Installing linux mint on hp pavilion laptop with win7

[linuxfreak003]

Hey, I'm trying to install linux mint 9 - gnome version on my hp pavilion dm4 series laptop. (I'd prefer fluxbox but unfortunately there's not a 64-bit edition so I decided to try and just get it to work with gnome then install fluxbox from there).

I want to install it so that I can have the dual boot with win7, when I tried to install mint it only gave me the option to erase and use the whole disk or to manually set everything. I figured this was because I needed to resize some partitions. I tried parted magic but apparently you can't do it that way so I used the build in partion manager in win7 and resized my C: partion to around half the size. I figured I would be able to install on the empty space left over. Apparently not. I still just get the same options when i try to install mint. I was under the impression that there was an, install on unused space or whatever(like that's not on a partition) which is what I want to do. Will I have to create all of the linux partitions manually? I've done it once before a while ago(with gentoo) but I don't really feel like doing it again. The laptop is pretty new so I'm still just learning all of it's little personal problems.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[lauren]

Hi!
You should attach a screenshot of GParted - to see which steps are necessary.
I'm writing a HOWTO - it is not finished and it's in German, but I translated most terms.
After having replied with the attached shot you could have a look on my article (link in my signature).

[StanTheMan]

The way I have done in this situatiion , I load Win 7 , and locate the Control panel. Just about at the bottom is a menu for disk management , where you can reduce the size of C:drive to aboout half the original size. Then I re-boot Win 7 and let it do a file check.
Next I check tghe BIOS to see if the bot priority is set to boot DVD drive and/or USB drive FIRST.
Now start with a Mint install disk. Termianl -- sudo gparted. This will give you the partition editor.
You should see frere space next to the Windows partition, plus usually two small HIDDEN Windows recovery partitions.
Now of the empty space , create at least three Logical partitions (the space will automatically be assigned as an Extended Primary partition which is a place holder for Logicals) for Linux -- 10 GB for Root , 2 GB for Swap , and rest of space for /home data. Note that an Extended partition does NOT have a format and does not contain any files, only Logical paritions.
When that is done, do your install in Manual mode.

[famewolf]

I have a HP G72-B60us laptop running Mint 10. If your laptop is setup the same way then your problem is this.....HP creates a "HP_TOOLS", "RECOVERY", and "SYSTEM" partition in addition to the partition for windows. Linux needs at least 2 partitions for Swap space and the linux system and there is no room to add any and not really any you can delete. It comes down to some hard choices...I made sure I created the Recovery DVD's and then used dd if=/dev/dvd of=blahblah1of4.iso and stored those so I could make additional copies if needed (only 1 copy allowed MY BUTT) but in the end I chose to wipe the HD and install mint. They didn't even have the sense to put all their partitions first and the windows one LAST. You could wipe the HP Partitions and then install Linux but make real sure you have high quality recovery discs created and if you ever use those recovery discs they are going to wipe EVERYTHING and put those hp partitions back. Clonezilla LiveCD can be used to make images of your dual boot win/linux to restore if you get all that working.

On a related note....does your touchpad go crazy everytime you have more than one finger on it at a time? if anything brushes an area of the touchpad while I'm using it, it goes spastic for lack of a better way to describe it....and I haven't found a way around it.

[linuxfreak003]

Ok... I've kind of settled on having mint installed on the windows partition using mint4win, mostly because I don't feel like going through all the hassle of making recovery disks, etc. I might try installing it on it's own partition sometime this week with some of my spare time though and I will definitely tell you how it goes.
As for the touchpad, yes. right now actually and it's kind of annoying... I did find a thread somewhere that's supposed to help you fix that.. it would be something like

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$syndaemon -d

or

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$syndaemon -i <interval> -d

which simply disables the the touchpad while you're typing for however long you set the interval in seconds.. here's the link http://nialldonegan.me/2007/05/21/disabling-synaptic-touchpad-while-typing-in-linux/
my only problem is apparently you're supposed to change something in the xorg.conf file and I have no clue where to find that because it's not where they point to in the link.. at least it's not there on mine. If that works for you then great.. if not and you find another way please let me know.. I'm still working on it.

[goinglinux]

On a related note....does your touchpad go crazy everytime you have more than one finger on it at a time? if anything brushes an area of the touchpad while I'm using it, it goes spastic for lack of a better way to describe it....and I haven't found a way around it.

