I have an HP pav laptop that has run mandrake 9.2 and 10.0. It installed pretty close to flawless (iand I didn't have to do anything to get around the firewire). I have a ATI radeon 7500c vid card. Only trouble in 10 I have is with some functions of the touchpad. This did work fine in 9.2. Even my wireless nic setup great. It makes me happy:) I think the hardest part was package selection... Good Luck, HP and Compaq are kind-of-cousins, so I hope it goes well for you.