HP ze4400 pavilion notebook

[Stephen J. Fromm]

Anyone with any thoughts or experience why I should _not_ purchase an
HP pavilion ze4400 series notebook, if I'm planning on putting Linux
on it?

sjfromm

[Dennis]

I purchased a HP Pavilion N5470. HP would only support it in the factory
confuration. Do not expect any help from HP. Mine came with WinME. I wanted
to run Win98/Linux (dual boot). It semms they crippled the machine. I
couild not get drivers for some of the hardware, and some of the software
would only run in WinME. The DVD Player for example. Although I can play
DVDs running Linux, I still can't play them running Win98. Because of the
refusal of support from HP and the crippled hardware, I will probably never
buy another portable from HP. I suggest that you insist on trying a Live CD
version of linux, Like Knoppix or SuSE, on it before you buy it. Also make
sure it will runt the version of Windows you want to use.

Good Luck - Dennis

[Stephen J. Fromm]

Post by Dennis
I purchased a HP Pavilion N5470. HP would only support it in the factory
confuration. Do not expect any help from HP. Mine came with WinME. I wanted
to run Win98/Linux (dual boot).

I want XP/Linux dual boot, just like on my desktop now.

Post by Dennis
It semms they crippled the machine. I
couild not get drivers for some of the hardware, and some of the software
would only run in WinME. The DVD Player for example. Although I can play
DVDs running Linux, I still can't play them running Win98. Because of the
refusal of support from HP and the crippled hardware, I will probably never
buy another portable from HP. I suggest that you insist on trying a Live CD
version of linux, Like Knoppix or SuSE, on it before you buy it. Also make
sure it will runt the version of Windows you want to use.

Are you claiming that it won't runn everything on the most popular
forms of Windows? XP comes with the machine...I assume your claim
isn't so strong as "some things are crippled even with the OS it came
loaded with" (versus non-loaded, albeit popular, versions of Windows).


BTW---what's a "Live CD" version of Linux? (Heretofore I've used
Mandrake.)

Post by Dennis
Good Luck - Dennis

Thanks for your reply,

sjfromm

[Zane Vandiver]

Stephen,
What are the specs on this machine? If it is similar to the Compaq 2170,
you should have no problems depending on the distro you use. SuSE 8.2 and
the newest Mandrake seem to install almost flawlessly. RH 9.0 installs
seem to have a lot of problems.
The two biggest problems are legacy USB and firewire. You should diable
them in the bios before doing the install. If you want to dual boot with
WinXP, you will need to use either the linux NTFS tools or Partition Magic
to resize and format the hard drive. Linux can only read from NTFS at this
time.
www.linux-laptop.net and tuxmobil.org will have more resources you can
check.
Zane

Post by Stephen J. Fromm
Anyone with any thoughts or experience why I should _not_ purchase an
HP pavilion ze4400 series notebook, if I'm planning on putting Linux
on it?
sjfromm

[Stephen J. Fromm]

Post by Zane Vandiver
Stephen,
What are the specs on this machine? If it is similar to the Compaq 2170,

* Athlon XP-M 2200+
* ATI IGP 320M chipset (or something similar--this is from a poster to
a PC Mag review of a very similar machine, and for some reason HP
doesn't tell you what the chipset is)
* 512 MB DDR SDRAM
* 30 GB HDD
* 54g Wireless (includes 802.11b)
* 10/100 NIC

One thing I'm worried about is a Linux-minded friend claims that some
Wireless cards, made by BroadCom, don't work or don't work well w/
Linux due to maker not releasing specs.

Post by Zane Vandiver
you should have no problems depending on the distro you use. SuSE 8.2 and
the newest Mandrake seem to install almost flawlessly. RH 9.0 installs
seem to have a lot of problems.

Huh. I thought Mandrake was RH made easier for novices...

Post by Zane Vandiver
The two biggest problems are legacy USB and firewire. You should diable
them in the bios before doing the install. If you want to dual boot with
WinXP, you will need to use either the linux NTFS tools or Partition Magic
to resize and format the hard drive. Linux can only read from NTFS at this
time.
www.linux-laptop.net and tuxmobil.org will have more resources you can
check.

Thanks.

-S

Post by Zane Vandiver
Zane

Post by Stephen J. Fromm
Anyone with any thoughts or experience why I should _not_ purchase an
HP pavilion ze4400 series notebook, if I'm planning on putting Linux
on it?
sjfromm

[Zane Vandiver]

These specs are very similar to my Compaq, except for the built-in wireless.
That might not work. I am using a Netgear MA401RA card. The setup was a
little tricky, but not hard. I have details at
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/zvan.
Dual booting with WinXP is really simple with SuSE 8.2. You will need to
re-partition the drive with Partition Magic or the linux ntfs tools. Then
reformat the linux partition. SuSE will automatically recognize the
windows partition and make an entry for it kn the Grub bootloader.
Mandrake should handle the dual boot in a similar manner. Mandrake is based
on RH, but with some added configuration tools. Also, Mandrake usually has
more up-to-date packages.
Zane

Post by Stephen J. Fromm
* Athlon XP-M 2200+
* ATI IGP 320M chipset (or something similar--this is from a poster to
a PC Mag review of a very similar machine, and for some reason HP
doesn't tell you what the chipset is)
* 512 MB DDR SDRAM
* 30 GB HDD
* 54g Wireless (includes 802.11b)
* 10/100 NIC
One thing I'm worried about is a Linux-minded friend claims that some
Wireless cards, made by BroadCom, don't work or don't work well w/
Linux due to maker not releasing specs.

Post by Zane Vandiver
you should have no problems depending on the distro you use. SuSE 8.2 and
the newest Mandrake seem to install almost flawlessly. RH 9.0 installs
seem to have a lot of problems.

Huh. I thought Mandrake was RH made easier for novices...

Post by Zane Vandiver
The two biggest problems are legacy USB and firewire. You should diable
them in the bios before doing the install. If you want to dual boot with
WinXP, you will need to use either the linux NTFS tools or Partition Magic
to resize and format the hard drive. Linux can only read from NTFS at
this time.
www.linux-laptop.net and tuxmobil.org will have more resources you can
check.

Thanks.
-S

Post by Zane Vandiver
Zane

Post by Stephen J. Fromm
Anyone with any thoughts or experience why I should _not_ purchase an
HP pavilion ze4400 series notebook, if I'm planning on putting Linux
on it?
sjfromm

[AM]

Post by Stephen J. Fromm

Post by Zane Vandiver
Stephen,
What are the specs on this machine? If it is similar to the Compaq 2170,

* Athlon XP-M 2200+
* ATI IGP 320M chipset (or something similar--this is from a poster to
a PC Mag review of a very similar machine, and for some reason HP
doesn't tell you what the chipset is)
* 512 MB DDR SDRAM
* 30 GB HDD
* 54g Wireless (includes 802.11b)
* 10/100 NIC

Hi, I have a pavilion ze4218.
I installed on it RH 8.0 without problems.
Troubles come from ether card. I never went out behind the gateway. I
should look for donald becker site (www.sclyd.org ?) for new release of
the eth card. Kernel reports an option for my card but it don't seem to
work.
I can note use IGP chipset feature, I'm using frame buffer solution.
I didn't try firewire. USB storages works well.
I 'm not able to utilize the +/-/MUTE volume buttons on the left side on
my laptop. I can't change brightness (it is always on max value).

HTH
Alex