Installing OpenSUSE 12.1 on a ThinkPad T500

Model

Lenovo Thinkpad T500 2056-Y4R, BIOS 6FET92WW (3.22), ECP 7VHT16WW (1.06)

General

This installation instruction describes these parts that do not or do not completely work after my OpenSUSE 12.1 DVD installation using KDE 4 as window manager.

Graphics

Using the default BIOS settings, the Switchable Graphics with Intel GMA 4500MHD and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 will cause high power consumption, i.e., 35W instead of 14W: Both kernel modules, Intel and ATI, are loaded on boot while X.org only uses the Intel graphics. Thus, if you do not need the ATI 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 ATI graphics.

NOTE!

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

Power Management

Suspend to RAM works out of the box. However, Suspend to RAM did not work reliably using the default Switchable graphics BIOS setting. Note that I did not test Suspend to Disk.