openSUSE 11 on Lenovo 3000 G430

My laptop is Lenovo 3000 G430, i don’t really sure what it’s official name. Sometimes it’s called LENOVO IdeaPad G430 953, 953 is my laptop series. I was using openSUSE 11 and Widows Vista as operating system, and here is the result: on openSUSE 11 everything is fine except for the touchpad, wifi, and dial-up modem (maybe), it is not working. on Windows Vista everything is working, thanks to the drivers on Windows Vista version.

Only openSUSE 11 and Fedora 9-10, linux distros that succesfully installed. Ubuntu 8.04 and Linux Mint was failed on installation process.

I think Lenovo 3000 G430 is very Widows Vista oriented, they only provide drivers for Windows Vista. Even I can’t install Windows XP, it’s raised error message when booting from the installation CD. When i try openSUSE 11 installation CD on other laptop, the touchpad is working, but when i try openSolaris 2008 live CD on my laptop, the touchpad is woking . I spend many time to get the touchpad works, it’s just keep failed, it’s gave me a headache just to make the touchpad working. Maybe someone can help me? And also my wifi device still not working even after i get instruction from this sites.

Overall, i almost satisfied with the colaboration of Lenovo 3000 G430 and openSUSE 11, many of hardware device isn’t working on Windows Vista if I dont install the driver, but openSUSE 11 has done a good job. Maybe if the touchpad and wifi is working with openSUSE 11, I will be very pleased and can get rid off Windows . Just sharing my experiences….

Updated 03-08-2009:
Finally WIFI is working using Ndiswrapper, because my wireless PCI device is not supported by Linux at this momment.

My wireless is BCM4310 with device PID is 14e4:4315 as state here it is not supportted , so i install ndiswrapper using OpenSUSE 1-Click Install. Using Ndiswrapper we need INF file from Windows driver which is bcmwl5.inf , i got it from here and here and here, there is 482.1kb and 727.3kb version, just use the 727.3kb version.

Updated 28-09-2009:
Now i’ve got Ubuntu 9.04 installed. Everything work fine except for touchpad need to press Fn+F8 twice to get it working. Wifi NO NEED Ndiswrapper, but sometimes need to turn on wifi from Windows.

Installing Oracle 11g on openSUSE 11

Refer to this link to prepare the instalation. Follow every steps mentioned. Here is the steps:

1. Install openSUSE 11.0 with “C/C++ Development” selection.
2. Download and Install orarun package. Enable and set password for newly created user oracle by orarun.
3. Change some environment variables – ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID, TNS_ADMIN in /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh.
4. Set updated kernel parameters by executing /etc/init.d/oracle start or rcoracle start.
5. Download and extract Oracle Oracle 11gR1 SW.
6. login as user oracle and run Oracle Universal Installer “database/runInstaller“. Just follow step by step questions of Oracle installer.

On my experience the setup isn’t working after I try to login (from console) as “oracle” user and start installation (step 6).
The orarun setup create “oracle” user as “System Users” not as “Local Users”, so i decide to delete “oracle” user and make the user manually from Yast –> Security And Users –> User and Group Management. Set Default Group to “oinstall” and additional groups to “dba” and “disk”.

Note: Do not create user from console (using useradd command), the created user not registered with X Server (and i dont know how to register user with X Server ), caused failed when try to start installation.

After “oracle” user is created, login as “oracle” user from console then start installation by typing “./runInstaller”. Just fill every required information, and keep press next or press yes if there’s prerequisite check warning, until installation is finished. After installation is finished we can browse to oracle database using Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control using address https://[HOST_NAME]:1158/em

Installation Screenshot

Starting Oracle database after Reboot/Restarting
Oracle 11g database is not automatically started when we turn on computer/laptop, this is steps to start oracle database:
1. Open console, login as “oracle” user

2. login to sqlplus, then type “STARTUP” to start database.

3. Exit from sqlplus (type “exit”)

4. Start Oracle Net Listener, type “lsnrctl start [LISTENER]“

5. Start Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control service, type “emctl start dbconsole”

Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control Screenshot

My frequently important Linux command

- Extract tar.gz files
> tar -xvzf FILE_NAME.tar.gz

- Compress to tar.gz
> tar -cvzf OUTPUT_FILE_NAME.tar.gz FOLDER_OR_FILES_BEING_COMPRESS/

- Extract tar.bz2 files
> tar -xvjf FILE_NAME.tar.bz2

- Compress to tar.bz2
> tar -cvjf OUTPUT_FILE_NAME.tar.bz2 FOLDER_OR_FILES_BEING_COMPRESS/

- Start/Restart network
> /etc/init.d/network [start|restart]

- Force kill process
> kill -9 [PID]

- Show services/process
> ps aux

- Show services/process with filter
> ps aux | grep [FILTER]

- SSH
> ssh [USERNAME]@[HOST/IP] <enter then enter pasword>

- Change files or folder owner (must as root)
> chown USERNAME:GROUP FILE_NAME_OR_FOLDER_NAME

- Change folder owner and it’s subdirectory (must as root)
> chown -R USERNAME:GROUP FOLDER_NAME

- Start Mysql service on openSuse 11
> service mysql start (as root)
then type “mysql” to login into Mysql

- SCP , transfer files over network
(for single file)
> scp [USER@HOST:]SOURCE_FILE_NAME USER@HOST:DESTINATION_DIRECTORY
(eg. “> scp Twilight.avi root@168.27.10.200:/home/root/movie“)
then enter destination password.

