Jamie's Random Musings

I was just looking at an announcement of the HP Mini 2140 netbook, and came across this gem:

It features an 80GB solid state drive, a feature we're seeing more and more in netbooks these days, which means ultra fast start up times and quick processing of applications. They've bundled this in with the HP 3D Driveguard which contains a three axis digital accelerometer chip that automatically shuts down your screen when it gets knocked, protecting it from unexpected data loss.

Ok, one of us is confused here... I've read that paragraph over and over again, and I can't get it to make any sense. Admittedly, I got my degree in Electrical Engineering a LONG time ago (we were still soldering individual transistors on circuit boards, I swear...), but exactly what is the HP 3D Driveguard going to "shut down", either in the solid state drive or the screen (I can't tell from the way it is written which of those is being "protected"), and exactly what kind of data loss could result from it getting "knocked", anyway? The more I read it, the more it sounds like they are talking about the screen - are the things you are looking at likely to fall off and scatter on the floor around you?

I went back and checked the HP product web page, and eventually found what I expected to be the case:

160 GB 5400 rpm SATA, 160 GB 7200 rpm SATA; with HP 3D DriveGuard (supported on Windows models only); 80 GB Solid State Drive

So the DriveGuard is for the standard rotating mechanical drives, and has nothing to do with the solid state drive (or the screen). Oh, and I am mildly saddened to see the note about "Windows only"; my HP 2133 Mini-Note also has the DriveGuard with windows, and I had just though last night that I should check to see if they have something similar for the factory-loaded Linux version. Sigh.

jw 30/1/2009

After having written the first part of this series, and being quite happy with the way SimplyMEPIS Linux was working on the HP 2133, I moved on to the last couple of items on the test list... and I got even happier!

Vector Linux came out with a new Release Candidate, RC4, so I gave that a try. This time, the wireless adapter worked! I honestly don't know if they fixed it in this release, or if I just overlooked that fact that it actually was working, but was disabled, when I tried RC3. Either way, it works now, hooray!

With the wireless working now, Vector Linux looks very, VERY good on this Mini-Note. With the exception of the screen resolution being 1024x768, rather than the maximum 1280x768, as far as I can tell everything works - and I really mean everything. I just watched Dialog Box 5.5 on it, and Rupert and Charles were looking and sounding wonderful, as always.

The screen resolution is really a minor issue right now, especially because it is still using the VESA driver, not the Chrome9 specific driver. So I will probably look into getting that before I worry too much about the resolution. Anyway, if anything, the screen is a bit more easily readable at 1024 than 1280.

So, the situation as it stands now is, I have the HP 2133 configured to multi-boot the following:

Windows XP Professional
openSuSE 11.1
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC2
Vector Linux 6.0 RC4

Speaking of multi-booting, the one thing that I had to deal with when I installed Vector was the fact that they use LILO rather than GRUB for a bootloader. However, at least with these never releases they have all of the bits of GRUB in the right places except for the actual configuration file (menu.lst), so I just let it install LILO, then I copied the GRUB configuration file from the openSuSE partition to Vector, made the necessary (trivial) changes, and restored GRUB from the openSuSE partition to the MBR of the disk as I described a week or so ago. No sweat.

Vector Linux is a derivative of Slackware, rather than Debian or one of the more common "desktop" distributions. That means that it does not have the RPM, DEB, Synaptic or whatever package management system that almost all of the other have. Which, in turn, means that finding and installing additional packages is a new and different experience. It comes with the most important things I need preloaded, such as Firefox and Sun Java so I was able to install the Citrix ICA client without any problem. But there are other things that I still need or want to figure out how to install, so I will be occupied with that for a while. Also, is uses the Xfce desktop, rather than Gnome, which I am accustomed to, or KDE, which I am still baffled by. But so far I haven't had any trouble figuring out and using Xfce, so I have no complaints there.

Overall, after about a week of use and a fair bit of testing and experimentation, I am very pleased with the HP 2133. The best part of it, without a doubt, is the keyboard, it is really excellent for a netbook. But the rest of the hardware is right up there too - the display is very nice; having a Gigabit wired network adapter is also a bit unusual for a netbook, and although it would be nice to have a Wireless-N adapter, the Wireless-G seems to connect consistently and quickly, and the throughput is good.

jw 29/1/2009

OpenOffice.org release 3.0.1 is available for download. I have installed it, and based on the build number and the way the installation runs, I believe that this is in fact exactly the same as the RC2 download, so if you have already installed that, you don't need to be in a big hurry to get this one.

