switch on keyboard, doesn't seem to affect bluetooth.

Thanks
Jordan

I've still got some (small) problems with the multimedai hotkeys. Backlighting works thanks to you but the louder/softer keys nee adjusting. They do work but instead of changing the master volume, they adjust the volume of my first recording device.
What should I do?

I have a problem with the ethernet interface: It has different hardware addresses depending on whether the laptop is used as a laptop or in the docking station (EN488AA). Does anybody else experience this problem or even has a solution?

<b>openSUSE 11.1</b>

Screen:
Graphics card and screen work out of the box. External video active in clone mode, or better use xrandr for configuring an external monitor or video projector. Works nicely with Free Software drivers, no need for proprietary blobs as with other manufacturers.

Backlight:
Does not work out of box. You have to first issue “xrandr –output LVDS –set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL legacy” once as stated above, then you can use “xbacklight -set 70” for dimming. fn-keys, KDE4 powerdevil do not work. Cumbersome.

Fingerprint reader:
Not supported, as stated above.

Sound:
Works fine with first text line in ”/etc/modprobe.d/sound” changed to “options slots=snd-hda-intel model=laptop” and upgrading alsa and alsa-KMP to version provided in the multimedia repository http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia: .

Ethernet:
Works out of the box.

Wireless:
Works out of the box.

Webcam:
Works out of the box.

Bluetooth:
Seems to work low level, but openSUSE 11.1 bluetooth software is effectively broken in both KDE4 and Gnome, so e.g. no OBEX file transfers. Guess one could make it work for keyboard/mouse/modem, but lots of fiddling.

Verdict:
So-so, would only recommend it for people who are not afraid of running unstable stuff (alsa) and touching config files.

Backlight can be changed after running
xrandr –output LVDS –set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL legacy

Add this to one of your Xsession files and your backlight works correctly.

I just got a new 6730b hp from my college this week for campus use that thoughtfully came with 60gb of the sata drive unpartitioned and setup Gentoo amd64 on it.

Using package.keywords to unmask the testing versions of xorg-1.5.x and compiz-fusion while preserving everything else as stable. With 2.6.28 custom configured gentoo sources kernel and dri direct rendering along with compiz-fusion ( the i915 dri driver built directly into the kernel image for the dri settings along with the xf86-video-intel-2.5.1-r1 or newer drivers for dri to function ) and the 5100agn intel wifi, and bluetooth all work flawlessly . the system was built using gcc 4.3.2 with cflag optimazations -march=core2 -mtune=core2 -02 -msse3 -mssse3 -sse4.1 -pipe.

Rule of thumb after six years of configuring Gentoo Linux on every piece of hardware known to man… If it doesn't work in any other distro it's because Gentoo hasn't gotten it to work first. Mobile compiz-fusion with animated skydomes on an intel G45 notebook with n mode wireless and ahci sata is a great zomfg-wtfpwn in the student lounge :)

Sound loopback (playthrough)

About wireless, I have this card, working fine:
Network controller 0280: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN Shiloh Network Connection 8086:4237

About sound:
By default, using headphones and an external Mic in Xubuntu Intrepid Ibis, there's a lot of playthough - ie. you can hear yourself speaking into the mic through the headphones.

To fix this, you need to make use of alsamixer and mute some of the inputs (press tab, space and M). Under playback, I have Mic, Mic Boos, Beep, Dock, Doc Mic and Internal muted, and under capture I have Mic Boos, the second Capture, Doc Mic and Internal muted. Both Inputs I set to Mic.

To set everything exactly as I have it, you can copy the rest of this post into a file, then run:

alsactl -f <filename> restore

My /var/lib/alsa/asound.state file:

