HP ProBook 4320s
Device Information
There are many configurations for these models of HP Probooks. Mine is like the following "lspci". Mostly, the stuff in lspci is pretty meaningless, because your OS (most likely Arch) will pick up all the device modules automatically, so you should't worry or pay too close attention to them. The most and only items in the lspci are your graphics card and your wireless networking card.
lspci model HP Probook 4320s P/N:WS904EA#ABB
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 02) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 02) 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 05) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev 05) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 05) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 05) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series] 01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan HDMI Audio [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series] 44:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe 45:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03) ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02) ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02) ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02) ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02) ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02) ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
items of interest form lspci
44:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series]
other devices needing an attention
- Synaptics Clikpad (looks like a touchpad, but it has both of the buttons integrated in the overall touching zone of the touchpad).
- Battery life!!! Huuuuge difference of battery life when win7 and Arch compared. I suspect it to be tricky configuration of lm-sensors, cpufreq, and acpi alltogether.
Updated information:
- Clickpad It works pretty good, if package from AUR is isnstalled. This package removes the original xf86-input-synaptics package. With this AUR package, no /etc/X11/xorg.d/[files] are needed anymore, specially if you use gnome/kde of other environment settings. Both buttons work well, and both scrolling hor/vert are working too. If you want also the LED tapp to work, you must install another package form AUR.
- Battery Well, it is still true for the most part, although utilising pm-utils configuration takes care of that quite well. One thing I cannot seem to figure out still is the cooling fans.
Configuration
Networking
WLAN
This notebook comes, in my opinion, equiped the worst choice of wireless hardware. Definetely, for linux users. The Ralink combo card RT3090 is quite new, and Ralink promises extremely welcome support for the Linux community. However, the drivers supplied by them are nothing more but a pain and bunch of unstable, unusable lines of coding. So for now, let us try using what's already there for us within the linux kernel.
There generally are two drivers. One of with is old and staging, and another much newer, but probably not quite ready. The best choice is to load the older rt2860sta driver and blacklist the rest.
- add "rt2860sta" to the modules array in
/etc/rc.conf - black list the rest. My
/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conflooks like this
blacklist rt2800pci blacklist rt61pci blacklist rt2800usb blacklist rt2800lib blacklist rt2x00usb blacklist rt2x00lib blacklist rt2x00pci
- if especially the rt2800pci is not blacklisted, it messes up your wireless stability.
- Note, as of kernel version 3.0 this section's guide is deprecated. rt2800pci is currently the only working wifi method for this device. As noted above, connection stability is poor.
Updated information Untill the latest kernel rt2800pci module worked good. This module is also the default one that get loaded automatically. For me it was hugely unstable, so I started to dig into Ralink original driver, and as of now I can declare some significant SUCCESSS. I have been able to compile the Ralink driver (with many trials+errors) and it seems to work alright. I seem to experience the speed overload issue [1] however, but I am not sure whe the problem comes form just yet. Of course, I can blame Rlinks alrgight, but just before I do that, I will tinker with the driver settings prior-compiling. So far it helped. What I did berofe compiling is his: In the original Ralink driver find , open it with edit and edit lines: -
file config.mk in os/linux folder: HAS_ATE=y (originally was n) - HAS_WPA_SUPPLICANT=y (originally was n) - HAS_NATIVE_WPA_SUPPLICANT_SUPPORT=y (originally was n) and - HAS_ANTENNA_DIVERSITY_SUPPORT=y originally was n)
Then compile as normal, install, and load the driver. I also did iwpriv command to supress the uneeded log spit.
Bluetooth (Working)
As the half-mini wireless card RT3090 is a combo one, the bluetooth radio is embeded together with wifi. The bluetooth device is not listed in lspci. However, is is visible with hciconfig -a command. /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d # hciconfig -a
hci0: Type: BR/EDR Bus: USB BD Address: 70:F3:95:xx:xx:xx ACL MTU: 310:10 SCO MTU: 64:8 UP RUNNING PSCAN RX bytes:778 acl:0 sco:0 events:40 errors:0 TX bytes:2112 acl:0 sco:0 commands:40 errors:0 Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8f 0xfe 0x9b 0xff 0x59 0x83 Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT Name: 'hpprobook' Class: 0x580100 Service Classes: Capturing, Object Transfer, Telephony Device Class: Computer, Uncategorized HCI Version: 2.1 (0x4) Revision: 0x149c LMP Version: 2.1 (0x4) Subversion: 0x149c Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio (10)
Looks good as it should, but there is no radio activity! Nothing shows up on scannig neither direction. I assume, the driver is either dead, or I am missing something.
Graphics
Video card ATI
Not much to say.. Just install the required package with pacman and you are all set. Your system will pick up the driver at the next lounch of X. The package is xf86-video-ati. Works without an issue. FGLRX works normally, that is to say, with poor stability and compatibility, Wine gaming is
Input Devices
Clikpad (touchpad)
The touchpad -clickpad is a pain. Unless you are already using the 2.6.38 kernel (as you shoud) and xf86-input-synaptics 1.4.0-2 package (wich came out pretty much the same day), your clikpad will be jittering and acting annoyingly with the default settings. I managed to get it working somewhat well by tweaking it with the /etc/X11/xorg.d/10-synaptics.conf file see below.
