Hi,
First and foremost the Techno-Lust
I just got a mean machine: Asus N53SV with these specs:
CPU Intel Core i7 2630QM
16 GB Ram DDR3 1333MHz (it’s not a typo, it is Sixteen GB)
1TB HDD
15.6’ Full HD Monitor 1920X1080
NVIDIA 540M.
DVD-WR
Great overall machine.
The Plan:
My idea is to install OpenSuSE 11.4 on the laptop, maintaining the (yuk) stupid Windows 7 because of a relative of mine (family does have a price).
All my other laptops and Desktops are Only Linux machines. Almost all OpenSuSE in several versions.
The idea is to use the great Express Gate Cloud Linux (EGC) on the machine to chainload Grub. But that can wait. For now I will boot from a flash USB and install grub on the Flash usb MBR, and it will became also the /boot partition.
In this manner my realtive that also wants to use the laptop will not be bothering me all the time.
This laptop Does Not Boot from usb automatically, One must choose to boot from USB during the boot/post process.
As soon as the asus POST logo appears (2-3 seconds) press on esc key and simply choose the usb flash.
This is also a simple choice: If I would use the EGC to boot I had to wait a couple of seconds also for the POST AND for the EGC to boot.
In this manner one actually saves some seconds in the process.
The current partitions on disk are as follows:
sad1 W7 boot
sda2 W7 main with the Express CLoud files inside.
sda3 a w7 partitions with 500GB.
By the way for those who want to go this way about hacking the EGC in order to overcome Express gate a very simple yet effective way to use the ECG bootloader was found with all merit going for these guys:
[ubuntu netbook remix] replace Express Gate with UNR on alternate power button - Page 2 - Ubuntu Forums](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1410167&page=2)
So Before going to the problem of the Optimus technology I need to first make the embedded and crippled Grub (in ECG they have no ext support) do a chainload to the actual Grub2 of OpenSuSE.
But after some thought and after noticing the simple esc key at boot solution I decided to use a simple and effective way to boot OpenSuSE.
Also my plan is to make the following partition scheme in order to latter encrypt the partitions:
sda1 W7 Recovery
sda2 w7 boot
sad3 /
sad4 /home
and
sdb1 /boot
sdb is a usb pen, flash usb memory stick.
Yes… you are right I have no swap … remember the machine does have 16GB Ram … I think I do not need really any swap even when I fire up some VirtualBox OS’es . Lets see how it goes. In case something crashes I can always make a swap file latter.
I have some laptops with 8GB and swap … but quite frankly I think I could go by without swap even in those 8GB laptops.
As I am writing the install is proceeding … and it makes me think about not only the machine itself but the ongoing evolution of the electronics industry in the PC related space.
First the Looks of this machine are awsome. At least I like it. It looks like a very solid construction like the ones Asus usually presents us with.
While looking at this beauty during install the DVD makes a huge sound … roaring sound of pure power 
the entire table vibrates and the laptop is on top a printer and both laptop and printer have rubber pads to reduce this effect. Very impressive to say the the least.
It makes me think this can be a "Tank-like " laptop Titanium outer shells, heavy, sturdy … very very good.
It does not output heat that much either but the external transformer (power adapter) is bulky and heavy, a price to pay for such capabilities.
I recall the last laptop I purchased it was an Asus M50vm montevina platform.
What a difference a couple of years make… I guess 3 years.
The price was about the same as this one (about 1000 euros) and it was a Dual Core, 4GB DD2 (800MHz) Ram and 500GB hdd.
Meaning for all due purposes in 3 years (more or less) for the same price I get Four Times more CPU (multithreads), Four Times more memory (and faster memory), Double the Hdd space, and Also a Far Better graphics card, actually Two graphic cards … and … the monitor is Full HD !
For a computer that was purchased just before the USA triple A rating was brought down there is also an economic rational about this:
In a time where world markets are falling apart like crazy and will continue to do so Gold will rise in an unstoppable way.
As we all know some internal soldering on microchips have Gold and with a PC you can always transact bitcoins .
There !
About the install. I simply choose the normal KDE desktop. Everything went perfect, all hardware was detected and then I proceeded with my usual file system encryption like in:
SDB:Encrypted root file system (deprecated) - openSUSE
I also had a few twicks about the method presented above.
