This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which drivers you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required drivers have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

Page Contents Author Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resouces Summary

If you are looking to purchase this laptop you can visit HP's notebook page.

Author

Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the HP-Compaq 6910P laptop.

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Specifications

Name	HP-Compaq 6910P
Processor	Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8GHz
Screen	14.1" WXGA
RAM	1GB
HDD	80GB
Optical Drive	DVD+-RW
Graphics	Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
Network	Ethernet, Intel 4965 802.11abgn Wireless, Bluetooth
Other	USB2.0, Firewire, Fingerprint Reader

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
HDD	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes	See notes below
Sound	Yes	See notes below
Ethernet	Yes
Wireless	Yes	See notes below
Bluetooth	Not Tested
56K Modem	Not Tested
USB	Yes
Firewire	Not Tested
Card Reader	Not Tested
ExpressCard Slot	Not Tested
Fingerprint Reader	No	No drivers at the moment

Notes

The Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100 in the 6910P needs a very recent version of Xorg to work properly. currently Ubuntu 7.10, OpenSuSE 10.3 and Mandriva Linux 2008 support this controller properly. If your distribution of choice uses an older version of Xorg you will need to upgrade it.

The Intel 4965AGN wireless controller in the 6910P requires the iwlwifi driver to work. This driver may be difficult to install depending on the kernel and distribution combination you are using. Currently Ubuntu 7.10, Mandriva Linux 2008 and OpenSuSE 10.3 support the 4965AGN as standard but you can view the guide below for a more up to date list of distributions which support this controller as well as installation instructions for distributions which don't support it fully.

Other models of the 6910P have the ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 graphics controller. This has been reported to work with ATI's proprietary fglrx driver. See the guide below for installation details.

You will need at least kernel 2.6.22 for the audio in the 6910P to work. If you want to use a older kernel then you will have to install at least version 1.0.15rc3 of the ALSA drivers.

Related Resouces

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring an ATI graphics chip
Configuring the iwl4965 driver for the Intel 4965AGN wireless controller
Increasing battery life

Summary

As long as you are using a recently release Linux distribution (one with at least kernel 2.6.22) then the HP-Compaq 6910P works well with Linux. Ubuntu 7.10 works particularly well.


Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.