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I just bought the new hp spectre x360 dual-core i7, 8 GB ram and 256 SSD. Will Ubuntu run on this computer without issue or is it not yet supported?

thatguy
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3 Answers3

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I have tried Ubuntu 14.04.02 via a USB stick on my Spectre x360 (8Gb RAM Intel 5200). As mentioned, secure boot needs to be disabled.

Works without any additional steps: touchscreen, trackpad, windows keys, WIFI, USB, bluetooth, networking, SD card.

Not working: On board sound. HDMI audio is detected, but no other audio device. (So no speakers and nothing out of the headphone out).

Mike S
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    Have you used Ubuntu regularly on this machine? If so, can you still confirm it's working properly? Found any solutions for the audio yet? – Lyle Brown May 31 '15 at 22:38
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    Here's some info about the Audio problem https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1441852 – Luis Lobo Borobia Jun 11 '15 at 23:38
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    A member in the HP Support Forum at http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-PC-Sound-and-Audio/HP-spectre-x360-on-linux/td-p/4980797 claims to have the sound fixed after an `grub` configuration change. – Finn Årup Nielsen Jul 15 '15 at 11:50
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    On the HP Spectre x360 4105, I had no sound issues at all - maybe that was fixed in newer Ubuntu versions? – unhammer Jan 18 '17 at 10:35
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EDIT: On recent Arch based Linux it works out of the box (Manjaro & Antergos): as of june 2017 at least

Just installed Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS on an HP Spectre 360.

All worked great out of the box, except... the sound.

I changed the kernel version to 4.0.9-040009-generic (but I don't think it really helped). It works well anyway.

All forum posts talk about the Dell XPS 13, but they are not working for Spectre.

TL;DR:

The only solution can be found here in the GREY zone:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-PC-Sound-and-Audio/HP-spectre-x360-on-linux/td-p/4980797

Yes, you must reboot 2 time! Weird.

EDIT

Below the essential part: --> It is all about kernel parameters in grub config

HOW TO:

Edit grub config by doing:

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

Edit the line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash'"

Replace it with: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi='!Windows 2013' acpi_osi='!Windows 2012'"

Then run: sudo update-grub

Reboot TWO times. Yes. 2 times.

Then Sound works (FYI The sound card is now in HDA mode -not I2S).

To confirm, run: aplay -l and make sure you have the following in the output:

card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3242 Analog [ALC3242 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

When you open the Alsa mixer (the ound mixer settings window), you should see a sound card displayed.

Note: The Added 'acpi_backlight=vendor' parameter apparently do nothing (it is supposed to keep backlight settings?)

EDIT BIS:

The card seems in mute mode as default. You need to setup pulseaudio correctly ( pulsaudio/Alsa ).
With Manjaro OpenRC Linux I had to add the following packages:

  • pulsaudio
  • pulseaudio-alsa
  • pulseaudio-equalizer
  • xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
  • xfce4-volumed-pulse

then start the pulseaudio server manually

pulseaudio --start

from (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#Starting_manually)

Now you can successfully launch the pulseaudio mixer (from associated the XFCE4 applet) & go to "output devices" and play with "port" and the sliders.

Nadir
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    Can I ask what kind of battery life you get running Linux on this thing? – tobek Jul 07 '16 at 01:13
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    I can't compare to windows, because I removed it as soon as I got it. – Nadir Jul 07 '16 at 22:37
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    I would say 5 hours easily, so to me it is a decent battery life (I am sure of it as I often take a 3h trip by train, and there's still fair amount of battery at the arrival ). The question is interesting, I will measure it tomorrow or the day after (Laptp is almost 1y old) The differences over windows: you can't easily set a CPU profile. the only setting available is "dim display" & "reduce backlight on battery". – Nadir Jul 07 '16 at 22:51
  • thanks for responding - a lot of laptops don't have great battery life on Linux even after optimization, so ~5h is pretty good! – tobek Jul 08 '16 at 15:48
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    I just run the test this morning: 4h with a 100% normal usage : internet, music and coding activities. – Nadir Jul 09 '16 at 11:06
  • Definitely not bad for a year old linux machine, I appreciate the follow up! Real helpful for all us deciding between laptops. – tobek Jul 09 '16 at 16:12
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    I was curious about it too. Note that I stopped at the autosuspend which was set at 10% of battery. so there was a bit more left.. ;-) – Nadir Jul 09 '16 at 22:21
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Most modern PCs are compatible with Linux. The HP Spectre X360 has Windows 8 installed, so you have to make sure that Secure Boot is disabled. Other than that, Ubuntu will work just fine.

Terrance8D
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    This answer suggests "If it runs windows, don't worry about linux", which is utterly false. The very similar device Dell XPS 13 (2015 edition) requires quite some work to run Linux properly. Will the X360 boot linux? Probably. Will the graphics drivers work? Probably. Will the touch screen work? Maybe. Touchpad? Maybe. Automatic screen rotation? Probably not. Audio? Don't know. It's not this simple. – akkkk Mar 24 '15 at 21:28
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    @akkkk Okay. Probably should have done some more research before answering. Thanks for correcting me though. – Terrance8D Mar 25 '15 at 00:00
  • I almost bought a Lenovo Yoga 910, but found out just in time that it does not run Linux at all. – Jeroen Kransen Oct 18 '16 at 06:53
  • The HP Spectre x360 has Windows 10, and boots Ubuntu fine with Secure Boot/UEFI enabled. – unhammer Jan 18 '17 at 10:37