New Compaq Notebook running Ubuntu Karmic
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I got a new Compaq Presario CQ61-140EI Notebook. I did not had much choice in the hardware so had to take what I got. The specs of the machine is as follows:
- Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 (2.16GHz)
- 15.6 LED HD Brightview Widescreen
- 250GB Hard Drive
- 3GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 802.11 b/g WLAN
- Lightscribe Super Multi DVD±RW Double Layer Support
- nVidia GeForce G 102M Graphics with 512MB DDR2 memory
- 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
- Webcam
Oh and it had Vista also installed on the machine.
Yes, you are reading correctly, it does come with a HDMI out connector (Now I just need a HDMI cable). Also it has an eSATA connector that can double as an USB connector. Further has it another 2 USB connectors, Audio In and Out and the normal VGA connector.
I initially decide to keep the Vista on the machine and make it a dual boot machine together with Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 6. I resized the existing partition and created some other partitions to install Ubuntu on. After installing Ubuntu and when I rebooted, it failed horribly with no proper Grub setup. Not wanting to try solving it I just went ahead and wiped Vista and installed just Ubuntu Karmic. I would not have used Vista much so why waste the hard disk space.
I was particurly interested to see what worked and what not and expecting some things not to work. 
Here you can see the machine running Ubuntu Karmic happily. Except for the sound problem mentioned yesterday, which is now fixed, everything else works. Wireless worked out of the box. Starting Skype, I went to see if it picked up my Webcam and there it was, working out of the box. Have now installed Cheese and using my Webcam happily.
The white little thing on the left of the machine is a USB 3G modem plugged into the eSATA/USB combo port and it worked without any problems. Network Manager picked it up automatically, ask me what cellular network I am using and then just prompted me for my PIN.
I love the HD screen on this machine and can see it becoming my movie watching machine.
Overall I am fairly impressed with what worked and what not. Karmic looks like more polished than Jaunty and although there is still some messages that fill the screen on bootup, I am sure that by release time in October, those will disappear.
That bring’s the count of Ubuntu/Kubuntu machines in my household to 4.
Technorati Tags: compaq, presario, karmic, ubuntu
Hi, how did you solve your soundproblem?
My sound and webcam is working now. But when I use skype the microphone is being muted automailly after a while.
And I cannot record video with cheese, but I’m able to take photos.
Look at this post for the sound problem and solution — http://www.mariusb.net/blog/2009/09/compaq-presario-cq61-140ei-sound-problem-and-solution/
Regarding Skype and cheese is to ensure you using the latest versions.