Difference between revisions of "Installing OPENSUSE 11.1 on a ThinkPad T61p"

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My T61p is a 6457-BQG, Intel Core2Duo 2,6GHz, 4GB RAM, 180 GB HDD, Nvidia Quadro FX 570M, 15.4" TFT (1900x1200), Intel AGN 4965 wifi, Bluetooth, Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio.
 
My T61p is a 6457-BQG, Intel Core2Duo 2,6GHz, 4GB RAM, 180 GB HDD, Nvidia Quadro FX 570M, 15.4" TFT (1900x1200), Intel AGN 4965 wifi, Bluetooth, Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio.
  
== Installation ==
+
== Partitioning ==
 
Factory disk: two partitions: r&r and vista. I was first preparing a dual boot system, but gparted was not able to resize the vista partition. After many retries, I dropped the idea of dual boot and decided for suse-only system. I kept only the r&r and partitioned the rest with gparted as:
 
Factory disk: two partitions: r&r and vista. I was first preparing a dual boot system, but gparted was not able to resize the vista partition. After many retries, I dropped the idea of dual boot and decided for suse-only system. I kept only the r&r and partitioned the rest with gparted as:
  
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  /dev/sda7 /home 130GB
 
  /dev/sda7 /home 130GB
  
Network install was almost without problems (the partition configuration had to be edited during the installation, since the installers was offering some foolish configuration). Windowmanager: KDE4.  
+
Network install was almost without problems (the partition configuration had to be edited during the installation, since the installers was offering some foolish configuration).  
  
== Worked out of the box ==
+
== Setup - 1st try - KDE4 ==
Wireless, sound (use kmix to get internal mic switched on), ethernet. Video: installed rpm-s from download.nvidia.com, fancy 3d animations of KDE4 work, FramesPerSecond(FPS) measured with glxgears is around 3000.
 
  
== Problems ==
+
First I have choosen KDE4 for desktop enviroment. Installed nvidia driver from source (needs kernel source package installed) instead of rpm. It seemed that these components
There is a strange interplay between the nvidia driver and suspend2ram. Since s2ram was not working with nvidia-rpms,
+
* suspend to RAM (add {{bootparm|S2RAM_OPTS|"--force"}} to {{path|/etc/pm/config.d/defaults}})
I deinstalled them and installed the driver using the script NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run (needs kernel-source package installed). Accept to write new {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}} file at the end of install script. FPS is around 12000. Adding
+
* composite effects in KDE4 (add to {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}} with {{cmdroot|nvidia-xconfig --composite}})
{{bootparm|S2RAM_OPTS|"--force"}} to {{path|/etc/pm/config.d/defaults}} makes s2ram work, however no 3d animations in kde. Adding Composite flag to the {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}} file (by calling {{cmdroot|nvidia-xconfig --composite}}) makes 3d animations work, but s2ram fails. I tried out an older nvidia-driver (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.82-pkg2.run), too: s2ram ok, 3d animations work, but FPS is only 3000.
+
* wireless
 +
are in conflict. The most stable configuration was running an older nvidia driver (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.82-pkg2.run). I had a couple of freezes, sometimes the keyboard was not functional, wireless did not always come up after s2ram.
 +
 
 +
== Setup - 2nd try - GNOME ==
 +
 
 +
I wanted to give a try to GNOME and reinstalled the whole system. In the meantime a new nvidia driver (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.29-pkg2.run) came out, I have choosen that one.
 +
* suspend to RAM works (without editing {{path|/etc/pm/config.d/defaults}})
 +
* wireless does not always come back after s2ram, but you can fix it by removing and loading a wireless kernel module ({{cmdroot|modprobe -r iwlagn; modprobe iwlagn}}), if it does not want to work
 +
* composite effects in GNOME were OK, however in terminal the texts were not always displayed correctly, if a window was updated, only parts of it was refreshed, I had to bring the cursor above the elements to make them refresh. Solution can be found

Revision as of 23:10, 22 February 2009

Configuration

My T61p is a 6457-BQG, Intel Core2Duo 2,6GHz, 4GB RAM, 180 GB HDD, Nvidia Quadro FX 570M, 15.4" TFT (1900x1200), Intel AGN 4965 wifi, Bluetooth, Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio.

Partitioning

Factory disk: two partitions: r&r and vista. I was first preparing a dual boot system, but gparted was not able to resize the vista partition. After many retries, I dropped the idea of dual boot and decided for suse-only system. I kept only the r&r and partitioned the rest with gparted as:

/dev/sda1 r&r 6GB
/dev/sda2 /boot 64MB
/dev/sda3 extended
/dev/sda5 / 40GB
/dev/sda6 swap 4GB
/dev/sda7 /home 130GB

Network install was almost without problems (the partition configuration had to be edited during the installation, since the installers was offering some foolish configuration).

Setup - 1st try - KDE4

First I have choosen KDE4 for desktop enviroment. Installed nvidia driver from source (needs kernel source package installed) instead of rpm. It seemed that these components

  • suspend to RAM (add S2RAM_OPTS="--force" to /etc/pm/config.d/defaults)
  • composite effects in KDE4 (add to /etc/X11/xorg.conf with # nvidia-xconfig --composite)
  • wireless

are in conflict. The most stable configuration was running an older nvidia driver (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.82-pkg2.run). I had a couple of freezes, sometimes the keyboard was not functional, wireless did not always come up after s2ram.

Setup - 2nd try - GNOME

I wanted to give a try to GNOME and reinstalled the whole system. In the meantime a new nvidia driver (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.29-pkg2.run) came out, I have choosen that one.

  • suspend to RAM works (without editing /etc/pm/config.d/defaults)
  • wireless does not always come back after s2ram, but you can fix it by removing and loading a wireless kernel module (# modprobe -r iwlagn; modprobe iwlagn), if it does not want to work
  • composite effects in GNOME were OK, however in terminal the texts were not always displayed correctly, if a window was updated, only parts of it was refreshed, I had to bring the cursor above the elements to make them refresh. Solution can be found