Info and help for HP TX2500 Series

[isachan]

I just got my brand-spanking new HP TX2500 CTO this morning, and after several hours of uninstalling the bloatwares, defragging, and partitioning, I finally got to install Kubuntu 8.04.

Immediately I stumbled into the problem of booting from a LiveCD. An hour later I found out why.

By pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1, I could see boot messages. It turns out that as soon as the kernel loads, it detects overtemp, and starts to shut down the machine. The message line reads "Critical temperature (xxC) reached: shutting down".

Funny thing is that this happens even the temp is reasonably low (even around 60).

After a few search on the forums I tried the kernel parameter "acpi=off", and lo and behold, it works !

So I installed Hardy and several other essential applications (Radeon drivers through EnvyNG, etc) and realized there is no sound. No wonder, because ACPI interrupts control the sound chip. Irony is that I wanted to watch some HD video on this machine (surprisingly, the playback is slow) !

However, this parameter is the only thing that's working so far. I also tried noapic, nolapic, noacip, irqpoll, irqfixup, acpi_irq_balance, noirqdebug, but no avail.

I need some serious help here, but my hunch is that I have to wait for BIOS updates from HP for the next several months.

I post this new thread, hoping this one parameter can help some others to get going on Linux with this tablet PC.

Isao

[sergiom99]

please post your detailed laptop specs and the output of lspci.


Thanks.

[wabre]

check this thread, first post. i'm not sure if it works, see the sound section in the first post. it helped me on my tx2120, though not sure if it works on your (me jealous...) puma..

http://georgia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=792669


oh, something else..mainly hope: i installed ubuntu 8.10 intrepid ibex alpha 1...sound works out of the box!

[isachan]

wabre, thanks for the link, but adding that line didn't make any difference, since TX2500 uses different combination of integrated chipset and the same Realtek chip. So, it shows up as "HDA ATI SB". I'll do some search on it to see what I can find.

sergiom99, here is my lspci -v output :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [c4] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface
Capabilities: [54] HyperTransport: UnitID Clumping
Capabilities: [40] HyperTransport: Retry Mode
Capabilities: [9c] HyperTransport: #1a
Capabilities: [f8] HyperTransport: #1c

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00005000-00005fff
Memory behind bridge: d2200000-d23fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000c0000000-00000000cfffffff
Capabilities: [44] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping
Capabilities: [b0] Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx)

00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=07, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00004fff
Memory behind bridge: d1200000-d21fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000d0ffffff
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [b0] Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Capabilities: [b8] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=08, subordinate=08, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: d1100000-d11fffff
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [b0] Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Capabilities: [b8] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=09, subordinate=09, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
Memory behind bridge: b0000000-b00fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d1000000-00000000d10fffff
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [b0] Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Capabilities: [b8] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 6038 [size=8]
I/O ports at 604c [size=4]
I/O ports at 6030 [size=8]
I/O ports at 6048 [size=4]
I/O ports at 6010 [size=16]
Memory at d2409000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [70] #12 [0010]

00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at d2408000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:12.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI1 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at d2407000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 7
Memory at d2409500 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [e4] Debug port

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at d2406000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI1 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at d2405000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 4
Memory at d2409400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [e4] Debug port

00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3a)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
Capabilities: [b0] HyperTransport: MSI Mapping

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
I/O ports at 6000 [size=16]
Capabilities: [70] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/1 Enable-

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
Memory at d2400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=80, subordinate=8f, sec-latency=64
I/O behind bridge: 00001000-00001fff

00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at d2404000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: [80] HyperTransport: Host or Secondary Interface

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Address Map
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h DRAM Controller
Flags: fast devsel

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Miscellaneous Control
Flags: fast devsel
Capabilities: [f0] #0f [0010]

00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 11h Link Control
Flags: fast devsel

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS780M/RS780MN [Radeon HD 3200 Graphics] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30f1
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 5000 [size=256]
Memory at d2300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Memory at d2200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-

08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 137c
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 7
Memory at d1100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)%2

[corwinspyre]

edit: nevermind

[isachan]

New findings and a few updates :

Web cam works with "Cheese". Install it with "sudo apt-get install cheese" and enjoy. I haven't tried with Skype or Ekiga yet.

If your machine is cool enough, you can boot without "acpi=off" boot option. You only have 3 to 4 minutes though until the machine shuts itself down again, and the keyboard and the touchpad don't work without it.

For the wireless, it seems like we just have to wait until the bugs in "wl" driver will be fixed. According to these threads :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5326382#post5326382
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=848622&page=3
the last update has broken the driver. Let's wait and see what happens.

I have been thinking to fix up some DSDT problem with this machine, by following instructions on this thread :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=623633
but now I just found out I can't even type anything from keyboard.
My hope to get Linux going on this machine is getting slim.

Is anybody else out there have any other ideas to tackle this ?

Isao

[isachan]

Okay, so I verified that the webcam works for Skype and Ekiga.

For Ekiga, just type in a command line :
sudo apt-get install ekiga libpt-1.11.2-plugins-v4l2
After everything is installed, run Ekiga.
Go to Edit Menu -> Preferences -> Under Devices, Video Devices -> Set Video Plugin to V4L2.
Wait a few minutes, and you should be able to see yourself in the video.

For Skype :
Go to this page, and follow the direction :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu#Adding%20the%20Repositories
Then, do sudo apt-get install skype

That should be it.

As you know, at this point it's meaningless because the sound is not working. Well, someday...

Isao

[TomtheWombat]

You could try "noapic nolapic irqfixup" as suggested in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=837657

That thread also contains a tip for the sound card and a link to instructions for the touch screen.

The webcam is is v4l2 device so it won't work with version 1 v4l programs (like adobe's flash). There is a bridge for v4l2->v4l, but I forgot what it's called.

[isachan]

Thanks, but those kernel options didn't work.

I'm trying to set a higher trip-points with a script from another Ubuntu forum thread. It's still not working.

I don't have sound, but playing back some high def video with MPlayer and fglrx driver with OpenGL direct rendering is so smooth ! Image quality is just great.

Isao

[kv11]

isachan, could you please describe what other problems do you have with tx2500 ? Does touchscreen (and pressure sensitivity) work ? Does it suspend/resume properly ?

[isachan]

So far, I haven't tested those features yet, as I haven't got a screen protector on the screen. I've been researching which one would be the best one.

I haven't tried it either, but I can only see the hibernate option. I believe we really need ACPI to enable suspending.

I'm gonna employ tx2000 tactics to try once I got my screen protector. I'll let you know later.

Isao

[AstronomyDomine]

Well it's nice to see I'm not the only one having troubles. I've figured out that the critical trip point problem lies within the thermal module which is loaded with the initramfs, so for now we have three choices: We can boot with acpi=off, we can compile a custom kernel without the thermal module, or we can recreate our initramfs without the thermal module.

I opted for the third option, and it is working pretty well so far. I still don't have audio, wireless, or touchscreen support, but it runs for hours without problems. I have no idea why I don't have any touchscreen support, but no matter what I try, I can't seem to get it working. Also, the wireless doesn't seem to want to work at all, even with ndiswrapper.

[isachan]

This could be the reason :
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showpost.php?p=115568&postcount=2

Also, see the last post, written on 2008-04-25
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi/+bug/111460

I'm confused now. Is it the BIOS, or the kernel being the cause ?
Or the combination of both ? Or the new CPU and the chipset (Puma platform) ?

Only once before, I got lucky and had enough time to look the thermal parameters in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/ directory. And I remember the trip point was -127C. So that's why I thought it's because of a bug in DSDT. I think I got the sound only for that time.

This morning was very cool at my place and I tried without acpi=off again, and saw the wireless light was blue. But a minute after I got to see the desktop, it shut down. With acpi=off, the light stays red no matter what you do.

So, we just have to be patient and wait for a long time for updates ?
For my TX1000, it took approx. 11 months to be fully usable.

Isao

[fbdelivers]

I am really happy to see this post. I've been trying and trying to get things to work following all of the tx2000 instructions. The wireless issue just about made my wife shoot me as I've been sitting in front of this computer for days now.

Short description - I just purchased the tx2500 and have been following all of the tx2000 instructions to try and get the wireless to work. No luck just like this thread. I too have the acpi=off setting on boot. I put the tablet in a cold place for a couple of hours, enabled acpi, booted and BAM the wireless started working.

I'd be happy to get at least the wireless working and will start working on the acpi setting to see if I can get past that. I've tried getting wacom to work but haven't had any luck.

Thanks for the post!

David

[AstronomyDomine]

I put the tablet in a cold place for a couple of hours, enabled acpi, booted and BAM the wireless started working.


The wireless started working meaning that the light was blue, or that you were actually able to connect to a network?

I don't need to boot with acpi=off since I removed thermal from the initramfs, but I still can't use the wireless. The light is blue, but there is no interface for the device. Even ndiswrapper doesn't seem to work.

