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[SOLVED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

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Wheelerof4te
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[SOLVED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#1 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Hello everyone, it's been a while :D

I have HP Notebook, the model is 15-ac029nm. I went and downloaded Debian 8.7 .iso image, the one with additional non-free firmware just in case (pls don't hate me).

Now, since my notebook has dual graphic cards, Intel HD and Radeon, I've read on wiki pages it could cause some problems. Installation boots fine, there are minor problems with wi-fi (it asks for realtek firmware, which bugged me), but ethernet works good enough. I figure it will be trivial to install the right wi-fi firmware after. I've checked if Secure boot is on, it is not.

EDIT: Wi-fi works but you need broadcom-sta-source package. Build it with module assistant and install with:

Code: Select all

m-a a-i -t broadcom-sta-source
Don't forget to install broadcom-sta-common package!
Afterwards load the module with:

Code: Select all

modprobe wl
/end of EDIT

Current OS is Windows 10, which did not come pre-installed. Will that cause problems, or it will be perfectly fine to dual-boot (for now)?

TL;DR:
1. My rig is HP Notebook 15-ac029nm, with Windows 10 on it.
2. Secure boot is disabled.
3. Dual graphics
4. Wi-Fi needs non-free firmware, not a problem.
5. Will opt for GNOME desktop.
Last edited by Wheelerof4te on 2017-06-24 11:26, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Wheelerof4te wrote:Current OS is Windows 10, which did not come pre-installed. Will that cause problems, or it will be perfectly fine to dual-boot (for now)?
I think it should be fine as long as you use a non-live (netinstall) ISO image to actually install the system, the live images do not support UEFI.

Be sure to use the Windows Disk Management tool to shrink the Windows partition and make space on the drive; right-click on the Windows button, it is an option in that menu.

If the hardware is relatively new then the stretch rc3 image may be a better choice, use the live images to check compatibility (if you haven't already).

Be aware that you will need to set Windows to use UTC rather than local time, run this command from a Windows Administrator prompt:

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reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f
It is also vital to disable Fast Startup to prevent corruption of your Linux partitions, this is the incantation you need for that:

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powercfg /hibernate off
If your motherboard firmware is badly behaved, it may be necessary to set GRUB as the default bootloader from Windows:

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bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path "\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi"
Finally, Windows will reset these modifications after every major upgrade, see this guide for a solution:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3624

I hate Windows so much.
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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#3 Post by Wheelerof4te »

^Thank you for the detailed info. It looks like I can forget about dual-booting, seeing how much annoying it will be to set up. Microsoft really worked hard this time to prevent any other OS to be installed, LOL.

I have netinstall Jessie .iso, but Stretch live image sounds good, as a test. Will try to do that first before anything else.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#4 Post by stevepusser »

It would help others with the same notebook if you'd document here what you have to do to get everything up and working correctly.

A first step that can be done in the Live session is to install inxi, update the PCI and USB device databases as sysadmin:

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update-pciids
update-usbids
and report the output of

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inxi -F
That will give us an idea of the hardware and drivers the Live session is using.
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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#5 Post by stevepusser »

No answer...the Google says that the notebook's CPU and GPU is fourth-generation Broadwell, which means you are not getting full graphics performance with the Jessie kernel and Intel graphics driver. It's possible to get it working well by upgrading the kernel and graphics stack from jessie-backports, or you could try installing Stretch now for out-of-box support.
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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#6 Post by Wheelerof4te »

^Sorry, I couldn't find any USB large enough for the live image. Buying one isn't an option right now.

Yes, you are right, that's what I've read too. I need Stretch's kernel to get both of my cards working out of the box. Considering yours and Head_on_a_Stick's answer, my best bet is to wait for Stretch to be released and to wipe Windows. Dual booting will be a pain with this one, and I don't want to use testing for this notebook.

Thank you both for the help. If all goes well, I'll report it here.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#7 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Well, it seems like live XFCE image can fit in 1 GB USB, haha. I can not describe how happy I am right now :D

Image
new upload photos

Yes, this is Jessie XFCE live and it works like a charm on my notebook. Inxi report below...

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System:    Host: debian Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: N/A 
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8 
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Notebook v: Type1ProductConfigId
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 80C2 v: 96.13
           Bios: Insyde v: F.0D date: 07/06/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Pentium 3825U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1900 MHz 2: 1730 MHz 3: 1900 MHz 4: 839 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel HD Graphics
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
Audio:     Card-1 Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller 
           driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Card-2 Intel Broadwell-U Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.16.0-4-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full 
           mac: b0:5a:da:5a:8a:51
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n
           driver: bcma-pci-bridge
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1001.2GB (0.1% used)
           ID-1: USB /dev/sda model: TS1GJFV30 size: 1.0GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10JPVX size: 1000.2GB
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 146 Uptime: 12 min Memory: 515.9/7924.3MB 
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28 
I haven't really tested it fully. As you can see, it doesn't use my radeon card, but it recognizes it. Installing kernel from backports might fix it. It recognizes pretty much everything else. I've noticed also that my battery is draining somewhat fast, installing non-free firmware could help. This is an official live image, which is so sweet. As for the Wi-Fi, it won't be a problem to set up.

