How to migrate the gnome configuration from 32bit to 64bit SUSE ?

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1

My new HP625 Laptop came with SLED11 preconfigured - including such special keys as the wireless/bluetooth key etc under gnome.

Unfortunately, I need a 64bit OS and 8Gb for my applications and the HP site does not offer any explicit support for 64bit Linux.
So I installed SLED64bit on separate system partition and can select now 32 or 64 bit from GRUB.

There remains the problem of configuring gnome (or KDE) on the 64bit system to take advantage of the keyboard, sound, cam etc.
I did find a 64bit wireless driver in the i586-Repo on the HP-site that requires the kernel from opensuse 11.3 and I got bluetooth working with gnome but just for the keyboard alone, I am stuck with finding a decent configuration under 64bit.

Is it possible to migrate the system wide gnome configuration from the SLED32 bit installation (as configured by HP) to any SuSEx86_64 system?

2

On 2011-04-28 01:06, Prlwrlczkwsky wrote:
>
> My new HP625 Laptop came with SLED11 preconfigured - including such
> special keys as the wireless/bluetooth key etc under gnome.
>
> Unfortunately, I need a 64bit OS and 8Gb for my applications and the HP
> site does not offer any explicit support for 64bit Linux.
> So I installed SLED64bit on separate system partition and can select
> now 32 or 64 bit from GRUB.

This is not an SLED forum, this is an openSUSE forum. Different product.

A comment, though:

There is no different configuration, if the installed system were the same

  • which it probably will not be, it will have probably customizations from HP.

You can use 8 GiB under 32 bit using the kernel PAE.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

3

Yeah, just like the broadcom WLAN module in the laptop is a different product from the HP laptop around it and a different product from the SLED preinstalled on the hard disk. The one thing in common between people living from their intellectual property not caring about their customers and opensource purists of independent means is that everybody tries to fob off my question about GNOME without addressing it.

May I come back to the focus of my question to this forum
How to migrate the configuration from
a working Gnome SuSE configuration (pae-32 with no HP customization identified yet)
to
a working openSuSE 11.3 x86_64 Gnome System.
Could we please stay focussed on this question for the benefit of others searching forums for answers to this question?

@robin_listas
The Broadcom x86_64 driver from the HP-site requires the kernel that is in the openSuSE 11.3 repo. There exists no SLED x86_64 product that works with the Broadcom drivers from the HP website - regardless of SP1 or not.
So - although I have been using openSuSE since years and I have experienced severe versionitis from short update cycles with immature configurations in spite of the patronizing tone of the many gurus, I did install from the openSuSE 11.3 repo, which does make me a legit openSuSE (forum) user, I guess.

I know, but this off-topic remark does not address my question.

4

On 04/28/2011 04:06 PM, Prlwrlczkwsky wrote:
>
> How to migrate the configuration from
> a working Gnome SuSE configuration (pae-32 with no HP customization
> identified yet) to a working openSuSE 11.3 x86_64 Gnome System.

just, use the HP provided 64 install disk (with Gnome) and keep the same
/home, should be good to go in no time…

> Could we please stay focussed on this question for the benefit of
> others searching forums for answers to this question?

i’ve never seen this question before, have you?

do as you wish, but the fact remains that the purchase of SLED includes
their expertise and support…

of course, you are welcome to seek advice here, but BE ADVISED that many
of the answers might be from folks who have never run SLES (or maybe
never even heard of it before) and you may (easily) find someone willing
to give you an answer without telling you they know much of anything
about HP products or SLED and therefore you are likely much better off
if you seek assistance from the Novell forums, via:
http://forums.novell.com/

by the way, while i’ve run a lot of SuSE, i’ve never run SLED, i’ve
never seen SLED running, i’ve never gone from 32 to 64 on an HP or
anything else…so, welcome here but read my caveat before you begin
following my advice.

–
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[openSUSE 11.3 + KDE4.5.5 + Thunderbird3.1.8 via NNTP]
HACK Everything → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b4CCe9pS8&NR=1

5

I have not looked at the cd yet, I admit - will do ASAP.
The system that was on the harddisk was SLED PAE 32bit which coerced me to format the whole hard disk or else.
The resulting system may make use the 8Gb - but not for one big application as I need it.