[fbdelivers]

The wireless started working meaning that the light was blue, or that you were actually able to connect to a network?

I don't need to boot with acpi=off since I removed thermal from the initramfs, but I still can't use the wireless. The light is blue, but there is no interface for the device. Even ndiswrapper doesn't seem to work.

Good question and maybe I got ahead of myself. I just had the light turn blue which was a good sign. I haven't had it run long enough to try the wireless other then the fact that it did scan and wireless networks were available.

I'll work on removing the thermal from initramfs. Did you do that by just removing that from the hooks directory?

David

[AstronomyDomine]

Here's how I removed the module thermal from my initramfs:


sudo su -
cd /boot
mkdir /tmp/directory.cpio
zcat initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic > /tmp/directory.cpio/initrd.cpio
cd /tmp/directory.cpio
cpio -idv < initrd.cpio
rm lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/thermal.ko
nano conf/modules

Remove the line "thermal" from the file (if this file is blank, something wrong happened, post here), then hit CTRL+X, Y, to save the file.

rm initrd.cpio
find . -print0 | cpio -o0 -H newc -v > /tmp/initrd.img.cpio
gzip -9c /tmp/initrd.img.cpio >/tmp/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
mv /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic.bak
mv /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic /boot/
nano /boot/grub/menu.lst


Now you can find the boot line for your kernel and remove the acpi=off option. I'd also suggest removing quiet and splash if they're still there, that way you can see what's happening. Mine looks like:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=ba05d9a0-8436-400d-9a6f-f0d041fb94e3 ro noapic

Your UUID won't be the same as mine, don't change anything in this line except for the bolded text.

Best of luck. Post with any progress.

[fbdelivers]

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I gave it a shot and unfortunately it didn't work. I'm still getting the critical trip_point message on boot at (71 degrees). I've been running the computer for a while and will let it cool down.

I didn't receive any errors when running your options and the boot loads just fine up to starting acpid.

Let me know if there is any log that you'd like to see and I'll post. I'll also try again when my machine cools down.

[AstronomyDomine]

Found a few errors in my post. I've corrected them. Please try to run through it again, and post back with your results.

[tC_Crazy]

I tried the code, but had some problems. First, I believe... wait, I think you edited the code... b/c I copied down /tmp/initrd.cpio instead of /tmp/directory.cpio/initrd.cpio.

Then, I made the stupid mistake of not sudo-ing every step, so the rm didn't work and thermal.ko was not deleted... among other things. So thermal shutdown resulted. So i went back in, tried repeating all the steps (bad idea), and now I get a kernel panic on boot for not being able to mount the fs to "unknown media (0,0(" or something like that. No worries, I'll just reinstall ubuntu tomorrow (I just installed it today.. haven't done anything since) and try the instructions again. By the way, thanks for instructions... esp if they work! I was looking exactly for this.

[fbdelivers]

I tried the steps one more time. (I did the original initrd to make sure that I removed the thermal file.

I'm still getting the trip_point issue on boot at (69 C). If I go back and set the boot to acpi=off again the new kernel loads fine (minus the acpi / wireless).

I appreciate the time you have taken - I won't be able to reply for about a day.

I have the tx2525nr - latest ubuntu
uname -r 2.6.24-19-generic

The only thing different in my menu file is:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=8c5aa53d-de77-4cb9-8a7d-9190d4a90d9c ro xforcevesa noapic

[kv11]

You could also try altering parameters of thermal module:
$ modinfo thermal
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/thermal.ko
license: GPL
description: ACPI Thermal Zone Driver
author: Paul Diefenbaugh
srcversion: 484C09AEA5B2FE85E9747E6
alias: acpi*:LNXTHERM:*
depends: processor
vermagic: 2.6.24-19-generic SMP mod_unload 586
parm: act:Disable or override all lowest active trip points. (int)
parm: crt:Disable or lower all critical trip points. (int)
parm: tzp:Thermal zone polling frequency, in 1/10 seconds. (int)
parm: nocrt:Set to take no action upon ACPI thermal zone critical trips points. (int)
parm: off:Set to disable ACPI thermal support. (int)
parm: psv:Disable or override all passive trip points. (int)


Parameters like nocrt seems to be relevant. You could try altering them by editing /etc/modprobe.d/options file in the root filesystem or in initrd.

[kv11]

EDIT: Please see more detailed explanation here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5417491&postcount=69).


You could also try the following boot options (i.e. arguments for kernel command line, *NOT* for options file):

thermal.act= [HW,ACPI]
-1: disable all active trip points in all thermal zones
<degrees C>: override all lowest active trip points

thermal.crt= [HW,ACPI]
-1: disable all critical trip points in all thermal zones
<degrees C>: lower all critical trip points

thermal.nocrt= [HW,ACPI]
Set to disable actions on ACPI thermal zone
critical and hot trip points.

thermal.off= [HW,ACPI]
1: disable ACPI thermal control

thermal.psv= [HW,ACPI]
-1: disable all passive trip points
<degrees C>: override all passive trip points to this value

thermal.tzp= [HW,ACPI]
Specify global default ACPI thermal zone polling rate
<deci-seconds>: poll all this frequency
0: no polling (default)

[tC_Crazy]

kv11, this seems like an even more direct approach to the thermal module... plus it's completely nondestructive so I'll try the auto detailer's saying of "the least aggressive method first."

I'll try the following boot options when I get off of work (should be very redundant but sometimes that is necessary like with noacpi acpi=off):

thermal.act=-1
thermal.crt=-1
thermal.nocrt= (wait a sec, what value do i put here?.. sorry if this is a newb question)
thermal.psv=-1
thermal.off=-1

If that fails, I'll try editing the thermal module...and if that fails I'll try Astronomy's method... btw did that actually work for booting up with wifi/sound/anything else that require acpi?

Oh, does anyone get a kernel panic if they boot with JUST noapic? I can only get it to work properly with both noapic AND acpi=off. Just acpi=off results in the shutdwon. I've got a CTO tx2500z with the 2.4Ghz ZM-86 processor, 3GB RAM.

[isachan]

kv11, you're a God send !

I added the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options file :
(Edit: corrected options from option as per tC_Crazy)

options thermal.act=-1
options thermal.crt=-1
options thermal.nocrt=1
options thermal.psv=-1

(I removed the line "option thermal.off=-1 later on)
(tC_Crazy - a bit of googling lead me to how to specify .nocrt value)

Also, I added noapic to kernel boot option.

Now bluetooth is working ! No more full-speed fan noise ! Yeah !

I can see suspend icon on the log-off window (haven't tried).

My machine became a bit sluggish, I suppose some other services / processes are now turned on and running.

Wireless light is blue, and you can turn on and off, but it is wrongly recognized as a BCM4315. I don't see any AP with Wicd.
After sudo modprobe wl, do a dmesg and you'll see it is assigned as eth1.
For some reason, I still see ndiswrapper as a loaded module, despite of the fact I completely removed. What's with ? Let me tweak around a bit more...

No sound yet. I'm gonna try irq_debug, irq_balance, irqfixup, etc.

My TX2500 is much better than before ! Thanks !

Isao

[tC_Crazy]

isachan, I'm not positive if this is correct, but since the tx2000 and tx2500 use the same RealTek driver, I'm going to assume that they have the same sound card. If so, the info in this tx2000 sound card thread may help... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=585909

By the way, any luck with the active digitizer (pen) or touchscreen?

[pluckster]

I hate to sound rude but I'm just having trouble following all these threads. I can't really understand whats going on. So can we start from the beginning. I have a tz2524ca and I would like to install Ubuntu. I am getting errors but can I just get an an in one explanation covering everything that people have encountered starting with just getting it installed.

[tC_Crazy]

I'll give you the run-down. The tx2500z has a problem in a component called ACPI which causes it to report very very high temperatures to Ubuntu. Ubuntu, in turn, shuts the system down to save the processor from overheating and damage. However, the processor isn't really overheating... it's just sending the wrong temperature.

So, if we turn off a component called ACPI (the one that deals with thermal management, among other things), we can boot into Ubuntu. The way to do this is insert the CD, select English, and Press F6 (this lets you add boot options). Add "noapic nolapic acpi=off" to the end of that line, and hit enter.

This will let you install and run Ubuntu. HOWEVER, turning ACPI off disables many things, including the sound card, touch screen, wireless, blutooth. Plus, the fan will run at 100% all the time.

In order to remedy this situation, we follow the instructions given by isachan to change the settings within the THERMAL MODULE that is a part of ACPI. By overriding the Thermal Module settings, we will keep ACPI (and our Wifi, BT, sound, etc.) and avoid the premature shutdown and high fan speeds... I am about to test isachan/kv11's instructions and will report back soon if it worked for me or not.

Good luck.

[tC_Crazy]

After much fanfare, I believe I'm at the same point as isachan here. After trying his settings for /etc/modprobe.d/options (by the way, each line should read OPTIONS not OPTION... that threw errors in boot and the lines were ignored).

