This are my notes from the installation of Manjaro Linux on an HP EliteBook 840 G3 with Intel i5-6300U. I've used Manjaro on this PC for 3 years already, but recently I had to reinstall an OS on this PC (I bought it from the company I work for and the PC had to be erased).
- Host: HP EliteBook 840 G3
- Resolution: 1920x1080
- CPU: 6th gen Intel Core i5-6300U
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 520
- Memory: 16 GB (2x 8GB DDR4 module)
- SSD: 256GB (Toshiba KSG60ZMV256G)
- Network: Intel Wireless 8260
The first Manjaro installation on this device was my first experience with Manjaro and Arch altogether. I've chosen it because I didn't want to install anything Ubuntu/Debian based and my friend recommended Manjaro to me. It was the moment which resulted in Manjaro being my go-to Linux distro today. The second install was forced on me (the PC had to be erased) and it wasn't really a clean install but more of a clone of the HP Folio installation (which I covered in the other gist).
Turns out none of the fixes done for Folio was needed for this PC (obviously) so all changes has been reverted (namely special kernel params for Intel as well as BadRAM config).
My (not so extensive) testing didn't show anything that wouldn't work under Linux or that would require special config. Keep in mind that I didn't try to set up the fingerprint reader (but it is recognized by the system so it should work) or use the SmartCard reader.
I did however encountered an issue with the newest (as for Jan 2024) LTS kernel - Linux 6.6. Running a system with this kernel resulted in a crash after 5-10 mins of the startup. The system would hang with anything frozen and the only thing working would be a mouse cursor. If there was an audio playing it would keep playing. No input was recognized and the only way to fix it would be to reset the PC.
As the issue is not present with kernel 6.1 I didn't try to fix it. I discovered that every time the PC froze there was some kind of crash logged into journal (general protection fault or something similar), but that's about it.
Additionally the journal on this PC is flooded with mce errors related to CPU, TSC and PROCESSOR. If I recall correctly it started after updating the kernel to version 5.15 or somewhere around 5.15. However these errors didn't result in any issues with the PC - beside flooding the journal and non-GUI ttys, so I didn't invest my time into fixing it. I'm not sure if the issue is with my exact PC or with all EliteBooks 840 G3.
All the special function keys (such as brightness control or mice/speakers mute) works OK out-of-the-box.
I've used this PC with the official HP docking station (HP 2013 UltraSlim Docking Station (D9Y32AA)) dedicated for this laptop and everything worked OK. Sometimes there was an issue with reconnecting external monitors (when the PC was inserted into the docking station while the OS was running), but generally it would work (and rebooting the PC docked would always fix any issues). I used it with 2 external monitors (all 3, together with the internal screen was in use), some USB devices (keyboard, mouse, headset), ethernet connection and power.
In short my experience with Linux on this device is pretty solid. Everything works OK and there was nothing that had to be fixed for this PC to work. However the laptop itself is kinda meh, and if you can get something different then I would recommend getting a Thinkpad T460/T470 which is a direct competition for this HP model. IMO it's a lot better in terms of design and build quality than this HP (I've used T470 with Kubuntu for some time and I've really enjoyed it).