A few things

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#1

I’ve got a few things I need sorted out with my openSUSE installation:

1- I’ve read all the tutorials, done all the walkthroughs. How do I install APT, Synaptic & gdebi? To get Synaptic & gdebi, I need APT & everything tells me it’s in the repos if I search for it. Nothing. How do I install it?
2- Is it possible to have my trackpad & cord mouse going at different speeds? My cord mouse is fine speed, but my trackpad is lightning fast & hard to control.
3- I have a secondary monitor. Is there any way to run this:

xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --auto --right-of LVDS

when I plug my monitor in?
4- Banshee doesn’t play anything. It’s a similiar situation to APT, but I still can’t find anything. I’ve resorted to using Songbird (which I’m fine with), but it’s podcast support is REALLY shotty.
5- Has anyone figured out how to manage an iPod Nano 5th gen yet? I’m pretty sure the answer is no, but… maybe…
6- Am I able to replace my HOME folder with an external hard drive? So that when I download something it goes to the hard drive, rather than the downloads folder.

If those could be answered, that would be FANTASTIC!!!

#2

Oh, I forgot.

I have Mobile Broadband & it disconnects every hour or so, and when I go to reconnect I have to try 3 or 4 times before it reconnects. Any ideas?

#3

I recommend starting single threads, some of them might need more than just one comment, imagine how this thread would look like after a while. Yet here are comments on three of your questions:

How do I install APT, Synaptic & gdebi?

These are package-managers for .deb-based systems, you are running an .rpm-Linux now. On SuSE the standard package manager is zypper, which is a highly useful, fast and reliable command line app. See ‘man zypper’ or →this HowTo to find out more about it. The graphical equivalent for zypper is YaSTs software management.

Banshee doesn’t play anything.

Have you set up multimedia yet? Take a look → here.

Am I able to replace my HOME folder with an external hard drive? So that when I download something it goes to the hard drive, rather than the downloads folder.

I don’t quite get this question. How do you want to download what? Because you can download anything wherever you’d like to (except for the /-partition).

#4

-=welcome=-

MattSD wrote:
> 1- I’ve read all the tutorials, done all the walkthroughs. How do I
> install APT, Synaptic & gdebi? To get Synaptic & gdebi, I need APT &
> everything tells me it’s in the repos if I search for it. Nothing. How
> do I install it?

instead of trying to remake openSUSE into a Debian based distro, why
don’t you try using it the way it is born…we have a CLI program
named Zypper which is very apt-like, and, it is the backend for a GUI
program named YaST which has many modules to front for most all admin
duties…

suggest you consider a read here: http://en.opensuse.org/Concepts
which is for new linux users mostly but you (i think) might benefit
from section 2’s introduction on YaST/Zypper and maybe RPM…

there are further differences between openSUSE and whatever Debian
experience you bring…hmmmm, we probably should have, but as far as
i know we don’t have a wiki page titled something like “How to
smoothly Transition from Debian based distros to openSUSE”

instead you will probably benefit (in terms of time to transition)
from seeking fuller info on Zypper/YaST in provided docs/wiki than in
attempting to load and use APT with Debian repos here…see, the file
structure here is NOT exactly same so you can pretty easily poison a
healthy openSUSE system by trying to load via apt-get

ok?

[skipped 2 & 3]

> 4- Banshee doesn’t play anything.

see the sticky at the top of the multimedia forum…in it are links to
how to load the codecs etc needed…remember this is _open_SUSE, and
only free and open source software is included in the default
install…any and all non is handled outside the community repos…

[skipped 5]

> 6- Am I able to replace my HOME folder with an external hard drive?
> So that when I download something it goes to the hard drive, rather than
> the downloads folder.

