adoll's Journal: Linux OpenSuSE 10.2 on Toshiba Satellite M60 laptop

Spent some time this long weekend attempting to install Linux on my Toshiba Satellite M60 laptop. I had an old laptop hard drive kicking around, so I threw that in the laptop and then started installing off an OpenSuSE 10.2 DVD that I pulled off BitTorrent.

Let SuSE reformat the hard drive into its default partitions. The drive is very small, so I had to remove a bunch of the core applications to get the OS to fit. I also chose Gnome for the desktop.

The install went fine up until I started running out of disk space (duh). Managed to limp through that and get to the hardware setup part of the install. It correctly identified the video chipset and the display size (1400x900). Then we tried the first startup of the Xorg server and it got painful.

The default free 'nv' driver gave me a display full of garbage and the machine was locked up solid. Rebooted into Safe mode and logged into the shell as Root. Then launched yast from the prompt and installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers (see http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-installer-HOWTO.html#1). There were two options to choose from, and I chose the wrong one first. You actually need the 100.* series driver, not the 1.* series driver.

Once you have installed that driver through the yast software management page, select the 'hardware setup' tab in yast and click on graphic cards and monitors. Warning, don't have a CRT plugged in when you click this or yast will think it is your primary display.

Then from here on it is easy. Should get an Nvidia splash screen and a SaX default display that works fine. Accept it and continue.

For some reason the online update sources didn't quite work by default. I had to open yast and under Software->Installation Source add an entry to http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss.

HARDWARE
-The wireless card works fine with default settings
-The ethernet card works fine with default settings
-The touch pad works fine with default settings
-USB mouse works fine with default settings
-The built-in SD card reader fails to hotplug by default
-A USB SD card reader hotplugs fine with default settings
-Sound works fine with default settings
-Power saving options (hibernation, suspect) fail with default settings