technical post: installing linux

[a_shen]

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...

Comments

[aphar]

> trackbad cap

"trackpad cap"?
what's that?

multiple screens

[aphar]

I make sure that every application knows its screen and never leaves it, then configure it appropriately for that screen resolution.
This breaks down when I travel and have only one screen.
Emacs, for one, can be taught to adapt to the screen it inhabits.

[bamalip]

- skype sometimes works normally (after installation as described with 32 bit library)

You can download and try a new 64-bit Skype from it's (microsoft) site.
https://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/

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

It should be configurable via 'gnome-tweak-tool' application (you need to install it) on 'Power' page.

GNOME

[alexey_muranov]

You know that Canonical stops developing Unity and is going to switch to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04, right?

https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/04/05/growing-ubuntu-for-cloud-and-iot-rather-than-phone-and-convergence/

So, it probably makes sense to start getting used to Ubuntu GNOME.

unreadable messages

[alexey_muranov]

some programs produce almost unreadable messages due to the high screen density.

I do not have this problem (on Ubuntu GNOME). I set Fonts Scaling Factor to 1.25 in GNOME Tweak Tool and i believe it adjusted the font size everywhere, except for web pages in Firefox. For Firefox i installed NoSquint Plus plugin and it solved the problem.

Note also that not all GNOME settings can be edited through GNOME Tweak Tool, but you can modify them using dconf Editor (a GUI application) or with dconf command from the command line.

For example, in GNOME, window close-minimize-maximize buttons are on the right, like in Windows. To have them on the left, like in Mac OS, it is enough to do

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/wm/preferences/button-layout "'close,minimize,maximize:appmenu'"

To reset to the default position:

dconf reset /org/gnome/desktop/wm/preferences/button-layout