Linux Mint 21.3 XFCE on HP Pavilion dm1
I have an “HP Pavilion dm1 3101sg” netbook from 2011.
Out of the box it has an AMD E-350 Dual Core CPU @ 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD and Windows 7.
One of the first things I did, was an upgrade to 4GB RAM, and a 250GB SSD.
For years I had been using Linux Mint 20.3 XFCE from ValdikSS, but I wasn’t quite happy with the performance.
Since I am very happy with Linux Mint 21.3 XFCE on my desktop PC, I installed it on the netbook.
I made sure to use BTRFS during the installation. You have to specify this manually.
I was inspired by the tweaks from ValdikSS:
Basic tweaks
Install XanMod Kernel:
wget -qO - https://dl.xanmod.org/archive.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/xanmod-archive-keyring.gpg
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/xanmod-archive-keyring.gpg] http://deb.xanmod.org releases main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xanmod-release.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y linux-xanmod-x64v2
Install zram:
sudo apt install -y zram-config zram-tools
Install preload:
sudo apt install -y preload
PowerSaver service
sudo bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/alandoyle/helper-scripts/raw/main/installers/powersaver-installer)"
Create /etc/powersaver.d/custom-rules.conf:
#
# Additional PowerSaver Rules
#
################################################################################
# Disable auto suspend for usb-device usb receiver [Logitech]
echo 'on' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1/power/control'
echo 'on' > '/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/power/control'
Fan profile service
Download acer_ec.pl and safe them to /usr/sbin/acer_ec.pl. Install missing Perl modules as described here.
Create /usr/local/bin/hp.sh:
#!/bin/bash
modprobe msr
acer_ec.pl := 0x5A 0x02
Create /etc/systemd/system/hp.service:
[Unit]
Description=Set hp fan profile to silent
[Service]
Type=simple
Exec=/usr/local/bin/hp.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.agent
Set permissions:
sudo chmod +x /usr/sbin/acer_ec.pl
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/hp.sh
sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/hp.service
Enable the service:
sudo systemctl enable hp.service
Firefox extensions
| Extension | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Tab Stash | Preserve RAM by unloading tabs |
| uBlock Origin | Preserve CPU/RAM by blocking ads |
| h264ify | Force hardware accelerated h264 video |
| I still don’t care about cookies | Auto click cookie notifications |
Conclusion
It runs very well for such an old netbook!