I’ve been using Suse Linux for some 5 years. That is notwithstanding it can takes ages to get some new addition functioning for someone who is not a programmer, nor trained in Unix. Consider me as an advanced user. Primarily, I wish to function as a normal user undertaking productive tasks without my head constantly under the hood. In semi-retirement, I do work for an overseas educational foundation.
I’ve also persuaded other non-tech mature people doing charitable work onto OpenSuSE: one involved with youth-craft skills, another restoring a mediaeval church tower and maintaining the local archive of burials. I end up helping these out as they gained confidence in the stability of the platform, then expand their usage by buying extra peripherals without first enquiring what is compatible. When people cannot easily turn to someone to help them with a glitch, they get nervous the minute something does not work ‘out of the box’, with even supposedly bright young “techies” far too readily proposing reversion to MS Windows.
Lest any are hardware specific, the following comments primarily refer to use with an Asus Z96F laptop with T5600 dual core CPU and an MSI U100 Wind with N270 Atom CPU and some new problems arising on update from OpenSuse 11.1 to 11.2, or which still remain:
- I can’t fathom why mobile Internet (mifi) using 3g/HSDPA/Edge connection with a Huawei E220 USB ‘dongle’ modem works without difficulty on the UK 3-mobile service on 11.1 (without having to manually configure or run UMTSMON, but merely by adding the setup parameters as a modem in YaST) but then fails to function with the T-Mobile service in Montenegro using the same hardware. T-Mobile does however work on upgrade to 11.2 on the laptop as then also does GPRS Easy Connect and UMTSmon, but now GPRS Easy Connect with the 3(UK) service instead fails, reporting ‘Perhaps you did not switch on your mobile’ - and remains unresolved if replugged to the USB socket (N.B. Modeswitch is installed.) However, the Internet link functions using KInternet or UMTSmon, so the Easy Connect oddity is a sideshow to me,
Nonetheless, since the T-Mobile service does now function in 11.2, it could also be made so for 11.1 via an online update patch rather than have to update the entire OS when there is minimal storage capacity on a netbook.
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Yast modem setup is also confusing. It appears, by having a separate ‘tab’ for Modem and Provider setting that you should be able to set connection options for one single HSDPA modem to more than one service provider. [N.B. Even if the user sticks to one brand provider’s service, such as T-Mobile, the connection APN in each country differs and requires to be set separately as though for different Providers.] Yet this does not work, since the first listed provider APN somehow gets irretrievably linked to the first instance of the modem by the setup, even though KInternet gives the false impression that any installed choice of provider should be assignable to a single installed instance of the same modem. Instead, you must install the modem repeatedly against each provider APN, as though different each time, so each subsequent instance gets tied to the subsequent provider. You then more tediously have to go through a 2-stage selection in KInternet to choose separately both the Provider and then the related Interface, if not using the designated default connection. It’s a bit clumsy and non-intuitive. Maybe a change of Sim card redefines the dongle?
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I’d be pleased to know how one can stop the PulseAudio applet multiplying itself in the System Tray, adding further duplicates of itself each time the system is booted in 11.1 and also in 11.2 after upgrade?
3.1 PulseAudio still mysteriously appears to mute, or set to zero gain, audio sub-components at random of its own accord within pavucontrol (which incidentally sometimes also refuses to open, unless after a reboot). But for need by Skype, I would ditch PulseAudio as unreliable, failing to correlate with the standard KMixer interface. -
I’ve always wanted to know what could be omitted from the default installation, loading only the bare minimum needed (e.g. I’m never going to connect via ISDN nor use many other modules I can’t tell if essential).
4.1 Yet Netbook update to 11.2 plus subsequent online installation of related patches throws almost every possible Kernel module onto the system (i.e. -debug-devel, -default-devel, -desktop, -desktop-devel. -firmware, -pae, -pae-devel, -source, -syms, -xen-devel) but surprisingly not the standard kernel-default itself. These surely can’t all be necessary (yet raise dependency conflicts if you go to remove any!). Moreover, this adds a further 200+ Mb in addition to kernel sources on a system with a small hard drive.
