dv4z team mailing list archive

[Guy Stalnaker <jstalnak@xxxxxxxx>]

Amy,

I have similar issues with my HP dv4.

For you the issues are going to be the amount of work you want to do, 
and what you'll need to learn to do it, versus your willingness to live 
with the Ubuntu on your laptop as it is (is it critical that you get 
that internal mic working, or the camera, or can you live with a 
microphone plugged into the front input jack? that kind of thing).

So you'll know. Linux is a community-support operating system and that 
means that there are 'people out in the world' who contribute software 
(generally called 'drivers' among other things) to Linux to make it work 
with all the various monitors, harddrives, usb devices, mouses, 
keyboards, ethernet cards, modems, audio cards, cameras, etc. that make 
up a modern computer (generally called 'hardware').  As new kernels (the 
heart of Linux) are written, or new hardware is developed and installed 
in computers and laptops, these 'people out in the world' give of their 
time to update existing drivers to work with the new kernel or write new 
drivers to work with new hardware.  So, there are specific people who 
write the drivers for the audio system of your dv3 and my dv4. You can 
actually communicate directly with these people! That is the wonder of 
Linux!!

When I first bought my laptop, I had working jacks but no internal 
speakers. Everything I found searching with Google failed to get it 
working. I eventually went directly to the source, the ALSA developers. 
Don't worry what ALSA means, what is good is that these people are the 
ones who wrote what mostly works now and are the people who can add to 
it to make work what's not working.

But ...

To use their help you have to be comfortable with downloading what's 
called 'source code' (the stuff that developers write which become 
drivers and software) and compiling it into drivers your Ubuntu can use. 
And you have to edit some configuration files so your Ubuntu knows 
enough about your audio system and the new drivers to use them. I've 
been using Linux for well over a decade (and I took programming classes 
10 years before that), so doing this is trivial for me. Only you know 
about yourself :-)

One more very important thing -- you absolutely must be comfortable 
using a 'shell' or, to say it another way, the command line via a 
'terminal' application. Every Linux system comes with at least one 
terminal application, xterm. Almost all have their own (Gnome uses 
gnome-terminal, KDE uses console, etc.).  An email is not a good place 
to introduce you to using a terminal, but you cannot, really, do what 
I'm talking about here without using a terminal. So, first thing you'd 
need to do, if you can't already, is use a terminal (sometimes called a 
shell):

http://www.linuxcommand.org/

Next is compiling source code (e.g., audio drivers). Here are several 
online introductions to compiling source code. I've tried to find for 
you sites that don't use a lot of jargon--hopefully I've succeeded:

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/unix7.html
http://liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=82
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_compile_programs_from_source_linux

And then finally, those ALSA developer guys ...

http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/TroubleShooting

That may seem like a starting point, but when you look at step 2., 
you'll see they are already talking about compiling.  The 
alsa-developers mailing list was where I found the help I needed.  I was 
able to get instructions on what they required to help diagnose the 
problem (and where to look to find that information). They were 
excellent and very helpful.

I know this is a lot to throw at you, but this is one of the 
advantages/disadvantages of the Linux world.  But you need to be 
unafraid and bold -- you can learn this and do it.  Thousands of people 
have.

Best regards,

Guy

Albert Vilella wrote:
> ccing to the list.
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 10:45 PM, amywallis82 <amywallis82@xxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:amywallis82@xxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     hello! i joined this group because i have am hp dv3-1075 and i have
>     just, with the help of a friend installed ubuntu on it. everything works
>     great, except for the internal mic (mic jack does work and speakers).
>     nothing we tried worked. in an attempt to make it work we installed the
>     latest version of ubuntu that is yet untested(or something like that).
>     it still didn't work. Help me pleeeeeease. i am very very new to linux.
>     i was very excited to find this group! thanks for creating it.
>
>     amy
>     --
>     This message was sent from Launchpad by the user
>     amywallis82 (https://launchpad.net/~amywallis82
>     <https://launchpad.net/%7Eamywallis82>)
>     using the "Contact this team" link on the HP Pavilion dvXz laptop
>     and Linux
>     team page to each member directly.
>     For more information see
>     https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount/ContactingPeople
>
>
>
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--

Guy Stalnaker I2@DOIT jstalnak@xxxxxxxx
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