Installing OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 on a ThinkPad T430s

Model

Lenovo Thinkpad T430s 2356-LPG, BIOS G7ETA4WW (2.64), Firmware G7HT39WW (1.15)

General

This installation instruction describes these parts that do not or do not completely work after my OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 installation using KDE. If anything does not work as expected, please have a look at the older Installation of OpenSUSE 13.2 on a ThinkPad T430s for possible workarounds that I forgot to mention here.

Graphics

Using the default BIOS settings, the Switchable Graphics with Intel HD Graphics and NVIDIA Optimus may cause high power consumption. Thus, if you do not need the NVIDIA Optimus graphics, change the BIOS settings from Switchable to Internal graphics before installation. Please read Switchable Graphics for the pros and cons. Note that I did not test the NVIDIA Optimus graphics.

NOTE!

Any time you change the BIOS setting after installation, you may have to execute # mkinitrd in order to prevent loading of unnecessary modules.

Network

Bluetooth: Broadcom BCM20702

The non-persistent firmware of this Bluetooth 4.0 adapter (USB ID 0a5c:21e6) can be updated by the kernel by installing bcm20702a1-firmware.

NOTE!

Actually, the kernel needs the firmware patch file /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e6.hcd that is provided by the package mentioned above. To get this file manually, download the current ThinkPad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate Software for Windows 10 installer and extract it using innoextract. Then, convert the Windows firmware hex file app/Win64/BCM20702A1_001.002.014.1443.1453.hex using hex2hcd from bluez and move the resulting hcd file to /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e6.hcd.

Hint:

If you have a different Broadcom adapter, check the kernel log lines containing BCM for the name of the firmware patch file and the USB ID. Then, search for your USB ID (0a5c:21e6 would be written as USB\VID_0A5C&PID_21E6) in app/Win64/bcbtums-win8x64-brcm.inf of the extracted Windows installer. The first part of this line will define a DeviceDesc like BlueRAMUSB21E6. Search again for a section containing this string that defines CopyFiles like RAMUSB21E6.CopyList. Then search for the section named like this string, it contains the correct name of the firmware hex file.

GPS

The Ericsson HSPA+ WWAN Minicard (H5321gw) must be configured every time before it emits GPS data, see H5321gw GPS.

Power Management

Suspend to RAM works out of the box. Since I do not have a swap partition, I did not test suspend to disk.