From the Release Notes, it appears that this is primarily a bug fix release. I think the best news about it is likely to be that the Linux distributions which had not already picked up OOo 3.0.0 (notably Ubuntu 8.10, but others as well) will probably now pick it up.

jw 28/1/2009

It is important to note that the following information is based on my trying various of the publicly available Linux distributions on my new HP 2133 netbook. I did NOT order it with the factory-installed SuSE Enterprise Linux, and I have not tried to obtain or install that version in any other way. Also, I have not made any extraordinary efforts to get any of these distributions to work on it, yet; all I have done is boot their LiveCD distribution, and if that comes up and is usable then I go ahead and try to install. Finally, because I have no intention of having a lot of different Linux distributions on this netbook over the long term, I have kept the disk partitioning very simple. When I "downgraded" from Vista to XP Professional, I put Windows in a 16 GB partition at the beginning of the disk; then I made three more primary partitions, one of them a small swap area and the other two for installing and testing Linux. The theory is that if/when I found one that worked, I could keep it intact while continuing to test others.

So here is what I have found out so far:

- SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC2: The LiveCD booted just fine, the install was absolutely routine, the same as it was on my other two laptops, and it works really well. I can't even begin to put into words how pleased and impressed I am. This was the last of the distributions that I tried, and it worked by far the best. The VIA CPU, Chrome9 display adapter, Broadcom Gigabit wired network and Broadcom 802.11 a/b/g wireless network were all recognized and work just fine. WOW! The only thing that I have seen so far that isn't working properly is the sound, so I will be looking into that next.

- openSuSE 11.1: This was the first one that I tried, and it is the one I thought might work the best, because the 2133 is available with SuSE Enterprise preloaded. In fact it does work for the most part, but not as well as MEPIS. The LiveCD booted and installed, but I had to grapple with the screen resolution at first. I was finally able to get it going at 1024x768, but I haven't gotten any better than that yet, and at that resolution it's giving up one of the nicer advantages of the 2133 display. The Broadcom wireless adapter was also not configured by the initial installation. I found instructions on the Internet on how to download and install the driver, and that worked just fine. The one thing it does better than MEPIS is that the sound works perfectly. If I could get the screen resolution up to 1280x768, it would actually be a bit better than MEPIS overall, but it is nowhere near as easy to install and configure.

- Ubuntu 8.10: The LiveCD doesn't boot properly, the display is completely corrupted.

- Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 3: The LiveCD doesn't boot properly, but it actually gets a bit further along than Ubuntu 8.10, the wallpaper is displayed, but then the keyboard and mouse don't respond.

- Mandriva One 2009.0: The LiveCD doesn't boot properly, the display is blank.

- Fedora 10: The LiveCD doesn't boot properly, the display is corrupted in all sorts of random, colorful ways.

- PCLinuxOS 2009 Beta 2: The LiveCD doesn't boot properly, the display starts black, but slowly changes to being completely washed out.

- Debian 5.0 Beta: The LiveCD boots, but the screen resolution is completely wrong, only about one quarter of the top left area of the screen is displayed, and the keyboard and mouse do not respond.

- Vector Linux 6.0 RC3: The LiveCD boots and installs, but the screen resolution is only 1024x768. Worse, the Broadcom wireless adapter is not recognized, and I didn't find any obvious info on how to fix that.

So, there you have it. I'm likely to be using MEPIS for the time being, I'm very pleased with it and I don't care much about the sound - well, other than for watching Dialog Box, of course. It will be interesting to see if and when future releases of these distributions work on this netbook.

jw 27/1/2009

I received my new HP 2133 Mini-Note (netbook, if you want to call it that) Friday afternoon. Since then I have been learning, testing, loading, reloading and generally playing around. I like it. A lot. I paid just under 500 Swiss Francs for it - there was just a dramatic price cut on the 2133 here in Switzerland. The promotion I got was from a distributor who essentially cut the price in half, which was one of the things that prompted me to order it; since then, I have heard from another distributor, who cut their price even a bit lower (isn't that the way it always is?). Of course, the 2133 is one of the "older" of the netbook generation, so you need to be aware of what you are buying.

First, here's the highlights of the hardware configuration that I got. The 2133 has a VIA C-7M ULV processor, mine has the 1.6GHz version; it has 2 GB of RAM, and a 120 GB 5400 rpm SATA disk drive. It has an 8.9" display with 1280x768 resolution, and a VIA Chrome 9 display adapter. Perhaps the single nicest thing about it, considering that it is in the "netbook" category, is the keyboard - according to HP it is 92% the size of a "normal" keyboard, and it is quite nice to use. It is the first of the netbooks I have seen whose keyboard doesn't remind me of the IBM PC Jr. (yes, I'm that old). It has a Broadcom Gigabit (!) wired network adapter, a Broadcom B/G Wireless network adapter, and an HP Bluetooth adapter. It has an ADI HD audio codec and stereo speakers, and an integrated VGA webcam. External connections include two USB 2.0 ports, RJ-45 ethernet, VGA monitor (this is really good for those who might want/need to connect to a beamer), mic in and headphone out, Express Card/54 slot, and an SD flash card slot. Oh, and a 6-cell Li-Ion battery pack.

Whew! That's a lot of computer for 500 francs! Please be aware that a lot of that hardware is optional or upgraded in speed or capacity, so if you consider buying one, check the specifications carefully.

