HP ZBook Firefly , trying to run UBUNTU Linux

[mrjimp]

Hi guys.

I got a HP ZBook Firefly from my customer that I'm supposed to install UBUNTU on.

It installed without a hitch, but when restarting after the instal (where desktop sound and everything has been working) i get greeted with a black screen.

I logged into console on TTY2 and looked around and at least I have network. for some reason the desktop environment is not starting and I think its related to the grafic driver.

Can someone lend a hand here?

Regards /Jimmi

[mrjimp]

I started with UBUNTU 22.04 LTS, but I then upgraded to UBUNTU 23.10 Via the commandline, in the hopes it would fix it, but it i still the same

[mrjimp]

Alright, so it turns out when I set the prime select to either on-demand or nvidia, there is a black screen, setting it to intel works, however I seem to be limited to only one screen, regardless.
I have been trying to install nvidia driver 550 with .. medium success?

When call ing sudo ubuntu-drivers list they show different drivers, but not the 550 i installed (through apt install nvidia-driver-550)

jimmi@jimmi-ubuntu:~$ sudo ubuntu-drivers list
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
nvidia-driver-545-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-545-open-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-545, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-545-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-535-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-535, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-535-server-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-open-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-470-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-server-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-535-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-open-generic-hwe-22.04)
nvidia-driver-470, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-generic-hwe-22.04)
jimmi@jimmi-ubuntu:~$

BUT if i call nvidia-smi i get this:

jimmi@jimmi-ubuntu:~$ sudo nvidia-smi
[sudo] password for jimmi:
Mon Apr 22 21:58:13 2024
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.67                 Driver Version: 550.67         CUDA Version: 12.4     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA RTX A500 Laptop GPU     Off |   00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   43C    P8              1W /   25W |      11MiB /   4096MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                              GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      4235      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                              4MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      4365      G   /usr/bin/gnome-shell                            2MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 
why is there a driver diff here? 

And why cant i get my ubuntu-drivers to isntall the 550 driver? 

Or maybe this is not even the problem? (Feels like it could be?)

Please help! 

Thanks

[WAWood]

If this came with Windows preloaded and you're trying to install a Linux distro -- then you are out of luck.

Apart from a few Workstations that come with Linux distro preloaded, HP provides no support for Linux.

I mention this because with Windows, we can provide links to videos and HP Documents. We can provide links to HP diagnostic apps you can download and run on your PC. We can provide links to HP drivers and to HP BIOS updates, which you can also download and run on your PC. And, nearly everything useful can be done using an application or utility that HP will provide you for free.

For the general population of HP customers trying to use or install Linux, we have NONE of that. No diagnostics. No videos. No downloadable utilities or tools. And, once you get into Linux, you discover that you have to become VERY familiar with the command line to do anything complicated. We have no command line scripts or examples to provide you.

So when I recommend going to the support forum for your Linux distro, it is because THERE is where you will get the amount and kind of support you need.

[mrjimp]

Thank you WAWood.

I find it strange that such a big producer of computers do not support any linux. But I guess its their choice.

I'm mostly here hoping (yes hoping, not counting on) either to get confirmation that "I have installed it no problems" or "I installed it I had to do this", or maybe even "The nvidia card might be broken, here is how you check"

I am pretty familiar with linux, and I got the computer running (with help) on the intel card only. this works, but I do not have access to any extra monitors this way which is annoying. My old workstation (an acer gaming laptop) ran an ubuntu with a dual intel - nvidia setup no problems out of the box.

I dont understand really why it should not work in this machine. It seems HP specific which is sad, and is a big minus for the entire coding community!

[mrjimp]

---

@WAWood wrote:

So when I recommend going to the support forum for your Linux distro, it is because THERE is where you will get the amount and kind of support you need.

---

Oh I'm there too.

[WAWood]

Yes, I understand the disappointment -- but my own experience using Linux distros for well over ten years is that Windows-focussed forums like this one are basically useless where Linux issues are concerned.  Windows users want videos and apps to fix their problems;  Linux users are happy with SUDO commands and scripts.  The two are very different worlds.

And the PRIMARY reason hardware doesn't work right in any PC is lack of full function drivers.  I had a laptop LONG ago (2004) that worked so well in Ubuntu that I switched it over to using it full time.  But when the distro updated the next year, along with the kernel updates, the drivers would no longer work.  Two years later, it was back on Windows -- Vista -- wich was entirely because those drivers continue to work.