RAM usage sits at 7% and CPU is barely struggling at 1-4% with Firefox, Task manager, Thunar and Terminal running.
I will play with this later and report any changes if there are any. Will try to get Wi-fi running next time.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#8 Post by stevepusser »

Well, as is well known by now, you are not getting full support from the Intel graphics driver and Jessie's kernel. With Intel, the tipoff is this:

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GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.5, 128 bits)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
You can also have inxi just only report the graphics information with "inxi -G".

If you really want to get it working correctly, follow the HOWTO thread here, and it will look similar to this (for my Skylake 520 graphics):

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GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6
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Wheelerof4te
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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#9 Post by Wheelerof4te »

So I have downloaded live image of Debian 9 GNOME, since that annoying installation bug has been fixed. It is working well :D
This is the image:
https://ibb.co/kGUoL5

Here is the output of inxi for graphics

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Graphics:  Card-1: Intel HD Graphics
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: N/A
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Broadwell GT1
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6
Do I need non-free drver for Radeon card, will the performance get any better?

Network:

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Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169
           Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n
I have some problems with wi-fi even after checking this wiki page:
https://wiki.debian.org/brcm80211

Which driver do I need in order for my wi-fi to work? That is my only issue so far.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#10 Post by orythem27 »

Wheelerof4te wrote:Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430]
Do I need non-free drver for Radeon card, will the performance get any better?
The "original" non-free driver for Radeon HD 8000 series "fglrx" has been abadoned by AMD long long ago. Some people have luck building it on Debian 9. Personally I would not recommend it anymore to avoid creating a huge mess.

For casual use, stick with the open source driver "radeon". Make sure you have non-free firmware installed.

New driver "amdgpu" 's support for GCN 1.0/1.1 cards are still experimental and not really suitable for every day use. (From my own tests it actually performs worse.)
Wheelerof4te wrote: Card-2: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n
Which driver do I need in order for my wi-fi to work?
Open source drivers currently don't and possibly won't ever support BCM43142. Your only option is the proprietary driver 'wl'.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#11 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Thank you for your reply. I will try that wl driver and if it works, I'll report.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#12 Post by Wheelerof4te »

EDIT: This guy did it somehow:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -in-debian
PROBLEM SOLVED by installing debian from live-cd version which has firmware included. Now I have my wi-fi.
but it fails to load wl module on kernel version 4.9 in Stretch. I will try non-free live image sometime in the future. Now I will opt for other distros.

/end of EDIT

After

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms wl
I get an error:

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wl.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod...
It is failing, too bad...seems like I can't run Debian using this notebook. I wonder if Jessie will work, but since I will need kernel 4.9 for graphics, I might give up.

Thank you all for help, it was fun experimenting.

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Re: Install Debian on HP Notebook

#13 Post by orythem27 »

Well, maybe the complete output of "apt install broadcom-sta-dkms" would reveal more. One of the most common problems is the lack of linux headers for the current running kernel. And if you managed to get it built, sometimes wl.ko would refuse to load with secure boot enabled.

Personally I always found the non-free driver to be a bit of lottery, so yes, maybe with another distro it will work.

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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#14 Post by stevepusser »

I read the stackexchange thread, the guy's build failed because he didn't have access to the repos to install headers & compilers, no doubt because they were disabled when the installer could not get a connection. Very common issue here. His "firmware got it to work" seems to be mistaken.

Also, there also is no "wl" package, instead "wl.ko" is the driver file (providing the wl driver) that is built and installed by the broadcom-sta-dkms package. To make certain your running kernel can build the driver, install module assistant and run as sysadmin:

Code: Select all

m-a prepare
Tip--in case you ever just need a deb of the completed wl driver for the same kernel in the future, it can be created by installing broadcom-sta-source and using module assistant as sysadmin:

Code: Select all

m-a build broadcom-sta-source
Pay attention to the last line of the output.

This comes in handy if you have a bunch of machines with the same hardware and kernel and just want to install the driver without having to build it on each one, or a machine without a Net connection.

