General Hardware Specifications of HP dv9500t CTO:

This laptop is operating under Kernel Linux version 2.6.24.4-64.fc8 ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)) #1 SMP Sat Mar 29 09:54:46 EDT' 2008

• Why to use Fedora Core 8 - I was mainly interested in using FC8 in preparation to installing Planet CCRMA.
  
• Obtaining Fedora Core 8 - I simply downloaded the Fedora Core 8 DVD from a Repository.
  
• Installing - Since I am triple booting this laptop (Vista Home Premium, XP Pro, and Fedora Core 8) I had to partition the hard drive into 3 main partitions using gparted: 58Gb for Vista, 40Gb for XP Pro, and 15Gb (Customised Linux partitions: ext3 14Gb for / , 2Gb SWAP). The important thing to remember is this: After you install XP Pro, and Linux (more on this) use EasyBCD (on XP Pro) to set up your bootloader. You want Vista to be the primary OS, XP Pro to be second OS and Fedora to be third OS. Use EasyBCD's configuration to specify whether the partition being booted is a Windows or Linux partition... it will give you the option of specifying GRUB as the bootloader for the Linux partion. When you install Linux, you want to install GRUB to the Linux partition... NOT the MBR... if you do so, Vista will not boot, and you will be forever trying to fix it. When installing Linux, you will want to check the "Customise Bootloader" option and make Fedora the Default OS to boot on the third partition. I know this sounds a bit weird, but when you go throught the setup, you will understand whats going on: You are using EasyBCD to configure the laptop to boot the first partition... Windows will give you the option to choose Vista, XP Pro, or Fedora. If you choose any of the Windows OS's, the Windows bootloader will boot those OS's... if you choose Fedora, the bootloader will go the third partition, activate GRUB, which then boots the "default" OS on the last partition, which is of course, is Fedora... 
  
  See http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Linux for more details and help.
  
  
• Post-Install modifications / tweaks : Out of the box, most of the hardware worked. I had to only improve the video by installing the nVidia kmod drivers from the Livna Repository, and the wireless worked after upgrading the kernel.
  

  Video -

• 1. First install the livna repository:
  rpm -Uhv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm

  2. Then import the livna GPG key for verification of rpm:
  rpm –import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY

  3. Now you are ready to install the rpm:
  yum install kmod-nvidia

  This should automatically do everthing required to install the driver.

  4. Reboot the machine. You should see nVidia logo flash by.

  5. Execute:
  glxinfo | grep direct

  If you see: direct rendering: Yes, you are good to go. You can also display further details about the installed driver as follows:
  yum info kmod-nvidia

  You will see something like this:
  Installed Packages
  Name   : kmod-nvidia
  Arch   : i686
  Version: 169.12
  Release: 6.lvn8
  Size   : 0.0
  Repo   : installed
  Summary: Metapackage which tracks in nvidia kernel module for newest kernel
  Description:
  This is a meta-package without payload which sole purpose is to require the
  nvidia kernel module(s) for the newest kernel,
  to make sure you get it together with a new kernel.
  
  
  Available Packages
  Name   : kmod-nvidia
  Arch   : i586
  Version: 169.12
  Release: 6.lvn8
  Size   : 22 k
  Repo   : livna
  Summary: Metapackage which tracks in nvidia kernel module for newest kernel
  Description:
  This is a meta-package without payload which sole purpose is to require the
  nvidia kernel module(s) for the newest kernel,
  to make sure you get it together with a new kernel.
  

  Use nVidia Display Settings to further configure your driver.

  Wireless  - Wireless was a bit of a problem to get going. When I initially installed Linux on this laptop, I could not get it to work, and SELinux was complaining a lot. So, I reinstalled the Linux without the Firewall enalbled (I was using my Router's Firewall for the time being...) and without SELinux. It seems that after I enabled both services, and rebooted the machine, did I finally get the wireless connection to work by right-clicking NetworkManager Applet 0.7.0 and filling in the appropriate blanks (SSID, and I used a paraphrase... good thing, because on reboot, the wireless will need to be set up again with SSID, paraphrase, and password...).

• None at the moment...
  

• Anything else that raises concern - Terminal window seems to loose focus once in awhile... I'm not sure what is causing this... perhaps a video driver, or just the way the laptop operates in general... when entering information, and pressing the space bar, suddenly the focus shifts to the Terminal's Menu items...
  

• Any Configuration files that you needed to modify - None modified, other than setting up the wireless under Start Menu / System / Network Device Control - Wireless Device Configuration : General Tab - check "Controlled by Network Manager" and "Allow all users to enable and disable the device". Wireless Settings Tab - Mode: Master, Specified SSID [your network SSID here], Channel: (1, 6 or 11... check your router to be sure...), Transmit rate: Auto, Key: [your 128bit Open (Hex) Key here]  NOTE: It is best to use a paraphrase, as you are likely to reenter this information when accessing the wireless after a reboot.
  

• df -hl :
  Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
  /dev/sda3              14G  3.0G   11G  23% /
  tmpfs                1013M  188K 1013M   1% /dev/shm
  
  lspci :
  00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
  00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
  00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03)
  00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
  00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
  00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
  00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
  00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
  00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
  00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
  00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
  00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
  00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
  00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
  00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
  00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
  00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
  00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600M GS (rev a1)
  02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)
  06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
  07:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
  07:09.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
  07:09.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
  07:09.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
  07:09.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
  
  
• anything else you feel is relevant or may be useful
  
  modinfo iwl4965:
  filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.24.4-64.fc8/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi                                 /iwl4965.ko
  license:        GPL
  author:         Copyright(c) 2003-2008 Intel Corporation
  version:        1.2.26kds
  description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN driver for Linux
  srcversion:     3E5D7DBA897E0F2DAA347F7
  alias:          pci:v00008086d00004230sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  alias:          pci:v00008086d00004229sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
  depends:        mac80211,iwlcore,cfg80211
  vermagic:       2.6.24.4-64.fc8 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS
  parm:           antenna:select antenna (1=Main, 2=Aux, default 0 [both]) (int)
  parm:           disable:manually disable the radio (default 0 [radio on]) (int)
  parm:           hwcrypto:using hardware crypto engine (default 0 [software])
   (int)
  parm:           debug:debug output mask (int)
  parm:           disable_hw_scan:disable hardware scanning (default 0) (int)
  parm:           queues_num:number of hw queues. (int)
  parm:           qos_enable:enable all QoS functionality (int)
  parm:           amsdu_size_8K:enable 8K amsdu size (int)
  
  

• e-mail address : nexxusix (at) Yahoo! [dot] com
  
• Yahoo!/MSN/AIM screenname : NexxuSix
  

• http://www.hp.com/
  
• http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Linux
• http://fedoramobile.org/wireless
• http://fedoramobile.org/Members/MrHappy/troubleshooting
  
• http://www.linux-laptop.net/
  

Plus other useful things you may have discovered - None at the moment...

Any impressions on the laptop in general - build, hardware etc. - This is a custom ordered laptop from HP... it has all of the upgrades available except Bluetooth and an extra Harddrive.

Revision History:
04/18/08 - Final Version. Hosted on http://www.tonylsharp.com/howtos/70-howtos/63-tripleboot-vista-xppro-linux-on-an-hpdv9500t-cto.html