I copied a shell script from somewhere and put it in a file named toggle-trackpad.sh. I created a ~/bin/ directory (a directory named "bin" in my home directory) and then put the shell script file into it. After making the file executable, I went to the Control Center and created a Keyboard Shortcut named "Toggle Trackpad" and entered "toggle-trackpad.sh" as the command. Last but not least, I mapped that new action to the Menu key on the HP Pavilion dm4 keyboard that is located between the <alt> and the <ctrl> key to the right of the spacebar. Now whenever I want to turn off the trackpad -- when typing an email... or this forum post -- I tap that otherwise unused menu key. When I want to re-enable it, I just tap the menu key again.

Here is the script I use:

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#!/bin/sh
NOW=$(gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled)
if [ "$NOW" = true ]; then
    NEW=false
else
    NEW=true
fi
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled --type=bool $NEW

[goinglinux]

I know that this is an old thread, but many of these threads get searched for answers well after the technology changes. As a result, I thought I'd post an updated script for toggling the trackpad/touchpad. With Gnome 3 (and Mint 12) this line no longer works:

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gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled

I tried switching "/desktop/gnome" to "/desktop/mate" but that didn't work either. A little further research and here is a script that works with Gnome 3, and should even work with Gnome 2.

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#!/bin/sh
# toggle-trackpad script
#
# Toggles trackpad on and off. Assign this script to a key on your keyboard to
# turn on and off your touchpad/trackpad.
# reference: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics
#
if [ $(synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | gawk -F '= ' '{ print $2 }') -eq 0 ]; then
    synclient TouchpadOff=1
else
    synclient TouchpadOff=0
fi

Turns out on Mint 12 the "Menu" key between the <ctrl> and <alt> key on the dm4 keyboard actually works like a right-click button, so I left it set to the default. I assigned the toggle-trackpad script to <alt>+Menu instead. I have found that to be even more useful because I can't accidentally lock my trackpad by simply touching one button.

[THEREALSYANiDE]

As for Gnome3 and Mint 12...

First off, a little about Mint 12...
Mint 12 comes with Gnome3 or Gnome Classic / MATE. Gnome Classic is still Gnome3, so keep that in mind.

THIS LOOKS BACKWARDS, BUT THIS IS WHAT"S UP:
Gnome2 (IS NOT in Mint12!) uses gconftool-2 and gconf-editor (and your command would be .../desktop/gnome/...)
Gnome3 (AKA just Gnome) uses gconftool and gconf-editor (and your command would be .../desktop/gnome/...)
MATE uses mateconftool-2 and mateconf-editor (and your command would be .../desktop/mate/...)

In the three above examples, notice how Gnome2 and Gnome3 BOTH share schema settings in the same directory ( /desktop/gnome/... ), and also notice how they both use gconf-editor . This is because their schemas are one and the same, hence why you could NEVER have Gnome 2 and Gnome 3 installed simultaneously. This is coincidentally also why there is a complete fork of Gnome2; MATE. This is so that you can have your Gnome3 -and- have Gnome 2 (generic'd/forked by MATE)


If you are using Gnome3 OR MATE, I know that this line:

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gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled

Does not work. This is because you are not using GNOME2 (gconftool-2), you are using GNOME3 (gconftool) -or- you are using MATE (mateconftool-2), PLUS you forgot --toggle on the end of your command . MATE has it's own set of schemas independent of Gnome2 OR Gnome3 schemas. Hope that made sense.

MATE is not a shell over Gnome2, it is it's own FORK of gnome2. This means, MATE has it's own independent way of handling quite a lot of the various Gnome2 functions, and a vast majority of your Gnome2 settings do not have any effect over your MATE settings.




To toggle the keypad on and off, try ONE OF THESE lines instead:

(And set it as a keyboard shortcut)

MATE (which is a FORK of Gnome2):
needs :
mateconftool-2
mateconf-editor (optional GUI)

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mateconftool-2 /desktop/mate/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled --toggle

Gnome3 (AKA just Gnome in Mint 12)
Needs:
gconftool
gconf-editor (optional GUI)

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gconftool /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled --toggle

Gnome2 (IS NOT IN MINT 12!)
Needs:
gconftool-2
gconf-editor (optional GUI)

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gconftool-2 /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled --toggle

Cheers~!

THE REAL SYANiDE