you can direct your downloads to what every directory you wish,
including /downloads on any drive in or connected to your
system…even if connected via the net and sitting on a rack on the
Easter Islands…

you could even have your entire (or any parts of the) external hard
drive appear on your system as /home/[MattSD]/downloadsExternal

again, -=welcome=-

let me suggest next time put each question in it own thread, and WITH
a clear subject of what it is about (so, for example, the mouse-speed,
iPod and xrandr guru knows to look inside) and do this AFTER you have
used the forums advanced search to see if you answer is just waiting
for you to find it (like try searching on xrandr second|secondary
monitor)…

–
palladium

#5

These are package-managers for .deb-based systems, you are running an .rpm-Linux now. On SuSE the standard package manager is zypper, which is a highly useful, fast and reliable command line app. See ‘man zypper’ or →this HowTo to find out more about it. The graphical equivalent for zypper is YaSTs software management.

I’ve been using openSUSE for a while & I simply don’t like the graphical aspect of it. ZaST has 3 different (graphical) ways of installing software, none of which I like & none of them even get close to Synaptic. Using Zypper is fine, I just want to use Synaptic.

[QUOTE]
Banshee doesn’t play anything.

Have you set up multimedia yet? Take a look → here.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, it works now.

[QUOTE]Am I able to replace my HOME folder with an external hard drive? So that when I download something it goes to the hard drive, rather than the downloads folder.

I don’t quite get this question. How do you want to download what? Because you can download anything wherever you’d like to (except for the /-partition).[/QUOTE]
I used Downloads as an example (& a bad one at that). Say, I wanted my Documents folder or my Pictures folder at… say: /media/External Drive/documents or /media/External Drive/pictures.

suggest you consider a read here: Concepts - openSUSE
which is for new linux users mostly but you (i think) might benefit
from section 2’s introduction on YaST/Zypper and maybe RPM…

Sorry, but I know all that. Plus, I am in no way a new Linux user. I’ve used Ubuntu 8.04 through 9.10, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Arch Linux (for 2 days) & now I’m on openSUSE.

let me suggest next time put each question in it own thread, and WITH
a clear subject of what it is about (so, for example, the mouse-speed,
iPod and xrandr guru knows to look inside) and do this AFTER you have
used the forums advanced search to see if you answer is just waiting
for you to find it (like try searching on xrandr second|secondary
monitor)…

Yeah… I probably should have done that…

#6

First let me say WELCOME to openSUSE and WELCOME to our forums.

I have some views on some of your questions, but I am afraid you may be upset with my answers. … but I’ll pass them anyway as food for thought, …

Back in the earlier SuSE-9.x days, using apt as a backup to the SuSE software management was common. Today in the openSUSE-11x days it is not common. In fact even if you suceed in getting this working it will not work well as the repositories (of which there are many) for openSUSE are not setup to work with apt. Zypper/YaST has come a long ways in the last 4 releases of openSUSE and its worth taking a good look at. Here are some hints: Zypper/Usage/11.2 - openSUSE

If you wish to have an additional software package manager other than zypper/yast, then may I instead recommend the smart package manager Smart Package Manager - Labix . Smart does some things better than apt/synaptic and it does some things worse. But one thing it does better is support more repositories, which is something that apt does poorly. Toward the bottom of this page you will find a link to a repository where builds of the software package manager are hosted: Additional package repositories - openSUSE

Does this run normally when typed in a terminal? You set that up as a simple script and have it run by your desktop software upon every boot. To provide more specifics one would need to know what desktop software you are using, and then someone familiar with your desktop software would need to provide the answer.

IMHO this is a real bad idea, even if it works. It will slow down your PC, and it will create a greater risk of a non-functioning system if there is a problem with the external drive.

Its far better IMHO to create a small /home/your-user on your main drive, and then create a /home/your-user/data directory where that “data” is where your external hard drive is mounted.

#7

MattSD wrote:
> Sorry, but I know all that. Plus, I am in no way a new Linux user. I’ve
> used Ubuntu 8.04 through 9.10, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Arch Linux (for
> 2 days) & now I’m on openSUSE.

if you had been clear on all your experience in your first post to
this forum i would not have tried to help you, and i won’t again,
because with your background you are obviously able to google or use
this forum’s advanced search function…

–
palladium