Stephen Smith (stephen <at> blackrim <dot> net)
Koen Bos (k.bos <at> celerity <dot> nl)
The HP Elitebook 8440w has been tested no Ubuntu 9.10 x86_64. Installation of Ubuntu on this laptop is not very straightforward (with many liveCD's not working and the requirement of at least wireless and graphic manual installs).
One remaining hardware/software issue is the lack of control over brightness. The buttons respond (there is screen response that you have pressed the buttons), but the brightness does not change. This may be due to the ambient sensor, as turning this off in BIOS does make the screen brightness go to 100%.
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| Name | HP Elitebook 8440w |
| Processor | i7 CPU M 620 |
| Screen | 14” 1600×900 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| HDD | 320GB |
| Optical Drive | DVDRW |
| Graphics | NVIDIA Quadro 380M |
| Network | Ethernet, Intel 802.11abgn, Bluetooth |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | unclear whether turboboosting works but hyperthreading works |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | with manual NVIDIA driver install, brightness doesn't work , ambient sensor doesn't work |
| Sound | Yes | |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | with this fix |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | Yes | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested | |
| Camera | Yes | |
* With the ubuntu installer the nomodeset parameter should be added to prevent troubles with the nouveau driver (ubuntu 10.04 beta)
Enter a summary of your success with Linux on your laptop here.
Discussion
Works quite well out of the box in Ubuntu 11.10, even graphics work perfectly on the Installer Live CD. However, after installing the first regular secuirty updates of Ubuntu, graphics are broken and only 1024×768 screen resolution is detected. Only going to the NVidia binary driver will resolve that, however that in turn badly breaks Unity 3D, with corrupted screens, black holes, etc.. Only switching back to Unity 2D gave me a somewhat usable system.
Ubuntu 10.10 installation CD shows the same issues. Booting with nomodeset (press F6) works - thanks for the advice! Installation of current nvidia drivers resolves the problem in the running system. Wireless works out of the box, no further fix was needed.
Slackware install CD work well,but when reboot it from the installed disk,then the display black out.
I fix it by removing the /lib/modules/…/kernel/drivers/gpu directory.
Perhaps the gpu driver hung-up.
Nevermind,
I used an external monitor (problem with nVidia drivers not available in the Live CD) and I successfully installed Ubuntu 10.04 RC. Wireless works fine, just the LED keeps blinking.
Same issues with the Graphics, but I still have to work them out.
Hi,
I am facing the same problem with “live CD's not working”. How do you fixed that? There is a particular version that works or is just random?
Thanks