Alienware M11x R2 with Open Suse 64 bit

I recently updated my Alienware by installing Suse 11.4 (& 12.1). As usual, I did not attempt to upgrade the existing 11.3 install, but instead performed a fresh install. Here is some information on what was necessary to make everything work as best as possible with this combination.

Apr 04, 2013 02:17 PM

For Opensuse 12.3 wifi setup:

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
[ 12.445344] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
[ 12.445348] b43-phy0 ERROR: Please open a terminal and enter the command "sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware" to download the correct firmware for this driver version. For an off-line installation, go to http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Network_Adapters_(Wireless)/Broadcom_BCM43xx and follow the instructions in the "Installing firmware from RPM packages" section.

Apr 15, 2013 11:54 AM

For OpenSuse 12.1
install went smoothly with no problems.

For wireless, had to attach LAN cable briefly for Internet, then run (as sudo/root):
/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
WHich downloaded the necessary drivers, etc.
Then was able to unplug and in a few seconds the wifi connection took over.
The message was in the /var/log/messages:
b43-phy1 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
[ 21.381220] b43-phy1 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode16_mimo.fw" not found
[ 21.381245] b43-phy1 ERROR: Please open a terminal and enter the command "sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware" to download the correct firmware for this driver version. For an off-line installation, go to http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Network_Adapters_(Wireless)/Broadcom_BCM43xx and follow the instructions in the "Installing firmware from RPM packages" section.

Screen resolution good default.
Sound working out of the box.
Battery life seems better than under 11.4 (maybe).

Next ran updates.

keeps locking up when waking up from "Sleep" mode. maybe okay with hibernate instead?