Now, the software. I am going to discuss only Windows in this post, as that is what I ordered on it. I will write again in the near future about adventures with Linux on it. Mine came with Windows Vista Business preloaded, and the CDs for a "downgrade" to XP Professional. I did not try to buy it with Linux (SuSE) preloaded, I will be trying various Linux distributions on my own next week.

When I first started and configured the 2133, with it running the preloaded Vista Business, I was afraid that I had made a bad decision. It was literally staggering under the load of Vista. It took many minutes to boot up, and it was ridiculously sluggish when it was finally "ready to use". I was determined to stick with it, and give it a fair chance, but when I tried to set up the wireless networking, it couldn't connect to my Linksys router - the same symptom that I have had with my Lifebook S6510 when it was running Vista. I am not about to waste another bunch of days trying to figure that out, so at that point I decided to simply dump Vista and go with the "downgrade" to XP Professional.

HP has taken the "recovery partition" route for the Vista installation, so rather than including Vista recovery CD/DVD media, they have an image of the original Vista installation in a second partition on the hard drive; for the XP Professional "downgrade", they include CDs. If you choose to install XP, and you think that you might some day want to go back to Vista, you have to make a CD or DVD copy of the Vista recovery partition first. I'm sure there are instructions on the HP web page, or perhaps in the online manuals, as to how to do that, but as far as I am concerned this computer will NEVER be capable of running Vista, so I didn't bother to do it.

The 2133 doesn't have a CD/DVD drive (duh, it's a netbook), so you have to use an external USB drive to load XP. You press F9 while booting to get the boot device menu, but be careful, the USB port only shows up in the list if something is connected to it, so don't get confused (like I did) if you try it the first time just to see what comes up in the list, and USB isn't there. I'll also be making a bootable USB thumb drive later this week, and checking to see if the 2133 will boot from it as well. I assume it will.

Installing XP from the Operating System CD is pretty much the same as it is on any other system. The only small quirk is that you will see the original installation has the Vista partition covering most of the disk, and then a 9 GB partition named "HP_RECOVERY" at the end. The simple thing to do is just install XP over the Vista partition. I seldom do things the "simple" way, and I have bigger plans for multi-booting Windows and Linux, so I deleted both of those partitions and created a new 20 GB partition for XP, leaving the rest of the disk unallocated for Linux use later. After installing XP there was still 13.5 GB free in that partition, so it is plenty big enough.

After the basic XP installation is finished, you have to switch to the Application and Driver Recovery DVD to load drivers for a lot of the hardware - display, both network interfaces, and so on, and to get XP SP2 installed. It autoruns an installation menu, and I just let it load all of the "Hardware Enabling Drivers". Do NOT try to respond to any of the "Found New Hardware" windows that pop up as it does its work; it will run all the way through and install everything without any interaction. Once that is done, and you have rebooted, you can do the same for the "Recommended Software Applications". I chose not to install any of the "Optional Software Applications", but you might choose differently.

Finally, you need to go to Windows Update and pick up all the latest security patches and whatever other updates you want. I let it install all of the "High Priority" patches, including updating to SP3, and it all went very smoothly.

Whew. Sorry this is getting so long...

Once the installation is complete, there are a couple of small steps that you need to take to finish the setup. First, check that the screen resolution has been set to 1280x768. I think the VIA driver might do this automatically, but I actually changed it before installing the HP driver DVD, because the default resolution (I think it was 800x600) was too ugly to look at. You can check/change it by right-clicking on the desktop background, choose "Properties", and then in the Display Properties window choose "Settings". Once you change the resolution, though, you will see that everything looks nearly microscopic (at least it does to my old eyes). You can adjust this by clicking "Advanced" (still in the Display Properties / Settings window), and then change the DPI setting from the default of 96 to 120. You can even put in a "custom" value higher than that; if my quick calculations are correct, at 1280x768 it actually is about 160 DPI, but I find it usable when set at 120.

At this point the 2133 is basically ready to use. The display is gorgeous, bright and crisp. The keyboard is good, the touchpad is a bit shallow and the buttons are on either side, rather than below or above it, but that's the kind of choice you have to make to reduce the size of the system. The stereo speakers are integrated in the lid, on either side of the display, which puts them in a very good position to hear the sound, and the microphones are likewise in the lid, which is a good position to pick up your voice. The ExpressCard and SD slots have covers, rather than being left open to collect whatever dust and garbage they might, as they are in a lot of other laptops. Oh, and for those who hate touchpads, or simply find that their thumbs are constantly moving the mouse pointer or hitting the mouse buttons as they type, there is a "touchpad disable" button between the space bar and the touchpad. Very considerate.

There are two big differences between the 2133 as I have it running now, with XP Professional, and as it was when it came out of the box, with Vista Business. First, it is actually pleasant to use, it responds and loads programs quickly, whereas with Vista it stumbled along, and you could practically hear it groaning under the load while you were waiting for the latest mouse click to register, or a program to load. Second, and equally importantly for me, it connects to my Linksys router with no problem at all, rather than whining about a "Limited Connection", where "Limited" is to be interpreted as "Useless".

jw 25/1/2009