The Technopotomus Adventure
The tests and trials of creating a safe and secure, yet fully functional home network with whatever electronic toys we can get our hands on.
-
Installing Ubuntu on HP pavilion ze4900 laptop.
Posted on November 2nd, 2009 No commentsA new laptop
My wifes laptop was getting slow and sluggish as of late. I blame it partly to a years worth of using Windows on it. As applications are added and/or upgraded, more and more is added to the registry and everywhere else. Just booting up was a lesson in patience. She had this laptop for several years and I agree it was getting old, but it used to operate much smoother when we first brought it home.
So, I bought a new laptop for my wife and she’s happy . . . for now. And what to do with that old laptop? Well using Windows on that did not sound like fun at all. I couldn’t even in good faith pass it on to my 9 year old, that would be just mean. So I loaded Ubuntu. And I tell you, it runs smoother and looks a heck of alot nicer, IMHO. I did not do a comparison, but I am convinced that the battery lasts much longer as well.
Installation
If you haven’t installed Ubuntu before, you need not be nervous at doing so. If you have ever installed Windows, then installing Ubuntu will be like childs play. Afterwards there may be a some tweaking to do, or perhaps locating things such as drivers and installing them. However, with Ubuntu, it’s usually quite easy. I however could not find the proper driver for my WiFi card. Using the forums, however, was a blessing, for I was able to find the answer to this problem. I had to install b43-fwcutter to get the correct drivers for my broadcomm WiFi card.
Specs
Component
Status
notes
1.4GHz Intel Celeron M Processor 330 works Intergrated VGA Graphics Device works 512MB DDR SDRAM (2 x 256MB) works 60GB (4200RPM) Hard Drive works Realtek Integrated Ethernet Card works Broadcomm Integrated Wireless Ethernet Card needed help Had to use Synaptic Package Manager to install b43-fwcutter for driver installation. 24X DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive works Have not burned any disks yet, nor tried the DVD capabilities yet either. 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio works Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (shared) works 15.0-inch XGA TFT (1024 x 768) Display works High Speed 56KB modem unknown have not used the modem . . . ever. ?????one 24X DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive If you have a HP pavilion ze4900 series, your biggest hurdle will be the wireless drivers, but since you’re reading this, there should be no problem. Make sure you install it via the Syanaptic Manager. I tried with the command line once and did not have a working WiFi. Enjoy.
**edit: The WiFi failed one day after I tried running and .exe file (what was I thinking). Since then I have re-installed Ubuntu and took quite a bit of doing to get the WiFi back. In fact, the Synaptic Manager did not allow it to work, I had to install via Aptitude at the command line. It worked for about a week and then died again. Grrrrr!!
