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This will only get more outdated. I gave SUSE 10.1 a try on a couple boxes and haven't used it for a long time now.
SuSE 10.1
Jan '07: Just joined previous posts that were attached to related links. A LUG post about SuSEfirewall2 reminded me of another reason I haven't been using SuSE. It probably makes sense once you spend some time with it but it cannot be very straightforward if someone was able to write a 110 page manual for SuSEfirewall2.
For a while I liked it better than Mandriva. After installing Mandriva 2006 I like/dislike them both about equal and for different reasons, the best of both would be a winner. I ended up going back to Mandriva. I still have two SuSE installs and don't use either.
The installers are quite similar. With my 19" wide-screen monitor I did have to hit F3 and change the resolution to 1024x768. The default 1280x1024 fails because it is bigger than the native 1440x900. When the install got to Hardware Configuration I was able to change the resolution to 1440x900 (the slightly newer Mandriva picked my monitor and resolution correctly).
My next step was adding sources. What I ended up doing:
Added the following sources to Control Center : Software : Installation Source : Add : Specify URL
http://packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.1 (mirror list)
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source/
Manually turned on refresh for the last two (packman should already be on). Click 'done' (or whatever its called) which will took some time.
Next I used System Update (I had a problem when I tried using the system tray update). I accepted the keys and chose to permanently ignore (...for the session is not what I would call 'permanent') unsigned warnings from packman (there is a better way to handle it but I didn't bother to chase that down...kinda wish I had). At the 'not compatible' warning I chose continue. I accepted the default Update Options (...would try the multiple choice option next time to see if that results in 'protected files'). I then refreshed the system update in the system tray. I had to add privileged user which killed the animation and left me wondering if anything was happening. It took some time (i.e. was working) and I ended up with just kipi-plugins to update. Trying to update it failed with no other details than it was a dependency issue (probably those 'protected files'). Xvid (and presumably (S)VCD and unencrypted DVD) playback is now working with Kaffeine...mplayer and xine.
For commercial DVD playback you need to install the libdvdcss rpm.
I'm not sure what's going on with lirc. Trying 'service lirc start' failed but the following worked fine (-H --driver / -d --device):
[root@bar foo]# lircd -H logitech -d /dev/ttyS0
It was nice to see rar installed by default and integrated with Ark. I added another source (more) for par2 but ended up figuring out how to get it to compile.
http://www.davjam.org/~davjam/linux/repositories/10.1
After messing with file associations I kept getting "Could not find mime-type application/octet-stream" warnings. Adding the mime-type (add octet-stream to application) did cause the errors to go away... The real problem was probably that I was messing with mime-types when I didn't have to (and caused a conflict somewhere)... Jan '07: Its something to do with KDE (I had problems with Mandriva as well)
Configure Konqueror : Configure File Associations : Known Types is a list of mime-types, parents with lists of children. Typically mime-types are shown as [parent]/[child] so the list threw me at first. If you know the mime-type, you can add it. When downloading/viewing a file from the web, the mime-type is usually shown in the 'what do you want to do with this' box (...I'm not sure if its always right, see below). If the mime-type is not on the list you can add it, or you can add the pattern/extension (*.foo) to an appropriate mime type. I mostly add extensions to text/plain because the unknowns are usually text files that I want to be able to edit, e.g. this works fine for .nzb but it would probably be better to add the mime type application/x-nzb. If you don't add a mime-type or an extension, you won't have the option of adding permanent associations, i.e. you'll always have to browse through and choose an application to open the file with. I'm not sure how it works but if the mime-type is unknown, Konqueror will try to figure out what it is by reading the file. It appears that this is fallible, i.e. it guesses in some cases. I'll have to research this a bit more.
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For a while I liked it better than Mandriva. After installing Mandriva 2006 I like/dislike them both about equal and for different reasons, the best of both would be a winner. I ended up going back to Mandriva. I still have two SuSE installs and don't use either.
