Update 23/12/07: I'm currently in the process of MASSIVELY upgrading my nx6325
Watch this space for developments
Update 23/12/07: There have been reports that agressive power management properties in Ubuntu can cause hard drive failure on the NX6325. Go here for full instructionsUpdate 23/12/07: Fingerprint reader now works, and can be used when performing sudo commands and signing in and out of GDM. Go here for full instructions
Update 27/09/07: WARNING: FEISTY IS NO LONGER IN BETA, GUTSY IS NOW THE CODE NAME FOR THE CURRENT DISTRIBUTION OF UBUNTU. THIS GUIDE IS NOW OUTDATED AND MAY NOT BE UPDATED IN THE FUTURE.
Contents of Page
A lot of the information used in this article has been gleamed from or based around the following articles
http://vale.homelinux.net/wordpress/?p=106
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325
http://www.puchalla-online.de/nx6325.html
whilst a lot has come from various other forums.
Reasons for chosing Feisty as apose to another distribution/Ubuntu version
Make sure that you update the bios to the latest version available from http://www.hp.com. Instructions in how to do this
from within linux are on http://vale.homelinux.net/wordpress/?p=106
I personally use Kubuntu simply because I prefer KDE to Gnome as a desktop. The guide from here on in will assume that you have installed Kubuntu
(You can of course, install either/or and then get the missing packages for either desktop environment post install)
Put your newly burned disc into the drive and watch the live CD boot up, have a mess about and decide if you like it. If you do, hit the install button on the desktop and let the games begin............
Partitioning the harddrive
For example if you want linux and windows installed, on the 60GB Hard-drive then a good installation would be
Make sure you specify a home partition if you are manually configuring your partitioning. If you are a first time linux user, and don't mind losing your rescue partition, select the automatic partitioning tool.
Healthwarning: Formatting the whole disk will remove the windows rescue partition so windows CANNOT be reinstalled using rescue disks. If you do this, make sure that if you want windows you have a full retail copy to install
After the harddrive is partitioned, go and make a cup of tea and let the install run through answering any questions on the way.
Updating Ubuntu
sudo
To make you a member of the admin group (people that can invoke sudo command) run: sudo adduser USERNAME admin
where USERNAME is the username you chose for yourself during install. Any password that is requested by the system will be the password that you chose during the install process.
The Wireless WILL NOT work yet, but wired internet will. To complete the next step and indeed to get anywhere with linux, you need an internet connection, so plug the ethernet in and let it connect.
Ubuntu is a Debian based system that uses a system called apt to download and install programmes from the internet.
Apt should already be configured with feisty's online repositories so invoke
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
This will upgrade to the newest kernel and newest packages. This is very important as Feisty is in BEta so lots of the packages will have bug fixes. Reboot and select the newer kernel from grub,
Wireless with Ndiswrapper
invoke
cabextract /path/to/`DOWNLOADEDPACKAGE`.exe (this extracts the driver files from the windows.exe file)
sudo ndiswrapper -i /path/to/bcmwl5.inf (this installs the driver)
ndiswrapper -m (this adds an alias for ndiswrapper)
invoke: sudo kate /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
and add:
# exclude the kernel Broadcom driver
blacklist bcm43xx
Save this and exit kate.
invoke: sudo kate /etc/modules
and add: ndiswrapper
Save and exit kate
This ensures that ndiswrapper is loaded at boot.
Reboot your computer, and you should now be able to configure your wireless connection via the gui net applet in the dock window.
Hibernation/Suspend/Thermal issues
openssl speed
After a short while you will hear the fan kick in as the temperature of the CPU rises
UPDATE 27/09/07: This may no longer be necessary, there are reports that the drivers in the repositories work fine. 3D Acceleration with ATI proprietary drivers
IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RUNNING OPENGL PROGRAMMES LIKE GOOGLE-EARTH, GAMES OR 3D DESKTOP THEN DO NOT INSTALL THIS DRIVER AS IT IS NOT REQUIRED.
