As the HP Spectre 13-v000nd laptop is still fairly new I was surprised that Ubuntu Linux installed without any mayor issues, all hardware seems to work just fine straight from a clean install without any custom modifications to settings, drivers or modules.

The track-pad is fairly sketchy with random movements when you try to click on something, but it has the same behavior on windows (although it is a bit less than under Ubuntu) and has been mentioned in a number of reviews of the HP Spectre as an common issue. If you however only use a ‘touch’ press instead of a full click the issue seems to be gone, so this might be an issue that will be fixed by HP in a firmware upgrade sometime soon.

After a few hours I already got used to ‘touch pressing’ and as I mainly use an Bluetooth mouse the track-pad issue won’t bother me that much.

The following items all work just fine straight after install:

• Sound
• Wireless
• Bluetooth
• USB-C Gbit Ethernet (Adapter from StarTech)
• Brightness Control
• Function Keys
• Standby/sleep
• Keyboard Backlight

The following items work but have some issues:

• Trackpad (random movements at mouse clicks, same behavior in windows)

Battery live is about 5,5 hours while actively using the machine and with screen brightness at about 90%, which is not to bad as my first test on windows was about 6 hours.

Installation Notes:

To install there are just a few steps to follow:
1) Create a Ubuntu 16.04 USB stick.
2) Disable secure boot in the BIOS. (Press F10 while booting)
3) Enable legacy support mode in the BIOS (system -> boot options).
4) Plug the USB stick in the most right USB-C port (The single one with USB icon, other ports won’t work)
5) Boot from the USB stick (Press F9 while booting)
6) Install..
7) Install tlp (apt-get install tlp)
8) Enjoy..