I used a pseudo random generation but I randomized all hdd partition:
Beware: This can take Days depending on your CPU.
a 580GB /home partition in this computer 27 Hours to randomize.
I made like this:
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda3
same for my initial /home (/dev/sda3) and /root partition (/dev/sda4).
Also I usually format my partitions with a forced check and less space for root. Like this:
mkfs.ext3 -c -m 1 -O dir_index,resize_inode,sparse_super /dev/mapper/home
and
mkfs.ext3 -c -O dir_index,resize_inode /dev/mapper/root
Very important in the install is make to make sure that Grub is installed on the USB flash pen MBR:
If some user does not feel comfortable with grub just simply follow strictly this method to put grub on the /boot in the usb pen.
SDB:Installation on external hard drive - openSUSE
Ok, now the real problematic part.
NVIDIA OPTIMUS.
All my pc’s and laps have NVIDIA cards as they once were very dedicated to provide Linux support.
Now things have changed a lot, in part due to Intel an Sandy Bridge IGP. So far their official position is not very cooperative so … we have a backlog of development for NVIDIA Optimus, wich is sad since all new Sandy Bridge CPU’s will eventually be made with a on-ship Intel discrete graphics and Optimus technology is a obvious choice for those.
Fortunately some good folks have managed to deploy some acpi calls to disable the NVIDIA video card and also a small solution in order to use the Nvidia 540M … for what I could see the former Optimus ng project is now Bumblebee (the name is a funny pun to the Transformers saga movies …)
The problem I thought was the most difficult one was to shutdown the NVIDIA card and use it as intended.
I knew there where no drivers so my fear was that the Intel IGP was not able to cope with the desktop and the like.
A very nice surprise for the owners of this laptop: I runs Incredibly well !
I am still in the first hours of testing as I have to work from another laptop but so far even with Destop effects on everything is very very smooth.
Videos on Youtube are absolutely ok (they just get slow a bit slow with full display usage, remember this is a Full-HD display after all … ) and even this high res could be a bandwidth problem … must check that latter … I did not yet tried the optirun/optirun64 command as right now I am still testing battery times and the like …
(Could not yet connect to my wifi spot also!! that is annoying me … )
About Nvidia Optimus:
First due credit and my most sincere thanks to the folks who developed Bumblebee.
And the install is simple as this:
https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee
https://github.com/Ximi1970/bumblebee
Go to the link provided by Ximi1970 and just enable the OpenSuSE repository.
Like he mentions on his readme file it simply installs all acpi_call and bumblebee magic on your system.
Use Yast to install bumblebee and that’s it.
When booting the Nvidia Cards is running by default so one have to run:
bumblebee-disablecard
in order to stop the NVIDIA card.
The first time I did this the prompt asked me to test the install and configuration of bumblebee.
I ran
bumblebee-configuration
And then simply follow the defaults.
Whem asked to choose a configuration for a laptop I choose the one from Ximi as he also made a Asus N53SV config that works.
And in the end everything was ok.
When I run again bumblebee-disablecard the message simply tells me that it works.
The Led on top of the keyboard row will never be blue though … so users that want the led to turn blue will have to dig deeper on the hardware and programming
Sad to end the comment with the only thing not good about such a great computer.
Disclosure: 15 years ago my first job was on a company that represented Asus in my country. So I know those guys are very very hard working and commited to quality and excellence.
I knew from those early days that they would be a great company all along. They where small by then but their determination, their way of thinking, their commitment … I was from day one not neutral and partial to Asus product and knowing almost all the industry this turned out to be true over time.
My point is they have by far the best price/quality ratio on almost all product ranges they produce.
And in terms of quality they are no doubt among the best. They also where the first ones to have a great Linux support and they are very innovative.
With that clarified : The Keyboard … sucks!
It is not only the key feeling but also the color, the written graphics and the type of printing on the keys.
In some angles the keys are simply not visible as the sun light reflects on the key symbols and makes the keys unreadable from some angles. Very annoying keyboard really … The computer was too much perfect, they had to make an annoyance somewhere …
Not saying the keyboard ruins the overall machine or is not a usable one, but they could have made place a very normal keyboard like on previous models.
Best regards,