As a further test of the ability of the SL 6.1 IA-32 standalone bootable 
DVD on laptops, I tested it on my laptop, an HP EliteBook 8530p that 
boots and runs EL 5.7 from the on-board hard drive with full support for 
all hardware except for the biometric fingerprint sensor that I do not 
use (including the 802.11 WNIC that I am using to send this email).

Once booted, the WNIC was detected (LED illuminated, and iwlist showed 
the status).  I did not attempt a real connection.  Thus, although 
NetworkManager is not automatically activated on a laptop, SL 6.1 
detected the WNIC.  Thus, if the 802.11 WNIC is not detected, I assume 
that SL 6.1 does not have a distributed driver for the hardware, a 
reason to consider rejecting acquisition of a candidate laptop.

A point of caution on the HP laptop:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/BIOS-hangs-booting-from-opensuse-11-4-64bit-installation-DVD/m-p/4764501/highlight/true#M18984
03-17-2011 07:54 AM

 From the above URL:

The following workaround confirms that this is indeed a problem in the 
BIOS and not the DVD:

1) Put the DVD in the tray without closing it
2) Either use the F9 prompt or Multiboot Express to manually select the 
boot device
3) Close the tray when the prompt is displayed (not sooner!)
4) Select the DVD for booting

The essential step in the above workaround is that one needs to wait 
with closing the DVD tray until the boot prompt is displayed (ie, after 
the POST finished). If the DVD tray is closed during the POST, it 
consistently locks up the system.

The above was verified on a HP Compaq 6730s with the latest (F.13 BIOS) 
installed.

End quote.

My HP laptop presents the same as in the comment above with a slight 
difference in the F9 prompt -- I used the upgrade bay to get to the DVD 
boot.  I have contacted HP technical support to discover any solution 
and will post a solution if there is interest; this seems to be a common 
problem with this vendor.  If you have encountered a similar situation, 
please let me know.

Yasha Karant