Next I tried the initrd method exactly as described earlier in this thread. Still nothing. Then I went into /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and added the line blacklist thermal.

My only boot option was nolapic (noapic throws a kernel panic)

BT works, WLAN light is on (still needs drivers), it displays battery conditions, and fan speed is reduced. :KS

[fbdelivers]

Outstanding!! Thanks everyone for the help.

In order for me to disable acpi option I followed the initrd instructions to remove thermal.

Added the thermal options to /modprobe.d/options file

I too had to also add blacklist thermal to get things to boot.

I can no boot with acpi=off.

Wireless is working as well (BTW I followed these instructions using the 2d option - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff

Sound still isn't working - I tried the following:
1. Open alsa-base configuration file:
gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

2. Add this as last row of file:
options snd-hda-intel model=hp

The mute button is working but still no sound.

Once I get sound and the touchscreen (anyone have any luck?) I can say buh bye to the vista partition.

Thanks
David

[pluckster]

Thank you Crazy for the nice and neat rundown. I tried what you gave me but I'm still getting two errors in the install process. I can't tell if they are related but I don't think they are. One is that it cannot configure my DHCP network something or other. The other is it cannot find an installable kernel in the defined APT sources. This one seems to be the deal breaker. It says I could install one later but it says I shouldn't unless I know what I'm doing. Is this normal or is this just an error I'm getting?

EDIT: It wouldn't let me install a boot loader either, which is probably because of the kernel error or at least I think.

[tC_Crazy]

Those seem to be unrelated. Have you run the CD error check yet? You may have to F6 and add the boot options noapic nolapic acpi=off with the CD error check selected.

Did you download the newest release HH? Also, did you download the 32-bit or 64-bit version? I'm using 32-bit. It sounds like a problem with the data on the CD, but I could be wrong. If you do try to burn a new CD, keep in mind that lower speed = less errors.

One more question, did you boot into the LiveCD and hit install, or install directly from the CD boot menu? Did it ever actually boot into Ubuntu? (wait, that's two questions... oh well!)

[pluckster]

Yeah I've made three new CDs (Line, Alt and a Live 64) after my original failed. I even downloaded Ibex Alpha 2.

But I really should have checked the CD for errors. I'll do that right now.

...


well there we go, 1 error found in 1 file. Guess its back to the burning machine.

[tC_Crazy]

slow 'n steady wins the race... if you still have trouble, try some different media.

[isachan]

Another discovery today.

I've found out I've been running with only one core with noapic boot option !I took a deep breath and tried without it this morning. Now I got my dual core back ! You can see this with the power applet (the small battery icon), just by moving the mouse cursor over it. Or you can install and see with htop app. CPU dynamic frequency thing is not working though. Maybe it works with cpufreqd ?

tC_Crazy, it's funny my machine doesn't like nolapic option and yours does. I lose my wired network connection with nolapic.

I tried suspend yesterday, and it does power down with flashing power light. However, after a recovery, the screen just stays turned-off. It's not in my urgent priority list right now, so I haven't dig deeper into troubleshooting this yet.

I'm getting tired with no sound. I even installed ALSA 1.0.17 final with a script from this thread :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820959
and it's still not working ! I had to do some driver file copying after installing from source codes, so I don't recommend for anybody. Well, it's not working anyway, so...

Isao

[isachan]

Miracle ! I have sound !

The last 2 lines of my /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file is like this :
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=toshiba position_fix=1

That's right, it's toshiba !

Try it with the current version of ALSA driver first to be safe.
I'm not really sure it's because I'm using ALSA 1.0.17 final ?

Make sure Master, Headphone, PCM, Front channels are not muted, and volumes are up.

I hope this works for you guys too !

Isao

[pluckster]

Still no go on the kernel installing. The DCHP(?) error still comes up to. Its weird because these CDs work on my other computer just fine but as soon as those things are disabled on the laptop, everything breaks down.

I tried installing Ubuntu Studio of its DVD but that also didn't work. Same errors as before. Is it that hard to manually install a kernel?

EDIT: Okay well it let me finish the install this time. Still as far as I know no kernel was installed. I booted up and it let me start Ubuntu Studio. It went through to the kernel log daemon, stopped for a bit, then went to quickly through the next screen and shut itself down. Not to sure what happened but it probably has to do with the fact there is no kernel.

[corwinspyre]

Thanks to everyone in this thread!

[corwinspyre]

kv11, you're a God send !

I added the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options file :
(Edit: corrected options from option as per tC_Crazy)

options thermal.act=-1
options thermal.crt=-1
options thermal.nocrt=1
options thermal.psv=-1


This didn't work for me. /var/log/daemon.log shows (this is also what I see at boot time):
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 9: ignoring bad line starting with 'options'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 10: ignoring bad line starting with 'options'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 11: ignoring bad line starting with 'options'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 12: ignoring bad line starting with 'options'

I copy/pasted it in from your post, so I know it's not a typo.


For the heck of it, I tried removing "options" so that it says:
thermal.act=-1
thermal.crt=-1
thermal.nocrt=1
thermal.psv=-1
but that yields a similar error:
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 14: ignoring bad line starting with 'thermal.act=-1'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 15: ignoring bad line starting with 'thermal.crt=-1'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 16: ignoring bad line starting with 'thermal.nocrt=1'
Jul 17 12:21:46 deathstar modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.d/options line 17: ignoring bad line starting with 'thermal.psv=-1'

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[corwinspyre]

Still no go on the kernel installing. The DCHP(?) error still comes up to. Its weird because these CDs work on my other computer just fine but as soon as those things are disabled on the laptop, everything breaks down.

I tried installing Ubuntu Studio of its DVD but that also didn't work. Same errors as before. Is it that hard to manually install a kernel?

EDIT: Okay well it let me finish the install this time. Still as far as I know no kernel was installed. I booted up and it let me start Ubuntu Studio. It went through to the kernel log daemon, stopped for a bit, then went to quickly through the next screen and shut itself down. Not to sure what happened but it probably has to do with the fact there is no kernel.

If it's booting up at all, it has a kernel. It sounds like you have the overheat issue. You should edit the grub boot line to say acpi=off at the end, as shown in this thread, and then do one of the three various fixes (also given in this thread).

[pluckster]

I think it was just Ubuntu Studio doing something weird because it still doesn't work. I'm trying to reinstall a vanilla Ubuntu but it will not let me install the kernel or grub.

[phrygius]

I'll give you the run-down. The tx2500z has a problem in a component called ACPI which causes it to report very very high temperatures to Ubuntu. Ubuntu, in turn, shuts the system down to save the processor from overheating and damage. However, the processor isn't really overheating... it's just sending the wrong temperature.

So, if we turn off a component called ACPI (the one that deals with thermal management, among other things), we can boot into Ubuntu. The way to do this is insert the CD, select English, and Press F6 (this lets you add boot options). Add "noapic nolapic acpi=off" to the end of that line, and hit enter.

This will let you install and run Ubuntu. HOWEVER, turning ACPI off disables many things, including the sound card, touch screen, wireless, blutooth. Plus, the fan will run at 100% all the time.

In order to remedy this situation, we follow the instructions given by isachan to change the settings within the THERMAL MODULE that is a part of ACPI. By overriding the Thermal Module settings, we will keep ACPI (and our Wifi, BT, sound, etc.) and avoid the premature shutdown and high fan speeds... I am about to test isachan/kv11's instructions and will report back soon if it worked for me or not.

Good luck.

Thank you for explaining the situation!

I just received my tx2510z on Tuesday, and was frustrated by the ACPI overheating issue before finding this thread.

I was wondering though, since I bought this tablet based on the success stories of tx2000 owners, did theirs have the same overheating problems too? I noticed a few of those threads mention noacpi as a boot parameter, yet I don't remember reading anything about how turning that off yields no functionality for sound, wacom, bluetooth, etc.

Thanks,
phrygius

[tC_Crazy]

phrygius, the tx2000 is considerably different in this case, because it used a different chipset/processor/video card. The tx2500z has the new Turion 64 X2 Ultra (griffin) processors, a part of the Puma platform. I haven't looked very deep into the exact cause of the problem, but something causes ACPI to read very very high temps, and trigger a thermal shutdown. AFAIK, the tx2000 did not have thermal shutdown problems. ACPI is spidered into many components, and is pretty much essential for a USEFUL computer environment on the 2500.

pluckster, if you have blacklisted thermal, I suggest you try futzing around with boot options. As we now see, tx2500z's react differently to different options. (mine will not work with noapic, isachan's will) The three I have messed with are noapic, nolapic, acpi=off.

isachan,
That's really interesting about the sound card... and noapic... and the fact that nolapic kills the wired connection seems to make sense to me now. My wired NIC wasn't working with nolapic, but I assumed no one's was. I followed some guide on the forums for the same NIC, and after compiling/patching a driver, it DID work. not worth the work, IMO, since wifi is probably easier to install.

corwinspyre,
I noticed after i turned off quiet and splash boot options that I also got those "ignoring bad line" messages on boot... so I removed them. Definitely try editing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Add this line blacklist thermal
if that doesn't work, keep the blacklist and follow the initial instructions in this thread (page 2 i think). The combination of those two (or maybe just the blacklist, idk for sure) worked for me. Oh, and nolapic in the boot options, but again I'm not sure if that really did it. I'll get more evidence as to what exactly worked on my machine when i reinstall this weekend.

btw, I think this thread has a ton of great info and collaboration... great job everyone. I'm sure many will be able to use this as a resource to get a fully-functional tablet running Ubuntu (btw2, has anyone installed the digitizer drivers yet?? that's the scary recompile-and-potentially-break-everything-wasting-your-hard-work one. Backup first!!