Now - with the synaptics package older than "xf86-input-synaptics 1.4.0-2", there are many things to tweak to get your clikpad working somewhat good. You will still miss the right-clik (the real click) button though, but I worked around this problem by making a soft-clik out of a two-finger touch that emulates the right-button click with inserting "Option "RTCornerButton" "2" in the config file.
Note, that normaly you shoud not have any other files in the ..xorg.d/ directory that state configurations for input devices, unless you need specific configs for other input devices. When I connect external mouse, it works without any specific configuration.
Here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf file.
# Config for clickpad ##
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall" ## As defined in ../10-evdev.conf file
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Option "SHMConfig" "true" ## Alows you to run synclient commands on-the-fly. Good for testing
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Option "TapButton3" "0"
Option "FastTaps" "0"
Option "LockedDrags" "flase"
Option "TapAndDragGesture" "true"
Option "MinSpeed" "1"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.95" ## Found this value suiting best for me
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0115" ## Also good for me
#Option "AreaBottomEdge" "3800" ## Makes area around the real buttons insensitive for touch, disabled just because...
Option "LeftEdge" "1756" ## Edge settins found to be correct
Option "RightEdge" "5258"
Option "TopEdge" "1622"
Option "BottomEdge" "3450"
Option "FingerLow" "30" ## Managing sensitivity
Option "FingerHigh" "50" ## Also
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "true"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "true"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "101"
#Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "true" ## If enabled, the area right above real buttons will react to horizontal sroll, I prefer two-finger-scrolls for bot
h ver and horiz
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "88"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"
Option "RTCornerButton" "2" ## Right-top corner touch will emulate 3rd button press- good for pasting
#Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "5"
#Option "HorizTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
Option "CoastingFriction" "10" ## Adds inertia for scrolls
Option "CoastingSpeed" "50" ## Also
EndSection
What is achieved with these setings are explained in the comments in the file.
ClickPad with newest synaptics package
Now, with the newer package form Synaptics (1.4.0-2) I was really expecting much more improvement. However, it comes with some degree of dissapointment. First I tried to roll on without any aditional configuration of the device. I left it with the default settings that came with the new version of synaptics package.
- First, the clickpad seems to work smoother than before - thank you!
- However, the right-button is still missing. Vertical-two-finger sroll is working out-of-the-box - thank you!
- The default sensitivity of the clickpad is set too much - bad!
- None of the true wonders of clickpad are available (correct me if I am wrong)
- wonders like two-finger-zoom (stealed from apple),
- two-finger rotation,
- finger-movement inertia (really nice option- I very much like it),
- scrolling inertia (also very useful),
- Clickpad off button in the upper-left corner.
- I have the opportunity to test all the wonders of the clickpad, because I double-boot my Probook with Windows7. Where all the features of the clickpad are available.
Working w/o aditional settings in ../xorg.d/: with the newer Synaptics package
This is the default config file, let us use it and see how it goes..
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
EndSection
When reverting to using the same (my tweaked file) config file as listed above, everything works pretty much the same as with the newer driver, except that more options come default.
What's needed is the real buttons work
So far I seem to have configured the following things to my understanding, but the most annoying thing remains- battery life is BAD! I can see outmost 1h50m when unplugged. In Win7 with the HP PowerAssistant common tweaks, I see 3h40m right after unplugging.
- Cooler fan is running, which makes me think, that the cpu's are overloaded. But they are not.
- cpufreq-info says my cpu cores all are governed by the "conservative" mode. Later changed it to powersave mode.
- command "watch grep \"cpu MHz\" /proc/cpuinfo" shows cpu cores at the lowest Mhz,
- laptop-mode is enabled and configured properly.
laptop-mode
- My settings in
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/cpufreq.confset the governing of cpu cores accordingly:
BATT_CPU_MAXFREQ=fastest BATT_CPU_MINFREQ=slowest BATT_CPU_GOVERNOR=powersave BATT_CPU_IGNORE_NICE_LOAD=1 LM_AC_CPU_MAXFREQ=fastest LM_AC_CPU_MINFREQ=slowest LM_AC_CPU_GOVERNOR=performance LM_AC_CPU_IGNORE_NICE_LOAD=1 NOLM_AC_CPU_MAXFREQ=fastest NOLM_AC_CPU_MINFREQ=slowest NOLM_AC_CPU_GOVERNOR=performance NOLM_AC_CPU_IGNORE_NICE_LOAD=0
But actually, my fans run quieter when notebook is charging, and cpu governor is "prformance". Can you beat that? Before I had the "BATT_CPU_GOVERNOR=conservative" which seemed to log a unknown error. Later I changed it to "powersave", and now my log reads:
ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU0 ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU1 ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU2 ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU3
I am not sure what this "action undefined" means. Hope nothing bad.
lm-sensors
- After configuring lm-sensors, the command "sensors" are not showing the RPM data of systems fans.
I suspect the problem to be there...
External links
Another article on Arch and ProBook 4320s, with solutions to various usability problems (audio, clickpad, wireless...).