OpenSuSE on old hardware (laptop)

English Hardware
1

Hi All,
I need some advice.
I am using an older Toshiba Satellite A305-S6858
specs as follows:
Processor 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750
Memory 4GB at 667MHz DDR2
Hard drive 300GB at 5,400rpm
Chipset Intel 965GM Express
Graphics Intel GMA X3100 (integrated)
Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)

I have been using linux on this system since around 2008 when i bought the laptop.
The hardware is somewhat dated but my linux system still works well.
I tried a newer kernel through upgrading - kernel 3 and my laptop started overheating. Through Googling I discovered that anything from 2.6.38 through 3.2 would cause my laptop to overheat and I have found no solutions. My laptop would register CPU temps of 78 degrees at certain times and would shutdown. I cleaned out heatsink and fan and got all the dustbunnies out but it was only marginally better. I downgraded to 11.3 with kernel earlier than 2.6.38 and cpu cycles from 37-50 now and seems stable too.

So i am back to openSuSE 11.3 which is now no longer supported.
What should I do, I can’t afford new laptop. What do I do now that my hardware is older. Even if my laptop did not overheat, it probably would not be able to handle an updated os like openSuSE 12 or soon to come 13.

any suggestions ??

here is some more laptop info:
linux-bz73:~ # uname -r
2.6.34-12-desktop
linux-bz73:~ # uname -m
x86_64
linux-bz73:~ # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
06:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
06:06.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
06:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
06:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
linux-bz73:~ # lsmod
Module Size Used by
nfs 364324 0
lockd 84172 1 nfs
fscache 56371 1 nfs
nfs_acl 3107 1 nfs
auth_rpcgss 49215 1 nfs
sunrpc 255702 5 nfs,lockd,nfs_acl,auth_rpcgss
ip6t_LOG 5898 6
xt_tcpudp 2859 2
xt_pkttype 1288 3
ipt_LOG 6067 6
xt_limit 2559 12
cryptd 9499 0
aes_x86_64 8104 1
aes_generic 27607 1 aes_x86_64
af_packet 23229 4
snd_pcm_oss 53669 0
snd_mixer_oss 19415 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq 68137 0
snd_seq_device 7834 1 snd_seq
edd 10208 0
cpufreq_conservative 12628 0
cpufreq_userspace 3264 0
cpufreq_powersave 1258 0
acpi_cpufreq 8399 0
mperf 1523 1 acpi_cpufreq
ip6t_REJECT 4828 3
nf_conntrack_ipv6 21550 4
ip6table_raw 1627 1
xt_NOTRACK 1192 4
ipt_REJECT 2672 3
xt_state 1618 8
iptable_raw 1686 1
iptable_filter 1946 1
ip6table_mangle 2036 0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 1854 0
nf_conntrack_ipv4 10379 4
nf_conntrack 89639 5 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_NOTRACK,xt_state,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_defrag_ipv4 1673 1 nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables 21698 2 iptable_raw,iptable_filter
ip6table_filter 1887 1
ip6_tables 23320 4 ip6t_LOG,ip6table_raw,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
x_tables 26644 16 ip6t_LOG,xt_tcpudp,xt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,ip6t_REJECT,ip6table_raw,xt_NOTRACK,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,iptable_raw,iptable_filter,ip6table_mangle,ip_tables,ip6table_filter,ip6_tables
fuse 75897 1
loop 18524 0
dm_mod 86809 0
arc4 1601 2
ecb 2495 2
snd_hda_codec_realtek 324064 1
firewire_ohci 26938 0
firewire_core 60890 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 1747 1 firewire_core
uvcvideo 67959 0
snd_hda_intel 28461 2
videodev 43828 1 uvcvideo
ohci1394 33702 0
iwlagn 238813 0
iwlcore 300182 1 iwlagn
snd_hda_codec 113025 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 7954 1 snd_hda_codec
v4l1_compat 17249 2 uvcvideo,videodev
sdhci_pci 8700 0
sdhci 22806 1 sdhci_pci
mac80211 290013 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
snd_pcm 105589 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
sr_mod 16684 0
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 11225 1 videodev
ieee1394 104836 1 ohci1394
mmc_core 83746 1 sdhci
cfg80211 182659 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
snd_timer 26828 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
sg 33348 0
ac 4055 0
i2c_i801 11881 0
battery 12302 0
r8169 44332 0
cdrom 43440 1 sr_mod
joydev 11942 0
pcspkr 2222 0
rfkill 21863 1 cfg80211
iTCO_wdt 12170 0
iTCO_vendor_support 3150 1 iTCO_wdt
snd 84348 14 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9003 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 9569 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
ext4 401724 1
jbd2 100410 1 ext4
crc16 1715 1 ext4
i915 354884 2
drm_kms_helper 33008 1 i915
drm 221762 3 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 6728 1 i915
intel_agp 33976 2 i915
sd_mod 41436 3
button 6989 1 i915
video 25256 1 i915
fan 4527 0
processor 45715 3 acpi_cpufreq
ata_generic 3707 0
ata_piix 23753 0
ahci 42680 2
libata 211330 3 ata_generic,ata_piix,ahci
scsi_mod 191748 4 sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
thermal 20625 0
thermal_sys 18230 4 video,fan,processor,thermal
linux-bz73:~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Core™2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.00GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
bogomips : 3989.78
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Core™2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.00GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
bogomips : 3990.18
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

2

On 2012-04-30 13:06, nixonfamilyusa wrote:

> The hardware is somewhat dated but my linux system still works well.
> I tried a newer kernel through upgrading - kernel 3 and my laptop
> started overheating.

