HP DV7 out of box.

I'd like when everything work out of box, but I don`t like WIndows, once I've tried Linux I've love it, especially Ubuntu. But as usually in linux it takes a lot of time to start.
Let's see what we have, ok choices:
- Ubuntu 8.10 64Bit
- Ubuntu 8.10 32Bit
- Ubuntu 8.04 32Bit
- Ubuntu 8.04 64Bit(I just forget about that release, and actually didn't tried yet)

There is a common problem for all this distributives, if you ran Windows Vista(by default with that laptop) even one time it will made some changes(switches) in your network adapter and then wired network adapter didn't work out of box in Ubuntu. But wired network fix I will describe later.
My goal is found most working Ubuntu out of box, and then tweak it.

Let's start from 8.10 64 bit. After installation I'll get working system(as usual in Ubuntu case), everything works, but there are a lot of issues with that version:
- biggest issue is a lot of software still not working properly, or just don`t have entry in repository, and you need to compile it.
- memory issue, I has 4 Gb memory, out of box Ubuntu show me 3,2 Gb
- ATI video driver make blinking on showing any type of video.
- internal microphone not working(all other sound devices work correctly)

Next my try was 8.10 32 bit
- biggest issue for that version that it is just too slow, I can`t view my favorite video on formula1 web site, because processor was load on 100% by showing flash and this happens not only with flash, because my working desktop(with Ubuntu 8.04 and twice or so less power) works twice faster then this laptop.
- memory size goes down to 2,7 Gb
- ATI video still blinking
- internal microphone still not working, and volume control didn't save changes

Finally I tried Ubuntu 8.04 32 bit and make my choice to this system like most working out of the box.
Before you start your installation be sure that you download network drivers(especially if you load Windows) in my laptop was network card RealTek RTL8101, you can insure by running lspci command
0a:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
Driver file usually has name like r8101-1.010.00.bz2 download it from RealTek web site and you are ready for installation. Next installing Ubuntu 8.04 32 bit, after installation you will get wrong resolution on your screen as well as during running Ubuntu 8.04 liveCD, don't worry about that right now, everything becomes correct once you update your Ubuntu. If you get problem with your network as I mention befor let's fix them. Unpack your archive with driver some where(e.g. /usr/src), then you have to compile this driver, unload old driver load new one(didn't install it because you don't need it) and reboot your computer after all this steps dafault RealTek driver woks just fine. I guess this can be done by some special parameters in default driver but my knowledge of linux not enought to do that. So generally here is command which you have to run for reaching all steps that I describe before:
# tar -xjf r8101-1.010.00.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src
# rmmod r8169
# cd /usr/src/r8101-1.010.00
# make clean modules
# insmod ./src/r8101.ko
# ifconfig -a


So after running all this you should get your network running correctly, and now time to reboot yous system. It is a time to update your system, just run regular update manager System->Administration->Update manager and actually it will fix screen resolution problem. Next step is enable ATI driver and disable Atheros Hardware Access Layer (I don't know what is that, and just disable it) through System->Administration->Hardware drivers. Let's get your Wi-Fi running install package linux-backports-modules-hardy-generic through System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. Lat's enable your internal microphone: right click on sound icon in tray, and then choose Open Volume Control, then go to Options tabsheet and in Digital Input Source drop down choose Digital Mic 1 if you can't locate somethig, then go to menu Edit->Preferences in volume control and enable all checkboxes there.
So let's resume what we have, out of box we have:
- network (wired/wireless)
- sound (with some minor issues)
- webcamera
- video card
- system work with enough performance

Minor issue about sound is that actual volume regulated by Front euqaliser in volume control and speakers make some strange sound when turning laptop off.

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