11.2 Milestone1 Initial Comments & Issues

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Milestone1 as delivered with KDE 4.2.2

Attempted a cd-less install from the DVD .iso file as I did successfully for for 11.1. It failed in early part of the installer with repo format error, although it allowed source of hd. Burnt a DVD instead. (environmentally unfriendly).

Installer polished and well structured. Time 30-40 mins for DVD install. No reboot required during install.

Issue: Grub placement description of sdb4 extended partition is misleading. I took it, but wanted it in root of installed partion i.e. sdb9. Instead it overwrote my grub (multibooting) in the boot partition (sdb1).

On first use of Yast > Software Management, installation Summary listed additional s/w to download. Nice feature, along with improvements in Yast’s screen layout.

From this point on booting was noticeably faster than 11.1.

Video driver installed (called vesa) but actually fbdev (+wrong resolution).

**Pet peeve: **Openchrome driver not installed or available.

Downloaded both openchrome, and chrome9 (VIA’s) drivers from OBS (Factory). Openchrome driver required xorg.conf mods to avoid lockup on login cursor, and worked with correct default resolutions. Chrome9 driver failed on reboot with black screen lockup. Although the Xorg log showed a big improvement over 11.1 for openchrome driver support (AIGLX error had gone), DRI was automatically disabled.

Issue: Unichrome Pro chipset not correctly supported by this Xorg with the openchrome driver. DRI disabled means no 3D h/w acceleration and no XvMC.
From Xorg.0.log:

(II) CHROME(0): direct rendering disabled

(WW) CHROME(0): [XvMC] Cannot use XvMC without DRI!

(II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable

(II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized /usr/lib/dri/swrast_dri.so
(II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0

These xconsole messages were presented on all following restarts (log out/login):
Console log for linux-9tk9

May 25 01:38:18 linux-9tk9 dhcpcd[2446]: eth0: Failed to lookup hostname via DNS: Name or service not known
May 25 01:44:55 linux-9tk9 kernel: [drm:via_do_init_map] *ERROR* failed to find dma buffer region!
May 25 01:45:36 linux-9tk9 pulseaudio[7844]: pid.c: Daemon already running.

Sound worked OOTB, but on first use of an application, Master sound got muted in kmix (bug?).

However, wired n/w connection for BB worked normally. Internet TV video streaming including sound was very close to perfect.

IPV6 enabled as default again!

**Issue: **Although CD media could be browsed in dolpin, I couldn’t get audio cd to play in Kaffeine or Amarok or KsCD.

B]Issue: Although HP Laserjet printer (old) detected and driver enabled, Test sheet will not print on it even though the print job is set up.

These are xconsole messages from today:

Console log for linux-9tk9
May 26 09:42:28 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:42:28 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:42:48 linux-9tk9 pulseaudio[6352]: module-hal-detect.c: Error getting capability: org.freedesktop.Hal.NoSuchDevice: No device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_parport_pc_632
May 26 09:42:48 linux-9tk9 pulseaudio[6352]: module-hal-detect.c: Error getting capability: org.freedesktop.Hal.NoSuchDevice: No device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_parport_pc_888
May 26 09:42:50 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:42:50 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:42:56 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:42:56 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 0
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 1
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 2
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 3
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 4
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 5
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 6
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 7
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 8
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 9
May 26 09:46:36 linux-9tk9 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0
May 26 09:51:01 linux-9tk9 kernel: [drm:via_do_init_map] *ERROR* failed to find dma buffer region!
May 26 09:51:26 linux-9tk9 kernel: __ratelimit: 23 callbacks suppressed
May 26 09:51:31 linux-9tk9 pulseaudio[7445]: pid.c: Daemon already running.

