Greetings, wireless gurus. I’m looking to buy a ThinkPad Edge 14" but have some concerns about Linux compatibility. I want to have SuSE exclusively on the pooter – probably 11.3 (although I only have experience up to 11.1 on current desktop box).
From this website I’m encouraged that in general SuSE should play nice with the ThinkPad:
You’ll note the dire warnings about the 11b/g/n card. “This chip is currently not supported by any in-kernel driver.” And there’s also a note that a Linux driver is available from RealTek. However, vis-a-vis that driver there is this warning: “Please note: use of this driver on Lenovo systems results in unpredictable fatal crashes on some systems! It’s is not advised to choose this chipset.”
And the site encourages everyone to order the ThinkPad with a different card.
Well here’s the problem. I spoke with Lenovo yesterday and was told flat out that the 11b/g/n is the ONLY card I can get. The Centrino alternatives listed on this page
So I guess the pages I researched are out of date. And that brings me to asking for your help.
I am not experienced enough with Linux to be compiling anything. If I am going to buy the ThinkPad it needs to work with SuSE out of the box. I’m up for a little “tweaking” by adding items found in the repositories, but otherwise anything not from a regular Linux site simply scares me.
Does anyone have updated info on this ThinkPad 11b/g/n wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter II card? Will it work out of the box with SuSE or should I forget buying the ThinkPad?
are not much more than 2 manufactures with a bit specifications (by the way: the thing from Realtek will probably not be able to use the “a” band at 5 GHz; (real) Data Rate? - further reading: IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and IEEE 802.11n (de))
And
the
Important Legal Footnotes
…]
10. Bluetooth and the Bluetooth logo are trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. USA and licensed to Lenovo.
11a, 11b, 11g and 11n wireless are based on IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n respectively. The IEEE 802.11n specification has not been finalized and is currently in draft release. The ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapters are based on the Draft Release, Version 1.0, of the IEEE 802.11n specification. An adapter with 11a/b, 11a/b/g, or 11a/b/g/n can communicate on any of its supported formats; the actual connection will be based on the access point to which it connects.
Wireless upgradeable models can be wireless enabled with the addition of an optional wireless LAN Mini PCI Card. These systems are designed to operate only with wireless LAN Mini PCI options sold by Lenovo.
c) … if you are allowed to test the laptop (and sent it back if it does not work with your favorite linux based system - I do not know the law in the USA/your state about such things…)
If one " ThinkPad Edge 14" does work with linux or even openSUSE 11.3 it does (in my opinion) not mean that an other " ThinkPad Edge 14" will also work with it - even the wireless LAN cards from one manufacturer could differ much and if you do not know the exact model (or even manufacturer number or EAN code) you do not know if it is really the same.
Sorry for writing so long and not reading you posing, malcolmlewis.
Cool. I did not know that the Lenovo Group let also Novell certificate their laptops.
But the original poster should (in my opinion) be certain that he gets really the same as the one that was certificated (and especially with the same WLAN card).
And if I search on YES CERTIFIED Bulletin Search
I got four search results for
SUSE® LINUX Enterprise Desktop 11 for x86 AND ThinkPad Edge :
134079 Lenovo Group Limited ThinkPad Edge (0578-22X) Workstation 2010-11-16 133619 Lenovo Group Limited ThinkPad Edge (0199-22X) Workstation 2010-09-20 133613 Lenovo Group Limited ThinkPad Edge (0302-23X) Workstation 2010-09-20 133527 Lenovo Group Limited ThinkPad Edge (0301-23X) Workstation 2010-09-02
Are they the “The Centrino alternatives …] NOT available” with “Intel® Centrino® Advanced–N + WiMAX 6250”/“Intel® WiFi Link 6000 Series” ? Or bigger/smaller?
I’m not sure what device is in that computer from the RTL8192SE name. If
possible, can you get the PCI IDs, either from the ‘lspci -nn’ utility in Linux
or from the inf file in the Windows driver.
I have just started a collaboration with Realtek that will result in drivers for
many of their devices being included in the mainline kernel. In fact, the driver
for the RTL8192CE was just submitted for initial review and should be in kernel
2.6.38. Once that one is finished and accepted, I think their plan is to do the
RTL8192SE. It should not be too difficult as the wifi chip is the same, or very
similar.
With the fairly recent approval of the 802.11n specs, the market has been moving
very rapidly. The drivers should now improve rapidly. The vendor’s driver may
have some warts, but the problems will not last very long. As recently as last
May, the vendor driver for the RTL8192SU would crash an x86_64 system
immediately upon loading. I fixed some of the problems, sent patches to Realtek,
and they made it work. I then got their approval to submit it to the staging
part of the kernel. It is now in kernel 2.6.37 and is incredibly stable - it
never loses the connection. I tend to reboot a lot, but I remember the
connection being up for 3-4 days. I expect the same with the RTL8192SE.
The bottom line is that as long as there is a Linux driver for the card, don’t
be too afraid of it because of stability issues.
Unfortunately, it’s not available from Lenovo. Despite the recent certification date from Novell, Lenovo doesn’t sell this configuration any longer and won’t build it for me now.
See more in reply to additional posts after this one.
socref
Can’t tell you anything. I don’t have the computer. Thinking of buying it and that’s why I’m asking for help with this very worrisome wireless card issue.
But does the above mean I can feel confident that if I buy the ThinkPad it will work out of the box?Is there a Linux driver for this card, or is the proper driver still some time off into the future?
A)
Are they not willing/not able to sell you any of the intel models on page 7 (“(BER1-1) April 2010”) or page 8 (“(BER1-2) July 2010”) with a at least a bit determined wlan card like the so called
Intel 6200 [28]
Some: 11a/b/g/n wireless, PCIe Half Mini Card, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200, 2x2
…]
[28] The IEEE 802.11n specification
(MIMO) has been finalized and is
currently in IEEE 802.11n-2009 release.
The maximum speed depends on the
access point device and the number of
integrated antenna used for connection.
An adapter with 11a/b, 11a/b/g, 11b/g/n, or
11a/b/g/n can communicate on any of its
supported formats.
?
B)
I would even doubt if all the
PCIe Mini Card 11b/g/n
One PCI Express Half Mini Card slot 11b/g/n wireless4, ThinkPad 11b/g/n, PCIe Half Mini Card
are really the same - “ThinkPad 11b/g/n” may be just their name for all the things that work with the preinstalled Microsoft operating system and the old technical standards/quasi-standard IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11n (or IEEE 802.11n-Draft). And at least in Germany/Europe there is much stuffed in the old “g” sector - I am somtimes thinking about getting a real “n” card for my very old laptop just for possibility to use the bands in the “a” sector
C)
Changing the mini PCI card afterwards may be possible (hopefully, and I do not know about the legal implications in the USA).
But you would probably not be able/willing to ad an additional antenna for multi-antenna MIMO (see for multiple-input and multiple-output: MIMO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; for the antenna issue I know only a printed German article with two pictures - Ernst Ahlers: 11n-WLAN im Notebook aufrüsten, c’t 23/2010, Seite 162 - Heise Verlag). So maybe you could at least get some information about the ability/possibiliy to change something by yourself?
On 11/23/2010 03:36 PM, socref wrote:
>
> But does the above mean I can feel confident that if I buy the ThinkPad
> it will work out of the box?Is there a Linux driver for this card, or is
> the proper driver still some time off into the future?
You can be assured that Linux will not work as freshly installed, unless you
wait for a year or so. What I said is that you will be able to get a driver from
the Web that will work. For some months, you will likely need to compile that
driver for your system.
