Installing OpenSUSE 11 on an EeePC 900

I've made a few posts over the few weeks about my EeePC 900 and my experiences choosing an OS to run on it.

Xandros didn't last more than a few days, and after a fair amount of trying various things out, I've settled (and been running for a few weeks now) OpenSUSE 11.0.

This is the process that I used to install it.

Before you get started, you need to download and burn to disk the OpenSUSE 11 live CD from here

You also need to put two installers required to make the Wireless networking operate on to a USB memory stick. The files you need are:
madwifi-kmp-default-ng_r3366+ar5007_2.6.25.5_1.1-1.4.i586.rpm
madwifi-ng_r3366+ar5007-1.4.i586.rpm
which can be downloaded from the Appleonkel repository here

1. Install from the OpenSUSE 11 live CD (using a USB external CD-ROM drive). The installer is very easy to use and the only things that I specifically did was to set the partitions up so that there was only a system partition on the 4GB SSD and to mount the 16GB SSD into /home. All relatively easy to do with the partitioning tool that's built into the OpenSUSE installer. Make sure you remove the swap partition - it'll help your SSD last longer (although how much longer no-one really knows).

2. Modify xorg.conf in line with the changes listed in OpenSUSE on the EeePC - openSUSE

If you (like me) have a 900, you'll need to modify the 1024x768 entries in xorg.conf to read 1024x600. You will also need to run yast from a root commandline and modify the system >> sysconfig editor >> desktop >> display manager >> displaymanager_randr_mode_auto value and change it to:
1024X600_60 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -hsync -vsync

There may be another way to change this value but this is the only method I have found that works.

If you're planning to use Second Life on your EeePC, remember to turn 3D acceleration on and set to 24bit colour depth.

3. Use the USB stick with the Madwifi / Drivers RPMs and install them with the package installer. You should then be able to configure your wireless and things get easier at this point. I have to make one point here though: lock these two packages in the installer and stop them being updated. For some reason the updates break the wireless and you'll need to uninstall / reinstall with the original Appleonkel versions. Anyone knows why, then please let me know!

4. Add the Appleonkel, Seife, Schmolle 1980 and Rusjako repositories as detailed in the 10.3 wiki entry (linked above - see step 2). I also added a few others at this point: packman, vlc, mozilla, gnome stable, wine - but that's personal preference.

5. Add the eeepc packages and you should find you have a working system after the reboot.

I think a full install takes about 1.5 hours to get to this point and worked quite well. The only thing I don't have working yet is the webcam, but I'll keep you posted if I find an answer.