Thinkpad W500 with openSUSE 11.1

[T-Fen]

Hello all-

I'm considering the purchase of a Lenovo Thinkpad w500. I have a T60 from work that I use and have openSUSE 11.1 installed on that. Everything works well, and I'm curious about openSUSE 11.1 on the W500.

Specifically support for things like graphics (3D), fingerprint reader, webcam, suspend to disk/RAM & sound.

Is anyone running openSUSE 11.1 on a W500? If so, what has your experience been? What's working, what's not?

Thanks!

[Ryushin]

I run Debian on my W500. Everything works except the fingerprint reader and switchable graphics. I needed 2.6.27 to have the wireless work. I'm running 2.6.28 right now. I've also have the Intel Graphics using the Intel drive and ATI HD 3650 card working using proprietary FGLRX and the ati and radeonhd x.org drivers. Though I haven't been able to get switchable graphics working and I don't think there is anything to make that work yet. I've had to compile the intel, radeonhd, and ati drivers from GIT sources.

The radonehd and ati xorg drivers don't step down the clock on the HD3650 so it runs pretty warm. The fglrx driver is able to step down the clock and keep it cool, but it's stability isn't the greatest and it will sometimes crash the system.

The integrated Intel I just go fully working with DRI. Thought the 3D is a bit slow. I'm still researching that.

Anyway, to sum it up, you'll need very modern drivers for the laptop. If SUSE isn't coming with everything yet, I would wait or be prepared to roll your own kernel and spend some time getting the graphics to work the way you want.

[T-Fen]

Thanks Ryushin...so no problems with the integrated camera? As far as graphics, maybe fglrx is the way to go...are you using the latest driver?

How does suspend to disk and suspend to RAM work?

I'm not really a debian user, so I'm hoping openSUSE W500 users will post too, so I can verify driver support.

[Ryushin]

Sorry for the delay. I was waiting for the new forum to come online.

The integrated camera works. Though you'll need to compile a driver for it to work. Please see:
http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/

I use Ekiga with the camera and it works fine.

I would assume that suspend to disk and ram work with SUSE. I use Tux-On-Ice (AKA, Suspend2) for my hibernation and sleeping and it works fine. Though I had to make a change so I could suspend using the FGLRX driver using TuxOnIce:
ProcSetting extra_pages_allowance 10000

I was using the latest FGLRX driver on 2.6.27, and I was able to get it to compile and run on 2.6.28 after making a few changes, but it was not stable on 2.6.28. I have now fully switched to the Intel driver. I can get 5 hours of battery life now using the Intel video driver and running 50% brightness. Until the X.org ATI or RadeonHD drivers fully support 3D, I'm sticking with the Intel. Even when 3D is working in the HD3650, I may still stay with the Intel. Heck, they even have gotten XvMC working in that driver.

The latest version of Ubuntu Intrepid is supposed to fully support the W500. I'd give that a whirl. There has been a mass defection from Fedora, SUSE, etc. to Ubuntu. Probably for good reason. Having access to just about any Linux software package with just a simple apt-get is an amazing thing. Try it, you might actually like it better than SUSE.

Me, I'll stick with Debian being the long time Linux geek that I am (Since 1995). Plus Ubuntu is based off Debian as well.