Scenario:
Attempting to “forklift” the disk drives from a failed laptop to a new laptop.
Not surprisingly, the most significant changes are causing the most trouble, which are video (from NVidia/Nouveau to Intel 4600) and wireless (Intel 4690 to Broadcom 43xx).
The new hardware can be summed up as <very> current, mostly released to market within the past 7 months or so. The specifics probably aren’t too important (most recently released Haswell) because I look at this situation as a scenario that will always exist as new hardware is released.
This post will focus only on Intel video chipset support, specifically the 4600.
Problem Description:
As much as I’ve been able to determine there is a significant lag time between newly released advanced hardware and supporting software. Current Linux kernel architecture since approx. 2.6.35 largely assumes that support for devices is built into mainline kernel instead of evolving separately which can be very good for standardizing and reliability but also puts a greater reliability on rushing updated kernels.
For 12.3, I have largely relied on the available kernels at
software.opensuse.org:
Having read on an openSUSE mailing list that someone had success with the Intel 4600 using a 3.1.11 kernel, I installed and tried both the kernels on this page
Kernel:stable 3.12.0
DarkS:CyberDaemon 3.11.2
I found
All kernels 3.7.x through 3.10.10-7 the screen went black immediately after the GRUB menu
For both the above two kernels, the boot process was able to proceed further until the often reported “Reached Graphics Display” just before login.
With all kernels, I could boot into Recovery Mode without issue.
I also found that I could boot into an openSUSE 13.1RC LiveCD with a fully functional system. The kernel in openSUSE 13.1 appears to be a minor update to the 3.11.2 kernel (not in front of me at the moment, 3.11.3?). Am still searching for any logfiles that might describe a problem, but unlike my investigations into nVidia/Nouveau a year ago, I haven’t yet been able to find a reported problem in any logs. I wonder if there is maybe some kind of blacklisting for video drivers similar to peripheral devices or should the kernel automatically only apply a single driver for specific hardware?
I also found that the 3.12.0 kernel refused to compile a wireless driver due to a missing module. This makes me suspicious that although it’s marked as “stable” it’s not fully featured.
An apparent Solution:
It looks like I will be an early adopter of 13.1 when it’s released.
Is there a working solution for those on 12.3 without upgrading to 13.1?
Although not conclusive, the circumstantial evidence suggests that if 12.3 had access to a fully functional kernel like what comes with 13.1 that solution would be ideal. But, short of that I’m having a hard time finding other options specifically for the Intel Haswell integrated chipset.
In other words, from the above link for kernels for 12.3, it already looks fairly spotty regarding available kernels and with the vastly accelerated release cycle of the Linux kernel since 3.10, the situation almost cries for kernels to be built and available within week(s) of the official release (The 3.13 mainline kernel was released only a couple weeks ago as of this writing but may not be available for openSUSE for quite awhile).
Or,
**If a method exists to install updated firmware or driver support for video that’s outside kernel development, **I’d appreciate a reference.
Thx,
TSU