General Hardware Specifications of my HP Compaq nc6400:

This laptop is operating under kernel version 2.6.20-16

Just insert the Kubuntu CD and boot from it.

I've found that it sometimes takes forever to boot the system if the wireless network is activated and there is no DHCP server available to give it an IP address. Fortunately, the wireless on/off button works fine; just turn off wireless networking if there is no wireless network to connect to and it boots much faster.

In order to get the correct screen resolution, one has to install 915resolution: "915resolution is a tool to modify the video BIOS of the 800 and 900 series Intel graphics chipsets. This includes the 845G, 855G, and 865G chipsets, as well as 915G, 915GM, and 945G chipsets. This modification is necessary to allow the display of certain graphics resolutions for an Xorg or XFree86 graphics server."

To install 915resolution, use Kubuntu's Advanced Packaging Tool, sudo apt-get install 915resolution. (You can of course also install it via the graphical Adept tool.)

After 915resolution is installed, you need to edit its configuration file /etc/default/915resolution using your text editor of choice. You need to be root to do this (sudo if you haven't enabled the root account). Mine looks like this:

spjh@joshua:~$ cat /etc/default/915resolution
#
# 915resolution default
#
# find free modes by  /usr/sbin/915resolution -l
# and set it to MODE or set to 'MODE=auto'
#
# With 'auto' detection, the panel-size will be fetched from the VBE
# BIOS if possible and the highest-numbered mode in each bit-depth
# will be overwritten with the detected panel-size.
MODE=38
#
# and set resolutions for the mode.
# e.g. use XRESO=1024 and YRESO=768
XRESO=1280
YRESO=800
#
# We can also set the pixel mode.
# e.g. use BIT=32
# Please note that this is optional,
# you can also leave this value blank.
BIT=32

After doing that, you can take full advantage of your nc6400's sharp and nice display.

The nc6400 really is a nice laptop. It's fast, it has lot of features, and it's not too big and heavy. The only downside is that it could be a bit cheaper.

The DVD/CD writer works fine. The integrated Bluetooth adapter connects to my LG KG800 phone without problems. It's nice to watch DVD movies on the wide screen display, and sound quality from the built-in stereo speakers is acceptable. I like the fact that it has both a touchpad and a pointing stick, and the scroll zone of the touchpad is a really nice thing.

KDE's power manager detects the battery without problems, and it detects when the power cord is plugged in. It's also possible to change the CPU throttling policy from the power manager.

Installing Kubuntu was quite painless, althogh I was a bit disappointed that I was unable to use the monitor's native resolution without installing a tweak for the video BIOS. Some of the features which I haven't tested (e.g. S-Video and RGB out) probably work fine. Others, like the finger print reader, may not work. I don't, however, have much use for that which I haven't tested.

• HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC - overview and features
• Kubuntu
• 915Resolution: Intel Video BIOS Hack
• Linux on Laptops
• My home page