2 Qs: A) Preserve My Data In Upgrade B) Mp3 Ripper

Hi - I have 2 questions:

1) I'm almost done with the full tree download (by evening tomorrow all the ftp stuff should be done from SuSE's server) which I'll burn to a dvd or two and then setup on another computer on the network to do a local-ish ftp upgrade (thanks to all earlier who let me know that I could use YaST for this). However, I've downloaded some utilities that I think I'd like to keep. Is it true that they'll be deep-sixed during my upgrade from 8.1 to 9.0? I was dumb and didn't make a FAT partition, so I don't know how to preserve them... if I upload the files to the ftp server (windows), can I just re-download them? I don't know how files are handled on windows v. reiser, so I don't know if I have a hope here. Everything's in my primary user (not root) home folder, if that matters.

2) I've been trying to find a good CD to MP3 ripper, but have had little luck. In each case when trying to run the configure or install file from the command line, I get things like no gcc / no cc found, or there are dependency problems, or I read that they need GTK (which I thought I had but apparently it isn't found by default). Is there any place in particular where I can get good information about how to download and install a working mp3 ripper in SuSE's default KDE environment?

3) Actually, that brings me to a third question... I'd rather not have to download a lot of stuff. I'm thinking that when I did the automatic installation when I first set this up, there were a lot of packages that weren't installed that I'd like (I'm assuming gnome and development tools would have taken care of my GTK and gcc errors from question2 above). When I do the upgrade to 9.0, will I have the opportunity to select all these additional packages? Or perhaps I wait until after the upgrade and use YOU to do so???

Thanks much in advance all,
neye

1.) You can upload any rpms or whatever to the windows space and download it again then, however if you upgrade your system using yast your costum downloaded packages should still be available after upgrading.

2.) Sorry, never needed one, maybe someone else can answer it

3.) If you want to install additional packages, just go to install / remove software module of yast and select the packages you would like to install. YOU is only for updating installed packages, not for getting new software.

Hey, thanks much - you've been like a tour guide on my trip of getting started with SuSE. Really really appreciate it,

neye

2) If you don't have gcc installed, you won't be able to compile anything from source (at least not if it's written in C). The solution there is to install gcc. I remember that one of the ripping / burning apps that came with Suse 9.0 expected to use the program "lame" for converting sound files to mp3. Funny thing is, "lame" was not included in Suse 9.0 (not even in Professional, I don't think). I had to download it and compile from source. You can get it here:

http://lame.sourceforge.net/download/download.html

Or you can download suse rpm`s by packman
http://packman.links2linux.org/index...tion=cat&cat=1
lame and alot of other multimedia stuff

thanks both mgardner and storm - I think I'll try those if I can't get gcc to add in during my impending upgrade to 9.0. In any case, both of those links look interesting and I'll check em out.

gracias,
neye

WOW!!! I finally put the DVD back in to see what I could get through YaST.... EVERY software app I was trying to get off various web sites was available through it. I'm extremely happy right now. Hopefully the apps will work as intended I'll remain this happy after this install.

I feel kinda cheap, actually, doing it "the easy way" instead of figuring out how to download, compile if necessary, and config if necessary all the other apps - the stuff that would make me a better linux user, but on the other hand, I'm plenty glad to know that I at least am getting some mileage out of the money I spent on the retail boxed version.

the saga continues...
neye

2) I use Grip for ripping. It was on the Suse Pro 9.0 DVD. I normally rip at 192.