If the wireless wlan is not working after the first installation of linux, it could be that the wireless is hard blocked.
This could be happen because windows may have left the radio (wlan) in a blocked state that Linux cannot change.
If the windows partition has been erased, you might not have a chance to unblock it again without reinstalling windows.
You can check the block status in linux with the rfkill list command:
linux1x:/home #** rfkill list**
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
In this case you have no great chance to bring the wireless to life without reinstalling windows.
I used the system recovery (usb stick or dvd) to reinstall windows (Check, if you have one, before deleting any windows partition!).
I installed it on only one partition (41GB) and brought the wireless to life.
Then I installed opensuse 12.1 on the rest of the harddisk and… in the networkmanager the wireless could be enabled now.
Rfkill list shows that everything is unblocked now!!!
Wireless is working even after several shutdowns and reboots!!
I made the mistake to erase the whole disk directly to install linux…
So the compromise for this kinds of laptops is to let at least one windows partition on the disk… you do not have to use it.
I will post this for all the guys who spent desperate nights (like me) concerning their wireless which is not working because of the ‘hard block yes’ - item.
May be there are other possibilities to solve this problem…
CJM