Hi,
Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat as you (I've only been using linux for a few months) so it's like the blind trying to lead the blind
However, I notice there's a 1-click install option available on
Software.openSUSE.org
I used the 1-click install option to install tp_smapi and it worked a treat (no need to compile) so the same principle should almost certainly apply with the HDAPS 1-click install. And if it's 1-click install I'd be surprised if it did not actually do the kernel patch.
Using the following command (that member escaner introduced me to) to display the contents of the hdapsd-20090401-7.1.x86_64.rpm file:
# rpm -qp hdapsd-20090401-7.1.x86_64.rpm -l
I see that the rpm file contains the following:
/etc/init.d/hdaps
/usr/sbin/hdapsd
/usr/share/doc/packages/hdapsd
/usr/share/doc/packages/hdapsd/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/packages/hdapsd/README
/usr/share/man/man8/hdapsd.8.gz
I wonder if it's possible to extract the README file from the rpm without running the rpm to see what it says? It may give some clues as to what the rpm actually does. Me being a newbie, I'd rather take the plunge with the 1-click install. As soon as I've got the freeze sorted I'll do a backup image of my suse partition before giving the 1-click install a go and let you know the results.