Installation instructions for the ThinkPad R51e

I have got ThinkPad R51e 1843, RAM upgraded to 1.5 GB. Due to soon end of support of Windows XP and slowing down I decided to install Debian. Fist thing I done was backup of recovery partition by CloneZilla Live. I installed debian-7.3.0-i386-netinst.iso from CD drive and having Ethernet cable connection, I installed also additional packages such as: Laptop, X, Wireless. I chosen non free software option. Overall installation is easy. I set swap size partition to 4096MB, my disk is 40GB. Later I done some packages removal such as Libre Office and installed LXDE as default GUI. It works using Firefox - Iceweasel but I noticed some visual bugs in browser (UI and browser engine). Also video is not as fast as it was under Windows, but youtube works not too bad, but needs to install proper non free plugin. I think video is slow because GPU is not supported. Other problems: Fn+F4 causes black screen, cannot to use. Fn+F12 also malfunctioning, cannot to use. Wireless diode not working but wifi works. VLC - better not install working badly with this configuration.

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I have an IBM ThinkPad R51E, and I have installed Debian Sarge on it.

Just run the cd-rom of installation, boot it and press FN + F7.

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Running SuSE 10.2 (net upgrade from a 10.1 DVD install) on a R51e, machine model 1843.

• Get openSUSE-10.2-GM-i386-mini.iso

• Under Windows: Multimedia Center for Think Offerings > RecordNow Data > Copy > Burn Image
• find the IP address of the installation repository and directory on server
• Boot from CD, select HTTP install, enter server IP and directory eg, /pub/opensuse/distribution/10.2/repo/oss

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Video

fglrx ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Series with Xorg 7.x

• Get ati-driver-installer-8.33.6-x86.x86_64.run

• # ./ati-driver-installer-8.33.6-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102-IA32

• # rpm -Uvh fglrx_7_1_0_SUSE102-8.33.6-1.i386.rpm

 [...]   1:fglrx_7_1_0_SUSE102    ########################################## [100%]
 /usr/src/kernel-modules/fglrx /
 make: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.18.2-34-obj/i386/default'
 [...]  INSTALL /usr/src/kernel-modules/fglrx/fglrx.ko
        DEPMOD  2.6.18.2-34-default
 Please read "/usr/share/doc/packages/fglrx/README.SuSE" for
 configuration details when using SaX2.

• Configure with # sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

• If $ fglrxinfo

 display: :0.0 screen: 0
 OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org 
 OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect 
 OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)

then as per Problems_with_fglrx,

 # mkdir -p /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri
 # ln -s /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri

• This is the expected result of $ fglrxinfo

 display: :0.0  screen: 0
 OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
 OpenGL renderer string: RADEON XPRESS Series Generic
 OpenGL version string: 2.0.6286 (8.33.6)

Hint:

Invoke # fglrx-kernel-build.sh after each kernel upgrade/change.

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madwifi for Atheros 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI

Hint:

Add http://madwifi.org/suse/10.2 to YaST2 Installation Sources for Atheros drivers for default SuSE kernel.

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Sound

$ lspci

[...] 00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

$ lsmod

[...] snd_ac97_codec 95648 1 snd_atiixp

amongst other modules.

NOTE!

If Headphone Sense or Line Jack Sense are unmuted audio is dead. This can cause considerable grief.