10.1 Multimedia - Bad Repositories!

Packman (it gives full multimedia capabilities) is the repository which causes all my problems....I did a fresh install for a friend using suse10 today, I use yast2 and enter the repository addresses, all went well until I tried to enter Packman, I failed to get a single working repository from a list on the suse forum. I went to a french mirror using my web browser, the packman folder worked but took a very long time to open (after the folder opens packages download at 160kb/s!), this delay I think makes yast2 fail. Without packman (working in yast2) suse is no good as a multimedia operating system for the newbie. I can get round this problem but it is not worth my time. I have been forced to recommend ubuntu to newbies.....

well you may have problems with NIC. I don't remember broken package. Sometimes dependencies are missing, But that is all.

I failed to get a single working repository from a list on the suse forum. I went to a french mirror using my web browser,[/b]

this is definitely a problem with your setup, not with suse.

If ubuntu works for you then this is great.

this is definitely a problem with your setup, not with suse.[/b]

How do you know for sure?

I never said it was a problem with suse, I named the packman mirrors. I have happily been using suse for almost a year since I bought 9.3. I do not believe it is my setup, I have done 50+ installs (However it would be wrong not to futher check and report back - p.s. this is not on my pc). I want packman to work in yast2 along with the GM-Extra, inst-source-java and inst-source repositoriies (all of which are fine).

What was wrong with the french mirror when it would not open for 5mins in firefox while all the others folders on the mirror did? Then when I got in I could download a package at 160kb/s?

I really hope my installation is faulty......I am becoming paranoid .

In yast2 set as http://

ftp4.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/10.0

this link worked for packman on my system, I'll check my friends pc later this week.

How do you know for sure?[/b]

this is pretty simple:
in his and other suse forums, users had probles with repositories only when they did not set this up properly or (temporarily) when server was down (in this case either wait or look for another server). If server is accessible and you can't set it up in Yast, then you are making some sort of mistake.
By the way, I am using unix since 94'. This in no means indicates that I can't make mistakes.

I have been using 10.0 since it came out last September (or so) and have had a good experience transitioning from Windows. When 10.1 came available was ready and willing to give it a shot.

Reading up on Yast and Trust of repositiories in version 10.1 sounded like a good feature. I figured that inability to install downloaded RPM's - including ones that "should" be ready for installation on 10.1 may be a part of this feature. I could not "install with yast" or "Use directory as Source with Yast" . Install with Yast kicked Yast alright but when things finally got to the point of installing I got "(the name of the package) could not be found on the medium". Using the Use Directory option did nothing. the directory was NOT added as a source even tjough I would get the "directory successfully added" message.

since I needed the machine at a conference and no loner had time to mess with it I have dropped back to 10.0 and am running 10.1 in VMWare for testing and messing for now. I shold note that the default partitnion structure of 10.1 with /home on a seperate partition worked GREAT. Rolled back- reinstalled (format the /root partitiion) without having to mess with saving or otherwise retrieving my home directory contents. Also "most" of my desktop setting were preserved.

Still have questioins about the in's and out's of the relationship of Yast to repositories - kept getting "unable to certify" or workds to thhat effect for packman and guru. I also had trouble finding equivalent repositories to ones I was used to with 10.0 like pub/suse/i386/10.0/SUSE-Linux10.0-GM-Extra/ on my "favorite mirror" but figure that is simply a matter of things still being new.

Plan to keep plugging at it and since i am a Netware CNE looking at continuing with Linux, Zen, Suse and NetWare for some time I REALLY LIKE the looks of 10.1 and hope they soon get things Ironed out.

I tend to agree with Broch, that an inability to download from repositories is likely a setup problem on one's PC. (Now there's a first! Broch and I agreeing on something! ).

[Another possibility is the bandwidth is full on the repository - because of many users downloading at once]

And yet another possibility, and I know you probably don't want to read this, but its also possible there is a problem with one's installation CD/DVD's, and you (or who ever gave you the CD/DVD) did not have a perfect download. (Or one burned the CD/DVD at too fast a speed, and there is a bad bit, or a bit one's CD/DVD reader could not read correctly during installation because of a CD/DVD media-compatibility problem). ONe could have a bad bit in a needed package, and that could be messing things up.

Good luck in sorting your problem.

I'm happy, zen-updater and installer work! Smart is great, but yast2 is history....still broke?

:lol: :lol: B)

I love Suse 10.1

note: smart installs things like transcode and streamtuner which the zen installer will not. I cannot enter sources in yast2, who cares!