openSUSE 11.2 on an HP Mini 210 1010NR

I recently acquired an HP Mini 210 1010NR, which is a modern Pine Trail netbook.

Specs:

  • Intel Atom N450 processor (1.66 GHz, HT enabled)
  • 1 GB (1024 MB) RAM
  • 160 GB HDD
  • 10.1″ LCD display (1024×600 resolution, fairly standard)
  • 1.3MP webcam
  • HP Synaptics Clickpad
  • Broadcom 802.11g wireless
  • 10/100 Ethernet
  • Intel HD graphics (3100 I do believe)

What works out of the box:

  • Most everything

What doesn’t:

  • Wifi
  • Touchpad

Fixing things!
The install went fairly smoothly. I have an HP DVD-RAM USB drive which helped alot (it came with my HP Envy 15 laptop…). Once installed, wifi can be made to work on a clean install of openSUSE 11.2 by following these steps:

  1. Connect to the internet via ethernet
  2. Update the kernel-default package to the most current package. You can run zypper up or Yast Online Update or preferred update mechanism and just install all the updates as well.
  3. Add the Packman repository
  4. Install the broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-kmp-default packages (must do both, or you will change your kernel to the debug kernel. Don’t want that now…)
  5. Reboot

Voila, you have working wifi

The touchpad is a bit more tricky, since its not really a touchpad, but Synaptics new ClickPad found in the HP Mini and HP Envy lines. While openSUSE 11.3 will fix this correctly, you can get it working by doing the following:

  1. Install kernel-source, make, and gcc
  2. Update /usr/src/linux/drivers/input/mouse/synaptics.c and /usr/src/linux/drivers/input/mouse/synaptics.h with the files in the attached zip: Desktop.zip
  3. Using README.SUSE in the kernel source directory, configure, build, and install your custom kernel
  4. Reboot
  5. Voila, a working touchpad. No multitouch, but hey, like I said, openSUSE 11.3 will be working properly with this fancy touchpad.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *