SuSE 9.2 was supposed to be for laptops. It doesn't work. Can anyone help?

L

lopoetve

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 11, 2001
Messages
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So far, I've got:
1. No working wireless
2. No working WIRED networking
3. Partially working touchpad (so sensitive that moving across the screen in 2 passes activates 30 things you pass over).
4. Can't set the native resolution of the monitor. Apparently, all high end lcd's have a refresh rate of 75hz. Not.
5. No emacs (I can fix this, I'm sure).
6. Totally random configuration files, so forget doing it yourself. I can't find anything

All on a "supported Inspiron 9300".

So... Where do I begin? I can't do anything about the resolution, trying to test any changes results in the entire system hard locking (TOTAL hard lock, as in no ctrl-alt-backspace, etc). Wireless I'm guessing is a lost cause as well, even though it's the Centrino wireless card and supposedly supported.

I just want wired networking going so I can at least use it to program :(

Where do I start? On boot, it gets a DHCP address from the server, but not right away. It "backgrounds" that service, then a few seconds later gets a valid address, but still says that the setup failed for the network card. In the install, it can't connect to the site to do anything, the only error is "Network adapter is already configured". WTF?!? So I go on and reboot. Comes up, again does the dhcp bullshits (and fails, for some unknown reason)... and nothing networking related works. No connection, nada. :(
 
The 9300 is a NEW (very) notebook based on very new technology. For example, it doesn't have a IDE interface, but rather is sports a SATA interface (chipset) that can handle PATA devices. Mixed mode or even pure PATA via a SATA controller was not handled particulary well until 2.6.11.4 or later. The distributions with kernels at that level or higher are still in test (for the most part).

When a distribution says they work well on laptops, they are generally not predicting how well they'll work on hardware that didn't exist at the time the distribution was made.

With that said, it is not impossible to get Linux working on a 9300. It's just not for the inexperienced... you probably will have to do something to kick start any distribution install... and then for optimal performance (i.e. something acceptable to the general masses) you will have to upgrade the kernel and various system level support packages.

I have Precision M70... the 9300 is its cousin in many ways.... I only run Linux on mine. It is a modified SUSE 9.2. I have the 2200BG wireless... which works fine, but upgrading to kernel 2.6.11.4 required modified firmware definitions for the 2200BG wireless module... so had to hunt that down (the 2200BG module site had a bad link to the 2.2 firmwares...). The CDROM/DVD won't have DMA unless you use the newer kernel... otherwise the only way to see the device is to view it as a generic IDE device (which means no DMA by definition). The Nvidia driver you'll need to get from Nvidia and then you'll need patches to it to get it to compile correctly under the 2.6.11.x or higher kernels.

I would not recommend any of the new Sonoma based laptops unless you are totally comfortable with doing what I've briefly mentioned here.

A possible alternative is to purchase through a Linux hardware provider like Emperor Linux that might have done all the work for you. Currently they sell the M70 as well as the D810. Not sure if they'll attempt to handle the 9300 or not.

In all fairness, you've actually made it pretty far on your install.
 
The drives and everything work fine. And even the network card drivers work, they're just insisting on working ONLY in IPV6 (complete BS, since that's not even supposed to be enabled by default ;) )

So. How do I force it to IPV4?
 
Followed those steps, still not getting an IPv4 address via dhcp (and it's still yelling about no ipv6 routers in the logs).
 
Those instructions were for 2.4.

Edit /etc/modprobe.conf instead and add (change any net-pf-10 entry):
install net-pf-10 /bin/true
 
Yeah, found that update on another site. Same problem. I'm guessing driver issues with the broadcom 4400, given below...

I got networking up. Disable the wired lan, and the wireless suddenly starts working perfectly. Connection, IP, route, all come up via dhcp in an instant. So I'll go that route, I use wireless everywhere anyway.

So. Now to the Nvidia drivers and the sound. And the touchpad.
 
not to cause trouble, BUTY maybe just for grins, grab a copy of simplyMEPIS 3.3 CD and just boot into the OS from CD, and see if more works for you, IF so you could then install MEPIS and fine tune whtever was tsill an issue. I only bring this up because I went through a similar excercise with SUSE and Mandrake on my lappy and had a rough time, but with a small amount of tweaking I was good to go with MEPIS. Not trying to start a distro war, belive me.

Good Luck!
 
If you really want to see if something different works better, changing linux distro is a bit timid. Try FreeSBIE. :D
 
Got video working. Ditch the stuff SuSE provides, go straight to nvidia. Also sound. Now only the touchpad is odd.

And another thing... when I boot, I have to run dhcpcd eth1 to get the default route/etc to come up. Will just running that on boot be fine?
 
I don't know if SUSE package it, but you probably need the 'synaptics' tool for the touchpad.
 
For the video, how did you install the drivers? I have an IBM Thinkpad T41(Centrino based) and all the LiveCD's that I have booted up with, found the right resolution for the display, and worked with my wireless network as soon as I put the WEP key in.

Back to the video... Are you using the drivers that the system installed by default? Did you update them, and if so, manually or with YAST?

What I would do is find out what module is being loaded, be it vesa or nvidia...

Open a console, log in as root(su) and type "init 3"...

From there, type in "sax2 -m 0=module"... substituting module for nvidia or vesa...

For me:

sax2 -m 0=nvidia

THat should launch the video config tool and you should be able to test different settings and specify what resolutions you want to use...

Suse has about the best hardware detection you can get outside of WIndowsXP, so this should not be an issue...
 
I wouldn't trust YAST as far as I could throw it for driver upgrades. I tried their instructions, but they were a no-go. Even the switch2nvidia program didn't work. So I went to nvidia.com, downladed their drivers and the SuSE how-to (it's liked from the drivers download page), and followed the instructions, with the following modifications for anyone else following in my footsteps:

install, with either broken or working X, and boot into init level 3. to do so:

ctrl-alt-f2 to get to text login.
login as root
init 3


Run the nvidia script to build/install the drivers.
modprobe nvidia (THIS IS NEW!)
sax2 -m 0=nvidia (double check this command in the how-to).

if it doesn't work, reboot, modprobe nvidia, and try the sax command again.

After X loads up, set res/color/etc up manually, and save.

The test program in SuSE is broken, so don't try to set up video in the base install, do it after. It will hard lock the server, so you have to force reboot (pull the power). Ctrl-alt-bkspace does nothing.
 
lopoetve said:
I wouldn't trust YAST as far as I could throw it for driver upgrades.
Click to expand...

You don't trust that Novell had intimate detail of Nvidia's closed source ultra proprietary drivers?

Put this in the "duh" category.

Nvidia is certainly better than ATI in this respect, but they still aren't Linux friendly.
 
I still don't believe that having linux drivers means those drivers have to be open source, or non-proprietary. They developed the hardware and the software to run that hardware, it is within their right to keep that software closed to all but them. They DO provide a driver, and that's more than 90% do, and that's all I ask.
 
Yep.. It's not horrible... but it does mean that you'll have to operate outside of the distribution box most of the time with regards to that feature/driver/app. etc. And, of course, it does mean a greater potential for incompatabilities will be there.
 
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