This page offers some experience on how an install of SuSE 10.2 Linux went on a fully loaded $5000 Dell Latitude D820.

This is the same laptop I ran SuSE 10.1 on earlier.

Configuration

Here is the output from lspci.

Here's a screenshot of Beryl running with Emerald. Warning: this much eye candy can be addicting.

The repository for Beryl can be added with smart (more on smart later):

smart channel --add http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_10.2/X11:XGL.repo

Details

The installation CD had no problems with any of the hardware (aside from the EVDO card and the modem). After loading the proprietary nVidia driver from the nvidia repository here I enabled Xgl and Compiz. These worked great, but I wanted a little something extra so I went with Beryl/Emerald. I used this page to make sure everything was loaded. Beryl isn't perfect yet (it crashes on occasion and I get the evil white screen problem sometimes, even with the fixes listed) so I removed it from starting up automatically. If you've got it starting automatically when you log into X (per the directions) and can't get in to the Gnome control panel, do a CTRL+ALT+F1, login as root, cd /home/username/.config/autostart, rm beryl* should fix it.

I was able to get AIGLX to work only using the nvidia drivers as well (SuSE 10.2 uses X.org ~7.1.99). Since I don't run Beryl all the time (yet!) I wanted to have an easy fall back to Xgl/Compiz so I installed Beryl under Xgl. Here's to hoping the team over at Beryl get it stable soon, it's a great package!

I've been running Xgl/Compiz for months now with SuSE 10.1 and now SuSE 10.2. It's been very, very stable on this laptop.

Bluetooth

I borrowed a Think Outside bluetooth keyboard to test the bluetooth on the D820 out. I just went with the command line tools, hcitool and hidd. For simple HIDs (Human Interface Devices), put your device in pairing mode, use hcitool scan to find the MAC, then hidd --connect MAC Address to connect. I also used my Treo 700w to copy files back and forth using the Gnome bluetooth facilities without any problems.

Network 

Another small catch with SuSE 10.2 (also with SuSE 10.1) is the ipw3945 driver that is used on the D820. It's been compiled without monitor support (although, this might change). This means you won't be running Kismet in any worthwhile capacity without installing the newest ieee80211 subsystem and ipw3945 drivers from the Sourceforge projects, just make sure to uncomment the monitor lines in the Makefile of the ipw3945 drivers before compiling. One odd thing I ran into while trying this is the ipw3945 drivers do not make install. You have to load them with a ./load script, which I put in my boot.local file.

NetworkManager does a decent job of keeping you connected to your network of choice. I've noticed however sometimes it will not detect and switch to a wireless access point on it's own. If I pull up a shell and do iwlist scan it will then 'see' the access point and connect. Not sure what's causing it since I haven't dug too deeply into it yet so check back later.

Processor 

The dual core T2600 chip runs great under SuSE 10.2 as long as ACPI is working. Without it you only get one processor - no dual core. Here is the results of cat /proc/cpuinfo.

Installing smart

After my experience with YaST with SuSE 10.1, I try to use smart exclusively if possible. smart is on the install DVD, although you have to tell it to install with YaST.

Once it's installed, I use the guru repositories:

smart channel --add guru type=yast2 baseurl=http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.2/

Guru includes several other channels that have just about everything I need (although not the beryl repositories, at least not yet), so my hat's off to the SuSE guru!

Loose Ends

USB Changes

There are some changes in SuSE 10.2 from SuSE 10.1. The 'old way' of insecurely mounting USB devices has been disabled by default. This is a big problem if you're using VMware since VMware requires (as of me writing this) the USB file system at /proc/bus/usb. This no longer exists by default with SuSE 10.2! If you want to use this you need to recompile your kernel with legacy USB support.

On a side note, this was done for security reasons without much consideration on the part of the SuSE devs. I can understand their reasons, but some of those reasons are wrong for moving ahead without more consideration for users. 

This article I wrote details how to compile your kernel with Legacy USB support so that applications like VMWare can access USB devices. 

The Dell Wireless 5700 EVDO card (also called the Novatel XV620 I think...)

The EVDO card has some issues. Check back later for an update. Here's the result from kcmshell kcmusb:

The Fingerprint Reader

I've got some leads on getting the fingerprint reader working. Check back later for more information.