View source for SuSE 8.1 on an IBM R32

= Technical data =

List of technical details regarding my R32. There are different models out there, which differ in CPU, memory and display-specs.

I don't have access to this notebook any more, so don't expect updates or more information in the future.

{| width="90%" align="center" 
|- valign="top"
| colspan="3" | '''IBM Thinkpad R32'''
|-  valign="top"
| rowspan="11" |[[Image:r32.jpg|left|[[help:contents|IBM R32 Notebook]]]]
| '''CPU'''
| Mobile Intel Pentium 4 1,6 GHz
|- valign="top"
| '''Chipset'''
| Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset
|-  valign="top"
| '''BIOS'''
| --
|- valign="top"
| '''Memory'''
| 512 MB RAM
|-  valign="top"
| '''Graphics'''
| ATI Mobility Radeon Mobility M6 LY, 16MB RAM
|- valign="top"
| '''Display'''
| 1024x768x24 XGA
|-  valign="top"
| '''Harddisk'''
| 30 GB
|- valign="top"
| '''Sound'''
| i810_audio compatible
|-  valign="top"
| '''Media'''
| CD-R/CVD-R-Drive
|- valign="top"
| '''Connections'''
|
* USB 1.2
* 1x Parallel
* VGA-out
* S-Video-out
* IrDa
* PC-Card-Slot
* Microphone/Headphones
* Modem
* 100 MBit-Ethernet Intel Corp. 82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE (LOM)
* IBM MultiBay
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top"
| '''Modem'''
| Intel 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem
|}

== Installation: Things which... ==

Overall, the basic installation of [http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/index.html  SuSE 8.1] worked flawless and painless. All basic pieces of hardware where automatically recognized and configured correctly, although the second mouse had to be configured manually.

=== ...work out of the box ===

* '''Sound''' Works.
* '''Ethernet''' Works flawlessly.
* '''Modem''' Works according to Yast2, but I have never used it.
* '''Fn-keys/special-keys:''' Work, except the ThinkPad-key. All other Fn-keys do as they should. ThinkLight works as well. Brightness-keys work. Display-Switching works (although the R32s ATI Mobility Radeon isn't exactly famous for its good graphics and multihead-capability under XFree 4.1 (has been improved under 4.2 and up as far as I know)).

=== ...work with tweaking ===

* '''Mouse''' The installer recognizes and configures only the external mouse. The internal TrackPoint-mouse had to be selected manually.
* '''X-Server''' The standard-resolutions like 1024x768 work out of the box, but 3D-acceleration does not. An upgrade to XFree 4.2 led to a more stable 3D-acceleration, but had other issues (external monitors could not be run with resolutions higher than the physical resolution of the internal LCD-panel -which was possible with the old driver under XFree86 4.1). Multihead/Xinerama also works with 4.2 (again only without 3D-acceleration).
* '''Keyboard''' Although the keyboard is found and correctly configured, and the overall quality is better than that of the [[SuSE 9.0 on a Toshiba M30-344|Toshiba]], it is impossible to get it working without problems. Certain key-combinations produce weird output under X or lead to a lockup of the keyboard, but I did not bother, because I used that notebook mainly with an external keyboard (Cherry) which worked without a problem). If you need the internal keyboard: Don't run that machine under Linux until this problem has been fixed.

=== ...don't work ===

* '''Suspend''' As this is not supported very well under Linux, there is -very unsurprisingly- no support for ACPI-controlled power-save-modes, but suspend to RAM worked in APM-mode.

== Recommendation ==

Overall, I would not recommend this machine, even not for a Windows-user. There, most of the hardware problems should not occur, but still the hardware itself is not worth the money and does not live up to the expectations one has for a IBM-Thinkpad.

The downside is the bad, low-resolution LCD-panel, the bad graphics-chip, the bad keyboard and mouse. And although this is only an anecdotal thing, my ThinkPad died 6 month after I got it and had to be repaired. Don't buy!

= Links =

This report is listed at 
[http://tuxmobil.org/ TuxMobil - Linux compatibility guides for laptops, notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones and GPS devices].