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.
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For full specifications see the HP Compaq 620 specifications page.
| Name | HP Compaq 620 |
| Processor | Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6570 (2.10 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB) Intel® Pentium® Processor T4400 (2.20 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB) Intel® Celeron® Processor 900 (2.20 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB) Intel® Celeron® Processor T1600 (1.66 GHz 1 MB L2 cache 667 MHz FSB) |
| Screen | 15.6” (1366×768) Widescreen |
| RAM | Up to 8GB |
| HDD | 160GB to 500GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD |
| Network | 10/100 Ethernet Broadcom 4312G 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Realtek 802.11b/g/n |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | WORKS | John B, Phil L |
| Screen | WORKS | John B, Phil L |
| HDD | WORKS | John B, Phil L |
| Optical Drive | WORKS | Phil L |
| Graphics | WORKS | Phil L |
| Sound | WORKS | Phil L |
| Ethernet | WORKS | Phil L |
| Wireless | WORKS | Phil L |
| Bluetooth | WORKS | Phil L |
| Modem | WORKS | Phil L |
| USB | Works | John B, Phil L |
| Card Reader | WORKS | Phil L |
| ExpressCard Slot | WORKS | Phil L |
| Webcam | WORKS | Phil L |
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:
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
Discussion
I have the same configuration as Tomek, but a Compaq 620. Everything works OOTB as mentioned. I have a ralink 3090 wireless card. If the blacklisting does not work check the /boot/config-2xxxx file and find statements with CONFIG_RFKILL_xx and set all parameters from y to n and then reboot. The wireless should now work.
HP 620 (WT162EA) with preinstalled SLED 11 SP1
Specification:
CPU: Intel® Celeron® T3000 (1,80 GHz, 1 MB L2, FSB 800 MHz)
Network: Wi-Fi Ralink 802.11b/g/n (rt3090)
Other specification is quite the same.
On SLED everything works out of the box.
I have changed to Ubunut 10.10 amd64.
There was only problem with wi-fi.
Solution:
Add to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf following line
blacklist rt2800pci
Full report on Ubuntu 10.10:
Processor WORKS OOTB
Screen: WORKS OOTB
HDD: WORKS OOTB
Optical Drive: WORKS OOTB
Graphics: WORKS OOTB
Sound: WORKS OOTB
Ethernet: WORKS OOTB
Wireless: WORKS with blacklisted rt2800pci
Bluetooth: Not Tested
Modem: Not Tested
USB: WORKS OOTB
Card Reader: WORKS OOTB
ExpressCard Slot: Not Tested
Webcam: WORKS OOTB
Additional
3G Modem Hauwei e17050c USB: WORKS OOTB
Functional keys: WORKS
Tomek,
could you, please, send your grub configuration and xorg.conf?
I have the same notebook (HP 620) and I installed Fedora 14 instead of SLED 11.
I have a problem during notebook startup - it probes video modes and it makes Linux very slow.
Does anybody know how it is possible to fix this?
Thank you,
Oleksandr