HP Pavillion DV7-3170em Compatibility with Kubuntu

[mentalcic]

Dear Kubuntu Forums Experts,

I am planing to purchase a new laptop and would like your opinion/comments on the HP Pavilion dv7-3170em Entertainment Notebook PC (see hardware spec below) regarding the compatibility (drivers) with Kubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Should I expect any problems or should expect that everything should work out of the box?

Any comment would be highly appreciated.

NOTE: I am not able to boot up a live Kubuntu in the mentioned notebook and check it for myself :/

----EDIT----
Just realized that I might be posting this in a wrong section.
Moderators please move this thread to appropriate part of the KFN.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
----EDIT----

Hardware specification as listed on the manufacturers website:

* Product Name dv7-3170em
* Product Number WC152EA
* Microprocessor 2.13 GHz Intel Core i3 Processor i3-330M
* Microprocessor Cache Level 2 cache 3 MB
* Memory 4 GB DDR3 (2 x 2048 MB)
* Memory Max Supports up to 8 GB DDR3 memory
* Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M
* Video Memory up to 2299 MB total graphics memory with 1 GB dedicated DDR3
* Display 43.9 cm (17.3") Diagonal High-Definition LED HP BrightView Display (1600 x 900)
* Hard Drive 2 x 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm
* Multimedia Drive SATA optical drive: LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±RW with Double Layer Support
* Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
* Wireless Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n
* Sound Altec Lansing speakers with integrated subwoofer - SRS Premium Sound
* Keyboard Full size keyboard with integrated numeric keypad
* Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical Scroll Up/Down pad
* PC Card Slots 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34), 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro or xD Picture cards
* External Ports

* 4 USB 2.0 (4th shared with eSATA port)
* 1 eSATA + USB connector
* 1 VGA port
* 1 RJ45 ethernet connector
* expansion port
* 2 headphones-out
* 1 mic-in
* 1 FireWire IEEE 1394 port
* consumer IR

Dimensions 41.26 cm (L) x 27.7 cm (W) x 3.5 cm (min H) / 4.32 cm (max H)
Weight 3.52 kg
Power

* 120 W AC Power Adapter
* 8-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery

What's In The Box
* HP Pavilion Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone; VGA low-light
* HP Mobile Remote Control

[Fintan]

Re: HP Pavillion DV7-3170em Compatibility with Kubuntu

This might give some food for thought:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=160625

Also check this forum for nvidea driver issues and kde4.x.x

Hope this helps

[mentalcic]

Re: HP Pavillion DV7-3170em Compatibility with Kubuntu

This might give some food for thought:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=160625

This is from April 2010. At this time I can see that there is a driver version available from nvidia.com. When you search for GeForce 300M series (notebooks) - GeForce GT 320M you will be given the opportunity to choose 32bit or 64bit Linux variant. Here's what I got:

Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver

Version: 256.44 Certified
Release Date: 2010.08.02
Operating System: Linux 64-bit
Language: English (U.S.)
File Size: 40.9 MB
File Name: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.44.run

Also check this forum for nvidea driver issues and kde4.x.x

Hope this helps

Will do that. Thanks for your reply.

That would cover display I believe. Any other comments regarding the subject from the original post?

So far this looks good.

[mentalcic]

Re: HP Pavillion DV7-3170em Compatibility with Kubuntu

I have spent several days searching through this forum and other online resources for some reason why I shouldn't go for a purchase of this notebook and TBH I haven't found any. Maybe because this is one of the newer models and maybe it was not tested yet.

So far it looks like it should be compatible with Kubuntu/Linux in any way and I should expect that all hardware is supported "out of the box" or with additional driver/software updates.

Opinions? Comments? Past experiences?

Thank you!

[ardvark71]

Re: HP Pavillion DV7-3170em Compatibility with Kubuntu

I have spent several days searching through this forum and other online resources for some reason why I shouldn't go for a purchase of this notebook and TBH I haven't found any. Maybe because this is one of the newer models and maybe it was not tested yet.

So far it looks like it should be compatible with Kubuntu/Linux in any way and I should expect that all hardware is supported "out of the box" or with additional driver/software updates.

Opinions? Comments? Past experiences?

Thank you!

Hi...

I just recently installed 10.04 on my HP Pavilion dv9830us laptop with no problems (except that once it didn't boot up entirely, forcing me to press Alt+Ctrl+Delete to restart the system,) and it seems to support everything I have on the system, although I haven't checked out the SD reader, the ScanJet 4100C or my winmodem yet. I was a little surprised to see that my wireless connection and webcam worked right out of the box!

My experience, in part, may be that most of the chipsets on my board seem to be from Intel. Before you purchase this system, I would try to find out who makes the chipsets (apart from Nvidia) in that particular model as that could make a lot of difference.

Regards...