dv8tion242
Active member
Ubuntu may not have the appeal it once did, but these may help those either using something similar or a Ubuntu derivative.
The Vortex 4 which was ordered was pretty standard kit with the exception of SSD, a bit more memory and i7-4700 proc. Oh and the Killler 1202 network.
Initially tried an existing 12.04.2 LiveCD which just didn't know what to do. 12.04.3 on the other-hand, had no problem installing. So whatever distro is your choice, it's probably worthwhile finding a recent build. Even after the initial install, it's worth getting updated.
Found that enabling the OEM install on the livemedia (Hit F4 from GRUB) gives more control over what actually is being installed as well as upgrading the laptop/pc before some things are installed, then upgraded before the user account is created.. Not worth trying to change desktop settings as the user oemaccount is just a temp which is created. What does seem to be preserved are application installs and underlying global changes/upgrades. This would also be a good point if you need to install on a bunch of similar spec machines.
If you have an HP printer, it is well worth installing the updated HPLip files as this gives access to more than a generic Print manager.
***
Things that work (at least on initial viewing) OOTB:
Camera (Works but for some reason, is not enabled until the 'Camera' function key is triggered)
Network (wifi - haven't used ethernet port yet)
SPDIF - which was easy to find as no cover was included. With that red light, airport security are going to love me..
Sound - They work, but sound is tinny, even for a laptop.
Keyboard (haven't gone through all the keys/combos so you're on your own).
USB ports.
Suspend appears to work just fine.
Power management seems to be playing nice as does CPU fan control which can be (ahem) points of irritation.
Bluetooth seems to work, but is not attached, just reports as something.
Battery-life: Sitting at idle while I type this on my desktop the laptop has been up for about an hour, the remaining time dropped from 4:30 a few minutes ago to 3:15. Now back to 4:20.. So not brilliant, but not shocking either. It's an i7.
***
Things that seem to be a bit quirky:
The trackpad - May have multitouch which enables pinch-zoom but in the mouse properties you only get side scrolling in 12.04 (probably other distros too). Windows multi-touch does work, but is not very fluid.
*****************
The GPU sits on all the time unless you enable Bumblebee, which can be found at http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html Can't make any promises it'll work for you, but the GPU light does turn off.. Supposedly accessing the CUDA capabilities is sortof automatic. No errors re-booting, so maybe a win?
***********Appears to not work*********
Things that should have been given more thought.
Finger-print reader works in Windows (whoever make the actual sensor sit in a dip needs to go back to UI school) but can be flaky to get working in Linux. As that is a low priority, (but poor placement) I'm not going to bother. I've a few readers from where I used to work and they work fine in buntu, but you're on your own here if it does not work https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FingerprintAuthentication.
That's as far as I've travelled with this Vortex
[update- 01-29]
-- The bluray device seems to have issues talking politely (even to VLC) but does physically work. I'd post how I got it working, but I suspect posting that level of info would be struck down as promoting piracy. XBMC does run pretty well once those hoops are dealt with.
-- The system does run warm even with the fans and once that happens, the integrated GPU(CPU?) seems to be kept too be kept too warm for the system's comfort (weird display, slow response).
-- The user screen seems to be OK with rebooting, but on a cold-boot, usually comes up to a black-screen with a blinking cursor. Type in your password and the Unity UI seems to load OK. Probably flaky hardware management courtesy of nvidia/bumblebee. Once up, works fine.
-- Battery with a full charge seems to be about 4 hours. Note this was under pretty low-load conditions and 64bit install..
Still need to install jitsi/skype etc.
https://jitsi.org/Main/Download
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/
Once the camera is up and running, these run just fine.
The Vortex 4 which was ordered was pretty standard kit with the exception of SSD, a bit more memory and i7-4700 proc. Oh and the Killler 1202 network.
Initially tried an existing 12.04.2 LiveCD which just didn't know what to do. 12.04.3 on the other-hand, had no problem installing. So whatever distro is your choice, it's probably worthwhile finding a recent build. Even after the initial install, it's worth getting updated.
Found that enabling the OEM install on the livemedia (Hit F4 from GRUB) gives more control over what actually is being installed as well as upgrading the laptop/pc before some things are installed, then upgraded before the user account is created.. Not worth trying to change desktop settings as the user oemaccount is just a temp which is created. What does seem to be preserved are application installs and underlying global changes/upgrades. This would also be a good point if you need to install on a bunch of similar spec machines.
If you have an HP printer, it is well worth installing the updated HPLip files as this gives access to more than a generic Print manager.
***
Things that work (at least on initial viewing) OOTB:
Camera (Works but for some reason, is not enabled until the 'Camera' function key is triggered)
Network (wifi - haven't used ethernet port yet)
SPDIF - which was easy to find as no cover was included. With that red light, airport security are going to love me..
Sound - They work, but sound is tinny, even for a laptop.
Keyboard (haven't gone through all the keys/combos so you're on your own).
USB ports.
Suspend appears to work just fine.
Power management seems to be playing nice as does CPU fan control which can be (ahem) points of irritation.
Bluetooth seems to work, but is not attached, just reports as something.
Battery-life: Sitting at idle while I type this on my desktop the laptop has been up for about an hour, the remaining time dropped from 4:30 a few minutes ago to 3:15. Now back to 4:20.. So not brilliant, but not shocking either. It's an i7.
***
Things that seem to be a bit quirky:
The trackpad - May have multitouch which enables pinch-zoom but in the mouse properties you only get side scrolling in 12.04 (probably other distros too). Windows multi-touch does work, but is not very fluid.
*****************
The GPU sits on all the time unless you enable Bumblebee, which can be found at http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html Can't make any promises it'll work for you, but the GPU light does turn off.. Supposedly accessing the CUDA capabilities is sortof automatic. No errors re-booting, so maybe a win?
***********Appears to not work*********
Things that should have been given more thought.
Finger-print reader works in Windows (whoever make the actual sensor sit in a dip needs to go back to UI school) but can be flaky to get working in Linux. As that is a low priority, (but poor placement) I'm not going to bother. I've a few readers from where I used to work and they work fine in buntu, but you're on your own here if it does not work https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FingerprintAuthentication.
That's as far as I've travelled with this Vortex
[update- 01-29]
-- The bluray device seems to have issues talking politely (even to VLC) but does physically work. I'd post how I got it working, but I suspect posting that level of info would be struck down as promoting piracy. XBMC does run pretty well once those hoops are dealt with.
-- The system does run warm even with the fans and once that happens, the integrated GPU(CPU?) seems to be kept too be kept too warm for the system's comfort (weird display, slow response).
-- The user screen seems to be OK with rebooting, but on a cold-boot, usually comes up to a black-screen with a blinking cursor. Type in your password and the Unity UI seems to load OK. Probably flaky hardware management courtesy of nvidia/bumblebee. Once up, works fine.
-- Battery with a full charge seems to be about 4 hours. Note this was under pretty low-load conditions and 64bit install..
Still need to install jitsi/skype etc.
https://jitsi.org/Main/Download
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/
Once the camera is up and running, these run just fine.
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