Installing OpenSuSE 10.1 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet
Contents
Success Chart
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Network Installation | Yes | |
| USB Installation | Yes (DVD) | ||
| Display | Laptop Screen | Yes | X.org i810 driver |
| CRT / Projector | Yes | ||
| Screen Rotation | not working yet(see discussion) | ||
| Stylus | Yes | wacom serial driver. | |
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | not tested | Software Suspend 2 |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | not tested | Software Suspend 2 | |
| Audio | Yes | ALSA intel8x0 driver | |
| Wireless | 802.11b/g | Yes | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | ||
| Extra Buttons | Keyboard Section | Yes | ibm-acpi driver |
| Tablet buttons | not working yet | setkeycodes | |
| Middle Mouse button | Yes | ||
| Fingerprint Scanner | not working yet | bioapi | |
| Harddisk Active Protection | not tested | kernel 2.6.16, hdapsd | |
Introduction
As you will realise quickly, I've taken the installation tipps from the (by the way very good) site Installation of Fedora Core 5 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet. I've been a windows user for quite a long time so I decided to go with OpenSuSE because I've already had contact with this distro some years ago and found it very good, looking at usability, settings, installation, etc. Many things of your Thinkpad will work out of the box.Later in this article I'd like to show some software I'm currently using and that I find very handy on a Tablet.
Installation
Download the OpenSuSE iso-Image and burn it either on CD's or DVD (if you go with DVD there's no need to swap media). An external drive should be recognized automatically. Installing OpenSuSE 10.1 is just as simple as with every other Linux distro. Adjust your local settings and choose your packages (see Helpful software for detailed information). After a reboot you're ready to run with the chameleon;-)
Personally, I logged on as user although you have some administration work to do, but the good graphical user interfaces like YAST or SAX make it easy.
Display
Graphics
For the graphics setup you can either edit your preferences the "Linux"-way or you go with the "Windows"-method. I've chosen the second one and so made my preferences with SAX2 that you should find in System > Configuration > SaX2.
Change the settings of the monitor, like resoltuion or color depth like you want but make sure you TEST your settings before SAVING them. Switching monitors with the FN-F7 combination should work out of the box.
Stylus
To enable the stylus simply go to the submenu "Touchscreen" in SAX2 and activate it. Choose "Wacom" and then "PenabledTablet". Save your settings and restart your computer and we're done here;-)
For information about enabling the stylus by editing the xorg.conf go to Installation of Fedora Core 5 on a ThinkPad X41 Tablet.
Screen rotation
Definitly a feature that would come in handy for use with a tablet. For information about updating your X-Server take a look at the discussion. After updating the X-Server you can rotate the screen using xrandr.
xrandr -o right
should rotate the screen 90 degrees to the right. You can add this command to a starter on the desktop or the panel.
Power Management
It sounds weird, but I actually don't care about Power Management because I just shut down my Laptop or look for the next power supply, but I'm sure that some may be interested in this so once again I recommend you to visit the Fedora Core site.
Audio
This feature works out of the box with no problems or any differences to Windows. You can even controll the volume with the Thinkpad buttons but you don't get a graphical feedback.
Wireless
No great thing there, both, wlan and bluetooth work properly and without any problems. Make sure you install the NetworkManager if you go with GNOME it's very useful.
Extra buttons
Keyboard section
The FN-Combinations should work properly without any changes just as the volume up/down and mute key. I wonder why tcb doesn't give a graphical feedback but maybe someone can figure this out.
Tablet Buttons
Middle Mouse button
You can activate the middle mouse button using SAX2 again. Enter your administration password and go to the submenu "mouse". There activate the option "Emulate Mouse Wheel" and change the number besides to "2". Restart your Laptop and it works.
As I use Opera I also changed my Opera settings according to How to configure the TrackPoint
If you're interessted in enabling the middle mouse button NOT graphical visit How to configure the TrackPoint
Fingerprint reader
I loved this one under Windows. It always gives this "magic"-effect when everyone types his password and you just swipe your finger, but I'm very unhappy not to get this running. I'm having problems with the BioApi because OpenSuSE 10.1 uses a newer GCC and the hint on the site How to enable the fingerprint reader it didn't work
Harddisk Active Protection
I'm not interested in this feature because I don't treat my laptop like a cocktail (shaken not stired;-))
Helpful software
Getting at least some of the features of a tablet PC working will offer you new possibilities of working.
- Xournal: handy program for taking handwritten notes (no recognition like OneNote). It has also the skill to annotate PDF's, very useful. Sources can be found here.
- VYM: If you ever need to create mind-maps (by the way a very good method for projects) "View Your Mind" is the right thing. You can select it on OpenSuSE Installation or get it via Internet or YAST.
- Scribus: useful to create flyers or other DTP-stuff. You can get an rpm-Package here.
- FFES:little program to recognize handwritten formula. It converts your handwritten formula into a bitmap using LaTeX so this could be very interessting for any scientist.
- MPlayer:for some strange reason SuSE doesn't provide support for the libraries neede to view DVD's. This is where you're gonna need MPlayer. For details go here