[corwinspyre]

phrygius, the tx2000 is considerably different in this case, because it used a different chipset/processor/video card. The tx2500z has the new Turion 64 X2 Ultra (griffin) processors, a part of the Puma platform. I haven't looked very deep into the exact cause of the problem, but something causes ACPI to read very very high temps, and trigger a thermal shutdown. AFAIK, the tx2000 did not have thermal shutdown problems. ACPI is spidered into many components, and is pretty much essential for a USEFUL computer environment on the 2500.

pluckster, if you have blacklisted thermal, I suggest you try futzing around with boot options. As we now see, tx2500z's react differently to different options. (mine will not work with noapic, isachan's will) The three I have messed with are noapic, nolapic, acpi=off.

isachan,
That's really interesting about the sound card... and noapic... and the fact that nolapic kills the wired connection seems to make sense to me now. My wired NIC wasn't working with nolapic, but I assumed no one's was. I followed some guide on the forums for the same NIC, and after compiling/patching a driver, it DID work. not worth the work, IMO, since wifi is probably easier to install.

corwinspyre,
I noticed after i turned off quiet and splash boot options that I also got those "ignoring bad line" messages on boot... so I removed them. Definitely try editing /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Add this line blacklist thermal
if that doesn't work, keep the blacklist and follow the initial instructions in this thread (page 2 i think). The combination of those two (or maybe just the blacklist, idk for sure) worked for me. Oh, and nolapic in the boot options, but again I'm not sure if that really did it. I'll get more evidence as to what exactly worked on my machine when i reinstall this weekend.

btw, I think this thread has a ton of great info and collaboration... great job everyone. I'm sure many will be able to use this as a resource to get a fully-functional tablet running Ubuntu (btw2, has anyone installed the digitizer drivers yet?? that's the scary recompile-and-potentially-break-everything-wasting-your-hard-work one. Backup first!!

Got it to work! blacklist thermal itself didn't, so I ran through the steps on page 2, and it did. I didn't do anything else, including nolapic. Thank you.

[tC_Crazy]

Well, I have experienced a (minor) miracle. My ubuntu partitions have NOT been wiped by the HP image =). Windows just wiped the MBR record, which was a 3 line fix using the grub console. :guitar:

I am working on wifi and sound right now.

[phrygius]

Hrm, I just tried the "options" additions to /etc/modprobe.d/options and it did not work when I removed the "acpi=off" boot option.

I do have the "blacklist thermal" fix in place as well :(

[isachan]

Alright guys, I got the digitizer PARTIALLY working. I got my screen protector today, so as soon as I applied, I rushed myself to go over this place :
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=69596

and got linuxwacom-dev 0.8.1 July 9, 2008 driver.

There is a handy place for TX2000 linux info here :
http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/tx2020/tx2000howto.htm
and scroll down to the sub-topic says "Using Wacom Active Digitizer with pen".

I kinda sorta followed the instruction loosely, but let me post how I did as follows :

1. Extract the linuxwacom-0.8.1.tar.bz2 source tarball to a directory. I extracted in ~/hp-tx2500/digitizer/

2. In terminal (command line), cd to the directory created by extraction, like, "cd ~/hp-tx2500/digitizer/linuxwacom-0.8.1"

3. I had to install some more supporting libraries, as :
"sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libxi-dev x11proto-input-dev input-utils"

4. After that, do "./configure --enable-wacom --enable-hid --enable-usbmouse --enable-input" (Maybe I enabled too many things)
Check everything went good.

5. make
You may get errors depending on which supporting libraries are not installed. I'd try installing those libraries described in the TX2000 info page one by one, and recompile by typing make again.

6. sudo make install
6a. sudo rmmod wacom (For the first time around, you shouldn't have to do this)

7. sudo cp src/2.6.24/wacom.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/input/tablet/wacom.ko

8. sudo depmod -e

9. sudo modprobe wacom

10. Edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as follows :

*** Add these lines to the beginning of the file:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TabletPCStylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
Option "Button2" "3" # make side-switch a right button
Option "TopX" "225"
Option "TopY" "122"
Option "BottomX" "26365"
Option "BottomY" "16488"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TabletPCStylus2"
Driver "wacom"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "TopX" "01429"
Option "TopY" "01150"
Option "BottomX" "25300"
Option "BottomY" "15300"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "TabletPCStylus3"
Driver "wacom"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
EndSection

*** And change "ServerLayout" and "Modules" sections to match the settings above :

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
Inputdevice "TabletPCStylus"
Inputdevice "TabletPCStylus2"
Inputdevice "TabletPCStylus3"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "wacom"
Load "glx"
EndSection


11. Reboot, pen should work PARTIALLY.

---

Here are the reasons why I said PARTIALLY :

Pressure sensitivity is, well, extremely sensitive. I can't draw a long stroke at all if I apply a just a bit more of extra pressure. You'll need a super-human sensitive touch. This is confirmed with Gimp. Forget about writing on CellWriter, you'll just confuse the training session.

Acts a bit funny, almost a similar experience with pressing and releasing the mouse button at the same time.

Eraser acts just like the pen.

The side button is working, acts as the right mouse button.

---

Well, it's good to see the mouse cursor follows your pen point, when it is hovering 1/4inch over the screen.

I just had to jot down my findings here quickly, so we can be headed in the right direction.

Isao

[phrygius]

As an aside, do you all think a screen protector is necessary?

[corwinspyre]

As an aside, do you all think a screen protector is necessary?I never had one on my tx1000, and it wasn't a problem, but it can't hurt /shrug

[tC_Crazy]

bah, I can't get wifi to work. I had previously installed step 2b from those instructions. After doing a reinstall of ndiswrapper and then a ndiswrapper -r bcmwl5, I did the whole process again with step 2d... but even after a restart it's not detecting any new interfaces. any ideas?

[corwinspyre]

bah, I can't get wifi to work. I had previously installed step 2b from those instructions. After doing a reinstall of ndiswrapper and then a ndiswrapper -r bcmwl5, I did the whole process again with step 2d... but even after a restart it's not detecting any new interfaces. any ideas?
It sets it up with the wl driver automatically. You shouldn't need ndiswrapper. I don't know the steps you took to use ndiswrapper, but maybe try blacklisting it and un-blacklisting wl if you did when installing ndiswrapper.

[isachan]

If you'd choose to use ndiswrapper, you have to remove wl driver, and vice versa.

Also, I like screen protector from my past experience. I can see all kinds of scratches on the protector, be it on PDA, my TX1000, etc. I think it's better than exposed. Especially on TX1000, I had to touch the screen rather hard to write on it.

I'm still waiting for the next version of wl driver to be posted on the regular repository. The current one is not really working on other computers with the same wireless device either. I heard about a 2 weeks ago that it has been updated on the proposal repository, and that one should be the working version. If you search on this Ubuntu forum, you may get updates on the status of wl driver.

Isao

[corwinspyre]

If you'd choose to use ndiswrapper, you have to remove wl driver, and vice versa.

Also, I like screen protector from my past experience. I can see all kinds of scratches on the protector, be it on PDA, my TX1000, etc. I think it's better than exposed. Especially on TX1000, I had to touch the screen rather hard to write on it.

I'm still waiting for the next version of wl driver to be posted on the regular repository. I heard about a 2 weeks ago that it has been updated on the proposal repository. If you search on this Ubuntu forum, you may get updates on the status of wl driver.

Isao
Yep, if you enable hardy-proposed, you get the update. I'm posting wireless from Ubuntu on my TX2500 right now, actually. I know the dev said because of the simplicity of the fix and the positive results posted in the bug report about the fix, it got fast-tracked, so hopefully you'll have it sooner than later.

[AstronomyDomine]

Basically, inside of the acpi subsystem is a module called thermal which reads temperatures from thermal sensors in the hardware, and shuts down the computer if the temperatures reach a certain trip point. Because the chipsets in the tx2500 are so new, thermal doesn't correctly read the sensors, and acpi shuts down the machine after the kernel is loaded.

