Hardware specific question about Kubuntu on a laptop

[c0rrupts3ct0r]

I currently have Kubuntu Feisty Fawn installed on a HP Pavilion DV9410US Laptop. It uses the turion X2 TL-56 dual core cpu and has geforce 6150 graphics and broadcomm wireless

I have been having a few issues.. sometimes it will just lock up randomly when i shut down, one time thunderbird recieved an email and the system just hard locked. I did have to run the nolapic switch when it installed or else the graphics would go all weird, but i took that out when i used envy to install the 6150 go driver.. I also enabled laptop mode in etc/modules/acpi support (i think that is the one). One time when i unplugged my laptop from the wall the screen went all weird. the laptop does work fine in windows XP however but i really like Kubuntu.. can anyone give me any suggestions about how to make it more stable?

Any help would be appreciated
Chris

[dibl]

Re: Hardware specific question about Kubuntu on a laptop

sometimes it will just lock up randomly when i shut down, one time thunderbird recieved an email and the system just hard locked.

Without knowing anything more, I will offer only that folks accustomed to Windows often perceive "lockups" and "freezes" in *buntu, which are not actually such. Fintan provided a link to a great dissertation on the subject recently:

http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/10/0...w-to-fix-that/

Windows (desktop OS) does a great job of creating the impression that the foregound task is getting all the attention from the hardware resources, in comparison with the default Linux setups that come with *buntu. As described in the link, this is user-adjustable.

So, the generic suggestion is to first take a look at the running processes on your system, and see if they are all needed and appropriate. KMenu>System Settings>Advanced>Service Manager would be a starting point, and next KMenu>System Settings>Advanced>System Services (in Administrator Mode). Don't change anything, just note any processes that don't make sense to you, and then use our friend Mr. Google or forum searches to see what you can learn about the questionable process. If you can convince yourself that a running process can either be disabled for "Start at Boot" purposes, or deleted entirely, do them one at a time and then test the system to make sure you're only dealing with a single variable at a time.

Then the link tells you how to adjust vm.swappiness and vm.vfs_cache_pressure to improve the responsiveness of your particular hardware.

HTH!

[c0rrupts3ct0r]

Re: Hardware specific question about Kubuntu on a laptop

i just came back to the laptop after hibernation and i tuned it on. it resumed and i got a like line in the middle of the screen and the mouse pointer is a block and kinda see through. if i try to click on the K menu (which is on the 2nd half of the screen all the way over on the right bottom corner now the screen shakes and theres corruption.. This only happens if i come out of hibernation. This laptop used to have VISTA on it which is what it came with. I just didnt like vista it is too slow for me.

Sometimes on bootup it will lock up too. (not too often), once it did lock up when i locked the screen as well.. I will try to look at the system services and see what is needed and what isn't

[dibl]

Re: Hardware specific question about Kubuntu on a laptop

Some of those phenomena are sounding like video driver/display issues. What driver are you using for that Nvidia chip?

Says here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html

that the newest Nvidia proprietary driver will run the 6150. If you're not using it, installing it would probably help. I recommend the Envy script installer for this purpose. See here: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086232.0

[c0rrupts3ct0r]

Re: Hardware specific question about Kubuntu on a laptop

i am using which ever driver envy has installed into the laptop.. I just reinstalled kubuntu 2 days ago

if i use noapic and nolapic in grub before it boots.. will this possibly fix any issues with Kubuntu? i know that if i use nolapic alone the Nvidia driver will not load, on a forum i seen if you use those 2 options together then the nvidia driver will work but usb will not.. then if i use irqpoll or irqfixup with those other 2 then everything will work. i tried that once when installing and the installer froze 80% thru... only could i use nolapic when installing because going into the GUI would give me the lava lamp effect.. I am getting used to Kbuntu and i really like it.. I just dont want to have to go back to XP or (cough vista..)
i dont know if this matters its the Nvidia Geforce 6150 go graphics chip.

Also when i load up i do get the infamous PCI BIOS BUG #81 Found . i read up on that a little bit.. i flashed my bios but that didnt seem to help...