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 Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

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

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the HP-Compaq Presario C300 laptop.

Editing This Page

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Specifications

Processor	Intel Celeron-M Processor 430 1.73 GHz
Screen	15.4" WXGA
RAM	512MB
HDD	60GB
Optical Drive	DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Graphics	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Network	10/100 Ethernet, Broadcom 1390 802.11g Wireless
Other	2 x USB2.0

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes
Sound	Yes	Use the snd-hda-intel driver
Ethernet	Yes
Wireless	Yes	use ndiswrapper
56K Modem (Conexant HSF softmodem)	Yes	use linuxant hsf driver
USB	Yes

Notes

Some recent Linux distributions (eg: Fedora 7) not longer requires the following but most still do. As default the native screen resolution of this notebook is 1280x800, however due to the way the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 functions this resolution would not be usable right away. To get it working you will need to install the 915resolution program and type in:
915resolution 3c 1280 800
This will then allow you to use the native 1280x800 resolution. However this setting will be forgotten after each boot so you will need a way to automatically run this command at every boot. Fortunately most Linux distributions come with the 915resolution program and include a simple way of achieving this. You can view our Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950 guide for more information.

This wireless controller in this laptop does not have any native drivers for Linux so you will need to use the ndiswrapper driver. For installation instructions, you can view our Configuring the ndiswrapper driver guide. The windows driver to use with ndiswrapper can be found here.

You will need to install the modem driver yourself. The linuxant driver works for this modem. Use method b as described on this page.

Related Resources

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950
Configuring the ndiswrapper driver for wireless controllers without native Linux drivers
Increasing battery life

Summary

The main issue with this laptop is the wireless controller. Other than that there were no problems in getting this laptop working when used with an up to date Linux distribution. It is recommended to use a Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.17 or greater, such as Fedora Core 6 or Ubuntu 6.10.


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