Someone running Stretch here might charitably build you the "wl" driver deb if you don't have a wired connection. Also you could possibly just get an inexpensive USB wi-fi adapter that works well with Debian that doesn't have the crappy Broadcom or Realtek hardware, or maybe even swap out the internal Wi-Fi card for an Intel or Qualcomm one, if HP doesn't have a freaking whitelist in the BIOS, and provides easy access to it like my older HP laptop did. Often you can find a service manual or disassembly video for your laptop out there on the Web.
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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#15 Post by stevepusser »

Hmmm, if this is the service manual: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04763947

it looks easy to replace...though they seem to have a whitelist. Best to call HP technical support to see what hardware is supported first--no doubt these are, but I don't know how the support in Debian are for the other two.

WLAN module
Description
Spare part number
Ralink RT3290LE 802.11 bgn 1×1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 combo adapter
690020-001
Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi adapter
709848-001
Broadcom BCM43142 802.11 bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi + BT4.0 HMC Combo Adapter
753076-001
CAUTION:
To prevent an unresponsive system, replace the wireless module only with a wireless module
authorized for use in the computer by the governmental agency that regulates wireless devices in your
country or region. If you replace the module and then receive a warning message, remove the module to
restore device functionality, and then contact technical support
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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#16 Post by Wheelerof4te »

I have followed this wiki page:

https://wiki.debian.org/wl

Here it said broadcom-sta-dkms driver supports my wi-fi card. But it failed to build the module when I ran:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms
I even tried the command as described in the wiki page. It does not load the wl module. I tried nonfree image, same result.

Maybe this driver can't build on kernel 4.9. Maybe I need to restart in order for wifi to work. I don't know, and I don't wanna risk it. Since live image can't get the Wi-Fi to work, there is nothing else for me to do.

I will try your suggestions, but it's better to keep this image for some other computer (maybe a bit older).

If someone with the same HP model as me gets Debian to work with wifi, he/she is free to post it here.

EDIT: Thank you for really trying to help :)

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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#17 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Here is the full output from

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sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms

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user@debian:~$ sudo apt-get install broadcom-sta-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  broadcom-sta-dkms
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,211 kB of archives.
After this operation, 14.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/non-free amd64 broadcom-sta-dkms all 6.30.223.271-5 [2,211 kB]
Fetched 2,211 kB in 1s (1,127 kB/s)            
Selecting previously unselected package broadcom-sta-dkms.
(Reading database ... 184736 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-5_all.deb ...
Unpacking broadcom-sta-dkms (6.30.223.271-5) ...
Setting up broadcom-sta-dkms (6.30.223.271-5) ...
Loading new broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 DKMS files...
Building for 4.9.0-3-amd64
Building initial module for 4.9.0-3-amd64
Done.

wl:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64/updates/dkms/

depmod.....

Backing up initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64 to /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms
Making new initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64
(If next boot fails, revert to initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms image)
update-initramfs........(bad exit status: 1)

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module:  broadcom-sta
Version: 6.30.223.271
Kernel:  4.9.0-3-amd64 (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: Before uninstall, this module version was ACTIVE on this kernel.

wl.ko:
 - Uninstallation
   - Deleting from: /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64/updates/dkms/
 - Original module
   - No original module was found for this module on this kernel.
   - Use the dkms install command to reinstall any previous module version.

depmod...

Backing up initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64 to /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms
Making new initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64
(If next boot fails, revert to initrd.img-4.9.0-3-amd64.old-dkms image)
update-initramfs.........(bad exit status: 1)
Warning: There was a problem remaking your initrd.  You must manually remake it
before booting into this kernel.

DKMS: uninstall completed.
Error! Problems with mkinitrd detected.  Automatically uninstalling this module.
DKMS: Install Failed (mkinitrd problems).  Module rolled back to built state.
dpkg: error processing package broadcom-sta-dkms (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 7
Errors were encountered while processing:
 broadcom-sta-dkms
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Also:

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe wl
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found in directory /lib/modules/4.9.0-3-amd64
I am posting it here as a future reference. I also built broadcom driver from source using module assistant. Nothing happened, no Wi-Fi.

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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#18 Post by stevepusser »

Something is going wrong with updating your initramfs after the successful build, see this line

Code: Select all

Error! Problems with mkinitrd detected.  Automatically uninstalling this module.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell why from my end.

Did you try and install the deb file that the build command performed? If you want to try and have it do so automatically with terminal output, uninstall broadcom-sta-dkms and run

Code: Select all

m-a a-i -t broadcom-sta-source
a-i means auto-install, and -t is for the terminal output.
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Re: [FAILED] Install Debian on HP Notebook

#19 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Building the package broadcom-sta-source and installing using

Code: Select all

m-a a-i -t broadcom-sta-source
did the trick! I maybe even could get it to work simply by installing broadcom-sta-dkms since I noticed doing that didn't install broadcom-sta-commom package. Installing it via module assistant pulled in that dependency.

I also see wi-fi is unstable and is loosing signal sometimes. Nevertheless I am glad it worked :D

Many thanks stevepusser and orythem27. Debian 9 works with this little Notebook.

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