Gentoo HP Pavillion 2700t HOWTO

[CrankyPenguin]

I am presently installing on my spankin new HP Pavillion dv2700t system. I wil maintain an ongoing HOWTO here. Please note that this will be updated as I find the time to make tweaks to my system and correct aspects of it.

First Specs
HP Pavillion dv2700t

• Intel Core2 Duo 2+Ghz (working)
  
• 14.1in WXGA display (1280x800 @60hz native) (working)
  
• Fingerprint reader + Webcam + Microphone (not tested)
  
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support working, have not burned any LightScribe
  
• Dimensions (with 6-cell battery): 13.15" (L) x 9.33" (W) x 1.02" (min H)/1.54" (max H)
  
• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c) (not tested)
  
• USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03) working
  
• USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) working
  
• Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) working
  
• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) working
  
• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
  
• IDE interface: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller (rev 03) working
  
• SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) working
  
• SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
  
• VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0427 (rev a1) working
  
• Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 4353 (rev 14) working
  
• Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 4229 (rev 61) (not tested)
  
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)(not tested)
  
• SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)(not tested)
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device 0843 (rev 12)(not tested)
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)(not tested)
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)(not tested)
  

Additional Ports:

• s-Video output port.(not tested)
  
• VGA external port.(see External Monitor section below)
  
• Firewire controller.(not tested)
  
• Internal softmodem(not tested, according to other sites this is an hsfmodem)
  
• Intel expansion port.(not tested)
  
• Remote, yes a remote.(not tested)
  
• Multimedia keys.(working, external monitor and brightness keys produce no keycode but are handled by nvidia driver and acpi video module. Others need keycode mapping.)
  

Now to the basics:

I am using the Gentoo 2008.0 amd64 minimal install. The Core2 duo will run both 32-bit x86 install and the amd64 install with the appropriate kernel params. See http://gentoo-wiki.com/Intel_Core_2_Duo for a guide on kernel setup and use. The liveCD does not boot.

The system itself came preloaded with Windows Vista. The default installation creates two partitions on disk, one for Vista, and the other, a "Recovery partition". The recovery partition serves two functions. Firstly it stores recovery info for HP's disk recovery. Secondly it stores a small linux-base dvd and cd player. HP advertises a "no-boot" multimedia player. Basically without booting the system you can press either the dvd or cd multimedia keys and the system will boot this mini-install to play one or the other while, presumably, using less battery. This boot is handled by hardware so you will not need to retain vista for this feature but you will, unlike me, need to avoid deleting the partition itself.

I myself don't care much for a 7lb dvd player so I blew away this partition. Because the keys are trapped by the BIOS the outlook isn't good for me retasking them.

Kernel Config

Kernel version vanilla-sources-2.6.27.6

I have had the system working under 2.6.24.7 and 2.6.27.6. Under the 24 and 25 kernels the system functions but reports probles with wireless and the kill switch. Under 2.6.27.2 the wireless card begins to work as does the kill switch (I even get a pretty blue LED) but the sky2 driver for basic ethernet becomes flakey.

Ultimately 2.6.27.6 has resolved the sky2 issues and improved handling of wireless via iwlagn.

The Intel Core 2 Duo wiki entry above discusses the necessary system configuration. The processor supports CPU scaling via the P-states driver. I have enabled both the /sys/ pci interface and the legacy proc pci interface. Of these only the /sys/ interface can be used to set parameters, and that is where the cpufreq interface will show up, whie the proc interface is where some existing monitoring programs look.

Additional drivers.

• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c): pcieport-driver
  
• USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03): uhci_hcd
  
• USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03): ehci_hcd
  
• Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) alsa: snd_hda_intel
  
• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) pcieport-driver
  
• PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
  
• IDE interface: Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller (rev 03) PIIX_IDE
  
• SATA controller: Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) ahci
  
• SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) i2c-i801
  
• VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0427 (rev a1) nv or nvidia NOTE:: This affects the fan see below
  
• Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 4353 (rev 14) sky2
  
• Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 4229 (rev 61) iwl4965
  
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)ohci1394
  
• SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)sdhci
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device 0843 (rev 12)ricoh-mmc
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
  
• System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
  

Nvidia/Xorg/trackpad

I am using a standard xorg-x11-7.2 installation. As noted above the native resolution of the screen is 1680x800@60. It supports 1024x768@60 and 640x480@60 as well. I have run it both with the xorg nv driver and the proprietary nvidia driver (x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-173.14.09). I did note that, when running off the nvidia-drivers you must also configure the opengl choice to nvidia or else it will not boot properly.

NOTE:: When running with the nv driver the fan is on high constantly. This is not the case with the proprietary driver which appears to be better capable of cooling the video card.

I have achieved success with the trackpad now. It is an alps trackpoint which is configurable using the synaptics driver. In the xorg.conf add the following to the Modules section:

[desultory]

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Documentation, Tips & Tricks.