Title: How to test if a laptop is working with Linux
Tags: english, debian, debian edu
Date: 2010-12-22 14:55

<p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
university.</p>

<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>

<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
I perform on a new model.</p>

<ul>

<li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>

<li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
installation, X.org is working.</li>

<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
reported by the program.</li>

<li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
normally test this by playing
<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>

<li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>

<li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>

<li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
picture from the v4l device show up.</li>

<li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
few.</li>

<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
notice this.</li>

<li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
resume.</li>

<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
not.</li>

<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
existence.</li>

</ul>

<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>