Blacklisting thermal in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist most likely won't solve the issue because thermal is loaded in the initramfs, so the only way to stop thermal from loading is to remove it from your initrd. My instructions on page 2 should remove thermal from the initramfs, but this is only a temporary fix. It will need to be done every time the kernel is upgraded until the problem is fixed.

There was also a mention of raising or eliminating the trip points in the thermal module, but I never attempted this, so I can't say whether it will work or not.

[fbdelivers]

Miracle ! I have sound !

The last 2 lines of my /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file is like this :
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=toshiba position_fix=1

That's right, it's toshiba !

Try it with the current version of ALSA driver first to be safe.
I'm not really sure it's because I'm using ALSA 1.0.17 final ?

Make sure Master, Headphone, PCM, Front channels are not muted, and volumes are up.

I hope this works for you guys too !

Isao

Sweet - your fix worked for me as well. Thanks!

[phrygius]

Has anyone else had negative results from the /etc/modprobe.d/options fix? I will try Astronomy's fix after work today and let you know how it goes.

(once again, mine is the tx2510)

Thanks,
phrygius

[tC_Crazy]

phrygius,
I didn't have a negative result per se, but Ubuntu reported on startup that it was ignoring all those lines anyway, as "bad." For me, the winning combo was AstronomyDomine's page 2 instructions, plus blacklisting thermal. I don't understand why that worked, but I know it did. Afterwards i was able to boot with no added boot options.

Now about wireless... I never got the wl driver. Even before ndiswrapper, there was no mention of wl in the restricted drivers, and there was no wireless interface if i did an ifconfig or iwconfig. I'm pretty sure it showed up in lspci, so it does see the card.

[isachan]

tC_Crazy, what kind of wireless device came with your machine ?

You may have to use b43-fwcutter driver and firmwares.
Doing some search on Ubuntu forums may lead you to an answer.

[isachan]

I just updated my ATI fglrx graphics driver to 8.6 via EnvyNG, and man ! it's pleasing my eyes. :)

Combined with Mplayer, I can play HD 1080p content almost flawlessly with some slowdown spots.

Now I can play HD 720p content on Kaffeine player ! Before this update this movie player was too slow, and unusable. As this is my primary video content player, I was disappointed but no more !

Have you guys played racing simulation game on this machine, called Torcs ? I use that as a nice and quick benchmark tool. It's a fun way to check the performance of 3D acceleration.

[phrygius]

phrygius,
I didn't have a negative result per se, but Ubuntu reported on startup that it was ignoring all those lines anyway, as "bad." For me, the winning combo was AstronomyDomine's page 2 instructions, plus blacklisting thermal. I don't understand why that worked, but I know it did. Afterwards i was able to boot with no added boot options.

Update: I tried AstronomyDomine's page 2 instructions as well, and they seem to fix the ACPI+Thermal problem!

THANK YOU Astronomy!!

I guess I wouldn't mind too much having to do this over again with new kernel updates, but it'd be awesome if a permanent fix came around.

Now, I'll have to occupy myself with attempting to get the touchscreen to work.

Thanks,
phrygius

[isachan]

Phew, I'm getting tired tweaking digitizer and the touch screen.
I'm gonna just post my in-progress results.

So now I got my touch screen part of the same wacom digitizer PARTIALLY working as well ! :)

The pressure sensing got much better, but still it releases the drag if I apply pressure slightly more. I started to get some long strokes, but still not good enough for CellWriter.

Touch screen must be calibrated, but I don't know how. I just played around with the numbers in Top X,Y and Bottom X,Y parameters, but it was a moving target. The result was just confusing by calibrating this way.

Here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf :

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
# Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
Option "Button2" "3"# make side-switch a right button
Option "TopX" "225"
Option "TopY" "122"
Option "BottomX" "26365"
Option "BottomY" "16488"
Option "PressCurve" "17,0,100,83"# Firmer Curve
Option "Threshold" "-140"# sensetivity to do a "click"
Option "Speed" "8.0"
# Option "PressCurve" "50,0,100,50"
# Option "PressCurve" "0,5,95,100" #Softer Curve
# Option "PressCurve" "2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
# Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
Option "TopX" "01429"
Option "TopY" "01150"
Option "BottomX" "25300"
Option "BottomY" "15300"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
# Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "touch"
# Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "touch"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "TopX" "0"
Option "TopY" "0"
Option "BottomX" "1280"
Option "BottomY" "800"
Option "KeepShape" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
Inputdevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "touch" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "wacom"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
# Option "AIGLX" "Off"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
# Option "Composite" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[AstronomyDomine]

Awesome job isachan. This is the best news I've heard in a while.

I'm downloading the daily build of Intrepid right now. I'll post back with all of my results soon. From the sound of it, we should now have touchscreen, active digitizer, audio, and possibly wireless support now.

To those with working wireless: Which wireless chipset do you have? I believe that there were a few different options, one with only a/b/g, and one with a/b/g/n.

I'm also going to try to make my instructions for removing thermal on page 2 into a generic shell script so it'll be easier to run after a kernel upgrade. I'm not exactly sure how to tell it to remove the line "thermal" from conf/module. Anyone know how I would go about doing this?

[isachan]

Thanks, AstronomyDomine. It was truly worthwhile.

This machine really shines with Linux (Kubuntu 8.04), that I haven't boot up Vista partition for the last several days now. Ha ! I'll keep Vista until I won't see any BIOS updates from HP, like my old TX1000. I'm gonna take off Vista sticker from my TX1000 soon.

I refined my digitizer tweak with a handy tool called "Gnome Graphics Tablet Apps" : http://alexmac.cc/tablet-apps/
You can tweak and see pressure sensitivity and pressure curve very intuitively, instead of guessing values and restarting X several dozen times. For 64bit, you have to compile from the source code. It's not that hard to do.

Other very good link is here : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wacom

And here's my updated /etc/X11/xorg.conf :


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
Option "Button2" "3" # make side-switch a right button
Option "TopX" "225"
Option "TopY" "122"
Option "BottomX" "26365"
Option "BottomY" "16488"
Option "PressCurve" "20,0,100,100" # Firmer Curve
Option "Threshold" "0" # sensetivity to do a "click"
Option "Speed" "8.0"
Option "ClickForce" "21"
# Option "PressCurve" "50,0,100,50"
# Option "PressCurve" "0,5,95,100" #Softer Curve
# Option "PressCurve" "2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
Option "TopX" "01429"
Option "TopY" "01150"
Option "BottomX" "25300"
Option "BottomY" "15300"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "touch"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Tablet_ISD-V4-event-mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" # USB ONLY
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "touch"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
Option "USB" "on"# USB ONLY
Option "TopX" "0"
Option "TopY" "0"
Option "BottomX" "1280"
Option "BottomY" "800"
Option "KeepShape" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
Inputdevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "touch" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "wacom"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
# Option "Composite" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Enjoy.

[AstronomyDomine]

I have some great news. With the daily build of intrepid, the system installs and boots without acpi=off.

However, because it's a daily build, it's far from perfect. Ubuntu-desktop did not install, so it booted to a terminal, and I'm in the process of installing ubuntu-desktop through apt. I'll update with progress along the way.

[Weststar]

Thanks for all of this info! =)

Would someone be able to make a Step by Step for people like me who suck at linux?

[AstronomyDomine]

Thanks for all of this info! =)

Would someone be able to make a Step by Step for people like me who suck at linux?

No problem. I'll throw together a howto if needed once we get the last few things figures out. Right now we've fixed the acpi shutdown problems in Hardy by removing the thermal module from the initramfs. There's a step by step on page 2 for that.

We've also got sound working. It only involves adding two lines to a file (more info on page 3 or 4), so that's not too bad.

Finally, we've got basic touchscreen and active digitizer support on page 5, but make sure to use isachan's latest xorg.conf posted on page 7.




I've been having some great success using today's daily of Intrepid. The acpi issues must be solved in 2.6.26 because I never once had to use acpi=off. I was easily able to boot and install, so things are going pretty well.

I'm having some troubles getting fglrx installed and running, but it seems to be because of bugs in Intrepid, nothing to do with the hardware.

I also couldn't get the wireless working. I tried following the instructions on the link posted on page 3, but it didn't work for me. I have the Broadcom BCM4322 a/b/g/n card.

Finally, following isachan's instructions, I was able to get the active digitizer working very well. There are definitely some touch sensitivity problems, but we should be able to get those ironed out pretty soon. I wasn't as lucky with the resistive digitizer (touchscreen). It seems to work, but needs a lot of calibration. It doesn't move the cursor anywhere near my finger.

We've made great progress everybody. Just a few weeks ago I was seriously considering returning this tablet because of all of the problems I was having. Now I love it! Lets keep pushing forward and we'll have the last few problems fixed in no time.

I'm going to get back to trying to get fglrx working in Intrepid. I'll post back with any more results.

[thegnark]

Thanks for all of this info! =)

Would someone be able to make a Step by Step for people like me who suck at linux?



