Tuesday, February 19, 2013

HP Pavilion g6-2313AX Ubuntu Linux Driver Problem Solution / Review

Updated for Ubuntu 13.04.
I recently purchased HP Pavilion G6-2313AX Laptop. Its ships with free DOS. Here I am sharing my experience with Ubuntu on it which is not that good. For Windows 8 drivers visit here. Its hardware specification are:

Product Nameg6-2313ax
Product NumberD5F90PA
Microprocessor2.3 GHz AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M
Microprocessor Cache4 MB L2 cache
Memory6 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Video GraphicsAMD Radeon HD 7660G/7670M Dual GPU (2 GB DDR3 dedicated)
Display15.6" diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit (1366 x 768)
Hard Drive1 TB 5400 rpm SATA
Multimedia DriveSuperMulti DVD burner
Network CardIntegrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless ConnectivityBluetooth
802.11b/g/n
Sound2 x Altec Lansing Internal speakers; Dolby Advanced Audio v2 Audio playback; Dual speakers
KeyboardFull-size island-style keyboard
Pointing DeviceTouchPad supporting multi-touch gestures and on/off button
PC Card SlotsMulti-format digital media card reader for secure digital cards & multimedia cards
External Ports
    2 SuperSpeed USB 3.0
    1 HDMI
    1 VGA
    1 RJ-45
    1 Headphone-out (Stereo)
    1 Microphone-in
Dimensions37.6 x 24.4 x 3.63 cm
WeightStarting at 2.48 kg
Power90W AC Power Adapter
6-cell Li-Ion
What's In The BoxHP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated digital microphone (High Definition low-light)
Source

As a Ubuntu user I installed Ubuntu on it. Installation of Ubuntu is very simple and Ubuntu installed successfully and supports UEFI boot. The problem starts after the installation complete. Drivers for many devices are not available with default Ubuntu installation. Some of the problems I faced are:

  • No graphic driver by default.
  • Without graphic driver brightness up/down key does not work.
  • Processor runs at full load without graphic driver and fan make too much noise
  • No driver support for Bluetooth in Ubuntu 13.04
  • Wifi on/off key on keyboard indicator does not work
  • Poor battery life without graphic driver
  • AMD proprietary graphic driver (fglrx) from Ubuntu Software center fails to load.
  • Touch-pad on/off button do not work with Ubuntu 13.04
I searched the internet for the solution of these problem and found solution to most of the problems. Here I am sharing all those solution at one place.

Update Ubuntu First:
Connect to internet using LAN/Ethernet or by some other means as WiFi does not work with default installation. Just after installation first thing to do is to update the Ubuntu . This can be done easily using Software Updater available from Ubuntu dashboard. Install all new updates and restart PC when it ask to do so. This will require fast internet connection.

Do not update if you are installing Ubuntu 13.04 otherwise new Linux Kernel will create problem for WiFi drivers. Check the Linux Kernel version support the WiFi drivers which is available in Ubuntu updates. See the Installing WiFi driver below in this article.

Installation of Graphic Driver for AMD Radeon HD 7660G/7670M Dual GPU:
Visit the AMD web site and download latest beta graphic driver from AMD siteThis link has the newest stable and beta version of AMD Catalyst proprietary Linux display driver. The stable version now works good with with this laptop's hardware so no need to try beta version and the stable version works great.

Open the terminal and run the following command:
sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases linux-headers-generic ia32-libs
Usually the downloaded file goes into Downloads directory. Now extract the downloaded AMD driver file and there will be a .run file after unzip. Change the directory to Downloads in the terminal using command.
cd Downloads
Run these commands in terminal and check the file name of the downloaded file:
sudo sh ./amd-catalyst-13.4-linux-x86.x86_64.run
This command will ask you enter root password, provide and further graphical installation will start. But no text will be displayed on the buttons so continue blindly clicking right most button with default installation.

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On the next screen there will be a window showing progress two bars. At the end it will ask to restart. After restart check the brightness up/down keys if they are working or not. They should be working fine now.

From Ubuntu dashboard open AMD Catalyst Control Center to view and change the settings.

Graphics Information.
To get more battery backup choose Power-saving GPU.

After installing the AMD Radeon HD 7660G/7670M Dual GPU processor will run smoothly and the processor fan will make less noise.

There will be a watermark  displaying "AMD Test Use Only" at the lower right corner of the display. To remove it visit this link.

One important thing that I observe is that whenever I install updates the graphic driver breaks and I have to uninstall graphic driver from terminal and then reinstall them.

Installing WiFi Driver:
This laptop has the following WiFi and blutooth components.
Network controller          Ralink corp. Device 3290
Bluetooth          Ralink corp. Device 3298

WiFi works with default drivers provided but there are frequent disconnects even if laptop is just few feet away from router.So poor WiFi drivers support, so I would recommend to use external WiFi dongle.


Bluetooth never worked and I did not wasted time on it as I do not need it.

