Linux on an HP N5195 Laptop

Links on Web

HP N5190 (NOTE: I followed this site's advice on getting the X11 driver.)

Omnibook XE3 which appears to be VERY similar to N519x series. This site has networking instructions.

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture was loaded per the instructions at the Omnibook XE3 site. In addition, the ALSAplayer was loaded.

The Mobilix site has a pointer to the LinModem-HOWTO which in turn points to drivers for the ESS modem.

The modem is based on an ESS Technology chipset. Chipset is probably the ES56V-PI.

Disk Layout

There is a delicate dance that must be performed to get Windows and Linux to nicely dual-boot and co-exist. One must account for the following restrictions:

Existence of hybernation partition.

HP Recovery CD's assumption that first partition that is not Hybernation is where WindowsME should be installed.

Keeping all boot partitions within first 1023 cylinders.

The disk layout and procedure described here may not be the best but it seems to work fine.

/dev/hda1	Hybernation	256 Mbytes
/dev/hda2	WindowsME	5000 Mbytes
/dev/hda3	Linux /	2075 Mbytes
/dev/hda4	Extended Partition	remainder of disk
/dev/hda5	Linux swap	256 Mbytes
/dev/hda6	Linux /home	1024 Mbytes
/dev/hda7	Linux /usr1	rest of disk

NOTE: Partitions hda1 through hda3 completely fit within the first 1023 cylinders.

Outstanding Problems

Modem is untested by me but is reported by others to be a soft modem not supported by Linux.

Networking is unattempted.

Reboot from Linux seems to hang most of the time.

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