Could it be that 11.1 installed kernel-pae on the Netbook in error (a netbook can’t possibly take 64GB installed main memory!) by not correctly conforming to the Intel Atom processor and 11.2 then attempts some correction by throwing in almost every other variant, yet leaving the original -pae variant installed?
It would be useful to know which kernel packages this system optimally uses and which can thence be removed.
4.2 It could be well worth while having selectable installation options trimmed down for netbook installation or other conditions.
4.3. Within the Software Management package, it is not communicated:
a) which modules are essential ‘helpers’ linking in with other main applications or background functions (and so would not appear as user entries in the KMenu);
b) which are command-line apps., which one must somehow find out have been installed, to then run manually according to their own particular internal rules. Obviously any GUI app. appears as a link in the (K)Menu when installed. However, it would be a real convenience if Command-Line apps/utilities could also be selected and installed together with a menu link, with typical/appropriate default switches (not generally known) so that they could equally readily be run from the menu’.
4.4 Moreover, how one actually uses some of the application modules appears confusing; e.g. ImageMagick is installed but does not feature anywhere in the KDE applications list.
The useful ShowFoto viewer (displaying filenames in Slideshow and can run more reliably than GwenView) in 11.2 now preferably appears as a menu item, making it easier to load an entire picture folder though, conversely to 11.1, is no longer an ‘Open with…’ right-click option to a picture filename, as also available to Gwenview.
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The Online Update layout in 11.2 for those packages stated as ‘unneeded’ is an unclear representation. If ‘unneeded’ why show them, or does it instead mean these are optional/non-critical updates. The fact that some of these ‘unneeded’ patches are ‘ticked’ because they are instead already installed (along with their modules) renders this more confusing when in contrast the ‘needed’/critical patches disappear from the listing once installed! It might lead one to doubt if all underlying modules to which the ‘unneeded’, but installed patches apply should themselves be de-installed as also unneeded???
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It is inconvenient and tedious that Open File (e.g. in OpenOffice) now displays files in the sequence selected in the File Manager (which I generally set to most-recent date order). However, non-alphabetical listing is not conducive to finding a specific filename in ‘Open File’.
[Konqueror is preferred to Dolphin with its obtuse Search functionality.] -
In 11.2 certain functions now randomly block and may need a reboot to clear them:
7.1 Editing KDE menu habitually repeatedly loops Save/Update progress, yet fails to save.
[It would also be useful to have a convenient description of ‘switch’ options which can, or should be set when adding menu items, e.g. the purpose of %U?]
7.2 OpenOffice randomly blocks on Cut&Paste, failing to Paste, so just Deletes (…unless Undo and instead Copy&Paste, then laboriously go back to delete from the original position).
7.2a Keyboard entry (e.g. in ‘Save as’) sometimes blocks.
7.3 Loading Firefox may fail, reporting another instance is running, when it is not. [N.B. it always had a tendency for this.]
7.4 After suspend, the screen sometimes stays blank/re-logon fails to appear. -
USB gets confused over port locations when both a Mobile Internet HSDPA dongle and a USB printer are plugged in. This can be resolved by unplugging the dongle, or reboot, but tedious when wanting to print a web-page via the dongle.
8.1 CUPS print manager layout is not as clearly intuitive as was the KDE3 Printing Manager with its tabbed screens. -
Regarding use with a USB HSDPA mobile Internet connection, it sometimes appears that routing to a new address (in Firefox), or some other system activity coincides with reception from the ISP server being cut, but with sent bytes still trying to get through (this could however be a limitation with the mobile cellular system). The link is not cut, but appears suspended and no repeat nor new request succeeds in triggering an ISP server response, unless the link is manually cut and then reconnected. Generally an active link appears to hold better if a web page with some animated content is open.
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There is no information on whether one can periodically delete the entire content of the /tmp folder - or anything else that can be freely jettisoned. Tmp does after all imply a temporary location?
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On version update, it would be useful to have a list of prior version apps which store files somewhere within segregated locations (e.g. .oo2 and .oo3) which should sensibly be moved from the redundant version folder to the newly substituted version, if not to become lost and forever clutter the storage.