Wait until Oct 30, 2008
Install Intrepid Ibex

;)

Honestly it sounds like it might be a little easier to wait for Intrepid... I'm going to consider installing once Alpha 3 comes out and see how it goes... I don't mind tweaking around, and reinstalls don't bother me much.

[tC_Crazy]

Astronomy, I have the same bcm4322ag a/b/g/n/BT card. I'm going to play with it for a little while today and see if I can get wl or ndiswrapper to pick it up.

[kv11]

A little explanation about changing trip points of thermal module (it seems that my previous post was a bit confusing). There are two ways of doing it:

1. First method: module options. Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options

options thermal psv=-1 act=-1 crt=-1 nocrt=1

(note the space after thermal, not a dot!). You could also try experimenting with different numerical values to retain the ability to automaticaly control fan speed and shutdown on overheat:

# psv is passive trip point value in degrees C
# act is active trip point value in degrees C
# crt is critical trip point value in degrees C
# nocrt should *not* be included in this line
#
# actual values in the following line are random,
# you should try-and-select them yourself (probably based on
# values of temperature in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/*) and
# post here in case of success !
#
options thermal psv=60 act=100 crt=150


2. Second method: kernel boot parameters (should always work independing of whether thermal module is loaded from initrd or root). Add the following to your kernel command line (along with nolapic noapic and other options in /boot/grub/menu.lst):

thermal.psv=-1 thermal.act=-1 thermal.crt=-1 thermal.nocrt=1

(note the dot after thermal, not a space). As with previous method you could also try setting numerical values.

[pluckster]

Well I almost had it.

After finding out what my problem was with the kernel, I found this thread explaining how to install the kernel manually, http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-3444.html. I followed the instructions and the kernel happily loaded.

On rebooting I entered the usual commands(noacpi noapic etc) and I got to a login screen for the first time(Hooray!). Logged in fine and other than screen resolution, lack of any sort of network connection and the other usual problem you've been having, it seemed to work fine. Then I ran through Astronomy's steps to getting the thermal off and boot ready.

Rebooted and wouldn't boot up Ubuntu anymore. I think my first error was a kernel panic. I tried other boot options but they came back with either kernel panics or just other errors

[isachan]

pluckster,

I don't think you'd need any of kernel boot option if you're using a new kernel version above 2.6.26, as per AstronomyDomine's previous post. I'm not using any boot option other than the regular ones, like "ro quiet splash" after following the instruction to remove thermal module from kernel. Also, I thought AstronomyDomine has successfully ran Ibex which comes with kernel 2.6.26 without any boot option ?

Anyway, I think you have to run "sudo update-initramfs -u" from recovery boot-up. You have to somehow get to command line to run it. Then reboot, and see how it goes. I had the same problem when I was using Gutsy, and that was after a regular kernel update !

Isao

[corwinspyre]

Plukster, if you get it booted up again, enabling the restricted driver and restarting (or restarting the x server with ctrl-alt-backspace) will set it to the right resolution automagically

[neutronstar21]

Hi all,

Ive just got myself a new HP TX2500 and I love this machine. Ive followed some of the instructions in this thread and my machine is running Ubuntu 8.04 very well after the initial thermal issues. You guys have been awesome at seeking and destroying the barriers to Ubuntu joy so a big thank you from me.

Just for the record Ubuntu Hardy is running well after:
- Installing from Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit install with acpi=off in boot line
- Removing the module thermal from my initramfs as per page 2, post #17 of this thread
- NOT adding specific thermal options as per page 3, post #24
- Blacklisting the thermal control, same thread, page 5, post #43
- NOT requiring nolacpi in boot line
- Sound working after specific post on page 4, post #46
- Wireless Broadcom 4328 rev 03 showing blue light after all this but requiring the instructions in this link -- https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff

The following is not working (but i havent worked on it yet):
- Wacom touchscreen

You guys are doing a great job. Keep it up. Until I work out to send official thanks, consider yourselves THANKED!

[corwinspyre]

Hi all,

Ive just got myself a new HP TX2500 and I love this machine. Ive followed some of the instructions in this thread and my machine is running Ubuntu 8.04 very well after the initial thermal issues. You guys have been awesome at seeking and destroying the barriers to Ubuntu joy so a big thank you from me.

Just for the record Ubuntu Hardy is running well after:
- Installing from Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit install with acpi=off in boot line
- Removing the module thermal from my initramfs as per page 2, post #17 of this thread
- NOT adding specific thermal options as per page 3, post #24
- Blacklisting the thermal control, same thread, page 5, post #43
- NOT requiring nolacpi in boot line
- Sound working after specific post on page 4, post #46
- Wireless Broadcom 4328 rev 03 showing blue light after all this but requiring the instructions in this link -- https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff

The following is not working (but i havent worked on it yet):
- Wacom touchscreen

You guys are doing a great job. Keep it up. Until I work out to send official thanks, consider yourselves THANKED!

To add to the list, the b/g (a/b/g?--I don't know for sure; whatever the basic one is) card is bcm4310 rev2, and it works as of a patch currently in hardy-proposed.

[pluckster]

Ibex wont even start for me. Can't get a desktop or install even with the boot params. It just hangs with a flashing cursor. I have to do a hard shutdown to restart.

Also having a problem with temp still. Even with acpi off its still catching the temp and shutting me down.

I tried "sudo update-initramfs -u" but I'm not sure what to think. I booted up and did some new things like try to connect through Ethernet. But when I tried to shut down it wouldn't go all the way. Trying a reboot now. And it fails. With all boot params it still fails.

[AstronomyDomine]

Ibex wont even start for me. Can't get a desktop or install even with the boot params. It just hangs with a flashing cursor. I have to do a hard shutdown to restart.

Also having a problem with temp still. Even with acpi off its still catching the temp and shutting me down.

I tried "sudo update-initramfs -u" but I'm not sure what to think. I booted up and did some new things like try to connect through Ethernet. But when I tried to shut down it wouldn't go all the way. Trying a reboot now. And it fails. With all boot params it still fails.

Wait for Alpha 3. It should be out in four days. Maybe.

[wabre]

sorry guys for "spamming" with an older model of the tx..i've got the tx2120us and also trying the 64bit version of Ibex now (k-/and ubuntu).

the only way i managed to start it (installing and then booting after install) is to move the hard reset shutdown button. BUT, not until it fully shuts down. Here is the strange thing, just a second before it actually should shut down, the boot up continues!! i am so surprised.

now i'm playing around with BIOS settings as well, the tx2000 series has another platform as the tx2500, but from what i can read, the problems are actually similar.

and yes, hopefully alpha 3 will be better in this regard. at least hoping we get the chance to install it without any big issues

[corwinspyre]

sorry guys for "spamming" with an older model of the tx..i've got the tx2120us and also trying the 64bit version of Ibex now (k-/and ubuntu).

the only way i managed to start it (installing and then booting after install) is to move the hard reset shutdown button. BUT, not until it fully shuts down. Here is the strange thing, just a second before it actually should shut down, the boot up continues!! i am so surprised.

now i'm playing around with BIOS settings as well, the tx2000 series has another platform as the tx2500, but from what i can read, the problems are actually similar.

and yes, hopefully alpha 3 will be better in this regard. at least hoping we get the chance to install it without any big issues

the tx2500 never stops booting alone, it shuts down half way through the boot or soon thereabouts, so if I'm reading correctly, they aren't similar problems. Plus, it was reported that that problem doesn't happen in Ibex. I know there's a really long tx2000 thread (either 18 or 26 pages--I forget) on here, so i'd check that out if you haven't already

It could also be something with Ibex. Have you tried Hardy, and does it do the same thing?

[pluckster]

Okay I just have to make sure I'm doing this right becasue I'm not getting to anywhere close to what you guys are getting so here are the steps I'm taking

Start Alternate Installer with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Go through installation
Install the kernel using aptitude just after it configures the APT sources becasue it cannot find one
Finish installation
Reboot and boot with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Login
Type in the steps given by Astronomy on page two
blacklist thermal
reboot
leave in only noapic nolapic
Hangs while running through boot sequence
Hard shutdown and sigh


Am I missing something or should I just wait for alpha 3?

P.S. Does acpi=off disable ethernet connections too because mine will not work.

[tC_Crazy]

OK, I have wireless! My whole wireless driver situation was screwed up, so I decided to just reinstall ubuntu. Now pluckster, this is exactly what I did from initial startup. I put in the Ubuntu standard CD (not alternate), added boot options nolapic noapic acpi=off. I started up, ran through the installer. When finished, I started up with the same boot options. Ubuntu loaded, i logged in, and followed Astronomy's instructions exactly. I then added the line "blacklist thermal" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. I rebooted, this time without the boot options, and everything (including wired LAN) worked fine.

