How to Install Ubuntu Netbook Edition on an HP Mini 5102
HP Mini 5102 running Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04
The HP Mini 5102 (VQ670EA) is a business notebook with the newer Intel Atom N450 processor (1.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB) and Intel NM10 Express chipset. It comes pre-installed with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED.) Unfortunately, SLED isn’t optimised for the netbook and doesn’t provide much choice regarding applications and multimedia support. Consequently I ditched this in favour of the latest Ubuntu release. What an improvement!
Heads-up: Ubuntu Network Edition 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) works out-of-the-box on an HP Mini 5102 netbook.
Preparation: Since the HP Mini 5102 doesn’t have a CD-ROM I installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE) from a 2GB SD card. Here’s how it’s done:
- First, download the ISO image on another PC (I used a Windows PC; see Ubuntu Community Documentation for more options.)
- Extract usb-creator.exe from ubuntu-10.04-netbook-i386.iso using WinRAR or similar utility.
- Insert SD card (>= 1GB) or USB pen drive and format FAT32.
- Run usb-creator.exe, select image and device and make sure “discarded on shutdown, unless you save elsewhere” is selected.
- Make a cup of coffee using a Quooker while you wait for the image to complete.
Installation: Stick the SD card into your Mini, power-on and follow these simple steps:
- At boot time, when you see HP logo, press and hold <esc> until the BIOS menu is displayed.
- Now press and hold <F9> for the Boot Device Options. Select SD card and press <enter> to boot UNE.
- From the Ubuntu menu select Install Ubuntu Netbook and press the <tab> key to view the boot options.
- Delete the “quiet” option and press <enter> to start the Ubuntu installer.
- Following the on-screen instructions and UNE will be up and running in 10-15 minutes.
Tweaks: Wired networking is supported by the Kernel. The wireless card requires the Broadcom STA Proprietary Driver which is automatically identified by the Hardware Drivers administrative tool. A network connection is required. Finally, I made a couple of changes so I could browse Windows shares. This is described in MLManley’s blog (Problem 3.) my post Browsing Windows Shares on Ubuntu.
Issues: The hardware buttons for Web browsing and email don’t work (I’ve not attempted to address this.) Update: I’ve fixed this: http://martinwebster.eu/2011/01/27/launch-web-browser-using-hp-mini-5102-www-button-on-ubuntu/.
Correction: The email button launches Evolution.
Do the internal speakers work? I am running 9.10, and the speakers do not work, but the headphone jack does. As soon as I back-up my data, I would like to do the upgrade.
Yes, the built-in speakers work. Also, the f8, f10 and f11 keys control mute and volume.
I updated from 9.10, and everything works, including wifi. Thanks for blazing the trail.
I wanna know if the internal 3G module works with any version of Ubuntu??
My model doesn’t come with the 3G card (Qualcomm Gobi chipset) so I can’t confirm. You’ll need the HP Mini 5102 (VQ676EA) to get this option. Check out the Ubuntu Forums: HP un2400 Mobile Broadband Module.
Hi Martin,
Congratulations, a very explicative post. I did the same a couple of months ago on my Acer Aspire One netbook. No problems till now.
–aneiros
ONe weird issue that I am having is with the ethernet connection. I have seen this crop up on some forums, but I have not seen a reliable solution. If I unplug my ethernet cable and then plug it back in, it will not be recognized until I restart my computer. The reason that this is an issue, is that the printer at my work is only accessible by ehternet. So I have to reset my computer every time I want to print. Have you experienced this, and have you fixed this problem?
Are you saying that there’s no wired network connection showing in NetworkManager or that you cannot access the printer? What’s the output from ifconfig eth0? Also, are you first connecting at home and then reconnecting to another (work) network? Do you use a static IP or DHCP?
Unfortunately the
“I made a couple of changes so I could browse Windows shares” link, is now a broken link.
Can you kindly provide the modifications?
Thank you
Robert
From memory, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf add/ amend the following two lines:
workgroup = workgroupnetbios name = host
The workgroup name is usually WORKGROUP or HOME. The host name is found from the terminal, e.g. username@host:~$
Next, edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and look for a line similar to what follows and add wins:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns mdns4You’ll also need to install winbind: sudo apt-get install winbind
Finally, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and look for a line similar to the following:
name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast hostMake sure the order is as shown. To finish, restart samba and you should be up and running.
PS. Please let me know how you get on. I’ll amend the post in due course.
Thank you for the answer
Robert
I seem to be having issues with regards to my HP Mini 5102 booting from the SD card – this is with Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook edition and I’ve followed your instructions exactly – but I think there is some sort of Bios issue after reading through this (Ctrl + F the phrase “I’ve found one report of success booting an HP mini 5102″ ) and then read on! But I checked my Bios date and it’s dated March 2010 so maybe that is not the issue.
The main problem is after selecting “SD card” on the Boot device options, the Mini 5102 just continues to go and boot Windows, rather than boot from the SD card itself.
Hopefully the following information may help:
Product Number VQ670EA#ABU
BIOS Revision 68PGU Ver, F.05
BIOS Date 03/11/2010 (11/03/2010)
When you say you’re following my “instructions exactly” are you referring to the preparation and/ or the installations steps? If the SD card is not bootable I suspect the BIOS will try the next bootable device, i.e. the hard disk.
