Installing OpenSuse11.4 on a ThinkPad W520

Model

The W520 comes with an additional 80GB solid state disk (Intel 310) instead of internal umts-modem and a 500GB 2,5" sata disk with windows 7 on it preinstalled. This model has two graphics systems: Integrated graphics (intel) and discrete graphics (NVIDIA Quadro 2000M). In BIOS you can select which one to use and as a third option to use both, called NVidia Optimus. It has an Integrated camera and a Huey PRO Colorimeter.

Installation

I decided first to install the Linux system on the ssd disk and use the 500GB harddisk for data. For less power consumption I decided to use the Intel graphics and do some tests with NVidia Optimus later. This has to be configured in the BIOS. Installation runs out of the box in graphical mode with BIOS settings for internal graphics.

Video

After the installation has finished the resolution of the internal display is automatically recognized.

I found that there is some work in progress to get the possibility to switch between internal and discrete graphics called bumblebee. This should bring NVidia optiumus to linux. Therefor the display has to be switched in BIOS to OPTIMUS. I Installed bumblebee from the openSuse repository. Starting a program with

$ optirun <program name>

let the program run with use of the NVidia graphics.

The bad on the internal graphics is that the external display connector is wired to the NVidia graphics and there seems to be no way to run an external display at the moment with intel graphics activated.

I did not found out how to disable the discrete graphics when not in use, so the battery lifetime is smaller than when running on intel only.

As an alternative solution I tried to switch to discrete graphics in BIOS and to use the nvidia graphics with proprietary drivers from nvidia. After Installing the driver and generating an xorg.conf the nvidia logo is shown on X server startup. After that the external display connectors are usable.

Help needed

Has anyone found a solution for the following:

1. Get the external display ports activated in NVidia optimus mode
2. Disable the nvidia card full in NVidia optimus mode

Help needed

Using discrete graphics with nvidia driver, shutting down and switching the BIOS settings to NVidia optimus, startup with intel-driver, shutdown and switch BIOS settings back to discrete graphics then the nvidia driver is not working anymore with following message: Fatal server error: no screens found The only solution I found is to reinstall the driver. I think there must be a way to simple activate the driver again.

Sound

Sound is very silent when running video dvd in integrated graphics mode. The only solution I found is to use xine as the player and modify the a52.level setting from 100 to 200 (maximum).

Networking

WiFi

Wireless LAN connections are working without problems.

Ethernet

The ethernet port works out of the box.

Battery Lifetime

The battery lifetime depends on the display setting in the bios.

BIOS setting	lifetime	comment
integrated graphics	6.5h
optimus	3.5h	nvidia not disabled
optimus	4.5h	nvidia partly disabled
discrete graphics	2.5h

Suspend to Ram

Function-Key FN-F4 works out of the box. The System suspends and resumes without problems in all three graphic modes (intel only, optimus, discrete graphics only).

Suspend to Disk

Function-Key FN-F12 does not work out of the box. Manually suspend to disk from kde-menu works out of the box (tested in integrated graphics mode only). Resume afterwards has no problems. May be some manual configuring solves the problem.

Integrated Camera

not tested

Colorimeter

not tested

Special Keys

Key	works	comment
Mute	yes
Speaker+	yes
Speaker-	yes
Display brighter	yes	not working with nvidia driver under X11 1
Display darker	yes	not working with nvidia driver under X11 1
Thinklight	yes

FOOTNOTES [Δ]

1. to change display brigtness switch to text console and change brigthness there. Then switch back to X11.