Then to get the bcm4322ag card working, I installed ndiswrapper (both packages in synaptic--common and utils). I also blacklisted b43 and ssb, although that was on my own and idk if it was necessary. I downloaded an HP driver for the broadcom card, here: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=447687&swItem=ob-60549-1&mode=3


Next, I installed cabextract (sudo apt-get install cabextract). I ran "cabextract sp39243.exe". This gave me the driver files necessary for ndiswrapper. I then ran the following in the directory of the driver files:

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -l


At which point I received: bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:432B) present

Then, sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.orig
echo -e 'auto lo\niface lo inet loopback\n' | sudo tee /etc/network/interfaces
sudo ndiswrapper -m
echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo 'ENABLED=0' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/wpasupplicant


At this point, I could (finally) see wireless networks, and ifconfig showed wlan0. I input my WEP key and within seconds was associated to the AP. I then unplugged my ethernet cable, and was browsing! I hope this helps you guys having trouble with the bcm4322ag (a/b/g/n/BT).

[corwinspyre]

Okay I just have to make sure I'm doing this right becasue I'm not getting to anywhere close to what you guys are getting so here are the steps I'm taking

Start Alternate Installer with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Go through installation
Install the kernel using aptitude just after it configures the APT sources becasue it cannot find one
Finish installation
Reboot and boot with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Login
Type in the steps given by Astronomy on page two
blacklist thermal
reboot
leave in only noapic nolapic
Hangs while running through boot sequence
Hard shutdown and sigh


Am I missing something or should I just wait for alpha 3?

P.S. Does acpi=off disable ethernet connections too because mine will not work.

Maybe try without noapic and nolapic. I never used those.

And, acpi=off disables wireless but not wired networking.

[AstronomyDomine]

Okay I just have to make sure I'm doing this right becasue I'm not getting to anywhere close to what you guys are getting so here are the steps I'm taking

Start Alternate Installer with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Go through installation
Install the kernel using aptitude just after it configures the APT sources becasue it cannot find one
Finish installation
Reboot and boot with acpi=off noapic nolapic
Login
Type in the steps given by Astronomy on page two
blacklist thermal
reboot
leave in only noapic nolapic
Hangs while running through boot sequence
Hard shutdown and sigh


Am I missing something or should I just wait for alpha 3?

P.S. Does acpi=off disable ethernet connections too because mine will not work.

Are you using Alpha 2 or a daily build? Either way, it'd probably be easiest to wait for alpha 3. With Intrepid, you should never need to set acpi=off. It should just work, or I'm just really lucky.


tC: Awesome news. Following your instructions I was able to get the device recognized. I'm having trouble getting it to connect to a network, but since you didn't have a problem, I'm guessing it has something to do with Intrepid. I'll keep working at it.

Has anyone tried to run on batter power? When I do, I get about an hour and a half battery life on my 8 cell battery. We should be able to improve this somehow. Any ideas?

[tC_Crazy]

I too noticed that battery life is quite horrendous right now. I think some serious power management is in order.

[pluckster]

Are you using Alpha 2 or a daily build? Either way, it'd probably be easiest to wait for alpha 3. With Intrepid, you should never need to set acpi=off. It should just work, or I'm just really lucky.


This happens with both Hardy and Intrepid, well the not working part at least. Hardy will at least realize its broken and shutdown while Intrepid just hangs.

I will take another crack at TCs instructions once more then if that fails I will just wait for Alpha 3

@corwinspyre - So my ethernet should be working? Ill have to try some other cables or something because it doesn't seem to work right now.

[corwinspyre]

This happens with both Hardy and Intrepid, well the not working part at least. Hardy will at least realize its broken and shutdown while Intrepid just hangs.

I will take another crack at TCs instructions once more then if that fails I will just wait for Alpha 3

@corwinspyre - So my ethernet should be working? Ill have to try some other cables or something because it doesn't seem to work right now.

yeah, ethernet should be working

[Weststar]

Good to see Wifi working, tC! So what else is left? Just more touchscreen stuff?

[isachan]

Touchscreen / digitizer has a few bugs in the wacom linux driver 0.8.1-dev version. I have received a reply from author in email, that he is releasing next version soon to address some critical issues.

I'll post how it goes as soon as I install it.

[chdist_gentoo]

Thank you all very kindly for your support with this laptop, I've been able to establish a usable system because of your help.

Currently, my only kernel parameter is: "lapic_timer_c2_ok"

I recently realized that "nolapic" was disabling my second core; so, I looked in to the apic sources for additional parameters that wouldn't strictly disable LAPIC and I found the aforementioned parameter.

This seems to remove the kernel panic I was experiencing with full LAPCI enabled (timer issue) and allows the laptop to power down when halted.

Every other subsystem seems to work like a charm.
My remaining issues are:
-Better performance/battery consumption
-Functional webcam driver
-Working IR remote
-Display rotation (presumably under F/OSS driver) coupled with tablet input rotation

[corwinspyre]

Thank you all very kindly for your support with this laptop, I've been able to establish a usable system because of your help.

Currently, my only kernel parameter is: "lapic_timer_c2_ok"

I recently realized that "nolapic" was disabling my second core; so, I looked in to the apic sources for additional parameters that wouldn't strictly disable LAPIC and I found the aforementioned parameter.

This seems to remove the kernel panic I was experiencing with full LAPCI enabled (timer issue) and allows the laptop to power down when halted.

Every other subsystem seems to work like a charm.
My remaining issues are:
-Better performance/battery consumption
-Functional webcam driver
-Working IR remote
-Display rotation (presumably under F/OSS driver) coupled with tablet input rotation

The webcam should be working. Try installing cheese to test it out (if you haven't already)

[tC_Crazy]

Thank you all very kindly for your support with this laptop, I've been able to establish a usable system because of your help.

Currently, my only kernel parameter is: "lapic_timer_c2_ok"

I recently realized that "nolapic" was disabling my second core; so, I looked in to the apic sources for additional parameters that wouldn't strictly disable LAPIC and I found the aforementioned parameter.

This seems to remove the kernel panic I was experiencing with full LAPCI enabled (timer issue) and allows the laptop to power down when halted.

Every other subsystem seems to work like a charm.
My remaining issues are:
-Better performance/battery consumption
-Functional webcam driver
-Working IR remote
-Display rotation (presumably under F/OSS driver) coupled with tablet input rotation

Try scanning through the tx2000 threads for the rotation instructions. They had it down to a couple scripts, I think.

[corwinspyre]

Try scanning through the tx2000 threads for the rotation instructions. They had it down to a couple scripts, I think.

I believe the tx2000 uses an nvidia video card, which has a function built into the driver for screen rotation and which is what they used. If that's true, it won't work for us.

[kg6gfq]

I believe the tx2000 uses an nvidia video card, which has a function built into the driver for screen rotation and which is what they used. If that's true, it won't work for us.

The tx2000 does use an nVidia card, but they were using xrandr for the screen rotation, which ought to work just as well with the ATI Radeon card in the tx2500.

Here are some links to info on xrandr, info on rotating the wacom input, and a few scripts put together for the tx2000:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4731847&highlight=xrandr#post4731847
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4812335&highlight=xrandr#post4812335
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4910414&highlight=xrandr#post4910414
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4923527&highlight=xrandr#post4923527
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5020078&highlight=xrandr#post5020078
The first one is general information, the rest are solutions which become both more complex and more polished toward the end of the list.

I would try to sort this out myself, but I don't yet have a tx2500. I'm considering getting one, though, so thank you to everyone who has posted here with info about the laptop. One question: Does anyone know if the S-video and VGA ports work properly?

Thanks for all the info and solutions!

[tC_Crazy]

kg,
I assume the ports are working properly, since I'm using an ATI restricted driver. I can check for you tonight.

[kv11]

Have anyone got touchscreen working ? How precise is the navigation using the pen ? For me, the actual position of the click could be 1-3 mm away from the position of the end of the stylus, nomater how I calibrate the screen (i.e. it's precise at the points where is was calibrated, but not precise at another points). The same issue is also seen in pre-installed windows. Is it normal for tx2500 or I just have broken screen ?

[corwinspyre]

Have anyone got touchscreen working ? How precise is the navigation using the pen ? For me, the actual position of the click could be 1-3 mm away from the position of the end of the stylus, nomater how I calibrate the screen (i.e. it's precise at the points where is was calibrated, but not precise at another points). The same issue is also seen in pre-installed windows. Is it normal for tx2500 or I just have broken screen ?

Mine isn't like that. However, I did notice the sensor is in the pen, not the tip, so holding it straight up is different than holding it at an angle (as one normally holds a pen). At first I made the mistake of calibrating it with the pen straight up, so when I used it regularly, it seemed off. If you calibrated it with the pen held in a way other than which you normally use it, try again with that in mind.

[tC_Crazy]

My pen is quite precise after calibration in Windows... I usually calibrate once daily, since it only takes a few seconds. Make sure you hold the pen exactly as you do when inking. The only place where I noticed a drop in accuracy is around the edges (for example, it's difficult to use taskbar tray icons with the pen.

