HP Folio 13 Compatibility

[rclowery]

Greetings,

I've searched the forums, but I haven't been able to find any information on the HP Folio 13. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience reports with Ubuntu 11.10 using this device, and if so, what problems have you had, if any?

Thanks!

[mswysocki]

I recently installed ubuntu on my new hp folio, so far after a bit of troubleshooting I have gotten it working for just about everything I need.

There is no driver that I know of for the touchpad though the default driver works well enough for 2 finger scrolling and 2 finger right click.

The wifi driver gave me a bit of trouble but I was able to solve the problem using instructions from this post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1889170

Another issue that I have had is the default brightness is at its lowest setting and I have been unable to change the default brightness setting. The brightness hotkeys on the keyboard still do not work. I had to install the OS on lowest brightness (which is barely usable) but I was able to get through it.

Also this is my first real attempt at using linux so I'm still a bit new but I have been able to figure it out with a pretty positive experience.

[rclowery]

Thanks for replying.

Your problems are fairly typical, especially with wifi, brightness issues, and function keys.

I've been running successive versions of Ubuntu on a Toshiba laptop for the past few years and the function keys still do not work.

Though, I have a work around for brightness control that you might consider trying. It may not work for the HP Folio, but a variation on this code may do the trick. You can look around the forums for other versions.

Try inputing this into the terminal:

sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=Number

Put a number after the equals sign between 0 and 100.

[rclowery]

Actually, I thought of something else you can try to fix your other problems. Since your computer is brand new, you should consider upgrading the kernel to the latest version. It might contain some of the missing code that will allow you to access your computer's full hardware capabilities. If you are running the latest release of Ubuntu (11.10) it will not have the current kernel. If you want to wait until the next release (12.04), it will have the current version, or you can do it manually now.

Try this link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1872537

[shenrik]

Hi,

I'm currently on a Live Desktop Ubuntu 11.10, 64-bit, booted from an USB. Am experiencing very bad signal and an extremely slow wireless connection (which amazingly enough worked after just updating a driver that Ubuntu recommended me in a pop-up window!)

Is the connection bad because Ubuntu is running from the USB, or is this something I can have trouble with even after doing a full installation?

And since it doesn't seem to be that many who's running Linux on HP Folio yet; which laptops are pretty similar on the inside, so that it would be a good idea to include their names when searching for solutions to problems?


Hepp!

-shenrik

[ts3]

And since it doesn't seem to be that many who's running Linux on HP Folio yet; which laptops are pretty similar on the inside, so that it would be a good idea to include their names when searching for solutions to problems?
-shenrik

Rather than looking for a similar laptop it might be easier to look up the particular device that's giving you trouble, e.g. the graphics card, the wireless chipset etc. Running the command

lspci

in terminal (ctrl + alt + T to open terminal) will give you some basic idea of what you have on your laptop.

If you think you might have a problem with the wireless I'd suggest having a back-up option for research & troubleshooting such as wired (ethernet cable), another computer or a smartphone.

My experience is fairly limited (less than 3 months on linux) but I had to do some troubleshooting for the wireless early on and while it was a pain, I also learnt a lot about my system, how to use the terminal etc. It can be a rather steep learning curve but once you get to know the basics it's amazing what power you have over your system (something you don't have on proprietary OSs).

Good luck and post questions as/if they come up.

Cheers

[rclowery]

Hi,

I'm currently on a Live Desktop Ubuntu 11.10, 64-bit, booted from an USB. Am experiencing very bad signal and an extremely slow wireless connection (which amazingly enough worked after just updating a driver that Ubuntu recommended me in a pop-up window!)

Is the connection bad because Ubuntu is running from the USB, or is this something I can have trouble with even after doing a full installation?

And since it doesn't seem to be that many who's running Linux on HP Folio yet; which laptops are pretty similar on the inside, so that it would be a good idea to include their names when searching for solutions to problems?


Hepp!

-shenrik

Shenrik,

How did Ubuntu update your driver if your wireless was not working? Were you connected by ethernet? If so, did it actually run an update process to make sure your software was up to date? The reason I am asking is that I've never heard of Ubuntu updating itself before an installation.

[inaneimp]

Actually, I thought of something else you can try to fix your other problems. Since your computer is brand new, you should consider upgrading the kernel to the latest version. It might contain some of the missing code that will allow you to access your computer's full hardware capabilities. If you are running the latest release of Ubuntu (11.10) it will not have the current kernel. If you want to wait until the next release (12.04), it will have the current version, or you can do it manually now.

Try this link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1872537

I had the same problem as previously reported (HP Folio 13 screen @ minimum brightness when installing 11.10). Has anybody tried the solution above? Does it work?

I found the brightness unusable when I attempted to install 11.10.

[cms2337]

I am having the same problem... I had to turn up the brightness by using a flashlight and turning up the brightness in the screen settings before i installed. Every time i reboot the folio the screen brightness setting is never saved and have to use a flashlight to turn it back up.

For the past few days i've just been hibernating instead of shutting down. Its a real pain that the setting isnt being saved and the brightness buttons on the keyboard dont work.

I fixed the wifi problem by using these steps:

SOLUTION
Did some hit and trial and finally got my BCM4313 to work.
None of the Previous threads directly related to BCM4313 helped so here I am mentioning my steps.

Firstly went over to Synaptic Package Manager
>Remove all the Installed Packages related to BCM & BCM 43 // Do check STA in Additional Drivers is deactivated if not please do so before Removing Packages

>Then check whether bcma is blacklisted ( in file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf ) if not then type in terminal

echo "blacklist bcma" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

>Similarly check whether brcm80211 is blacklisted ( in file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf ) if not then type in terminal

echo "blacklist brcm80211" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

>Reboot

>Goto Synaptic Package Manager
In search simply type bcm43 ( to easily find all the Packages required to install )
Select the Following Packages for installation ( latest version )
1)bcmwl-kernel-source
2)broadcom-sta-common
3)broadcom-sta-source
4)firmware-b43-installer

It will prompt for additional packages required simply accept them too.

>Reboot

This time round No Wifi is being displayed in the Network Section and if you check

rfkill list

It also won't be displaying the wifi card will display bluetooth only ( if any )

>Goto Additional Drivers
Activate Broadcom STA

By now your Wireless would be active and ready to connect but still on the safer side

>Reboot

Now if you check Synaptic firmware-b43-installer won't be marked as installed // Mentioning just in case you face with any problems can apply your own Hit and trails.

I still have yet to test if the HDMI-out and the bluetooth work.

The HP Folio is a cool ultrabook, its so close to being ubuntu friendly.

[reedwade]

I got the backlight working by setting acpi_backlight=vendor as described here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=45271

This fixes the "no lights at start up" not the brightness function keys.
--

The only remaining problem I have is suspend doesn't work -- it will suspend but then wakes back up immediately.

--

Such a sweet sweet laptop, I expect it'll be pretty popular once more people have had a play with it so I'm expecting we'll have more help with this soon.