NO: wireless, video, tumbleweed

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I’ve just installed SUSE for the first time, and I’m having a dickens of a time getting wireless and video working. I’ve read that wireless, at least, works better with some of the changes available in tumbleweed, but when I try getting tumbleweed working, that fails too.

Wireless: I have a usb Ralink rt2571w, and have installed the driver. I can run ifconfig and iwconfig wlan0, and see that it’s connected. But when I try to connect with Firefox, I can’t find a server.

Video; I saw flashplayer installed with the first updates via yast, but no video when I try Youtube. SUSE isn’t the only distro I’ve had that happen in, as Slackware, Arch, Sabayon and several others are having the same problem. Only Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora seem to know the secret to unlocking video, and I hope Adobe and Google figure this out soon!

Tumbleweed: Tried using the Tumbleweed wiki, and copying and pasting the commands into bash. Bash says (for the first entry):
sudo zypper ar --refresh \ Index of /repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard \ Tumbleweed
Specified local path does not exist or is not accessible.

So I’ve been at this for a while, trying to dig my way out of this mess. I’m frustrated at the difficulty associated with getting SUSE working, and at the same time realizing that SUSE seems to be coming at things from a different angle than other operating systems, and maybe I need to see what the developers had in mind before hosing it down the operating system drain and installing something else. But it sure does take some getting used to, as the learning curve, for me at least, seems to be a little long.

2

Tumbleweed is not for beginners.

But: https://forums.opensuse.org/content/55-how-upgrade-opensuse-12-x-tumbleweed.html

**su -

Not sudo
**
https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/wireless/410319-getting-your-wireless-work.html

https://forums.opensuse.org/content/127-multimedia-restricted-formats-installation-guide-12-2.html

3

I forgot to mention that I’m suing SUSE 12.2, KDE, and that even though I’ve seen several “wireless” files included in the updates, I don’t see anything like a Network Manager applet in my package tray. As far as I can tell, there is no way to see network/wireless functions from the tool bar anywhere.

Bash seems to have a hard time finding my usb wireless. I unplugged my ehternet cable and rebooted, and still no wireless. I checked that the usb was pushed in, and rebooted. No wireless, but when I checked lsusb, it didn’t show. That’s a problem I’ll have to work out for myself, but it hasn’t happened on other distros I’ve installed, not sure what to make of that.

4

That is not the correct URL it i a local address which would not exist. Not sure where you got that.

5

Need to set it up in Yast

6

In Yast > Network Settings
Make sure you are set to use network manager
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/All_Network/network_manager_yast2.png

reboot

You may need to add the network widget if it doesn’t show on reboot

7

First, there is a difference between SUSE and openSUSE. Google is your friend if you want to find out exactly.
Next, bash is a shell, nothing more than that. It does not handle networkconnections or what so ever.

What happenned re. Tumbleweed is that you copied the text displayed for the URL, not the URL itself. The forums software shortens the displayed text to avoid these endless unreadable URL’s.

Some advice: use Yast to configure the system, it’s -IMHO- one of the best things openSUSE offers.

8

Alright, I’ve fiddled a little with this, and I’ll try to respond to what I’ve been told. I have openSUSE, it just seemed like a few too many extra keystrokes to type every time. But if I needs to, then I needs to, I guess.

Same goes for su, yes I did that, but just copied and pasted the command I ran. Point appreciated, though.

Now for the real problem. No applet (or doohickey. Whatever…) in the package tray. No icon showing any wireless or ethernet connection, period. Not sure how to get it, but probably where I’m stuck at. If I can see my network, I could probably connect. At least I could report that I’d gotten that far, and go from there.

BTW, my bash 'knowledge" (assumption!!!) comes from something that I just saw the other day, thanks to a post on Reddit, from AT&T’s original information on it’s “new” computer system they called “UNIX.” It gave a graphic that showed the kernel as a “nugget” that was surrounded by “something called a shell,” that acted as a bridge that was used by the operating system (shown as a larger object, with the shell contained inside it) to communicate commands between the operating system and the kernel. Maybe old news to everyone else, but it was the first time I’d seen it presented that way, and it was something that painted a clearer picture for me than what I had before. Beside some neat footage of Ritchie and Thompson, it said that programs communicated with each other through the shell, and that the programs themselves were unaware of anything, and that all communication was as if each program were outputting to a terminal, and that the shell handled everything from there.

