HP Folio 13

sultanoswing · 2012-03-22 10:03:38

I just purchased an HP Folio 13 ultrabook this week. Needless to say the first thing I did was wipe the bloatware-infested Win 7 partition (thus freeing up almost 20GB of valuable SSD space). I installed Arch x86_64 from the nightly Netinstall image (and needed to edit /tmp/pacman.conf to overcome PGP package singing errors at the package install step). After a bit of tweaking, it works very well, with no major issues to daily use.

To assist others wishing to install Arch on this laptop, I've created a wiki page:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HP_Folio_13

Enjoy!

Last edited by sultanoswing (2012-03-22 10:05:25)

tango · 2012-03-23 15:11:34

hello sultan, i bought the folio some weeks ago...

everything is working correctly, the only problems are the backlight and the wireless buttons and the right touchpad button that is not recognized (actually i use the two-fingers tap). About the wireless adapter, it's working with the broadcom-wl driver because i had problem with the brcmsmac as you. anyway with the wl driver and NetworkManager i can't conntect to protected networks and local wireless network (e.g. i cant connect to android tether), which manager are you using? NetworkManager?

also what about battery life? i can reach 4-5hrs with cpufreq scaling in powersafe mode, but not as much as HP claims...something like 9 hours...

EDIT:
about the 'jumps' for the touchpad, i would suggest an older version of the xf86-input-synaptics, i was successfully using 1.5.99-0.2 then some days ago i upgraded to 1.5.99.901-2 which gave me the jumping issues, so i rolled back to the previous version and everything it's ok. Also be aware about the new kernel 3.2.11 which cause issues on the broadcom-wl driver...

luca

Last edited by tango (2012-03-23 15:39:14)

sultanoswing · 2012-03-25 10:59:54

By backlight, do you mean the keyboard backlight? It works fine on mine (F5 or Fn+F5 depending on your BIOS setting for the function keys).

I'm not having any major problems with Networkmanager and the broadcom-wl driver. That said, it was a bit picky about connecting to an iPhone portable tether yesterday, but the next morning was fine. I reckon this behaviour is due to Networkmanager, as it's not only this laptop that I've had similar connectivity troubles to those you mention previously.The 3.2.12-1 kernel seems OK (you need to recompile the wl driver or reinstall it from AUR each time you update your kernel).

Thanks for the tip about the synaptic driver. I actually ended out installing the package from AUR (http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=57575), which seems OK (right-click now works!). I think some of the moving when left-click and dragging is an inevitable feature of this style of trackpad, where it's not an actual button, but part of the trackpad, and hence detects any movement.When kernel 3.3 is released, I'll try the synaptics-led package from AUR, which is supposed to allow the on-off area of the clickpad to function, along with its LED indicator.

I get about 4-5 hours of battery life... no it's not the 9 hours HP claims. The 4-5 hours is about what windows users are reporting in real-world use. I tend to run the screen at or near maximum brightness, which will suck some juice.

I'm really liking this laptop - very nice build, thin enough, reasonable screen and super speedy with the SSD on-board.

Last edited by sultanoswing (2012-03-26 11:43:28)

tango · 2012-03-27 21:59:56

no i mean the screen backlight...i used acpi_backlight=vendor in grub... well i'll try the synaptics aur package! thanks for the info.

yeah this laptop rocks! the ssd is really fast and portability is greatly achieved!!

sultanoswing · 2012-07-24 08:17:55

Hmmm. Synaptics touchpad not detected with new kernel (3.4.6-1): https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p1135672

[EDIT: Solved. I had to remove or update the AUR synaptics-led package for the new kernel. Some more details in the thread above.]

Last edited by sultanoswing (2012-07-26 08:29:11)

tango · 2012-07-24 11:41:16

well, good to know, the worst is that neither with AUR package you solved...anyway i'm still on 3.3 kernel so i cannot help...

sultanoswing · 2013-07-29 07:32:44

Update: not sure exactly when this fix came in, but my function keys (brightness, wireless switch etc) are all now working as of kernel 3.10.3-1.

Andrei-KO · 2013-08-26 10:18:49

Please help me with Clickpad! https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=168867

Last edited by Andrei-KO (2013-08-26 10:20:00)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-22 10:03:38

HP Folio 13

#2 2012-03-23 15:11:34

Re: HP Folio 13

#3 2012-03-25 10:59:54

Re: HP Folio 13

#4 2012-03-27 21:59:56

Re: HP Folio 13

#5 2012-07-24 08:17:55

Re: HP Folio 13

#6 2012-07-24 11:41:16

Re: HP Folio 13

#7 2013-07-29 07:32:44

Re: HP Folio 13

#8 2013-08-26 10:18:49

Re: HP Folio 13

Board footer