The installers are quite similar. With my 19" wide-screen monitor I did have to hit F3 and change the resolution to 1024x768. The default 1280x1024 fails because it is bigger than the native 1440x900. When the install got to Hardware Configuration I was able to change the resolution to 1440x900 (the slightly newer Mandriva picked my monitor and resolution correctly).
My next step was adding sources. What I ended up doing:
Added the following sources to Control Center : Software : Installation Source : Add : Specify URL
http://packman.unixheads.com/suse/10.1 (mirror list)
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/
ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source/
Manually turned on refresh for the last two (packman should already be on). Click 'done' (or whatever its called) which will took some time.
Next I used System Update (I had a problem when I tried using the system tray update). I accepted the keys and chose to permanently ignore (...for the session is not what I would call 'permanent') unsigned warnings from packman (there is a better way to handle it but I didn't bother to chase that down...kinda wish I had). At the 'not compatible' warning I chose continue. I accepted the default Update Options (...would try the multiple choice option next time to see if that results in 'protected files'). I then refreshed the system update in the system tray. I had to add privileged user which killed the animation and left me wondering if anything was happening. It took some time (i.e. was working) and I ended up with just kipi-plugins to update. Trying to update it failed with no other details than it was a dependency issue (probably those 'protected files'). Xvid (and presumably (S)VCD and unencrypted DVD) playback is now working with Kaffeine...mplayer and xine.
For commercial DVD playback you need to install the libdvdcss rpm.
I'm not sure what's going on with lirc. Trying 'service lirc start' failed but the following worked fine (-H --driver / -d --device):
[root@bar foo]# lircd -H logitech -d /dev/ttyS0
It was nice to see rar installed by default and integrated with Ark. I added another source (more) for par2 but ended up figuring out how to get it to compile.
http://www.davjam.org/~davjam/linux/repositories/10.1
After messing with file associations I kept getting "Could not find mime-type application/octet-stream" warnings. Adding the mime-type (add octet-stream to application) did cause the errors to go away... The real problem was probably that I was messing with mime-types when I didn't have to (and caused a conflict somewhere)... Jan '07: Its something to do with KDE (I had problems with Mandriva as well)
Configure Konqueror : Configure File Associations : Known Types is a list of mime-types, parents with lists of children. Typically mime-types are shown as [parent]/[child] so the list threw me at first. If you know the mime-type, you can add it. When downloading/viewing a file from the web, the mime-type is usually shown in the 'what do you want to do with this' box (...I'm not sure if its always right, see below). If the mime-type is not on the list you can add it, or you can add the pattern/extension (*.foo) to an appropriate mime type. I mostly add extensions to text/plain because the unknowns are usually text files that I want to be able to edit, e.g. this works fine for .nzb but it would probably be better to add the mime type application/x-nzb. If you don't add a mime-type or an extension, you won't have the option of adding permanent associations, i.e. you'll always have to browse through and choose an application to open the file with. I'm not sure how it works but if the mime-type is unknown, Konqueror will try to figure out what it is by reading the file. It appears that this is fallible, i.e. it guesses in some cases. I'll have to research this a bit more.
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Links
- Hacking SUSE Linux 10.1
- "When you're done installing SUSE Linux 10.1 OSS, your desktop system is not complete. You might still need support for Java programs, MP3 audio files, and browser plugins for Macromedia Flash, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Video. You may also want to add support for playing DVD videos on your computer, and to try out the new XGL graphical toys. Here's how to effectively make SUSE Linux 10.1 into the perfect desktop OS."
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- PackMan
- "We build software packages to enable users to easily install and remove software on [SuSE] Linux. More specifically, we do so for software that is not shipped as part of distributions or that are shipped as an outdated version."
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- SUSE Linux 10.1 Final Report | tuxmachines.org
- Suse 10.1 brings all kinds of new and exciting features. The excitement starts building from the very first boot screen. This release sports nice a new boot screen and silent splash...
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