Installing openSuSE 11.1 on an X301

Installation

Most of the features seem to work immediately. I have seen this work out of the box:

• disk
• memory
• webcam
• microphone
• ethernet
• DVD reading

but I also encountered some issues which require manual fixing. Only those are described on this page.

In August 2009, I upgraded to SuSE Factory. I do not know how much of the changes below are still a problem when you start with Factory. In any case, Factory has a much newer kernel which results in 10 second boots and a very smooth experience.

Installation problems

Wireless

The driver is too old: broadcasts of close-by stations are not found, and connections get teminated all the time. Upgrade it as explained in Intel WiFi Link 5100/5300 WLAN controller

Video

After installing, the video mode is autodetected a little too low. Go to the KDE-personal settings menu to get it up to 1440x900. If that choice is not available, then first run SaX2 and try again.

After resurrection from suspend mode, the resolution flips to something like 1400x1040, which is obviously wrong. You can not reach to the panel to log-out. Gladly, the background menu has a log-out option as well. I do not know how to resolve this yet. The shutdown and boot are so fast (because of the SSD) that I do not require suspend...

Compiz

Whether it has to do with the problems of the graphics driver or not, I don't know, but also Compiz does not survive a suspend, leaving you without a window manager. The (default) KWin manager does survive suspend mode.

Performance

Without any configuration, a new battery holds about 4.5 hours.

Applications

• Skype works without problems, although you have to install the 32-bit versions of some QT libraries first.