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 Authors Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

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

Authors

Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Hewlett-Packard nc6400 laptop, model RA738PA.

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Specifications

Name	Hewlett-Packard nc6400
Processor	Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83Ghz
Screen	14.1"
RAM	512MB
HDD	80GB
Optical Drive	Double Layer DVD+-RW
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
Network	10/100/1000 Ethernet, Broadcom 802.11g Wireless, Bluetooth
Other	3 x USB2.0, Fingerprint Reader

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes
Sound	Yes	Use snd-hda-intel driver
Ethernet	Yes	Use tg3 driver
Wireless	Yes
Bluetooth	Not Tested
56K Modem	Not Tested
Fringerprint Reader	Not Tested
USB	Yes
PCMCIA	Not Tested

Notes

The open source radeon driver does not yet support the nc6400's ATI Mobility Radeon x1300 graphics chip. However you can use the proprietary ATI driver which now includes support for this chip. You will need to install the ATI driver to get the display working.
Update: The latest version of Xorg should now have support for this chipset.

Another version of the nc6400 includes the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. Install the Ubuntu "915resolution" package to use 1280x800 screen resolution.

The wireless network is based on a Broadcom chipset so it requires the ndiswrapper to be used. However I have not had success in getting this to work. It may still work, but more testing is required.
Update: It should work now with the native broadcom driver included in recent kernel versions.

Related Resources

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

Summary

The Hewlett-Packard nc6400 has great support for Linux as long as you use a very recent kernel. It is recommended you run at least kernel version 2.6.21.


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