Brand New To Suse

I used YaST to install firefox and it came with version 0.8 er so. Being brand new to an rpm based distro i wasnt sure how else to install a package. I've been using teh debian based distro MEPIS and i thought id take a break to see what other distros are like. I downloaded firefox 1.0 from mozilla's site but i dont remember how to unpack a source file and i also heard taht u can make rpm packages out of source packages. I checked yast to see if it could find the "checkinstall" package but it couldnt find it. So im stuck on where to go from here thx for any help in advance

I also use Mepis for a while, but it didn't like my nVidia nForce ethernet, so I tried Suse and found it did a better job on my particular hardware, plus yast & auto patch updates were much superior to any other flavor of Linux I've tried. Now, about Firefox, the current version is not in yast "yet" - but Firefox has it's own installer module built in (like windows). All you do when downloading it is to extract (decompress) the file using ARK. That's done via the konqueror file explorer/manager. You should just right-click on the file, and you'll see ARK in the menu. After you extract the files, just navigate through the folders, and you should see an install file (I forget what it's called). Once you navigate to the folder with the installer, click on "tools - open terminal". Then just type the name of the installer file to start the installation. After that, you may have to copy & drag the "firefox" shell script or exec to the desktop.

thx for your help, do u know anything about making rpm packagegs? Which version have u had troubles with MEPIS? i had absoluttely no hardware problems with it, other than my usb network adapter but i have yet to have a distro to get that to work

I used SimplyMepis 2004-4. I'm kinda surpised i couldn't start my ethernet because I'm using a very common hardware on an HP A520N - that series and the 620 are huge sellers in US/Canada. Anyway, I love Suse - it's very solid, while I've tried several versions of mepis (including pro-beta, which is very buggy imho). But Warren does a great job on fixes and features. I just question if a "one man band" (insofar as key coding) is the best model (compared to Suse, Xandros, TurboLinux, etc). Now about RPM's, and Debs - creating those files is something I don't do, because I've read a person should be pretty experienced or competent in linux before tackling that. There are just so many RPM;s for Suse, I stick with those, or with Python, Java applications that can be installed easily. On occasion, I do a simple config/make/make install IF I know I have all the required packages, libraries, etc.

my experience has been quite the opposite....true ive been using mepis for a couple months but im frustrated with suse at the moment. Ii thought 9.1 came installed with gnome? am i wrong? i couldnt find how to switch. Usually isnt it at the log-in screen?

Actually, 9.2 "Pro" has the Gnome libraries and packages. I don't know (but I doubt) that 9.1 Pro did, and I also run 9.1 Personal and it did not come with Gnome. Also, the login window in "Pro" has the option to switch. At any rate, Gnome can be installed in any recent version of Suse, but KDE is still the default (and I prefer it anyway - although Gnome "looks" more professional). If you're patient - I think you'll like Suse. While the various forums on Mepis are great, the knowledge base and documentation of Suse stands head and shoulders above the rest. Even XP Pro doesn't provide the quality of manuals that Suse Pro does.

Take a look here:
ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/firefox/1.0/
choose your SuSE version (9.x only) and arch (32 and 64 bit) and download the rpm.

i gueass i really havent given it a chance...im not gonna pick on it. MEPIS and SuSE are very different. I'm still a noob to linux but wehn i tried SuSE for the first time i knew absolutley nothiing about linux.

Where's the first place to go for support for 9.1 personal. These forums?

is there a good search engine for SuSE rpms

Originally posted by rj686@Dec 22 2004, 23:22
Where's the first place to go for support for 9.1 personal. These forums?

I'm new to this forum. Different to what I'm used to, but not bad.

I subscribe to the suse-kde, suse-amd64, and suse-linux-e (english language) mail list The suse-linux-e is pretty high volumn (I've seen 200 email days, but 100 - 125 is about the avg). You can subscribe here: Suse linux mail list

I also use knode to connect to support-forums.novell.com They have a lot of news groups. I only subscribe to novell.support.suse.linux.professional right now.