blog/data/2010-12-22-laptop-test.txt

   1 Title: How to test if a laptop is working with Linux
   2 Tags: english, debian, debian edu
   3 Date: 2010-12-22 14:55
   4
   5 <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
   6 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
   7 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
   8 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
   9 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
  10 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
  11 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
  12 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
  13 university.</p>
  14
  15 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
  16 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
  17 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
  18 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
  19 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
  20 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
  21 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
  22 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
  23
  24 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
  25 I perform on a new model.</p>
  26
  27 <ul>
  28
  29 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
  30 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
  31 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
  32
  33 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
  34 installation, X.org is working.</li>
  35
  36 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
  37 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
  38 reported by the program.</li>
  39
  40 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
  41 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
  42 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
  43 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
  44 normally test this by playing
  45 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
  46 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
  47
  48 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
  49 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
  50
  51 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
  52 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
  53
  54 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
  55 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
  56
  57 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
  58 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
  59 few.</li>
  60
  61 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
  62 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
  63 notice this.</li>
  64
  65 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
  66 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
  67 resume.</li>
  68
  69 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
  70 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
  71 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
  72 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
  73 not.</li>
  74
  75 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
  76 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
  77 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
  78 existence.</li>
  79
  80 </ul>
  81
  82 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
  83 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
  84 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
  85 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
  86 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
  87 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
  88 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
  89 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>