Is Amarok supposed to play anything? For me it just gave up with too many errors. If anyone can shed light, it would be nice. :slight_smile:

2

OK, I won’t stay behind. I did the about the same on my laptop. No trouble regarding GPU, sound, network (both eth and wlan) at first, after updating to 4.3 beta Networkmanager-applet refused to make connections, wicd does, so I didn’t bother about that anymore.
I found it all running quite stable, even better after recent updates. But…I do need those things like character composing, terminal switching, the beep at boot annoys me to the bone, my root file system needs checking after each reboot, so we’re not there yet. Will do some bugreporting later this night.

But…It’s so good to be in this community, to see the quality in all areas…to see what’s coming…

Amarok etc.: enable the Pacman repo from the Community Repos, and install libxine and libxine-codecs. Amarok will play anything, even the audio from MP4’s…

3

Good to hear from you. I was wondering how I was doing compared to other(s) left behind. :slight_smile:

…after updating to 4.3 beta Networkmanager-applet refused to make connections…
I don’t think mine used NetworkManager as it is wired - it always seems to be buggy anyway so no loss there. I also felt brave today and did the big zipper dup to 4.3, followed by installing the new kernel 2.6.30something. The reboot was lightening fast after that. I also find it runs well, but none of my issues improved yet.

BTW, I never had your problem with ctl-alt-f1 to f7 for switching consoles, or the boot beep!

Amarok etc.: enable the Pacman repo from the Community Repos, and install libxine and libxine-codecs. Amarok will play anything, even the audio from MP4’s…
Thanks for the tip. I just didn’t think pacman’s repo would work for 11.2 i.e packages not compiled for 11.2…

I agree with you about the community. This is the first time for me on prerelease stuff here. It’s bound to get more hairy than this…lol!

4

I have Milestone 1 installed. Is there any official way to convert ext3 to ext4?

5

yes there is (use with caution though)

Ext4 Howto - Ext4

6

Woo MC how about the rest like patching grub… Converting is relatively easy but booting is another thing.

Edit
Apologies it seems it is in there… Though guessing here doesn’t mkinitcpio need something?

7

Thanks for that. Amarok 2 can now play audio files, but I can’t get it to play an audio cd (that could be me not realizing how?). However, Kaffeine does play audio cd but without displaying track info or downloading cddb info.

Kaffeine won’t play a commercial DVD (haven’t tried to get libdvdcss - does it work?). :\

8

Do you have any idea if AC3 5.1 Surround sound is working OOTB as well?

I always needed to tweak alsa config files or install some other libs to support that. And only Kaffeine was able to.

tnx

9

I just finished rebooting after installing 11.2 milestone2 on my test/sandbox PC. Installation to the KDE-4.3 desktop was smooth.

The first thing I noted was sound on my Test PC (and old MSI KT3 Ultra with a VIA8233A with an ALC650D audio hardware codec) did not seem to work. It pretty much worked effortlessly on all previous openSUSE versions.

So I did an abreviated version of the nominal mixer and troubleshooting sound tests, and still no sound. I say abreviated as I did not test the sound from a konsole with root permissions (which my troubleshooting guide notes one should try). I then went to YaST > Hardware > Sound > Other. I tried the Test sound there. No sound. I went to Volume, moved up the volume controls to 95%, pressed Test, and not sound. Then under YaST > Hardware > Sound > Edit I deleted the sound card, and added it again. This time the Test gave me a test sound.

After deleting and added the sound device, and exiting YaST I did get some strange KDE4 warning and configuration request dialog boxes. I simply cancelled my way through them, but I think I will need to do a re-install of 11.2 milestone again (possibly milestone3) and investigate this behaviour with more logic.

So after exiting YaST and getting rid of the KDE4 dialog boxes, I tried the test sound, and it failed. Then it occured to me I should have followed my own guide closer. I tried the test sound with root permissions. It worked !!

So I then added my user to group “audio”, rebooted, and sound worked. So it appears there is some sort of permissions problem … I’m not sure where - possibly the driver. Adding the user to group “audio” solved it.

But I can see there are some curves / new things thrown at a KDE4 user wrt audio, than I will have to spend some time figuring out.