FYI: Question is in the title of this thread.

There is no SLED x86_64 system that supports the broadcom wlan that is in my HP625.
I have posted my question on their forum but I have little hope that I will get more support from subscribing to their update service than from the trial support that I am waiting through now. Does my mere SLED contact make me inelligible for OpenSuSE forum participation?

Please, let me repeat with all respect:
My question has very little to do with SLED but with GNOME under openSUSE. I have no evidence yet that HP or novell support provide any more honest and useful answers than you, however, what I would really appreciate is some HELPFUL advice about the question in the header of this thread.

6

The members (and moderators and admins) of our forum are volunteers (who are not paid for our efforts), and we are users of openSUSE and mostly not with SLED. But you are most certainally are welcome to post here and ask for help. But please appreciate that since we are NOT familiar with the details of SLED (nor even the ‘general aspects of SLED’), our reply’s may be more general than specific, as SLED has different repositories and different configuration. Ergo our help may not be as precise as you might desire.

We have even had slackware users post here ask for help (on admitted very rare occasions). Having a slackware user ask for help on our forum initially took me back, but in truth since that user noted it was more general than specific advice he was looking for, our forum did its best to help with general advice.

wrt to broadcom wlan, if you have questions on that, you may be best off to post that in our specific wireless section, as our membership is not restricted to forum web users, but we also have NNTP users (very loosely, but inadequately described, as sort of a mailing list (please no flames)) and if they have not subscribed to applications, then you will not obtain the wireless help from all of our wireless guru’s , who may subscribe to wireless but NOT to applications.

I recommend in any post asking for SLED help that you put a disclaimer that you understand you are asking a SLED question in an openSUSE forum, but you are still looking for some hints that you hope the openSUSE users may help you with.

Good luck with your efforts and welcome to our forum.

7

If you can find an openSUSE .src rpm with the appropriate libraries/firmware (?) you could attempt to rebuild it on SLED against your kernel. But in truth this is speculation from myself (as I have only rebuilt a wireless driver some years back) and its best to get the advice of our wireless guru’s in our wireless subforum area (if indeed you are looking for wireless advice in adition to Gnome advice).

8

oldcpu is right about that. I have also SUSE SLED 11 SP1, but here it is not the correct forum to ask help. Do not confuse openSUSE with SUSE. And openSUSE forum with Novel forum. openSUSE founded by NOVEL. And SUSE==NOVEL.

9

As a general note (which let me qualify as saying it may not help) when ever I have moved an openSUSE install from a 32-bit to a 64-bit install with KDE, I have always done a CLEAN install to 64-bit. I considered keeping my /home directory, but in the end I decided it not worth the risk of potential time being wasted if there was a different in configuraiton files in /home between 32-bit and 64-bit. Definitely (in my view) you need a clean / (root).

Now KDE is NOT Gnome.

Others who have done this may have a more accurate assessment if what I do on KDE is applicable to Gnome, and if someone chimes in saying no problem (especially no problem with Gnome going from a 32-bit to 64-bit while keeping /home) then please give them more credence than my cautious approach.

One thing I do recommend is in addition to any /home backup, keep a backup of /etc (for “consultant” review of config files, but not to replace new config files).

10

On 04/28/2011 05:36 PM, Prlwrlczkwsky wrote:

>
> The system that was on the harddisk was SLED PAE 32bit which coerced me
> to format the whole hard disk or else.

i must admit i am quite surprised that the SLED or HP makers provided
you with an install method which you said “coerced me to format the
whole hard disk or else.”…i mean, i knew there are many differences
between openSUSE and SLED/S but i really didn’t know they had wickered a
different install routine that didn’t give the user the FREEDOM to not
format /home…

of course, it was a OEM provided SLED, and they do what they wish,
apparently…

so, i amend my previous how-to migrate the gnome configuration from
32bit to 64bit SUSE, to these three steps:

  1. back up your /home (and maybe some other stuff, lets see who chimes
    in…some folks say backup /etc, maybe /opt and i don’t know what) to a
    safe, off machine location…

