11/10/2007

openSuSE 10.3 on an IBM Lenovo T61 - first impressions

So, yesterday evening I tried to install openSuSE 10.3 64Bit on a Lenovo T61-6460-6WG.
Hardware:
T7300(2GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 15.4in 1680x1050 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, Intel 802.11agn (4965 AGN)
First remarks:
there is a website dealing with the T61 in principle, but not all hardware configurations are listed yet: the link is
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/IBM-Lenovo+Thinkpad+T61


WLAN Intel 4965 AGN

works in principle out of the box if you change the start mode to "start at startup" in YaST and configure it after a reboot of the system. Actually, it seems to be the same problem as posted before for the Intel 2200 BG.

nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

I tried to use the "one-click installer" offered at the openSuSE website, but this did not work for the 64-bit version. Since I know the 32-bit version works well, I think that's due to the somewhat experimental state of the 64-bit system. Then I tried the drivers from the nVIDIA repository, but they also failed to work. Finally I got the information on the nVIDIA homepage, that the driver NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run should work. After installing it from a text console as root, everything went smooth, so I changed the XServer to Xgl (which you can do e.g. via YaST over the entry System --> Edit /etc/sysconfig, there Display --> Display Manager). After restarting the Xserver everything seemed to be fine, but after a restart of the system there was only a white desktop with white windows - the upper right hotcorner oddly worked for some reason. This might be the "White Screen Problem" mentioned
here. Switching back to Xorg.conf after deinstalling compiz brought back the normal screen so that one could work at least.

Sound
works in principle out of the box, you just have to use ALSA in Amarok and you need to switch on the speaker and PCM in the Mixer Dialog. If you still don't hear anything, just press the "Volume Up"-Button (which btw also is the method to unmute the volume when you muted it via the buttons) and everything runs great.

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