Benchmarks for HP Pavilion g6-2313AX:

Package used : HardInfo 0.5.1

CPU Blowfish:
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX   1999 MHz3.979
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz(null)26.1876862
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz)(null)172.816713

CPU CryptoHash:
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX                               1999 MHz305.384

CPU Fibonacci
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX   1999 MHz2.187
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz(null)8.1375674
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz)(null)58.07682

CPU N-Queens
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX                              1999 MHz6.346

FPU FFT
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX                             1999 MHz1.237

FPU Raytracing
HP Pavilion g6-2313AX1999 MHz3.772
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz(null)40.8816714
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz)(null)161.312647

Battery and Graphics:

Battery performance with external graphics card enabled is very very poor, approximately one and half hour. Battery life with internal graphics enabled is good and is approximately two and half hour or less. But to switch external graphics to internal power saving graphics you have to restart the laptop after changing the settings in AMD Catalyst and that is a big problem.

If you are buying it thinking that it has external graphic card than you should rethink. The external graphic card eats too much battery and you may have to switch to internal graphics for normal use.


Heating Problem:

Now its summer in India and if I put this laptop on bed and use it then it becomes so heated and I observe thermal shut-down once while the Intel laptop works fine. Even the cooling pad does not help.


At the end after using HP Pavilion g6-2313AX for few months with Ubuntu the conclusion is that this is not a good deal, even my other two year old Dell Inspiron i5 laptop gives better and smooth performance than g6-2313AX. This laptop is crap. I would be lucky if I get a chance to exchange it with Intel one.I would suggest you not to buy this laptop.

18 comments:

  1. Hey thanks for this post. I just got my 2313ax and followed all the instructions except the one on the wifi adapter.

    Have you tried installing 12.04 and doing this workaround:http://rricketts.com/installing-ralink-rt3290-wireless-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-04/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes I tried it...it worked good like for half an hour and after that it stopped working plus I was getting low speeds with inbuilt wifi RT3290.

    So I decided to wait for Ubuntu 13.04 which has inbuilt support for RT3290 wifi device and use my old external wifi dongle for now.

    If I update the Ubuntu Linux Kernel then it make Ubuntu unstable (hangs and crashes) and beta graphics driver from Ubuntu are for current Ubuntu Kernel 3.5 series.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, I am trying it on 12.04 today - will let you know if it works on mine. Thanks again for the useful tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it should work on Ubuntu 12.04 but I tested it on Ubuntu 12.10 and did not work. I had to update Linux Kernel to 3.8

      Delete
  4. It's not working for me for some reason.. The wifi connects full signal etc but firefox crashes every time I try to use it. I'm running on 12.04, 3.5.0-25-generic
    Any thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have the same Linux Kernel in Ubutnu 12.10 and the driver do not work with it. See this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1049466/+affectsmetoo

      No way to reverse it: For wifi to work you have to update the Linux Kernel to newer Kernel like 3.8 series from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.1-raring/
      3.8.1 is latest. Download all deb file which have "amd64" and "all" in its name. Put them in one folder, open terminal, change directory where you put the all deb files using "cd" command and run the following command in terminal.

      sudo dpkg -i *.deb

      This will install new kernel. Now those wifi driver will work but graphics may create problem now.

      Delete
    2. Linux Kernel create lot of problem to pre-installed driver some time. Like on 28 Feb I installed updates in Ubuntu and linux kernel got updates and after restart there is no graphical desktop. Then I have to go back to console/terminal and updated(Uninstalled and installed new beta driver) the AMD graphic driver.

      Delete
  5. Thank you for your reply.

    Update: Everything except the Bluetooth device is working.

    The mistake I made earlier was that I got the 12.04.2 rather than the 12.04
    The 12.04.2 has a hardware enablement stack and has 3.5.x kernels.

    I downloaded 12.04 and did a fresh install.

    The 12.04 that i'm using now is 3.2.0-38 generic

    Wifi is working fine now. Thank you again for this great tutorial.

    Note: I had to change: sudo sh ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.2-beta3-linux-x86.x86_64.run

    to sudo sh ./amd-driver-installer-catalyst-13.2-beta7-linux-x86.x86_64.run

    as beta 7 is out now.

    Also page 3 of the link you gave to remove the watermark has a much easier option: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2076381&page=3

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ubuntu 12.04 is good for this laptop...this link will help with graphic driver to remove in case these beta driver stopped working after installing any kernel update...

    http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Natty_Installation_Guide#Removing_Catalyst.2Ffglrx

    In such a case download new graphic driver from AMD if there is new beta or stable and make a new install.

    Me too did not find any solution for Bluetooth. Bluetooth is rarely used with PC these days. So it does not create much problem.

    Lets see what Ubuntu 13.04 has for it. Beta will come out on 14th march.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Remember: Do not install new updated Kernel from Ubuntu updates. It will break the working drivers for wifi.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now that Ubuntu 13.04 is out, can you please update us about the driver support for this laptop?

    I am eager to buy this one.

    Thanks,
    HRJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have updated it for Ubuntu 13.04 and I would not recommend to buy it. I bought it because it has 1 TB HDD but processor is very poor.

      Delete
  9. can you tell how to install bluetooth drivers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did not find any easy to install or working driver for it and I dont use blutooth.

      Delete
  10. I actually enjoyed reading through this posting.Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. But it's like no. simply return to windows eight. are not too several enhancements with eight.1. and vice support is worse..
    graphics card

    ReplyDelete
  12. If your laptop is going to be using Computer Animated Design software for example, you're going to want a more powerful processor than if you're merely using it for Word Processing or Internet based research.Read Guide: Best 2 In 1 Laptop 2019

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for sharing the article.

    ReplyDelete