Setting up a HP Pavilion dv2416us to run Debian GNU/Linux

Hello,

I got an HP Pavilion dv2416us about a year ago, and set it up to run both the pre-installed vista, and Debian GNU. Here I just want to add a few comments about getting Debian to run well on such a computer, in case I need to set it up again in the future.

This won't have all the information needed to make it totally easy to use such a laptop, but I will try to put down what I remember. I'll try to add more later, if I can remember more.

• Repartitioning your hard drive through Windows Vista:
  
  
  • http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm
    
  
  


• Installing Debian


• Getting your Broadcom Wireless card to work by using ndiswrapper
  
  
  • In my experience, it is easier to get your wireless card running on your laptop in Debian if you use ndiswrapper and the windows drivers than through the bcm... driver in the kernel.
  
  
  • http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/bcm4306-ndiswrapper-windows-driver-couldnt-initialize-the-device-344849/
  
  
  • http://www.stylesen.org/configuring_wireless_bcm4310_uart_card_in_debian_etch_amd64_using_ndiswrapper
  
  
  • Sometimes, when you boot up, though, the ndiswrapper driver will not load up correctly, and may freeze up the boot process. To fix this, I usually just ctrl-alt-del out of the boot process and restart.
  
  


• Problems with sound emerging out of the dual boot setup
  
  
  • If you at some point use your Vista partition, and then later boot into your Linux partition, you might find that your sound does not work in your linux partition. An easy fix to this problem (I don't know why this works, but it does) is to turn off your computer, and either reboot without the power cord plugged in, or, after turning off the computer, removing the battery for a few seconds (say, count to 10), putting the battery back, and starting up your computer.
  
  
  
  


• Fixes and tweaks:
  
  
  • You may have the problem that, when the X server restarts, either after ending a session or after coming back from screensaver mode, the cursor will disappear. To fix this, you can edit your xorg.conf file (usually found at /etc/X11/xorg.conf), and, under the "Device" section, adding the line
    
    Option "HWCursor" "off"
    
    For more info, see 'man nv' or see http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-linux&m=116983714009897&w=2