Gentoo on the HP Compaq nx7010 laptop

These models are mostly identical:

HP Compaq nx7000
Compaq Presario X1000

The only difference is how much RAM is installed and which cpu they use. Irrelevant for installing gentoo, except for compile time.

Working hardware

v Ati mobility radeon 9200 - no acceleration, you may have luck with ati's proprietary driver. Supposedly unstable, and I have no need for it so I haven't tested it.
v intel PRO/Wireless 2200bg wireless adapter
v Realtek RTL-8139 nic
v MMC/SD card reader
v PCMCIA -Probably works, I haven't tested it yet
v Multimedia keys (mute, volume)
v Audio - use ALSA, enable oss emulation.
v Touchpad

Installation

Follow the gentoo handbook. If you want to install over the wireless connection you should use 2005.1 since it includes wireless support and the ipw2200 driver. . If you want to install using a wired connection run

modprobe rtl8139c

and then go by the install guide.

Kernel configuration

When you get to point 7c, manual configuration of the kernel, be sure to include these for the wireless driver:

Networking Support --->
    [*] Wireless lan (non hamradio)

Cryptographic options --->
    [*] Cryptographic API
    AES cipher algorithms (i586)
    ARC4 cipher algorithm
    Michael MIC keyed digest algorithm
    CRC32c CRC algorithm

These for the 8139, not sure which one so I grabbed both:

Device Drivers --->
    Networking support --->
        Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) --->
            RealTek RTL-8139 C+ PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter support (EXPERIMENTAL)
            RealTek RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter support

And these for the frequency scaling on the pentium m:

Processor type and features --->
    * Processor family (Pentium M)
    Power management options (ACPI, APM) --->
    [*] CPU Frequency scaling
    Default CPUFreq governor (userspace) --->
    'ondemand' cpufreq policy governor
    Intel Enhanced SpeedStep
    [*] Use ACPI tables to decode valid frequency/voltage pairs
    [*] Built-in tables for Banias CPU

Enabling frequency scaling on startup

Add the following line to /etc/conf.d/local.start

echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Multimedia keys

In order to get multimedia keys working, you should edit the file .Xmodmap in your home directory to include these lines:

keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume

Then edit the file .xsession, still in your $HOME, to load your .Xmodmap by including this line:

/usr/X11R6/bin/xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap

The next step depends on what window manager you use. If you use fluxbox like me, edit the file ~/.fluxbox/keys to include these lines:

None XF86AudioLowerVolume :ExecCommand amixer -q set PCM 2- unmute
None XF86AudioMute :ExecCommand amixer -q set Master toggle
None XF86AudioRaiseVolume :ExecCommand amixer -q set PCM 2+ unmute

You will have to restart X for these changes to take effect.

Now for the rest of you who use something other than fluxbox, you will have to look in the gentoo wiki and adapt these instructions for your window manager.

USE flags & make.conf

Here are som use flags you may want to add to /etc/make.conf in addition to your own.

USE="alsa dvd ssl cdr tiff jpg gif crypt dvdcss css aes oss aac matroska xvid divx encode threads svg avi mpeg oggvorbis theora xanim win32codecs synaptics"

and part of my make.conf:

CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -march=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -funroll-loops"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"

Misc, comments

It is close to completely silent when used for office tasks and web browsing. More so than in windows actually, this is probably because of Windows insisting on running lots of background tasks and and gentoo having none by default.

The battery life is phenomenal, with the backlight turned almost all the way down I can get between four and a half and five hours of use, with the wlan card turned on.

The wlan power button in front works just like in windows, it's got it's own controller and isn't reliant on the OS.

As long as you leave ACPI in the kernel you should be able to use any tool such as wmbattery or the one included in gnomepanel to monitor the battery level.

Compile and install your kernel. Make sure you have set up the USE flags you want (such as "synaptics" if you want mouse button emulation from the touchpad).

Emerge ipw2200 and edit the configuration files to your liking. Remember to create a startup-script for the wireless card (cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.eth1). You might want to add it to the default runlevel too. Add the module ipw2200 to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 (or 2.4).

Continue following the handbook.

Details on the more general steps of setting up linux can be found elsewhere, such as in the Gentoo handbook. If you need more help with the wireless adapter, look at the gentoo wiki page on the ipw2200 adapter.

Output of lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation
82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 Lf [FireGL 9000] (rev 01)
0000:02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 20)
0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
0000:02:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)

xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
                Identifier "X.org Configured"
                Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
                InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
                InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/modules"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load "extmod"
#        Load "dri"
        Load "dbe"
        Load "record"
        Load "xtrap"
        Load "glx"
        Load "type1"
        Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Keyboard0"
        Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier "Mouse0"
        Driver "mouse"
        Option "Protocol" "auto"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Monitor0"
        VendorName "LGP"
        ModelName "0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Card0"
        Driver "ati"
        VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName "Radeon R250 Lf [Radeon Mobility 9000 M9]"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport 0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes "1280x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Comments:

By Dean Landry on Aug 10, 2006:

At least on my model of HP NX7000 you need to use ipw2100 for the wireless. The 2200 drivers will not work.

I use the kernel 2100 as a module, and install the 2100 firmware.

By Damien on Sep 25, 2006:

i'm mostly very happy with the hardware configuration & kernel support for the nx7010 hardware...

i have sound working fine, and the multimedia buttons as described above... but does anyone know how to enable audio through the inbuilt jbl speakers? currently audio outputs to the headphone socket on the front facia only

By Mr. Anderson on Jan 16, 2007:

I couldn't get the audio to play sound until I disabled Line Jack Sense in alsaconf.

By Mr. Anderson on Feb 4, 2007:

To get the MMC /SD card reader working, I had to compile wbsd and mmc_block as modules. Then added to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:
mmc_block
wbsd nopnp=1

By Tzimbar on Feb 6, 2007:

To get 3D working, I use ati proprietary drivers version 8.27.x (don't remember precisely) and I played a bit with exact refresh rates (using a program for calculating them).. After some battling, I made it to XGL :D

By Damien Sticklen on Jun 21, 2007:

Couldnt get the 2007 liveDVD working on my nx7010 stops at 8% during step 1 of installation.

By Johan on Aug 24, 2007:

I just installed the 2007.0 liveCD without too much hassles. Needed to get ati drivers and ipw2200 firmware after dialog install, but now everything seems to be working (except for the
battery monitor.... gr).

By Seth on Oct 5, 2007:

The latest ATI Proprietary drivers that support this card are the 8.28.8, and there is no way you can compile them with any recent kernel. Emerging ati-drivers from portage fetches the newest (currently 8.39.4) with compile fine, but do not support the card's id.

However, direct rendering works great with the Open Source Drivers. It gives me 3000 FPS in glxgears, and excellent dual head.
Just follow this guide. All steps are valid.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_DRI_with_ATi_Open-Source_Drivers

I got the modules compiled outside the kernel tree using the DRM/Mesa method. This way, you get the newest radeon.ko, drm.ko, r200_dri, radeon_dri, plus the right OpenGL too, otherwise you mess with the portage Proprietary ATI OpenGL.

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