No matter what software you use, your laptop should never overheat. What
would happen if you had a process using 100% cpu for half an hour? No, it
should be capable of cooling itself down even at that load. An alternative
is to slow down the cpu if it overheats.

You have probably dust problems - or bad hardware design problems.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

3

Hope somebody can help you because your specs are much better than mine (Pent. M @1.8Ghz,2GBRam,30GB HD, Win7 Ent. and openSUSE 12.1 KDE) and it’s running alright. Maybe a little warm, but nothing to be alarmed about.

Did you check the putty connected to the heat sink?

4

Quick thought. Have you tried your laptop running a Live version of other distributions?

I have found at time openSUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu handle things differently. If you find one distribution where it works and the others don’t then you know it is a setting within the distributions and try hunting down the difference.

For example, one laptop has Intel 855 chip for video and around early 2010 there was a regression in the kernel that did not support this version of the chip. I hopped back-and-forth between Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu depending on which one worked the best. It started out with Fedora, then Ubuntu go tolerable and eventually openSUSE 12.1 is the only fully working distribution with minimal “artifacts”, and even includes desktop effects out-of-the-box (but no Gnome-shell goodies)

5

thanks for your help, I will try out some other distros again.
I ran ubuntu for a long while and liked it, I also had overheating problems with that distro.
Prior to that tried Mandriva.
I am downloading Fedora 17 beta it has a 3.3 kernel and my understanding is that the overheating issue will be fixed in this kernel edition.
Of all the pages I have googled it mentions ACPI or DSDT issues.
It’s sad because my computer gets warm when its barely working.

Another question is this: If I do not upgrade my current distro SuSe 11.3 and update it with all the updates i can get, will i be able to use it for an extended period of time without issue getting updates etc or have the updates been removed from the server?
I liken it to xp, final update i think was service pack 3, many companies still run xp with sp3 and have for years without upgrading further.
Will I be able to get updates for 11.3 and download them to dvd if neccesary?
any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

6

On 05/01/2012 06:26 AM, nixonfamilyusa wrote:
>
> dragonbite;2459449 Wrote:
>> Quick thought. Have you tried your laptop running a Live version of
>> other distributions?
>>
>> I have found at time openSUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu handle things
>> differently. If you find one distribution where it works and the others
>> don’t then you know it is a setting within the distributions and try
>> hunting down the difference.
>>
>> For example, one laptop has Intel 855 chip for video and around early
>> 2010 there was a regression in the kernel that did not support this
>> version of the chip. I hopped back-and-forth between Fedora, openSUSE
>> and Ubuntu depending on which one worked the best. It started out with
>> Fedora, then Ubuntu go tolerable and eventually openSUSE 12.1 is the
>> only fully working distribution with minimal “artifacts”, and even
>> includes desktop effects out-of-the-box (but no Gnome-shell goodies)
>
> thanks for your help, I will try out some other distros again.
> I ran ubuntu for a long while and liked it, I also had overheating
> problems with that distro.
> Prior to that tried Mandriva.
> I am downloading Fedora 17 beta it has a 3.3 kernel and my
> understanding is that the overheating issue will be fixed in this kernel
> edition.
> Of all the pages I have googled it mentions ACPI or DSDT issues.
> It’s sad because my computer gets warm when its barely working.
>
> Another question is this: If I do not upgrade my current distro SuSe
> 11.3 and update it with all the updates i can get, will i be able to use
> it for an extended period of time without issue getting updates etc or
> have the updates been removed from the server?
> I liken it to xp, final update i think was service pack 3, many
> companies still run xp with sp3 and have for years without upgrading
> further.

Yes, but windows issues security updates regularly. They just have not packaged
them as sp4. If you make a new installation of XP, there are hundreds of updates
after sp3 is installed.

> Will I be able to get updates for 11.3 and download them to dvd if
> neccesary?

No.

> any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

Do not switch to an unsupported version as that would expose you to security
problems. There will be no updates for 11.3.

Use openSUSE 12.1 and get a newer kernel from

http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Kernel_of_the_day

That solution may not be available at the moment as that machine is down due to
disk problems, but it should be restored within a few days.

You stated that the problem has been fixed in kernel 3.3, thus anything newer
than that should be OK.

7

thanks lw,
I believe the problem is fixed in kernel 3.3
Linux Kernel 3.3 RC6 is Here… Will it be The Last RC?