Oops, the Ctrl F should be done in this topic: http://forum.meego.com/archive/index.php/t-894.html
Forgot to copy the link! It’s basically a reference to your success – though in that case with booting Meego it wasn’t just a Bios issue.
Thanks for posting the link.
Thanks for the swift reply! I did follow your instructions exactly, right to using USBcreator.exe as the program for creating the bootable SD card (Mine is a 2GB bog-standard Sandisk one, formatted as FAT32). Your Bios Date is very helpful, as it is the exact same one as mine so I might still have hope!
Also many thanks for the instructions on holding Esc, then F9, as I didn’t know you could directly boot from a device (as I used to rely on boot orders which didn’t seem to work).
Maybe I’ll try 10.04 netbook edition like you did, and then upgrade from that if it works. Otherwise it might just be my SD card that’s at fault…
I can confirm for sure that my Bios date and revision number match the ones you posted from your configuration, the only difference is in product number (as mine is the 1366 x 768 resolution version, I guess). I think the issue is with the SD card, then, because I have tried Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 desktop + netbook edition, all placed onto the SD card with many-a USB creator program, yet while I don’t have the freezing at Bios issue some users have experienced, whenever I choose “SD card” at the Bios menu it just skips straight to the HDD, same with booting regularly with SD card at the top of the boot priority list.
However, one thing that is interesting is when I use Universal USB installer with my SD card to place Ubuntu 10.04/10.10 onto it as a Live bootable SD card, whenever it gets to stage 3, I get a message informing me that the media is not in the drive, when it clearly is (as it was writing to the SD card in stage 2), so maybe this does indicate my SD card is the issue!
Thanks for your help so far though, the Bios information is certainly the most helpful as it means I still have a chance of putting Ubuntu or perhaps Meego as well on my HP Mini 5102!
I suspect you can’t boot the SD card. To remedy this try the HP Drive Key Boot Utility (unfortunately you’ll need to boot into Windows to use this.)
Thanks – I’ll get that done tonight – I tried my USB device earlier today – a formatted 2GB first gen iPod Nano and while it was recognised as a USB Harddrive on the F9 boot options menu, selecting it yielded the exact same results as my SD card attempts so I’ll definitely try the HP Drive Key Utility now.
Hi Martin,
I have a HP 5102 to and just put the UNR 10.10 on it. Perfomance doesn’t seem to be that great. But since this is my first netbook I don’t know what I should have expected. How does UNR perform on your machine? Are there any lags when you click on something on the netbook launcher? Espescially after hiberate it seems to be painfully slow.
Cheers
Florian
My recommendation is to use Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 LTS. 10.10 is very disappointing: Unity is slow and after coming out of hibernation wireless takes an age to start. Also, you may find that Ubuntu One slows things down while syncronising.
@ Florian: I agree with Martin.
The goal with a netbook is to use it with the “net”, for this reason there is “no reason” to turn on fresh released OSs.
10.04 is well tested. You’ll install it and eventually update it and it will run smooth and fine.
Bye
Robert
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Have a look.
Bye
Robert
I’d recommend 10.04 or even some of the non-netbook editions (as Gnome can be tuned to lower screen space usage if you’ve the 1024 x 600 version of this netbook), like 10.10 (before they make the switch to Unity, though I imagine Unity will be ready by then).
Anyways thanks for the suggestion about the HP Drive Key Utility, unfortunately it didn’t work, I think I’ll just buy a cheap external DVD drive and install Ubuntu/Meego that way. Hopefully that will work with the troublesome BIOS.
Finally got things working after purchasing an external DVD drive – now running Ubuntu 10.10 (not the netbook edition so I can skip Unity).
Only issues have really been the broadcom drivers having a few connection problems but it’s only happened once thankfully so maybe that was a one-off. Otherwise it’s been great and far more usable than Windows 7 (where scrolling is just unbearable). I have a feeling driver support for the Intel gma 3150 isn’t as good as that for the gma 950 as hardware acceleration doesn’t seem to be as good across the board as on my older Samsung NC10 but I can live with it.
Again, thanks for all the help on the way.
Hiya!
Just wanted to inquire if you experienced any problems with function keys and fn?
On this 5102 the F1-F12 only work in combination with fn-key, and plain function keypresses do all the screen brightness, hibernate and volume magic. IOW, fn+function key and plain function key -functionality are swapped.
Took me a while to figure why F5 caused the lapper to hibernate instead of reloading the webpage
By default the function keys operate with the <fn>+function key combination. I see that you discovered that you can change this behaviour in the BIOS.
Problem with fn & function keys solved: in BIOS there is option under System configuration > Device configurations to switch fn functionality.
Next up: bios update.
And by the way, nice blog! Thanks
Just received a 5102 from an auction last night and put 64-bit 11.10 on it – worked like a charm (if very slow). Wifi worked out of the box, even before it notified me that there were proprietary drivers available, both in the livecd and installed modes.
Thanks for the update. Out of interest, how much memory do you have? I’m running Debian/ Gnome 3 Shell on 1GB and it’s really not up to it nowadays. I suspect Ubuntu is even more demanding on resources. I’m likely to upgrade to 2GB very soon.
2Gb, came with the unit. I think I’d upgrade too, if I only had one Gb, what with RAM being so cheap. Wondering if an SSD might be worth it – I’m not sure given the computer cost me AU$115 in the first place and an SSD would be at least $150 (I have a friend getting rid of one).