While that may have been true only at the beginning of what we now call Linux, I thought it was pure genius. And anything that makes something simpler for me is a God-send! I’m baffled by automatic doors at grocery stores.

I just ran zypper dup, and it added a lot to my system, still no wireless. I have " User controlled with Network Manager" selected in Network Settings.

9

OK, looks like adding network manager widget makes wireless work! Also followed a guide for additional codecs, that got packman working and installed a ton of video codecs, but still no Firefox/Youtube video. I checked into Youtube’s html5 video, so I can watch whatever exists in html5, but there are only so many of that format available on Youtube so far.

Still, wireless now works OK.

10

Youtube works here in Firefox, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Seamonkey, and Chrome (though this has it’s own flash)

rpm -qa | grep flash

flash-player-kde4-11.2.202.258-1.14.1.x86_64
flash-player-11.2.202.258-1.14.1.x86_64
pullin-flash-player-12.1-6.5.1.x86_64
11

On 2013-01-06 22:26, pottzie wrote:

I have to concur that tumbleweed is not for novices.

(besides that, tumbleweed questions most be asked in the tumbleweed
forum, or moved there. I understand that you are NOT using it).

> Same goes for su, yes I did that, but just copied and pasted the
> command I ran. Point appreciated, though.

Please use code tags. Advanced editor, ‘#’ button.
View this
thread for instructions

> Now for the real problem. No applet (or doohickey. Whatever…) in the
> package tray. No icon showing any wireless or ethernet connection,
> period. Not sure how to get it, but probably where I’m stuck at. If I
> can see my network, I could probably connect. At least I could report
> that I’d gotten that far, and go from there.

That’s probably because you are using traditional networking. For
network manager, fire up yast, network settings, in the global options
tabs select “user controlled with network manager”.

Also, if you are using wireless, and you are asking about that, this
thread must be moved to the wireless forum; ask a moderator to move your
thread there. If you also have a video problem, start a new thread
asking only about video. Please do not mix several questions in the same
thread.

> BTW, my bash 'knowledge" (assumption!!!) comes from something that I
> just saw the other day, thanks to a post on Reddit, from AT&T’s original
> information on it’s “new” computer system they called “UNIX.” It gave a
> graphic that showed the kernel as a “nugget” that was surrounded by
> “something called a shell,” that acted as a bridge that was used by the
> operating system (shown as a larger object, with the shell contained
> inside it) to communicate commands between the operating system and the
> kernel. Maybe old news to everyone else, but it was the first time I’d
> seen it presented that way, and it was something that painted a clearer
> picture for me than what I had before. Beside some neat footage of
> Ritchie and Thompson, it said that programs communicated with each other
> through the shell, and that the programs themselves were unaware of
> anything, and that all communication was as if each program were
> outputting to a terminal, and that the shell handled everything from
> there.

But that communicating shell is not the “bash shell”, but the inner
layer of the operating system. Same word perhaps, very different meaning.

> I just ran zypper dup, and it added a lot to my system, still no
> wireless. I have " User controlled with Network Manager" selected in
> Network Settings.

Now a very big warning: A zypper dup is dangerous. Depending on what
repos you have configured, it can let your system in an unknown state in
which we can no longer help you.

So, please, what repos did you add to your system? If none, fine. If
some, then post the result of “zypper lr --details” inside a code tag
block, complete from initial command prompt to the next prompt.

And a second warning: stop doing things wildly. Ask here and wait for
advice before your next move.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

12

Yes, this is my first time with openeSUSE, and I’m hammering everything that looks like a nail, and seeing what happens. I’ll skip tumbleweed for now, as that seemed like one way to get the wireless working. And for repositories, I haven’t added tumbleweed, not for lack of trying, but I haven’t figured how to yet. As long as things are working, I’ll leave that alone.

Sorry about multiple questions, but, well, those were my problems after installing. Almost there, now. And if this needs to be split up, I can repost as another topic. If it’s easier to go with this, then that’s fine too. All I need now is to get video working, and I probably would have that now, thanks to caf4926, but I have a 32 bit system.

It’s funny that all I needed was to select the wireless icon and ad it to the toolbar, but din’t know that’s how it worked. I’ve always had the icon installed with Network Manager, usually by the package manager of whatever system I’m using.

The font changed after I copied caf4926’s user name. I have absolutely no idea why, and it’s kind of a neat trick, if it’s intentional!

13

If you need help, just ask
The font thing is a gremlin
Have fun