Suse SLED 10 on Dell Precision M90

I installed SLED 10 (Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) on my M90 (Intel CoreDuo T2500, 17 WUXGA, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M 256MB OpenGL, 60GB sata Hard Drive, 512MB ram, 8X DVD-ROM, Intel 3945 (802.11a/g) Dual-band Mini-Card). Here are the notes (I'm a rudimentary linux user, I do not tinker with config files etc):

Installation Procedure
Download and burn the SLED 10 iso dvd.
Backup data.
Defragment the HDD (I assume u want a dual boot system).
Put in the SLED 10 dvd, reboot, and tell bios to boot off dvd.
Repartition the HDD - there is an option for shrinking the windows NTFS partition, that will create free space, and you can create additional linux partitions off that.
My config is:
23 GB windows NTFS
Following were created under SLED:
9GB Fat (linux can read and write to fat, it can only read from NTFS).
6.9 GB linux, mounted as / (I think the filesystem is ext3)
16GB linux, mounted as /home
2GB linux swap


What does NOT work/not tested ?
Modem
I have not tested the modem. Dell is notorios for using winmodems, and this may not work. If it does not, try the modems at linuxant.com - thats what I had to do for my e1505.
Wireless
The wireless card was not working properly when I tested it. The Intel 3945 chip is know to cause problems with linux. The chip recognises wireless networks, but when I tried to connect to my WPA network, entering keys etc. the wireless indicator started blinking on/off for ever.
Solutions can probably found at http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/
Media Buttons
They do not work.
Suspend to RAM
I could not see an option on how to invoke this (its not there on the logout menu)

What does work ?
Everything else

Display
Be sure to be connected to the internet via the ethernet cable when u install SLED 10. The SLED dvd did not have the drivers for the NVIDIA card, but at install time for X, it asked me whether it could connect to the Nvidia website and automatically download the drivers. Yes folks, SLED is now using real NVIDIA binary drivers. It installed the drivers automtically and the WUXGA configuration was working out of the box.

3d-Desktop/Xgl/Compiz
Works out of the box (I think I had to enable 3-d acceleration and 3d desktop on gnome, but that was it).
Not too much load on cpu - I can play a HD video (spiderman 3 trailer @ 720p ) with 40% cpu utilization full screen, with Xgl/compiz on.

Here is a novel video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CgqWlX_GsI

Suspend to Hard Disk
Works. Takes about 20 sec to suspend, and 50 sec to wake up.

Sound,network card, usb dvd drive
All work out of the box.

When You First Log In
There should be a software update logo, near bottom right hand side. Do the upgrades (free upgrades for 60 days from SUSE). If there isnt any such thing, dont bother.



MP3/avi file support
Suse does not provide this in the standard version.
But it can easily be fixed:
Install the smart package manager from Guru's site:
http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=/System/smart
( Use the x86 versions, for SUSE 10.1 - they work in SLED).
To install a foo.rpm file, first download the file to some directory.
Now open up a konsole window, login as root, and type

Code:

rpm -Uvh foo.rpm

Install all the smart package files.
Then, to start up the program, type (as root)

Code:

smart --gui

When smart starts for the first time, it will ask whether it can add package sites. Click yes to all (the most important is the guru's repository http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ ).
Then, upgrade xmms, kaffeine, xine,mplayerand your other media players : search for files (eg xmms) in the smart window, and install the files, giving preference to files that have guru in their name. The guru packages have support for mp3/avi etc.
Now, after you install the guru packages, the SUSE software upgrader (bottom right hand corner), may give new updates, do not upgrade the files you installed via guru's repository)

Rember to not open more than one package manager at a time (so you can open one yast software manager or one smart window, but never both, or never two smart windows at one time).

Fonts/DPI
SLED chooses a default dpi of 120-125. I wanted something smaller, the gnome desktop (default) has an option for changing the dpi (look under "look and feel"). I'm using 96 now, I had to increase the font sizes after that, but the system now look absolutely stunning.
The dpi can be changed in other desktops by creating a

Code:

.Xresources

files and adding the following line in it:

Code:

Xft.dpi: 96

 

Think I migh have found a way to bind actions to the media keys if you're interested. It's here toward the bottom of the page. Seems relatively simple.

 

I just tried that, it didnt work

 

Also, I tried suspend to ram via

Code:

 powersave --suspend-to-ram  

( after setting SUSPEND2RAM_FORCE to true in /etc/powersave/sleep)
It suspened to, and I was able to wake it up, but then network was turned off, no problem turned it back on. But after while the keyboard stopped responding. The mouse was moving, and I could switch to a console via CTR+ALT+F2, then type, but the window mnager was not accepting keystrokes.
I had to finaly restart X.
This happened twice.
Any clue on how to fix that ?

 

Linux sucks for using standby. I don't even try anymore, nor do most people. I just use hibernate.

 

Hi,

at my office side I working with a dell notebook (Inspiron 5150) with a nVidia graphic
device. Only the non GPL nVidia driver works with an external TFT monitor in my
openSuSE 10.2 constallation. But unfortunatly this config is a little bit buggy and
unstable: After more or less time the fan is roars loud and the whole box blowing
from out of the aeration slots and the system feeze. Since there are no hints in
the normal log files (/var/log/* with all the file for kernel debugging) I'm suspecting
the nVidia driver for some reasons.
The situation is a little bit better since I reinstalled form the 10.2 SuSE but the
very annoying bug (reboot, fsck() etc.) is still there. I'll like to buy the M90 in the
next weeks, equipped with a nVidia device again. Did you encountered such system
crashes with the M90, the closed source driver and an external screen?

THX for reading, much more for writing!
Greetings from Cologne, Germany,

cu Stefan

 

I have not used the M90 with an external screen.
Closed sorce driver from NVIDIA has not given me any problems.

 

openSuse works well. I wrote up a review of installing openSUSE 10.2 on the M90 here: http://www.kenjennings.cc/m90/M90_openSuse_10_2.html

I'm about to start the same procedure for openSUSE 10.3.