First of all download the ati driver installer:
invoke:
cd~/
wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.40.7-x86.x86_64.run
create the packages for Ubuntu Feisty
sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.40.7-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/feisty
This will build the packages specific for Ubuntu Feisty.
Install the packages
sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source*.deb
sudo dpkg -i fglrx-amdcccle*.deb
UPDATE 27/09/07: Patching the kernel is no longer neccesary. This is included for completeness
Because ATI have not kept up with the 2.20.* kernel development, the fglrx module doesn't build against the kernel without patching. There is a patch available however, that I have found works. So download and install the patch.
cd ~/
wget http://whoopie.gmxhome.de/linux/patches/2.6.20/fglrx-8.35.5-for-2.6.20.patch
cd /usr/src
sudo cp fglrx.tar.bz2 fglrx.tar.bz2-original
sudo tar -xvjf fglrx.tar.bz2
cd /usr/src/modules/fglrx
sudo patch -p0 < ~/fglrx-8.35.5-for-2.6.20.patch
cd /usr/src
sudo tar -cvjf fglrx.tar.bz2 modules/fglrx
Compile the kernel modules
sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant build fglrx
sudo module-assistant install fglrx
sudo depmod -a
NOTE: This process (from sudo module-assistant prepare down) must repeated for every new kernel that you install
The ATI fglrx driver is now installed, but needs to be configured:
invoke:
aticonfig --initial
Which will tell you that the Xorg.conf file has been configured.
You also need to edit this file, as ATI does not support composite extensions with this driver
invoke
sudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and add
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
Restart your computer to make sure the module gets loaded
Note: If for any reason, your Xorg.conf file becomes damage due to human error it can be restored by invoking:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xerver-xorg
You should now have a fully working 3D driver. Check with
glxinfo | grep direct
It should display yes for direct-rendering.
UPDATE 27/09/07: Beryl is now defuncted. Compiz Fusion is used instead. Install procedure is similar although not identical to Beryl. Instead of installing beryl do apt-get install compiz fusion3D Desktop effects with Beryl
If you want your desktop to look slicker than your average, then Beryl is the way forward. For a video have a look here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7QraljRfM. There are lots more like it on Youtube.
These effects come at a price however.
Obviously they require more processing power, so your computer will run a little slower. I use Beryl with Kubuntu, and the new version is super quick so there isn't any noticable difference.
There are 2 main ways of running Beryl as a window manager. One is with AIGLX which is built into X, the other is with XGL which runs over X. ATI doesn't support AIGLX so on the NX6325 you have to use XGL.
This comes at a price however: As XGL runs over X, you can't run Opengl programmes or games like GoogleEarth while running an XGL session.
If you can't cope with this, then don't read the next section, if you want spanking effects, read on........
Edit: 07/04/07. You can run opengl programmes while running XGL by invoking
DISPLAY=:0 /path/to/programme (or Display=:"0" /path/to/programme in Gnome)
Opengl programmes then run on their own display, admittedly not as fast as they could, but easily good enough for googleearth
The Beryl packages that are available in the Feisty repositories are BROKEN. For this reason use the official Beryl repos.
Invoke:
sudo deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/feisty main
to add the beryl repo to your /etc/apt/sources.list
Install the package signatures:
wget http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Update apt:
sudo apt-get update
Install Beryl, the XGL server, and Emerald (Beryl window decorator):
sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl beryl emerald-themes aquamarine
We now need to create a separate session for an XGL session. This ensures that if anything goes wrong, then we can still login to a normal X session:
invoke:
sudo kate /usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh
add this to the newly created text file:
#!/bin/sh
Xgl -fullscreen :1 -ac -br -dpi 96 -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer &
sleep 4
export DISPLAY=:1
cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
exec /etc/X11/Xsession startkde
xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.uk
xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"
Make this newly installed script executable
Invoke:
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh
Make an entry so you can chose this session in the KDM login screen:
Invoke:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/sessions
sudo kate /etc/X11/sessions/xgl.desktop
Add this to the newly created text file:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xgl-KDE
Exec=/usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application
At the login screen now, there should be an option Xgl-KDE. Chose this and log in. When the session loads up, in a console invoke:
beryl-manager
Windows will go wobbly and you might see the beryl splash screen. You should see the emerald (red jewel) icon in the KDE dock. This can be used to configure all of Beryl's settings from the window decorations to the animation effects, so have a play around!!