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A trial of Clamav deemed more than 60 files suspect - described as loose - and determined to quarantine (but failing to do) albeit they seem to be genuine software modules.
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There are some potentially excellent supplementary PPDs for the Micro-dry printers developed by Alps (e.g. Alps MD5000/Oki DP5000/ Citizen Printiva) albeit some dropped from the standard PPDs in the transition beyond 11.0. That for the Printiva, which previously functioned, now reproduces an accurate CUPS Test Print, but from OpenOffice, instead runs the paper 90mm halfway down the page before starting to print, so presumably a glitch in how OpenOffice handles these drivers (which unfortunately also confuses print dpi resolution with print magnification size). Printing from KWrite does better, only extending the top margin by 25mm.
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It seems there is perpetual risk of having flash memory sticks corrupted, though I religiously use the embedded ‘Safely Remove’ feature and wait until no activity is indicated before physically removing. Within 4 years, five such sticks have then failed to work again when re-inserted (and if then inserted to an MS Windows system to see if more accessible, report ‘The drive is not formatted…’). These suffered no physical stress, nor has the often weak solder connection failed between the stick circuitry and its protruding plug. These appear to fail at either removal or insertion to the Linux system. These solid state gizmo’s are in such common use, it is a shame if they cannot be better relied upon.
14.1 It would be very useful if a repair utility could be included to fix what I assume to be a corrupted file record on these flash drives.
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I have never found any clear documentation on what specific role each of the assignable Additional Groups play and which should sensibly be selected under YaST Users & Groups settings under various circumstances.
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When the full html of a web page is saved, a picture embedded on the page may indeed show up on a thumbnail preview as you ‘hover’ the mouse pointer over the filename and may also initially ‘flash-up’ momentarily when the file is opened, but then disappears leaving a statement ‘image not available’ once supposedly fully open. Why?
mhtml also remains a problem. -
There is no obvious link, scheduled operation, nor recommendation to optimise hard disk performance by concatenating files at intervals. A few isolated web comments suggest this is unnecessary in Linux, though one might expect a hard drive to run fault-free for longer with less work to do if files largely remaining intact.
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I have a fear that a version upgrade may not thoroughly check for adequate disk space before over-installation. Since installation volume increases at each upgrade, it would reassure if the preparatory stage confirmed this before going ahead.
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At the ‘nice/convenient-to-have’ level of enhancements would be
19.1 expanding '+'folder menu lists which automatically scroll down so the list can be seen and;
19.2 Find&Replace boxes (e.g. as in OpenOffice or Search Software) which, when you go back to them, highlight the previous search term so this can be simply over-typed with a new term rather than having first to laboriously delete the old one. I repeatedly use OpenOffice Search on an ever-lengthening list I maintain, so each time having to do this superfluous iteration becomes tedious. -
Lastly, documentation generally assumes the user already has a fairly good understanding of Unix commands. It is difficult for the technical specialist with hands always deep in the engine to write clear explanations from the perspective of a straightforward driver who instead prefers to turn the key to reach a practical destination without undue diversions. There are still those ‘console-drivers’ who only evolved through knowledge of the 27 or so DOS commands plus ‘back-slash’ and those entirely non-techie ‘left-click’ only users who have never found prior reason to delve even this far. There is one introductory page on the Command Line Interface in Online Help. It would also help to have an easily accessible/printable reference table of key commands (which might save typing -h, --H, man, info, etc. at random hoping something might appear which won’t take half a day to comprehend).
This no ‘gripe’ as I find it incomprehensible that anyone can ever get such a multi-functional OS working reliably, considering the ever-changing interdependencies and combinations of hardware. I’m pleased to have persevered to overcome many issues, albeit at the expenditure of an inordinate amount of time (cf alternative systems) following a multiplicity of possible leads. The benefit is a resilient system. I’m very supportive and would be more practically involved if I had other than self-taught skills. These observations are from the perspective of one keen to see a great system made more ‘user-friendly’ and successful.
I’d be pleased if worth your forwarding to various specialists more dedicated to each issue.