a_shen | technical post: installing linux

on HP laptop Elitebook 840 G3, and some comments

I was afraid that linux won't install since it is not officially supported (it was sold with "Free DOS", I did not try it). Still things are much better than they could be.

It has 1Tb HD and 256 G flash drive, 32 G memory

Works without known problems:
- USB boot (I used Ubuntu 17.04)

- WiFi during installation and later use

- hi-resolution screen: the size of fonts is very reasonable out of the box

- external VGA output on the notebook at on the dock

- external displayport output on the notebook at on the dock

- usb ports on the dock (for mouse)

- sound on the notebook (including headphone/mic with 3-wire 3.5mm connector); btw, the sound is better than I expected from such a small device

- connection with external USB sound card (Audiogram) OK, do not checked the delays yet

- touchpad, buttons

-external USB mouse

- input language change

- suspend

- shutdown

-combination of internal screen and VGA external screen (dual display; see below about inconvenience)

-combination of internal screen and Displayport screen (with the same resolution as the internal one, dual display) both with the dock connector and the internal connector

- texlive installed without problems

Does not become hot. Slightly faster that Macbook pro 2011 and several times faster than macmini.

Keyboard is OK, but I do not know whether is it robust, feels a bit delicate. The trackpoint cap easily goes off when touched.

some problems:

- skype sometimes works normally (after installation as described with 32 bit library), but sometimes misses the calls for unclear reason, do not know what happens

- sometime an error message appears about nautilus, do not know why

- some programs produce almost unreadable messages due to the high screen density. Also using the external monitor together with the internal screen creates a problem, since for (my) external monitor the density is much less, so the fonts become huge when the window is opened or moved on the external monitor. Do not see a clear way to use different fonts for different screens...

- bluetooth audio adapter (Logitech) sometime does not connect

Does not work:

- suspend when notebook is closed (one should do this explicitly)

UPDATE: solved by editing /etc/systemd/logind.conf having now two uncommented lines "HandleLidSwitch=suspend" and "HandleLidSwitchDocked=suspend"

- audio output on the dock

- sometimes (rarely, probably this is connected with dock usage) the screen hangs, only mouse works (reboot using alt+F? works)

- skype does not seem to work with standard microphone+headphone connector (3.5 mm four-contact one), and (it seems) with Bluetooth audio

Did not try yet:

4k display

multidisplay configuration (the dock has several Displayport outputs)

Willing to test something if requested...

technical post: installing linux

Re: some rubber