Installing SUSE LINUX Professional 9 on a ThinkPad T41p
Contents
The machine
- 1400x1050 display
- 1.7GHz CPU
- 80GB HDD
- 2GB RAM
- IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter
- IBM Integrated Bluetooth II with 56K Modem (BMDC)
The Install process
I started the install on a spare 80GB HDD, so did not have to worry about preserving any data or OS.
I let SUSE determine almost everything automatically, but during the install there where a few things that I needed to adjust.
Keyboard and Mouse
Keyboard and ThinkPoint work out of the box.
Note that I have the integrated TouchPad disabled in the BIOS, so I cannot comment on its functions.
Display
SUSE defaulted to 1024x768 instead of my displays native 1400x1050 resolution. But this was easy to adjust.
Networking
The installer (Yast) recognized the integrated Ethernet and Wireless, and allowed me to specify the SSID (wireless network name) and Key. To bad it did not allow me to scan for available wireless networks at this time.
I did run into an issue in that after install DNS lookups where failing, shutting down the default configured firewall resolved this issue, but is obviously not the best solution.
Bluetooth
SUSE automatically recognized the bluetooth function, but I have not tried to use it yet
Modem
The modem was also autodetected, but to get SUSE to install the support for it, I was forced to select and configure a dialup provider. I got around this by just providing it with some fake data.
After install I echoed 'at' to the device and got 'OK' back, so it seems to be working.
Power Management
SUSE supports "Suspend to Disk" and "Suspend to RAM", but by default these functions are disabled. I enabled these functions in Yast, but have not tried them yet.
I did however try to press Fn-F12 after enabling these functions, and noticed there was no response. The battery/power icon in the system tray does give you these suspend options.
