In this post:

1. A BIOS upgrade from F.03 to F.05 prevents the GUI from starting up
2. Getting the Via drivers in, and Compiz to run

I helped a friend install apps into her Vista 2133 this morning, and noted that her system was at BIOS level F.05.  My machine, being older, was F.03.  I downloaded the update file from hp.com, burned the ISO to a CD, and booted from the CD to perform the update.  The update went very well, but succeeded in killing X – the system kept getting stuck with a black screen and a single cursor right at the point where startX was supposed to happen.  I found this post by user luvit on hp2133.com which suggested that the 05 bios required the use of the latest via driver.  Fortunately, his post had a link to the F.04 bios iso, and downgrading the BIOS enabled me to start up Intrepid and log in successfully.

The next step was to install the Dec2 Via drivers – an attractive thought because this version was supposed to run Compiz.  Again, a post by user luvit on the Ubuntu forums came to my aid with instructions on installing the Via drivers and the link to download the files.  These are the steps from the Via driver readme file:

 How to Install/Uninstall the via Linux Driver
   1.1 uncompress the via driver package
	tar zxvf ./5.74.33.85a-44597.tar.gz
   1.2  Install the via linux driver
	cd   ./5.74.33.85a-44597
	sudo ./vinstall
        Reboot system

I used the xorg.conf file linked to the post, but still needed a few more steps to make it work well (I’ll spare you the errors and odd video behavior I kept bumping into)

Because I had accepted an update (bringing the kernel up to 27-9), the Via install script was incorrect, and the following steps had to be performed manually to fix it.  Instructions for this came from a post by JeeBee on hp2133:

1. cd /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/kernel/ubuntu/via_chrome9/
2. ls -l
3. sudo mv via_chrome9.ko via_chrome9.ko.fails
4. sudo mv via_chrome9.ko.viabak via_chrome9.ko
5. Reboot

Once the Via drivers were installed, I upgraded the bios again to F.05, and this time, Ubuntu had no trouble loading the GUI.

Now to get Compiz working.  The next step is to add “via” to the whitelist in the /usr/bin/compiz file, per the instructions in the Notes section of the via driver package readme.txt

Then, replace the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with the contents of the example in this page, from the Ubuntu Wiki (see section for xorg.conf for 3D)

Start up Add/Remove programs, and type compiz in the search box.  Select “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings” and install.

Reboot

Right click an empty portion of the desktop and select “Change Desktop Background”.  Click on the “Visual Effects” tab, and select the “Extra” option.

After that, you can go to System>Preferences>CompizConfig Settings Manager and configure it as you please.

A page that I found very helpful in configuring Compiz is this post from the Xubuntu Blog.

It’s been a lot of trial and error and looking up lots of forum and blog posts, but it’s all very nicely working now.  I have the many contributors of the posts I’ve linked to above to thank for this.

I use VLC for playing video, and I notice that if I skip the slider ahead, the video window is black until I shift the window a little.  Not a problem for me, and something I’d gladly exchange for the eye candy compiz brings.

Have not yet tried getting the webcam to work with Skype – that’s next on my to-do list.  But first, a full backup is in order, just in case.

>>Part 1 (setup)
>>Part 3 (audio tips)
>>Photos here and here