Comments on: HP Compaq CQ20 notebook and Ubuntu Linux – great combination

By: Hendrikus

Hendrikus — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:02:18 +0000

Hi,

After getting nuts of all viruses in windows I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my Compaq CQ20, it works perfect but only one disadvantage, the temperature of the laptop, for some unknown reasons the laptop becomes very hot, after some hours the performance drops.

By: gerry

gerry — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:09:09 +0000

Hi Frank,

Just got my copy of Jaunty and will be upgrading this weekend. Nice to hear a lot of improvements. Hope the upgrade will be a breeze.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:57:15 +0000

I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) and it fixes the most important problems I mentioned above:
- Display brightness control and the related function keys (fn-f7 and fn-f8) work now
- Fan control works now
- Suspension works now (also with function key fn-F5), but hibernation not (same reason as above)
The other issues mentioned above remain. Battery life should be much better now, because display brightness and fan speed work now, but I haven’t tested that yet.
Fazit: Progress, but not on all fronts!

By: ben-hur

ben-hur — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:57:57 +0000

Hey Gerry!

Ubuntu works great on my CQ20 as well. I found out that my webcam and mic works perfectly. Well the brightness issue isn’t that much of a problem for me since I mostly use my laptop at the office and its plugged in most of the time. But having a fix for it will be great though. I’m still researching on the matter now. I’ll let you know if I find something.

Cheers,
Ben-Hur

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:52:14 +0000

I also installed Ubuntu (8.10, Intrepid) on my CQ20 with 4GB, dual boot with the factory-installed Vista and on the same partition.
In addition to the abovementioned, I found:
- Only 3 of the 4GB RAM are recognized. This seems to be a feature, not a bug, of 32-bit OS (Vista does the same!). Well, my Ubuntu so far never neede more than 1.5GB.
- On top of that, only 1GB swap space is supported – again a 32-bit limitation. My Ubuntu never needed to swap so far, but hibernating (i.e. storing RAM data on swap partition) is obviously impossible if swap is smaller than RAM.
- By installing the Linux bootloader, you lose the Media Button function (the circular arrow at the left of the wireless button above the keyboard), which enables playing music CDs without booting the PC. This function cannot be restored, according to HP, even if you uninstall Linux and return to Vista only!
- Hibernating (to disk) does not work, see above. Suspend to RAM works sometimes and needs some work, which I haven’t done yet.
- When returning from suspend, cooling fans run at full speed. Plugging power in and/or out fixes this (impractical if you are on the road).
- Controlling display brightness does not work. Modified scripts in /etc/acpi (contact me if you need them) execute without problem, but sending the new setting to /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/DD04/brightness seems to have no effect on actual lighting.
- The following function keys do not work out of the box:
fn-f4 video out (“sudo setkeycodes e06e 227″ fixes that)
fn-f5 sleep (“sudo setkeycodes 0xdf 205″ or maybe “142″ is supposed to fix it, but not reliable, see above)
fn-f6 lock does not generate a keypress event, so I haven’t found a way to use it
fn-f7, fn-f8 diaply brightness (“sudo setkeycodes e017 225″ and “sudo setkeycodes e012 224″ enables the buttons, but the problem lies elsewhere – see above)
Media Button does not generate a keypress event, so I haven’t found a way to use it
- The laptop runs 2.5hrs with the standard 4 cell battery – compared to 3.5hrs in Vista – due to display brightness always 100% and other power control limitations of Linux

I am interested in workarounds for the above issues.

Greetings,
Frank

By: I’m using Ubuntu again! « A day in the life of Dozzy Boy

I’m using Ubuntu again! « A day in the life of Dozzy Boy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:47:41 +0000

[...] there’s a link on my blogroll. After that I did a little more digging and found another blog that reviewed his experiences with Ubuntu installed on a CQ20. That was the point when I decided to [...]

By: gerry

gerry — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:10:28 +0000

Hi Ben,

Quite happy with Ubuntu on my CQ20. The webcam works great with Cheese. The multimedia function keys, volume control and mute works.

Haven’t gotten some time to hack the brightness though. I found out that if I adjust the brightness just before Ubuntu starts to boot I am able to set the proper brightness for me so I find it not so much of an issue.

By: ben-hur

ben-hur — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:38:18 +0000

Wow! Thanks for posting this! This is exactly what I needed to read. I bought my CQ20 last December and I’m very happy with it. But I am using Vista at the moment. I’ve been a long time user of Ubuntu and I wanted to install it on my CQ20 but I am hesitant because the webcam might not work.

Now, after reading your post.. I’m gonna be installing Ubuntu later. By the way, about the Fn keys, are the brightness adjust buttons the only buttons that are not working? and have you got a solution for it?

Thanks!
-Ben