Michael Pavletich
This is a guide to running Linux with the HP-Compaq Presario F551UA laptop.
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.
| Name | HP-Compaq Presario F500-F551UA |
| Processor | AMD Mobile Turion TL-50 1.6ghz |
| Screen | 15.4” WSXGA+ |
| RAM | 512MB |
| HDD | 80GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (embedded) |
| Network | NVIDIA MCP51 10/100 Ethernet, Broadcom 802.11g Wireless, Bluetooth |
| Other | 3 x USB2.0 |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | Use the 'nv' Xorg driver |
| Sound | Yes | Use the snd-hda-intel module |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | See notes below |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 56K Modem | No | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| PCMCIA | Not Tested |
Everything above that worked was from a standard installation. Wireless flaky with the bcmwl5 driver. OEM driver is bcmwl6, loads fine, but requires
tweaking to make it work. Probably no issue with a 2.6.20 or later kernel.
nforce4 MCP51 chipset has some issues, not entirely stable during boot, but
good while in use. Reasonably fast machine. Enabling keyboard layout for
compaq armada laptop make most function keys work quite well.
Power management - reasonable. Lid switch works as it should turning off lcd backlight, cpufreq OK, dual monitor with official nvidia driver OK
This notebook requires a recent kernel version to work properly. Early kernels produce faults that may stop the system completing a boot cycle.
A Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.20 is recommended for best support of the HP-Compaq Presario F551UA. Linux support is good when an up to date distribution is used.
Discussion
i want driver HP COMPAQ PRESARIO F500EA
(April 11, 2009)
I've noticed a few problems since I installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on this laptop.
1) Suspend is erratic, and seems to crash. Sometimes Hibernate claims it has crashed but works fine, other than that.
2) After installing Nvidia Cuda drivers, I've had issues with reverting to the drivers that came with it. For a while I *think I had to reinstall the graphics drivers on each startup.
*I later discovered that I didn't have to, but merely had to launch the installer, then not agree to the license. I'm not sure if this would have worked all along.
3) Tap-to-click turns on and off. The bloody “feature” can't be disabled through the normal menus. Fortunately, with modification to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, one can reduce the sensitivity to zero, thus effectively turning tap-to-click off.
Finally, I've been testing Bluetooth, and haven't been able to get it to work. Note: I could just be doing something silly, as I've only been playing with it for a few hours.