[ungermax]

I have a tx2510us, I was able to boot without ACPI=OFF by compiling a custom kernel without including the thermal zone option. Instantly, the Wifi works with ndiswrapper 1.53 and the light is blue! Still working on the touchscreen and sound however. I realize that isn't an ideal solution, but it hasn't blown up on me yet.

[pluckster]

So I've downloaded Ibex Alpha 3 and tried it out. Its working quite a bit better than the others I've tried so far. It can now boot into a desktop without noapic and nolapic but I still have to use acpi=off otherwise it will hang with a blinking cursor. I haven't tested any of the features yet, I'll try an install soon instead then see what works and what doesn't.

[corwinspyre]

I have a tx2510us, I was able to boot without ACPI=OFF by compiling a custom kernel without including the thermal zone option. Instantly, the Wifi works with ndiswrapper 1.53 and the light is blue! Still working on the touchscreen and sound however. I realize that isn't an ideal solution, but it hasn't blown up on me yet.

The sound fix is in this thread

[corwinspyre]

So I've downloaded Ibex Alpha 3 and tried it out. Its working quite a bit better than the others I've tried so far. It can now boot into a desktop without noapic and nolapic but I still have to use acpi=off otherwise it will hang with a blinking cursor. I haven't tested any of the features yet, I'll try an install soon instead then see what works and what doesn't.

Did you try Hardy without noapic and nolapic? Because it was fine for me without those.

[pluckster]

Did you try Hardy without noapic and nolapic? Because it was fine for me without those.

Yeah, I tried all the combinations possible and I think the only time it worked without one of those is with acpi=off nolapic.

But I did an install and I'm in the same spot as usual. I'll have to disable thermal and that but my ethernet is non responsive still. Had to boot with acpi=off to get to desktop. But now I don't need to enable GNOME fail safe to get the desktop to work.

[tC_Crazy]

nolapic kills ethernet. If you have wireless, try using ndiswrapper with the instructions I posted before... it's much easier than compiling the ethernet driver. Put the tarball on a USB drive or find another way to get ndiswrapper onto your laptop, as well as the HP executable.. and cabextract.

[pluckster]

Even without nolapic my ethernet will not work.

As for the wireless I'm sure it will work but my dorm doesn't have wifi (The rest of the campus does, go figure) so I want to get this ethernet problem solved.

On another note, after following Astronomy's directions for thermal and boot options, it will not shutdown. It will go through all the stuff and then just end with a System Halted line and stays on. And also when I restart it just hangs without acpi=off.

[isachan]

pluckster, would you list the content of your /etc/network/interfaces file by doing "cat /etc/network/interfaces" ?

If you see eth0 for wired network interface, try "sudo ifup eth0" and "dhclient eth0".

[pluckster]

Lets see here...

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Hmm no sign of eth0 or much of anything

[isachan]

pluckster,

Append the following lines in /etc/network/interfaces file after the two lines you already have :

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

save, and do "sudo ifup eth0", and let me know how it goes.

[pluckster]

Still no good.

Did something along the lines of...

already a pid file
removed it

started listening and sending
did 5 DHCPDISCOVERs
No DHCPOFFERS
sleeping
grep /etc/resolv.conf (didnt exist)
grep /etc/network/run/ifstate (didn't exist) x2

Thats it. Odd

[isachan]

Seems like some important config files are missing from the Ibex Alpha 3.

Alternatively, let me suggest using "Wicd" GUI network config app.
Download it and follow the installation guide.
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php

This thing is much better than networkmanager. In fact networkmanager destroys some very crucial config files, that I hate it and avoid like a plague.

I'm sure searching and setting up network from command line is necessary at this point. There is a how-to on the Ubuntu forum.

[AstronomyDomine]

sudo dhclient eth0

How's the touchscreen progress going isachan? I saw there was a minor revision to the linuxwacom project dev files. Is that what we were waiting for, or are we waiting for the next official release?

Has anyone had any luck getting fglrx working in Intrepid? I can't seem to get 8.6 or 8.7 to install.

[isachan]

AstronomyDomine,
Yeah, it's been a while since last time said something about the latest wacom development driver, hasn't it ? Well, the reason is that 0.8.1-1 is not working well. The previous version was much better. The pen no longer register any clicks, so I can't write / draw anything. The touch screen is unchanged, works like before, with off-calibration.

By using wacomdump version 0.7.4 utility, I can see the pressure sensitivity bug has been sorta fixed, but looks strange in raw value. Eraser is recognized, not as another pen tip like the previous version.

I sent off 2 emails to the author asking questions but so far, I haven't received any reply. The documentation on the web site is quite old that only few of the information is applicable. I heard somewhere that so many protocols in the driver has been straighten out, and there are many more to fix.

I've found the bug in the source code from the previous version 0.8.1, so maybe I can try that when I have some time.

[pluckster]

Okay well I tried running it without acpi=off and it seems to keep going until it reaches this line

[0.004000] SLUB: Genslabs=12, HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=4, Nodes=1

I'm looking in to what it might mean but does anyone here have any ideas?

[isachan]

pluckster,
I think your LiveCD has been corrupted at some point.
I'm writing this post from Kubuntu 8.10 Alpha 3 I just downloaded.
It has booted successfully without any kernel boot option, and KDE 4.1 looks so pretty. I can see many little bugs, but hey, it sure looks good.

I suggest downloading the CD image again and verify the checksum with md5 command.

Since Hardy has long term support, I don't think I'll go into any version above it. And I don't know why some people are trying to use Ibex already ? Especially now that we already conquered the thermal issue ? I prefer the stable LTS version.

[thegnark]

This has been posted as a HOWTO in the Tutorial & Tips forum. I will be updating that post instead of this one. Take me there! (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=873188)

I spent a long time configuring everything, and I thought I'd compile a quick writeup. I decided to re-install to meticulously document each step. This guide assume that you have at least basic working knowledge of using Ubuntu. If this is your first time using Linux, I'm recommending that you do not attempt to install Hardy Heron on the tx2500 at this time.

This is based on Ubuntu 8.04.1 (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/release/) x64 (Hardy Heron LTS). It probably works for 32-bit, but I haven't tested and don't see a specific reason to go with 32-bit over 64-bit.

Known issues:


Digitizer mostly works (but not 100%)
CPU scaling is NOT supported by current kernel
Suspend/sleep is a bit flaky

Installation (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5426140&postcount=80)


Boot installation disc
Highlight your language and press [Enter]
Highlight"Install Ubuntu"
Press F6
Press F6 (again)
Highlight "acpi=off" and press [Enter]. small "x" should appear to the left of this option
Press [Esc]
Press [Enter]
This should boot to a graphical installer
Install as normal
After installation is complete, reboot as instructed

First boot (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5426140&postcount=80)


Highlight the first boot option (Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic)
Press 'e' to edit the boot options
Scroll down to the line that starts with "kernel"
Press 'e' to edit this command
Scroll to the end of the line and add the following option (no quotes): "acpi=off". The boot options should have the following options listed: "ro quiet splash acpi=off"
Press '[Enter]' to confirm you are done editing the line
Press 'b' to boot
This should boot you to a graphical display prompt.

Configuring Ubuntu
This should get your Wireless working with an update to wl; also, a slightly newer kernel version is here.


Blacklist thermal (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5426140&postcount=80)

Open a terminal
Run "sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist"
Add this text on its own line at the bottom of the file:
blacklist thermal
Save and close


Enable sound (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5402251#post5402251)

Open a terminal
Run "sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base"
Add the following line to the bottom of the file:
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=toshiba position_fix=1
Save
Close


Update to proposed updates (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5408040&postcount=53) (Fixes wireless and updates to kernel 2.6.24-20)
Note: Once these updates are moved from proposed to the standard repository, enabling "proposed" may not be required. In this case, skip this step.

Plug in to an ethernet port
Verify that you have internet access
Open up Synaptic

System
Administration
Synaptic Package Manager


Enable Hardy Proposed to your repositories

Settings
Repositories
Updates
Check "Pre-released updates (hardy-proposed)
Click the "Close" button
Confirm the message box that pops up warning you to reload


Click "Reload"
Click "Mark All Upgrades"

Click "Mark"


Click "Apply"

Click "Apply"


After updates are complete, click "Close"


Enable the digitizer (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5469447#post5469447). Instructions are somewhat complicated, so I'm just providing a link to the thread instead of replicating here.
Install ATI restricted driver

Go to your restricted drivers manager

System
Administration
Hardware Drivers


Check "ATI restricted driver

Click "Enable"




Reboot as normal

If there's anything you would like to add or correct, post and I'll try to update as appropriate. Also, feel free to check out HP Pavilion tx2000 series laptop runnign (sic) Ubuntu 8.04 - My Howto (http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/tx2020/tx2000howto.htm).

[AstronomyDomine]

Great instructions thegnark. Did you try booting at first without apci=off? The reason I ask is because thermal is loaded in the initramfs, so black