Installing (K)Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy" (AMD64) on a HP Pavilion DV5137EU

For those coming here only for that, this the Ubuntu wiki page giving the explanation: SEE HERE.

Hardware

I resume: things not mentioned in the table are working from the start [1] .

Starting up

The laptop is configured to start on a bootable CD/DVD if present. So, set the power on, open the disc and set the power off immediately. Set the (K)Ubuntu for 64 bits PC in the case, close it and set the power on again. You won’t even see a vindoz logo :-) . Put your network cable in the ethernet port and connect it to your router, assuming you have one.

(K)Ubuntu live

The live (K)Ubuntu is booting and it is working good: keyboard, screen, graphic card, sound, pointer, usb mouse, usb stick and wired ethernet connection were OK. Wifi connection was lightened but did not work. In fact, the wifi driver is integrated in the kernel but you have to give him a firmware before more... Convinced ? You want to install ? Click on the Install desktop icon...

Partitioning the hard drive

1. If you wan to have a full Linux laptop

"Next, next, next" installation process. You also will have to set a few informations of course (user name, and so on). It takes about 20 minutes and no trace of another OS will remain. Go to next main title.

2. If you want to keep a wildows OS on the computer

See my first text about this laptop.

Then, begin the next, next, next install... And restart.

Having the integrated wifi card to work

The BCM43xx driver is integrated in the kernel from version 2.6.17, which is the one for this version of (K)Ubuntu. Great. However, if the distribution ships the driver, it doesn’t integrate the... firmware of the chipset: this one is not free... So you’ll have to :
– install the bcm43xx-fwcutter firmware extractor : use synaptic
– KUbuntu: install the "KNetworkManager" tool (for later): use synaptic
- Ubuntu: install the "Wireless Assistant" tool (for later): use synaptic [2]

– download the wl_apsta.o firmware to /home/your_name
– In a terminal, run the command
sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
– restart the computer (logoff, login is perhaps enough or even network restart - I don’t know: I use to restart the computer, don’t you know why ? Tips are welcome...)
– Take the wired connection off. THE WIFI WILL SOON DO IT :-)

Then, you’ll have an integrated Wifi card "on". Under Ubuntu, to have the network icon working, right-click on it, properties and manually set "eth1" in the interface "name" box. I don’t know why but Ubuntu doesn’t list the eth1 automatically.

– Ubuntu

• Run Wireless Assistant (root password needed) => available networks are listed
• Right-Click the network to connect to and edit the settings
• When done, click the network and wait for the connection.
• It’s done

– KUbuntu

• Open the main "(Applications/)Internet" menu and select "KNetworkmanager" + password.
• Wait a little (30 seconds ?)
• Click the KNetworkManager icon, activate the wifi interface, select your Wifi network and set the WEP key if and as needed.
• Wait a little (30 seconds again ?) and try to surf... It should be OK.

Conclusion

I confess I’m a quite new linux user. This notice is certainly not complete nor professionnal but I’m happy to give this to the Linux community. At this point, I don’t use KUbuntu anymore because Ubuntu is a bit lighter and I’ve no more Wifi connection problems. I will probably soon try a Gentoo distro on the KUbuntu partition :-)

Don’t hesitate to ask for further details about this laptop and sorry for my (bad ?) english ;-)

Published on 2006/11/13 to be

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