The HP Mini-Note 2133 with Ubuntu is pretty sweet

Thursday, May 8. 2008

The HP Mini-Note 2133 with Ubuntu is pretty sweet

I got a mini-note 2133. It came with SUSE. I tried, repeatedly to do the most simple operations (using the software updater to update packages that had critical patches, install JDK 1.5, install Skype, etc.) and it just sucked. ZMD (the package manger) would crash, corrupt its database requiring a complete re-install to fix. It was simply aweful. I don't know what the folks at SUSE are thinking, but coming out with software that's more fragile than WIndows 3.1 and the registry is plain stupid.

So, I found some pointers for installing Ubuntu 8.04 on the mini-note. I installed Ubuntu and the Mini-Note turned into a great machine. I'm totally loving it. I've got everything except the wireless drivers working (but I'm using an EVDO modem and that works just fine... so I'm just using the EVDO modem at home as well.)

The performance of the Mini-Note 2133 (except for the video performance which is visibly slow) is pretty impressive. I've got 2GB of RAM in mine. A full build of lift takes 15 minutes on the Mini-Note and 7 minutes on my T61p (2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo.) Not too bad. I can do remote software development on this little beast. The touch-pad is a little hinky and I've bought a mini USB mouse with makes navigation a lot easier. The keyboard is totally usable.

So, to make the Mini-Note 2133 ready for prime time, install Ubuntu, don't call HP (they have weak support) and just use the beast to get your work done.

Posted by David Pollak in Business at 06:47 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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How come I did not hear about this hardware? Awesome. But I would not be able to sleep until getting that wireless to work.

#1 n8 (Homepage) on 2008-05-08 09:44 (Reply)

good to hear that its pretty easy to install linux on the mininote! i'm seriously considering getting one, but Suse was scaring me off

#2 42gems (Homepage) on 2008-05-10 16:07 (Reply)

So do you want to share the process you went through to get Ubuntu up and running? I bought the Mininote with SUSE, and really want to convert it, it really does suck! I'm having some noobie trouble regarding how to do that? Please advise.
thx

#3 foreskinz on 2008-05-26 11:07 (Reply)

A friend borrow me one of his spare mini-note for a night coming with suse... Actually today... I have tried suse until an hour ago; I went crazy, it's plain crape and might be okay for the one used to windows but not for actual linux users....

Try to find some repositories for it... Good luck... I think the biggest mistake was to come with the commercial version of Suse... I'm a Debian Sid user and though when I'm initiating friends to linux I usually always go with Ubuntu or Mandriva much easier...

I really don't understand HP and Asus choice to both go with crappy linux version...

Anyway, since an hour, I installed Ubuntu. I got the sound and wireless working but I still can't get 3D acceleration working... Will spend the whole night on it...

Anyway great computer (the best finition I have seen in PC so far) I'd recommend it... Even though it's not for me screen way to small...

#4 Paps on 2008-06-06 12:19 (Reply)

I bought one 10 days ago with preinstalled SUSE. The HP is great but SUSE sucks to death. It crashes once a day - at least. Installing additional software mostly fails due to dependencies issues.

So finally I bought an external DVD drive, downloaded Ubuntu on my Mac burned a CD, booted Ubuntu of the external CD drive an installed it.

Ubuntu just works. Haven-t got the webcam up and running yet but otherwise it just rocks and is rock solid.

Goto http://wiki.ubuntu.com and search for HP 2133 then follow the instructions.

banker

#5 banker on 2008-06-20 12:33 (Reply)

Ditto the first paragraph of the OP. I had almost exactly the same story with a corrupted installation of SLED after trying to update it.

There's a great installation guide here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HP2133

Wireless also works fine following the procedures above.

The webcam worked out of the box for me after following the instructions, using ekiga. It should also work for skype. The webcam didn't work at all on SLED10 SP1 which is what it shipped with.

Excellent. Just excellent.

The only downside is that the ubuntu UI is slightly less slick than SLED, and perhaps less obvious to a first time user. Other than that, it just works.

Dave

#6 Anonymous on 2008-08-09 12:37 (Reply)

Another quick one, responding to the post above, you don't need a DVD drive! I installed ubuntu to the HP2133 off a flash memory card, following the instructions here:

http://www.liliputing.com/2008/05/installing-minbuntu-804-with-usb-stick.html

(I actually went for the stock ubuntu 8.04 rather than minbuntu, then did the updates described at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HP2133).

See also http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=864301&highlight=2133

#7 Anonymous on 2008-08-09 12:44 (Reply)

Im loving my hp 2133, so far im using backtrackt 4 beta and its great. The resolution is clear once you unpack the drivers.
cd /opt/drivers
dpkg -i --force overwrite chromedriver.deb
startx

#8 Anonymous on 2009-03-29 08:37 (Reply)

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