10

My apologies, I should have provided more info on my PC’s sound h/w. It’s an onboard VIA chip. Linux distros describe it as Via 8237 with AD1888. The spec talks about AD1888 SoundMax 6-channel audio CODEC and then says SounMax Digital Audio System can output 5.1 channel surround. Although I am only using 2 channel at the moment. I’ve been lucky as it has worked OOTB on 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1 (I didn’t install 11.0), now 11.2, and on five other distros I tried.

I’m sorry I don’t have any idea about your AC3 type, unless mine is similar to that. :slight_smile:

11

I’m still running milestone1 upgraded to KDE4.3 and kernel 2.6.30-4.1, but I certainly agree with a smooth implementation of 4.3, both times I installed it, owing to my adventures with Grub root partition install (rather that’s what I wanted).

So I then added my user to group “audio”, rebooted, and sound worked. So it appears there is some sort of permissions problem … I’m not sure where - possibly the driver. Adding the user to group “audio” solved it.

Glad you made that progress. If it helps, I can confirm that my user is not a member of the audio group (only users, video).

BTW, on occasion I start up an app and there is no sound. Then bring up Kmix and the master sound is muted. I uncheck and all is well. This seems to occur when I add a new app, or on first start of an app. Not sure which. It happened on KDE 4.2.2 the first time I used Flash for internet video streaming. Again today on 4.3, after I added packman’s libxine1 and codecs, on executing Amarok. Did you find yours muted at any stage?

I installed factory’s Timidity today, and using Soundfont2, midi files play well. However I added factory’s Audacity, but on execution its gui fails to appear.

12

Maybe I should have provided more details too. :slight_smile: I am just trying to know whether 6-channels OOTB work or if we need to change some config files somewhere to make it work.

6-channels can be of any type, as long as 6 work OOTB, that’d be good. :slight_smile: Can’ recall my chip, but it has ADsomething in it too.

13

Ok. I just don’t have the 5.1 speaker h/w configuration to fully test it for 5.1 surround. However 11.2 Kmix configured it OOTB also with 3D Surround/Center/LFE components with all three muted, as did all the previous releases mentioned above. My chip is on an older more micro than yours, ASUS K8 mobo. I would expect it to work if/when I get the speakers.

14

Seems to have worsened my constant file corruption issue when using the default suggestion of ext4, unbootable after the update/reboot.
(it’s on the bugtracker)

SiS videocard has some major color issues (also reported).

Other than that it’s all good though, get a nice warning if you insert a 64bits version dvd into a 32 bits system… no idea if that’s new or not as this was the first time I messed up, but nice nonetheless

15

I would like to hope we see a much longer tested produce and based the QA Managers decision. The knowledge of instability and bug statistics; decide when a GM version of OpenSuse 11.2. Why we have never got to RC1,RC2,RC3 - GM I have no idea

*After 26 years in I.T I never saw New Software released on noting but having minimal bugs and stability. That date will always be fictional.and I have never seen software that is ever released on a calendar day principal. If we start to get pushed to release we start to talk about which quarter in which year and nothing else.
*
For the huge amounts of users who used a Default Installation of Opensuse 11.0-11.1 and found the Installation program fell over, and they put it the DVD into shredder; may return to us in a few years.

I have the same hope that performing a New Installation, where I choose the software, I use Network Manager, configure a Static IP will also not fall over!

I have the same hope that ALL NFS Installations, no not fall over if a LAN does not offer any DHCP Services.

I have the same hope that I can use either IFUP or Network Manager(KDE3) to assign a static IP in 11.2

I have the same hope that the outrageously high number of bugs, starts to come down to a manageable.

I love my Suse Linux, but I want other corporate/small business/home user to get past M.S enough to consider Suse Linux. When you do a demo and the application falls apart, I am normally asked to come back in another 2 year for consideration.

16

if you want ipv6 disabled by default, please vote this bug/enhancement

17

***As I cannot edit my own errors in the original post and as I hit the save button too early, I now correct my poor :frowning: posting above.