state.Intel {
	control.1 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -4650
		comment.dbmax 0
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Playback Volume'
		value.0 27
		value.1 27
	}
	control.2 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Playback Switch'
		value.0 true
		value.1 true
	}
	control.3 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Dock Playback Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.4 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -3450
		comment.dbmax 1200
		iface MIXER
		name 'PCM Playback Volume'
		value.0 20
		value.1 20
	}
	control.5 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'PCM Playback Switch'
		value.0 true
		value.1 true
	}
	control.6 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -3450
		comment.dbmax 1200
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.7 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Playback Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.8 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -3450
		comment.dbmax 1200
		iface MIXER
		name 'Internal Mic Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.9 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Internal Mic Playback Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.10 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -3450
		comment.dbmax 1200
		iface MIXER
		name 'Dock Mic Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.11 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Dock Mic Playback Switch'
		value.0 true
		value.1 true
	}
	control.12 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		comment.dbmin -3450
		comment.dbmax 1200
		iface MIXER
		name 'Beep Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.13 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Beep Playback Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.14 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 3'
		comment.dbmin 0
		comment.dbmax 3000
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Boost'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.15 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 3'
		comment.dbmin 0
		comment.dbmax 3000
		iface MIXER
		name 'Internal Mic Boost'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.16 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 3'
		comment.dbmin 0
		comment.dbmax 3000
		iface MIXER
		name 'Dock Mic Boost'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.17 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 54'
		comment.dbmin -5850
		comment.dbmax 2250
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Volume'
		value.0 40
		value.1 40
	}
	control.18 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Switch'
		value.0 true
		value.1 true
	}
	control.19 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 54'
		comment.dbmin -5850
		comment.dbmax 2250
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Volume'
		index 1
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.20 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		comment.count 2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Switch'
		index 1
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.21 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type ENUMERATED
		comment.count 1
		comment.item.0 Mic
		comment.item.1 'Internal Mic'
		comment.item.2 'Dock Mic'
		comment.item.3 Mix
		iface MIXER
		name 'Input Source'
		value Mic
	}
	control.22 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type ENUMERATED
		comment.count 1
		comment.item.0 Mic
		comment.item.1 'Internal Mic'
		comment.item.2 'Dock Mic'
		comment.item.3 Mix
		iface MIXER
		name 'Input Source'
		index 1
		value Mic
	}
	control.23 {
		comment.access 'read write user'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.count 2
		comment.range '0 - 120'
		comment.tlv '0000000100000008fffff44800000032'
		comment.dbmin -3000
		comment.dbmax 3000
		iface MIXER
		name 'Digital Capture Volume'
		value.0 80
		value.1 80
	}
}

References:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-226323.html
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2005/12/05/fixing-the-errant-microphone/

Random lockups

I have noticed that my 6730b seems to lock up when using the bcm43xx restricted drivers/Ubuntu 8.10. Cannot even ctrl-alt-bkspc to whack X. Power cycle fixes :P Not sure if this is isolated to mine but thought I'd mention it.

Xubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)

The hardware performed as listed in the main article with the following differences:

Screen:
The screen works fine with all resolutions up to 1280×800. An external monitor can be connected in clone mode or as an extended desktop - but you may not be able to go wider than 2048 pixels total under Compiz. I didn't test Compiz. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2 for good dual head setup instructions.

XV didn't work under Hardy (had to choose X11 in VLC), but it works fine in Intrepid.

Intel's 3D drivers under Intrepid continue with the weirdness - Celestia has gone from not being able to show clouds to not being able to show land or stars unless “star style” is “points”. FPS near Earth is only 15. Oolite works with the occasional non-transparent texture glitch, FPS 31 near a planet. Scorch3D works with very basic settings and strange textures.

If you want decent 3D, get a laptop with an NVidia card.

Fingerprint reader:
Not supported. I have contacted the manufacturer. Development progress here: http://www.reactivated.net/fprint/wiki/Unsupported_devices#AuthenTec_AES2550_.26_AES2810

Sound:
Works fine with the line added to modprobe.conf as specified above. Selecting a recording input is tricky - run alsamixer from the command line, press TAB and then press SPACE to mark an input. Both headphone and speaker outputs work properly, unlike in Hardy.

Wireless:
Works fine with the Intrepid kernel.

Webcam:
Skype and Cheese work great with the Webcam and built-in microphones.

VT/Virtualbox:
Virtualbox runs Windows XP and Visual Studio 2005 very well on this laptop with 2GB of RAM. Although I enabled Intel-VT, Virtualbox didn't seem to use it. Apparently its faster without it anyway.

Backlight:
LCD backlight brightness cannot be set via the keyboard in Xubuntu but you can adjust it as the laptop boots and then leave it. xbacklight etc. don't work.

DVD:
Ogle plays DVD's really well on this laptop, though you'll see interlacing. For a smoother picture you can use Totem if you install totem-xine and remove totem-gstreamer, then choose view→deinterlace.

WLAN driver for kernel ⇐ 2.6.26

I managed to get wireless working on Ubuntu 8.04.1 (kernel version = 2.6.24) by following the easy instructions http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download. Hope this helps.

fedora 9 running

Fedora core 9 running good so far. no problems with booting or installation. Ubuntu 8.04 had some problems with Xserver, but are solved in beta 8.10 (instabilities due to beta stage are guaranteed though). There have been other problems with Ubuntu however (like completly messed up keyboard layout), so fedora is the better choice imo.
remaining problems in fedora core 9 are/were:
-keyboard needs some manual tweaking, so that all hotkeys like fn+f8 work
-the fingerprintreader inoperable (5mins google tells us, that this is fairly common under linux…)
-wireless currently not supported (driver is included in kernel 2.6.27 - fedora 9 currently using .26)
-graphics driver has some issues like no extended desktop on analog out,…
-no backlight changing(always @100%), which is annoying in battery mode
some of the problems should be fixed in the current fedora core 10beta (due to 2.6.27 kernel), but i had actually no time to give it a try.

ubuntu not booting

Ubuntu 8.04 doesn't boot. Actually I can't make this model to boot with any dvd/cd. Any hint how to CD boot.
Thanks

gotnew1

fedora 9 install dvd freezes somewhere near IOMMU subsystem and ubuntu 8.04 install freezes also