OpenSuse Install?

Question

I'm thinking of Installing Open Suse 10.2 however the last time I tried Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy and it kept freezing so hopefully this time it won't.
Anyway can anyone tell me the answers to the follwoing questions:
Are there drivers avalible for ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card with OpenSUSE (I know ATI Drivers are not open source so they stoped including them but can you still get them and if so where)
Can I make OpenSUSE find and use my Atheros AR5006EG Wireless Network Adapter? (Where can I get the driver for OpenSUSE or can I use the windows one?)
Will beryl work on my system if I get the ATI Driver?
System Specs:
Intel Celeron M 410 @ 1.46 GHz Proccessor
512 MB RAM
128 MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Graphics Card
And how much space does OpenSuse 10.2 take (space wise) to install?
I want to dual-boot with XP what program does it come with to do this (e.g. GRUB)

I know theres a lot there but you answer as much as you can.

Answer 1

ATI does provide a driver for linux for some of their cards. I BELIEVE the X300 may work but I am not sure. Go to the site below and hopefully that will help.

While Beryl is pretty and has alot of bells and whistles, I do not use it. It takes alot of system resources to run and on an older computer such as yours, with only 512mb RAM, I would avoid it. I have 2 machines with a gig of RAM and it slows performance down noticably on both.

For the Wireless card, if you don't mind spending $19.95 (about 10 quid) Linuxant can provide a solution that should work. (See the second site). I have used their stuff on a couple of occasions and they are reliable and have good customer support.

For dual boot, most linux distros (incl OpenSuSE) include GRUB now. You can also use gpartd for partitioning. I would recommend at least 15 gig for a full install and enough space to download stuff.

I would also recommend 1-2 gig partition formatted for FAT 32. NTFS support in Linux is still not perfect and you can use the 1-2 gig to share files between the OS's easier...

HTH

John

Answer 2

The video card is not on the OpenSuse hardware compatibility list, however, it might be possible to get it to work. Nvidia's cards and embedded video have a better track record when it comes to Linux than does ATI. All Linux distros come with either GRUB or LILO boot managers.



Take a look at the OpenSuse hardware compatibility list here: http://en.opensuse.org/HCL

(it looks like your wifi adapter will work)



On another note, you might want to give Ubuntu a try again, as the new release (Feisty Fawn) was just released a couple of weeks ago and it will have updated drivers. It may work okay now. Use the live cd to see if it works with your system.

Answer 3

I do not know much about open suse, but I use the newest version of ubuntu (7.04 feisty fawn) which I have found to be a VERY LARGE step forward from dapper or edgy, and all my hardware is supported (although I have nvidia cards not ati). This is the first linux version that I have felt can completely replace windoze which it has on my laptop (although my large machine at home is dual boot).



Why not burn yourself a live cd of fiesty and give it a whirl after all you only stand to lose one blank cd!!



There are still known issues between feisty and beryl but i believe these are slowly being addressed through the normal update channel.