Thinkpads Forum

Like the title says.

I have a few questions:

1. Networking. My built-in ethernet works great. I can connect w/no problems. My wireless does not. The card is identified and I am able to get an IP address and even ping my router. The card works fine in windows. Is there some security setting I need to switch in order to have my wireless pick up the DNS setings it needs?

2. I have linux installed on a separate partition (hda2). Windows is installed on the first primary partition. (hda1). I have alink to it on my desktop as both root and user. However it is not configured in my fstab file. How di I set up fstab so I can access my windows partition (read-only is fine)? I was told I need to create a folder for it in /dev and link to it as a mount point using the fstab file.

3. What can I do to "optimize" the system (run faster).

4. What is a good applet to run in my KDE system tray to select wireless networks?

Thanks in advance.

I haven't used KDE, or SUSE, so factor that in while reading my responses.

1. If you're certain the card is found and you can ping your router, the easiest way to fix this is to run SUSE's network configuration tool (I have no idea what this might be, but look among the "system configuration" tools) and make sure that your wireless connection (say wlan0), is set to use DHCP for its IP/DNS information.

2. Since you say you link to your windows partition now, I assume that you have NTFS support present in SUSE. All you then need to do is create a directory, say, /mnt/windows (anything you like), and add the following line to /etc/fstab
This will mount it read-only, on boot, and is accessable to all users. Writing is disabled because NTFS write support is not considered very robust.

3. That is a very vague question. Disabling services you don't need on startup and using "lighter apps" will make your system feel much faster.

4. Like I said, I haven't used KDE, so all I can say is, google for something like KDE network manager, or SUSE network manager and figure out what you like.

If this were GNOME however, it's (unsuprisingly called) GNOME Network Manager.

Thanks for the help with the mount point and fstab settings. I got that working. I am still searching for some kind of answer as it relates to my wifi issue.

I think there is something I need to turn off in order be able to use my wifi card. Like I said, still researching.

I would upgrade to suse 10.1. I'm running that now on my T23 and it's smooth sailing all the way. There is an networkmanager installed by default in 10.1 witch allow's you to manage wireless easy. I also want to ad that lcd shutdown work's with the default kernel in 10.1, never got that to work in 10.0.