In the settings in Beryl, make sure that the window manager is set to Beryl and the window decorator is set to emerald.
Assuming all is well, you need to configure Beryl to load at startup
Invoke:
sudo cp /usr/bin/beryl-manager /home/`USERNAME`/.kde/Autostart
Incidently, the method of copying the bin file to the Autostart folder will mean that any requested programme will start on boot up.
You should now have a sexy looking, totally configurable KDE Desktop.
Add Devices, Trash and Home Icons to Desktop
For trash:
For devices:
konqueror --profile devices media:/
For home:
I also use Kooldock, which is a docker app that works well with Beryl. It is not available with apt however and must be compiled from source.
Amarok
These can be obtained from the Mediubuntu repository.
Add Medibuntu GPG key to the system
wget -q http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Add the package list to the /etc/apt/source.list file
sudo wget http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Update apts package information
sudo apt-get update
Install the packages
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
Also install the encrypted DVD package package to play encrypted DVDs
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
Wireless networking with WPA encryption
To handle WPA encryption we need a set of files/programmes called WPASupplicant. I'm 99% sure these are included with Feisty but to make sure do:
sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant
This will either install them or verify they are installed. There are a couple of GUI frontends for WPASupplicant (wpa_gui and kwlan) but I have found these to be unreliable and not to work. Hence this guide will configure everything from the command line.
WPASupplicant parses all it's information (like most things in linux) from an editable text file called wpa_supplicant.conf. Fortunately there is a compressed example file for this located at: /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/examples/README.wpa_supplicant.conf.gz
copy this to the desktop:
cp /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/examples/README.wpa_supplicant.conf.gz /path/to/user/Desktop
And right click and extract the text file.
This text file is basically a template to create any wireless connection, so familiarise yourself with the various different authentication procedures that may be different to the 2 examples I will give later on.
Copy this file to it's new home:
sudo cp /path/to/README.wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
So we now have the readme file with all lines commented out with # located at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.
Next we need to edit our /etc/network/interfaces file so that it parses the wpa encryption file and not just regular wep encryption.
NOTE: wpa_supplicant.conf can handle both wep and wpa encryption
Look for the lines corresponding to eth1, and comment out all lines other than:
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
And add the following line:
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
This will tell the network to parse the file located at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. Now to add wireless networks to this file so the network has something to parse. As I said, in the file are included a lot of examples, so you will have to gain exact details of the wireless network from your system administrator. Here are examples of the 2 wireless networks I use:
Depending on which configuration I'm using, I simply comment out the lines corresponding to the network that I'm not using. I haven't found any other way to swap simply from network to network, but because I don't do it on a daily basis, it's not a problem for me.
Time to test. Do:
sudo ifdown eth1
sudo ifup eth1
Watch for errors. Anything to do with parsing the wpa_supplicant file means that you have made errors in the syntax of the file (typos etc). If you don't have any connectivity and you don't get an IP check that you have included the right options in your file. Sorry there is no GUI method for this, but at least there is WPA connectivity!!
That's it. All information is gleamed from various online sources, all I have done is collated it and added what I have gained from my own difficulties installing Kubuntu.
Remember Feisty is still in development, so report any crashes to the Ubuntu team.
Any questions/ammendments/comments email: me
Screenshots of Kubuntu and beryl