I bought the laptop the day I was leaving Switzerland for a contract. So I had to get it running rather quickly and with out support downloads etc. This is the way I did it, it worked and the results are good enough for me.
Background:
First off the thing came with win2000pro (German) installed. I need this for other contracts so I needed the feared "dual boot".
I had to repartition to make room for Linux. Fortunately the partition (all 48 Gig!) was one huge Fat32, with an IBM special recovery partition at end. That's good cause Linux can read/write FAT32 , but does not do so hot with NTFS. Once repartioned I could then install SuSE 7.3.
Okay, first I installed PowerQuest's PartitionMagic. I should have used DriveImage to back up the partition but the time was too short so I skipped that. SuSE 7.3 is supposed to do the repartioning stuf for you, but I've never tried it and didn't have time to mess around with new stuff. PartitionMagic is tried and true!
I shrank the IBM preloaded partition to 8 gig and moved it over some 36mb to make room for a Linux boot partition. PartitionMagic takes a while so I packed.
When I returned, Windows still booted, so all was good, but it was time to go. I packed up the Laptop and ran for the train.
On the train (Basel to Zurich), I was brave so I started the SuSE 7.3 installation from the DVD. Yep, that's right I installed it on the train!
Okay, I cheated a little, I had the salesman charge the battery for me the night before I picked up the machine!
I happened to know the VESA number of the 1600x1200x16 bit resolution so I started the installation with the additional parameter vga=884 (These values you find in the SuSE's Yast2 -> Hardware -> Hardware Info -> FrameBuffer)
This seems to be important since latter Sax2 (SuSE advanced X-Configuration) setup X to use the framebuffer device at the same resolution, and everything beens working since.
As is my habit, I ignored the warning and installed Lilo in the master boot record. As usually, SuSE added a "windows" entry into my lilo.conf, from which I can boot windows.
I bought the IBM so I could use linux on it. I paid the extra dollars so as to get a machine which would present little problems with linux, and it looks like I did the right thing, it works well!
|
Component |
S |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
SoundCard |
+++ |
Automagically. |
|
GraphicCard |
+++ |
Using FrameBuffer, and like it like that! |
|
Ethernet |
+++ |
Automagically. |
|
LCD |
+++ |
Using Standard LCD 1600x1200@75mhz |
|
Lucent Modem |
xxx |
Don't work, even after I tried, IBM support has a driver but only for Kernel 2.2, and I use 2.4 |
|
Wireless ETH |
? |
Haven't tried it yet |
|
BlueTooth |
? |
Haven't tried it yet |
|
DVD/CDwriter |
+++ |
Automagically. (note SCSI emulation for IDE devices is required for all IDE cdwriters and SuSE don't have a DVD player) |
|
Floppy option |
+++ |
Automagically. |
|
USB |
+++ |
Automagically. (Use it for external mouse) |
|
PCMCIA |
+++ |
Automagically. (used it with Adaptec SCSI, and Telelink Twin card modem) |
|
Firewire |
? |
Haven't tried it yet, but not listed in Hardware info either. |
|
Trackpoint |
+++ |
Automagically. |
Linux recognizes a network interface device from "Harris Semiconductor" on device /dev/sit (I guess either Wireless Ethernet, or Bluetooth), but I haven't had the chance to try it out yet.
I got a "Logitech Wheel Mouse Optical" I configured in X-Windows. Once configured the plug and play works, i.e. Just stick it in and use it, and/or the trackpoint!
The machine goes to sleep and wakes up correctly, including going to sleep when the lid is closed, and waking up when opened!
For thoose of you who decided to reconfigure X-Windows to use the FrameBuffer Device, please note that the "vga=884" parameter is ignored on the linux prompt if you have the vga=xxx parameter in the global section of the /etc/lilo.conf file!
It's a historical thing in the PC world. In the old dos days, only programs written for specific graphical cards could use any thing over the standard EGA, VGA. Then one day, someone bright said, hey, why don't we define a standard set of Extended resolutions/timmings, so anybody (including DOS) can use the enhanced resolutions! This standard is called VESA modes. And they are still supported today.
Cute story? It may even be true! At any rate here's the Beef:
If you use the framebuffer device, you get "extended" consoles (<ctrl><alt><f1> to <ctrl><alt><f6>) in 1600x1200@75mhz mode. And these are very usefull since they are clear, huge, blinding fast, and require much less overhead to use than xterm and co.
The draw back is you don't get to use the fancy features of your GraphicCard, (no 3D acceleration, sorry Doom'ers). Profesionaly I'm not really interested in blinding graphics speed in my programming environments. (I donot program Doom, nor play it on my laptop!).
So you choose, I did and I'm staying with the FrameBuffer device!
Oh yeah, Hi, I'm Jerry Westrick, and you can contact me at Jerry@Westrick.Com (Well, what did you expect?)