[SOLVED] HP Pavillion HDX16 keyboard shortcuts, susp/res

[mikecz]

I got a an HP Pavillion HDX16-1025nr at a flea market for a decent price, and though Mint xfce ran almost totally from the get-go (it was quite gratifying to wipe out the previous OS, MS Vista), I have 3 very minor issues that I need a little consultation with.

(If this isn't the right board, I apologize as I am new here).

1> Fn-F4 not switching between LCD and external monitor
I know that Fn keymapping is the bane of laptop Linux, but although the machine will recognize Fn-F7 to lower the LCD brightness and Fn-F8 to increase it, it will not recognize Fn-F4 to toggle between the LCD and an external monitor). I know the VGA port is working because when I boot with a monitor plugged in the desktop is mirrored on it, but I haven't been able to find out how to get the machine to map Fn-F4 to switch between the displays (even if I try one of the alternate keyboard layouts for the various HP laptop keyboards).

2> Suspend/Resume and Hibernate not working.
When I hit 'Hibernate', the machine simply shuts down.

When I hit 'suspend', it tries to come back, but the xfce desktop goes all wonky, nothing works, and I get the following error scrolling continually on the system monitor:

[xxx.xxxxxxxx] EXT2-fserror (device sda1): read_block_bitmap: cannot read block bitmap - block_group=108, block_bitmap=3538944.

I had initially set the machine up with no swap space, but when I put up both a swapfile and set up a specific swap partition I get the same error.

3> Won't reboot/init 6, only shut down.
If I choose 'reboot' from the xfce shutdown menu, or so a shutdown -r or init 6, the machine gives an error that says something like "starting new kernel with kexec", then hangs. Sometimes it comes back with another error, but often it will just sit there until I power cycle, and it has twice come back up with a dirty root file system that I have had to clean by booting with my USB memory stick with the install live image on it. Its not really bad since this is a laptop and I usually shut it down when I am not using it, but I would like to get some advice on what I can look at to figure out why this is happening I would appreciate it.

Except for these three annoyances, it is really a kickin' good Linux box.

MikeC

[mikecz]

Update: I installed the NVidia drivers for my card (Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT), since some of what I've found online suggested that would fix the suspend & hibernate. It didn't, but at least now I can do a restart/init 6 without it hanging (though oddly, the screen doesn't blank out at the end of the downward arc of the 'bounce').

The display looks quite a bit more crisp, especially with the new Linux Mint Debian desktop wallpaper under the Nvidia drivers, and once I added the nvidia-settings package from the Software Manager, I was able to extend the X desktop to it, though the Fn-F4 key still isn't cycling between displays. Its a good step, though, toward getting everything working normally.

I would appreciate any advice from people on things.

MikeC

[mikecz]

Update #2: I upgraded the BIOS to the most recent (F.32), and suspend/resume now works. Hibernate gives an error that looks to be related to not being able to shut off the ethernet NIC, but this is definite improvement.

Really liking tinkering with the machine, and Mint XFCE.

More as I find it.

MikeC

[mikecz]

Some time in the last few updates, hibernate looks like its finally working, as well as suspend/resume.

Now, if only I can get the keyboard shortcuts working....

MikeC

[mikecz]

I know this is an oooold thread, but I wanted to at least note that all of the problems have been solved through the various LMDE XFCE update packs over the past 9+ months.

MikeC