Installing Novell SLED 10sp1 on a Thinkpad T61

Opening Notes:

1) Initial attempts for SLED 10 Non-SP1 had extreme lack of hardware support for the new chipset and devices in the T61.

2) System appears to be stable as a rock, but at this time I am unable to get sound and wi-fi to function.

Hard Disk Controller

When the system boots hit F1 to enter the Bios, select Config->Serial ATA (SATA) and set the SATA Controller mode option to "Compatibility".

Video:

Intel:

I have no idea how the Intel video works as to I have the NVidia NVS140M card.

Nvidia:

Install latest NVidia driver, at time of writing 100.14.11. If installed properly full 3d rendering works, as well as compiz/beryl. Currently getting 40-100fps in WoW.

# sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run

If the file you download is newer that 100.14.11 make sure you modify the command appropriately

Reboot: # sudo shutdown -r now

After Rebooting Gnome should start normally

NOTE!

With each new Kernel release this process must be repeated

Network:

Integrated 10/100/1000 Intel Supported out of the box, no changes/tweaks necessary

Wireless:

The IBM chip works great - else you must resort to the intel drivers from their site.

FireWire / USB2.0:

IEEE1394 Mini Firewire jack on front of machine seems to mount removable hard drives just fine thru Gnome w/o additional config. Hot-Plug for USB2 storage devices do not seem to work however. If you reboot you can get them to mount.

Audio:

Build alsa-driver from the hg source, the issue is actually a mixer issue, but unfortunately the patch has not found its way downstream yet.

T61