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Finally I have a new laptop an HP Compaq Presario C700 (Model C738TU). A good machine with very good performance, for a fairly reasonable price.

The default factory installation on it was Free/DOS. I have installed GNU/ Linux Fedora Core 8 on it. Most of the things have worked out of the box. Here is some basic informations which can help other owners of this notebook using GNU/ Linux.

UPDATE 2008/08/20: Now I have upgraded it to Fedora Core 9, please read the inline comments for updates on Fedora Core 9.

Video/ LCD
lspci says: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
Work's without problem. Except for that I was unable to adjust the brightness of LCD screen. Had to do it manually using

echo -n X > /proc/acpi/video/OVGA/DD03/brightness

where X can be any of 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
I am trying to find a way so that it may work with kpowersave else I will use the method described here
Fedora Core 9: On Feodra Core 9 the 3 acceleration is back. KDE 4 is a little unstable but Gnome works well.

Audio
lspci says: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
module in use: snd-hda-intel
Works without problem. But again updating the kernel version is recommended, after a kernel update to 2.6.23.15-137 another audio control PCM is avaible besides the Master and Capture. A Mute Audio control is not available.

Network controllers
lspci says: Wireless: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
Had to install Madwifi Module, please note not the default one but the one listed here: http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/, but make sure you have the kernel-devel package and gcc installed to build this module.
Fedora Core 9: To make this card work in Fedora Core 9 follow the instructions mentioned in this blog or simply do the following:

yum --enablerepo=livna-testing install kmod-madwifi


lspci says: Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Works out of box.

Webcam
lsusb says: 04f2:b057 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Works well after installing UVC Video Drivers.

Multi-Card Reader
lsusb says: 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
(Update: 18/03/07) Works well as a standard USB mass storage device.

Alps Touch Pad
Works fine.

Special/ Soft Keys
Play/ Pause/ Next/ Prev work fine with rhythmbox and amork. Volume Up/ Down work fine.
The Lock/ Help keys were recognised after the following additions/ changes in
/usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/30-keymap-hp.fdi

        <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" contains="C700">
          <append key="input.keymap.data" type="strlist">e00a:screenlock</append> <!-- FnF6 (lock) -->
          <append key="input.keymap.data" type="strlist">e031:help</append>     <!-- FnF1 (help) -->
          <append key="info.capabilities" type="strlist">input.keymap</append>
        </match>
 

Maybe a small patch can be contributed to www.freedesktop.org.

Volume Mute/ Print/ WWW/ Switch Display/ Sleep/ Brightness Up/ Brightness Down as of now do not seem work. Touch pad disable/ enable key works fine as well.

NOTE: Again do not forget to use livna as your yum repository for obtaining support for various otherwise closed multimedia formats.

Happy hacking.