Just downloaded the 5 ISOs from www.opensuse.org and installed them on my IBM Thinkpad T42. I decided to make this my primary linux distro for my desktop systems because I was tired with fooling around with all the settings. Yast did a great job of detecting all my hardware and configuring it for me (including wireless, sound buttons, 3D, etc.).

Here are my notes:
Everything worked fine after installation except for the following. Here is how I configured my laptop:

DVD –

• Do an online update from Yast and install all 4 Multimedia Packs
• Next open up Yast and in the software section open ‘Change Source of Installation’.
• Add the Packman Yast source:
  Protocol - HTTP
  Server Name - packman.iu-bremen.de
  Directory on Server - suse/9.3
• once that’s added click on the up button so packman is at the top.
• …then OK & Finish
• Now in Yast open ‘Install & Remove Software’ and use the package manager to UNINSTALL mplayer, kaffeine, xine-ui and libxine1.
• Then REINSTALL those packages from the packman source (Yast will prompt you to accept the W32codecs to go with Mplayer).
• This will get everything working with all the codecs you’ll need.

Sound –
The sound was not working after installation. I found that if I booted back into my Windows XP partition, the mute button is somehow hard wired, so I had to take it off of mute there. After I booted back to Suse, everything worked great. Since I didn’t have the tpb package configured, the sound was muted at the hardware level.

802.1x –
Worked great, just imported my pkcs12 cert and configured wpa_supplicant and was able to connect.
Use — http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

VPN –
For the cisco vpnc client, use: http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/vpnc/ and http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=12570 as a front end
Also, install the ipsec-tools package to get racoon keyring.

Great Icons –
http://nuovext.pwsp.net/

Kivio:
Get more stencils for Kivio from the following:
* http://sourceforge.net/projects/xfig2sml/ — get the stencils.sml
* Download and unpack
* as root, mkdir /opt/kde3/share/apps/kivio/stencils/Xfig
* cd stencils (unpacked xfig dir)
* cp -r * /opt/kde3/share/apps/kivio/stencils/Xfig/
* cd /opt/kde3/share/apps/kivio/stencils/Xfig/
* mv [dir] ../ ( for those directory packs you want available, like Libraries or Electrical)
* start up Kivio and select Tools > Add Stencil Set > [dir]

VMWare:
I was not able to compile the necessary vmware module vmmon.ko for the default Suse kernel until I stumbled on these directions:

One common cause of the error message about prebuilt modules is an installation in which the installed kernel source files, including kernel headers, do not match the currently running kernel.

One method of checking for this problem involves the following two steps:

1. Run the following command to get the version number of your currently running kernel:
uname -r
2. Run the following command to get the version number of the installed kernel source files and headers:
rpm -qa | grep kernel

If the version numbers do not match, obtain the source files and headers from the distribution CD or the vendor and install them.

You also need to have a properly installed version of the gcc compiler and the make program before running vmware-config.pl.

In the case of some recent kernels from SUSE and Novell, you must take some special steps.

Refer to the instruction section on building external modules in your distribution. This information is normally in /usr/share/doc/packages/kernel-source/README.SUSE.

This section has the following instructions to make kernel source files usable so vmware-config.pl can compile the kernel modules.

1. Install kernel-source.$ARCH.rpm.
2. Change to the /usr/src/linux directory. Run the following command:
make cloneconfig
3. Run the following command:
make modules_prepare

USB-to-serial
Of course, the Thinkpad also doesn’t have a serial port for access to routers, switches, etc. So, we bought several usb to serial cables (FTDI, Key something) and they all are recognized and used under suse (use lsusb for listing and /dev/usb/ttyUSB0 for mounting). Run minicom -s and put in /dev/usb/ttyUSB0 for the device.

LINKS:
Ubuntu notes — http://aaltonen.us/archive/2005/03/02/ubuntu-linux-on-the-ibm-thinkpad-t42/
WPA — http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~fleuret/installations.html
Ubuntu notes — http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/ubuntuhoarythinkpadt42.html
OpenSuse 10.0 notes — http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2005-10-10-003-26-OS-HL-SS