(for directory with multiple files)
> scp -r [USER@HOST:]SOURCE_DIRECTORY_NAME USER@HOST:DESTINATION_DIRECTORY
(eg. “> scp -r Movies budi@140.27.10.240:/home/budi“)
then enter destination password.

Other samples:
“> scp -r budi@140.27.10.240:/home/budi/SexyImage .” , will copies “SexyImage” directory from user “budi” at “140.27.10.240″ to our current directory. We need to provide user “budi” password.

- Remove folder
> rm -rf FOLDER_NAME

Setting PATH or Environment Variables on Linux

There is few ways to set path or environment variables in linux. Not every linux distros had the same way to do this, but the commons way we can set path using this three methods:

- using file ~/.bashrc
- using file ~/.bash_profile
- create bash file (*.sh) in folder /etc/profile.d/

Sometimes in a linux distro can use all that three methods, sometimes it isn’t, based on the distro. We only have to use one of that three methods to setting path or environment variables.

I don’t really know what is the different between setting path in ~/.bashrc or in ~/.bash_profile, the result is the same . It’s user level bash file, the setting is only work for current user. I think when a user login or a user open a shell terminal, it will read settings on those two files (user own version). To set path in that two files just open in text editor or using VI editor, and enter the path, usually in the last line. Save and reopen shell terminal. The sample will look like:

export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.6.0
PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin:.
export PATH


Other alternative is create .sh in folder /etc/profile.d/, for example blablabla.sh. To create file in that folder we need root access, and the setting will apply in all user, so it’s system wide setting (that’s i called it). Again i think when linux boot and run, it will read every *.sh files in the folder and set the linux system based on the files. But notes, not every linux distro set linux system using this method, sometimes it’s not working. So in the blablabla.sh, enter path setting like in above sample. Save and reboot your computer.

If there’s other ways, please tell me. Thanks.

Linux I use

Currently I was using 3 (three) linux distro that is SuSE 10.1, Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), and PCLinuxOS 2007. I’m not linux expert but I always want to know more about linux. Also i’m not too active and often using linux, basically I still cant (will never) get rid off Windows from my life , cool and great games run on it . Well, I think linux still can’t compete Windows ease of use. Its okay, I will always love linux anyway.

This is a little review and some captures linux distro I use. FYI, my favorite distro is SuSE 10.1 and I still find out why Ubuntu is became so popular.

• Ubuntu 8.04

Based on DistroWatch, Ubuntu is the most popular linux distro. That’s why I downloaded and install it. I dont know why Ubuntu became most popular distro, SuSE 10.1 is better . Well I think Ubuntu is very organize in the menus and folder, also the repository is complete.

Fresh installation of Ubuntu don’t support restricted multimedia format (such as MP3, AVI), we have to install the codecs from Ubuntu repository. But that don’t work for me, I don’t have internet connection in my home, so i have to manually install the codecs. I’m able to play MP3 from this article, but I still not able to play video format like AVI, DIVX, etc.

Ubuntu 8.04

Ubuntu 8.04

Ubuntu 8.04

• PCLinuxOS 2007

PCLinuxOS is a great linux distro, it’s support almost all basic requirement of a PC’s, especially it can play various restricted multimedia format. It’s suitable for beginner user that do not know how to set up everything after installation. The minus is maybe lack of packages in the repository.

PCLinuxOS 2007

PCLinuxOS 2007

PCLinuxOS 2007

• SuSE 10.1

Here comes the best distro, it’s linux SuSE 10.1!.

SuSE is always my favorite distro, main thing is because it graphics and complete packages. SuSE is very details in every aspects, the graphics is so smooth. There’s so many application you can install because it’s using five installation CD or one DVD, and one add-on CD. We don’t have to much internet connection when installing something.

Fresh installation will not play restristed multimedia format, but it’s easy, to play MP3 in xmms just install xmms-lib-mad, or compile and install xine-lib to get Kaffeine and amaroK works, or compile and install MPlayer but you have to settings few thing before MPlayer become comfortable to run.

SuSE 10.1

SuSE 10.1

SuSE 10.1

SuSE 10.1

Ok I realize that multimedia stuff is one of main thing when I decide to choose some distro. What is a PC’s without hearing a music and watching video? . Next I want to try Linux Mint and OpenSuse 11.0. I already download OpenSuse 11.0 DVD ISO, from the screenshot this OpenSuse will be amazing. I have to set up my computer first .