I downloaded fedora 17 as it was a live distro with kernel 3.3. So far so good, I am sitting googling around the net. Have two windows open:firefox and terminal running lm_sensors.
laptop heat was 37 when started, went up to 48 back to 37 up to 50 then down to 37 again.

so I am pretty happy with this kernel so far, of course i havent tried anything that would require more cpu power.
I will run some tests.
Thanks for the link to kernel of the day, being a noob, its good to see other ways of getting things done effectively.

My other concern is if i remedy the laptop overheating issue, by installing kernel 3.3 on SuSE 12.1, if its too slow - what would i do?
I know i can install xfce or something like that but anything else i can do?

8

On 05/01/2012 05:26 PM, nixonfamilyusa wrote:
>
> thanks lw,
> I believe the problem is fixed in kernel 3.3
> ‘Linux Kernel 3.3 RC6 is Here… Will it be The Last RC?’
> (http://tinyurl.com/ckyr235)
>
> I downloaded fedora 17 as it was a live distro with kernel 3.3. So far
> so good, I am sitting googling around the net. Have two windows
> open:firefox and terminal running lm_sensors.
> laptop heat was 37 when started, went up to 48 back to 37 up to 50 then
> down to 37 again.
>
> so I am pretty happy with this kernel so far, of course i havent tried
> anything that would require more cpu power.
> I will run some tests.
> Thanks for the link to kernel of the day, being a noob, its good to see
> other ways of getting things done effectively.
>
> My other concern is if i remedy the laptop overheating issue, by
> installing kernel 3.3 on SuSE 12.1, if its too slow - what would i do?
> I know i can install xfce or something like that but anything else i
> can do?

Updating to kernel 3.3 on openSUSE is very likely to fix the heating problem. To
a very good approximation, all distros use the same kernel. each does a little
modification for its own purpose, but they seldom touch the guts of the cpu
governors, etc.

Your core duo at 2.0 GHz is very similar to what I use. My CPU is an AMD X2 at 2
GHz, thus it is a little faster than your Intel chip, but you have 4 GB of RAM
to my 3. I have a 7200 rpm disk drive - that helps. I have an Nvidia graphics
adapter, but I do not run the proprietary driver. Initially, nv was good enough,
and now I run nouveau. For you, i915 should do what you need. KDE is my desktop.

As to the work load, I do wireless driver development and average about 3-4
kernel builds per day. On my old, “slow” computer, a full kernel compile with my
configuration that has about 300 modules enabled takes 20 minutes.

I have some really old machines that are slow and small. One has a 450 MHz CPU
and 256 MB RAM that is text only. Another is a netbook with a 1.6 GHz ion CPU
and 1 GB RAM that uses LXDE. I also have a 450 MHz PowerPC that runs LXDE.

Your machine is not as old as you think.

9

I have no in-depth knowledge here but Puppy works well for old PCs.

10

On 04/30/2012 06:06 AM, nixonfamilyusa wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> I need some advice.
> I am using an older Toshiba Satellite A305-S6858
> specs as follows:
> Processor 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750

So it’s a relatively “new” laptop (sorry, we see a lot older stuff here in the
forums).

> Memory 4GB at 667MHz DDR2
> Hard drive 300GB at 5,400rpm
> Chipset Intel 965GM Express
> Graphics Intel GMA X3100 (integrated)
> Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
>
> I have been using linux on this system since around 2008 when i bought
> the laptop.
> The hardware is somewhat dated but my linux system still works well.
> I tried a newer kernel through upgrading - kernel 3 and my laptop
> started overheating. Through Googling I discovered that anything from
> 2.6.38 through 3.2 would cause my laptop to overheat and I have found no
> solutions. My laptop would register CPU temps of 78 degrees at certain
> times and would shutdown. I cleaned out heatsink and fan and got all
> the dustbunnies out but it was only marginally better. I downgraded to
> 11.3 with kernel earlier than 2.6.38 and cpu cycles from 37-50 now and
> seems stable too.

acpi is a huge variable. While there are standards for acpi, the tools that
vendors use often times (most of the time?) do not comply. So… it’s possible
that the heat issues are because the acpi tables aren’t quite right. It’s also
possible that a particular kernel worked better with the incorrect tables in the
past… but it was just out of sheer luck.

That’s doesn’t mean that’s the issue, it’s just one of the more popular causes.
Some laptops (usually older ones than yours) will have some setting in the
BIOS to force the fans on… if you have such an option, that might be the way
to go. The reason it’s often on older laptops is because Windows (oddly enough)
wasn’t assumed to be the only OS that might go onto the laptop.

>
> So i am back to openSuSE 11.3 which is now no longer supported.
> What should I do, I can’t afford new laptop. What do I do now that my
> hardware is older. Even if my laptop did not overheat, it probably
> would not be able to handle an updated os like openSuSE 12 or soon to
> come 13.
>
> any suggestions ??

Take a look at:
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/toshiba+satellite+a300-a305

(Use FoxLingo or something to translate the page… if you don’t speak spanish)

Ditto for:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ports-meta/+bug/375132

Hope that helps… might not…