  2. just, use the HP provided 64 install disk to format/install a new SLED 64

  3. carefully copy data into the new home…i say carefully because i
    guess that if you were to wholesale copy config files in home-32 to
    new home-64 you will probably not smile…

now, mention this with great fear that you may think i talking down to
you, but i will risk it: if you were not offered the opportunity to
choose between 32 and 64 on that machine you may find that the
hardware will not support a 64 install…and, if you do that you may
then have voided the machine warranty…check it out…

> The resulting system may make use the 8Gb - but not for one big
> application as I need it.

i have zero idea what you are talking about here, this 8GB and one big
application–so, read my caveat again please…

>
> DenverD;2331488 Wrote:
>> i’ve never seen this question before, have you?
> FYI: Question is in the title of this thread.

of course, i saw YOUR question, my point was you had written “for the
benefit of others searching forums for answers to this question” and i
had not seen (yet) other SLED users demanding answers from the unpaid,
volunteer helpers here who professed no expertise in SLE_…

>
> Does my mere SLED
> contact make me inelligible for OpenSuSE forum participation?

of course not, and i told you you are welcome, as long you recognize the
probability of receiving incorrect and perhaps damaging answers from
folks who have never used your system…

and last, note you wrote: “There exists no SLED x86_64 product that
works with the Broadcom drivers from the HP website - regardless of SP1
or not.” and so i guess your quest here is to move to SLED 64 using
the driver available in an openSUSE repo…is that correct?

if so, i think you will soon find that the novell repos open to your
SLED will quickly poison the system, if it will even be possible to
update from them (because they are based on a different kernel, i think)…

and secondly, if that broadcom driver in the openSUSE repo must be
compiled for the SLED kernel . . . well, before following my suggestion
on how to answer your stem question–read my caveat (because it sound to
me like you are headed toward an HP brick…or, the very least an HP
with no warranty or supported operating system…

–
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[openSUSE 11.3 + KDE4.5.5 + Thunderbird3.1.8 via NNTP]
HACK Everything → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b4CCe9pS8&NR=1

11

On 2011-04-28 18:06, oldcpu wrote:
> As a general note (which let me qualify as saying it may not help) when
> ever I have moved an openSUSE install from a 32-bit to a 64-bit install
> with KDE, I have always done a CLEAN install to 64-bit.

The upgrade to 64 bit is not supported - nevertheless, it works (DVD via).
I did mine from 11.0-32 to 11.2-64. With all the precautions and tricks I
usually post and that I will not write again, and some special for the arch
change, which I also wrote about time ago.

With SLES, no idea.

With SLES to oS, even less idea; my educated guess is that it is not
recommended. Certainly not supported at all.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

12

On 2011-04-28 18:21, DenverD wrote:
> On 04/28/2011 05:36 PM, Prlwrlczkwsky wrote:
>
>>
>> The system that was on the harddisk was SLED PAE 32bit which coerced me
>> to format the whole hard disk or else.
>
> i must admit i am quite surprised that the SLED or HP makers provided you
> with an install method which you said “coerced me to format the whole hard
> disk or else.”…i mean, i knew there are many differences between
> openSUSE and SLED/S but i really didn’t know they had wickered a different
> install routine that didn’t give the user the FREEDOM to not format /home…

It is possible they use the same methodology as they do for windows: you
get a recovery partition and/or a recovery disk, which is some kind of
image recovery program. You don’t get the original windows or SLES
installation disk. In the case of SLES, I’m guessing, but I heard of that
before.

This way there is no configuration to do, and it is fast. Pity they don’t
do a two partition (separate /home), same as they don’t do a separate D:
for windows data files. It “burns” all the disk, viruses die. Fast, no
questions, no thinking.

> i have zero idea what you are talking about here, this 8GB and one big
> application–so, read my caveat again please…

With a 32 bit PAE kernel, you do have access to the 8 GiB, but any single
program can only access 4 GiB - less actually, some is reserved for the
system. Space is mapped in for each app before the CPU switches to each app.

For a single app to see more than 4 GiB, you need 64 bit code, and a 64 bit
kernel.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)