hp dc7700

[ZylGadis]

In case someone finds the thread here's some new advice on the dc7700.
Mörgæs 2013-09-02

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Folks,

I will be getting an HP dc7700 desktop machine within a week. AFAIK, it is almost impossible to install and use GNU/Linux on that at the moment - you need kernel 2.6.19 and so on. However, I am very willing to test Feisty on that - I suppose such a difficult machine will be great for bug reports. I'll need help with that, though, as I have never dealt with 64bit architecture.

When I have it delivered, I'll post here again.

P.S. Don't blame me on my choice for a machine. I do insist on running Free software on every machine I use. I am a graduate student at the CSE department at OSU, which has insane policies regarding departmental machines: I am not allowed to not boot windows on my office machine, I am not allowed to bring my own GNU/Linux desktop, and I am not allowed to connect my GNU/Linux laptop to the CSE network for reasons beyond my understanding (I suspect the people in charge are absolute MS zealots). I managed to find a loophole in their ridiculous policies - I talked to my advisor, and he will buy me another machine from his research grant, which will effectively belong to him - so it is possible that it sits in my office, and at the same time it will be beyond the CSE admins' control. Unfortunately, there is not much choice there either, because he must use the departmental contracts with the big fish - I am not allowed to build a machine myself with Newegg parts. The options I have are at http://ibuy.osu.edu/files/DesktopFileforibuyJan_3.pdf . I really need 2G of RAM for my research, so I'm restricted to the lower line. All three of those are nearly impossible to use with GNU/Linux right now (I did my research), but at least one of them is an HP, and HP has a track of GNU/Linux support.

It turned out to be a long rant. The important point is that I'll soon be getting a machine that has a track of problems with GNU/Linux, and I'm willing to do everything in my power to actually run GNU/Linux on it, while at the same time helping debug a kernel-2.6.19 distribution.

[Henrik]

Wow, good luck!

I tempted to say various critical things about the sort of research institution that would place such draconian restrictions on its research staff

btw, we are using the 2.6.20 kernel in Feisty now.

[Krieg]

Upgade the BIOS to v1.09 and it will work. You have to boot with acpi=off
The sound does not work

[Bremen Saki]

Upgade the BIOS to v1.09 and it will work. You have to boot with acpi=off
The sound does not work

I've just started working on one of these machines, as we're looking at using them as a standard desktop option here, and we'll be running a mixed Ubuntu and Windows environment. I'm using it currently to remaster our x86 and x86_64 install environments.

Just for the record - the sound does actually work, but only through the front headphone port, not through the rear socket for some reason. Haven't dug into this yet, but it's probably going to be an easy fix.

[ruanda]

i've just installed ubuntu edgy on dc7700. i have to boot with "noapic nolapic acpi=off". i haven't tested sound yet. so, you don't need kernel 2.6.19, 2.6.17 is enough

[ByteofKnowledge]

I have been trying to install Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on a dc7700 and upgraded the BIOS as suggested on this thread. Still the same error when installing: "Kernel panic - not syncing: attempted to kill init"

I added nolapic noapic pci=acpi acpi=off to the installation parameters also. Stuck. What now?

[ByteofKnowledge]

Isn't it always the thing you try after you break down and post on a board?

I used 6.10 (suggested elsewhere as an option) instead and it got through the error. Will keep everyone posted...

[ruanda]

use 7.04, it works perfectly with only "pci=conf1", neighter acpi nor apm have to be turned off

[freefaller]

I just installed Ubuntu 7.04 on an HP DC7700: Bios ver 2.05, Cpu is a core2 6600, 1G ram, etc.. and the install went off without a hitch EXCEPT: The nic doesn't work. I can assign an address, ifup without errors, and even ethtool show it's connected but it just doesn't work.

Any thoughts ?

[ruanda]

did you try to set "pci=conf1"?