bugs and missing features in 11.4

English Open Chat
1

someone forgot to set things up so that:

  • there is a user accounts management app
  • apps for manging other “control panel” type stuff in the OS: user accounts, Internet options, networking, performance, monitoring, drive management, policies, install/remove software should do what it says it does(!) - I DON’T want to do everything from an xterm folks. isn’t that why we have GUIs? I don’t care if you put the OS on 2 or 3 DVD’s. make it usable for joe user. but don’t flaunt what you have now as a desktop OS.
  • the user you created when you first installed the system needs to be added to the lp group. somehow the opensuse developers forgot this. now HP printing is broken. and I don’t know how to fix (not that I am asking how). just fix it. tried useradd, it says the password file is locked. user unfriendly. I shouldn’t have one reason to open a cmd shell.
  • wireless+wired networking icon needs to be in taskbar so users can configure their desktops. it has been said that you configure this in YAST, but I see nothing in YAST that does this, it just wants to update packages. VERY USER UNFRIENDLY!
  • I am stuck with the much-played-up partition manager’s layout. I have only 512MB of RAM, so it decided to give me a 504MB swap partition and 10GB for user. I wanted 4GB for swap. any time the memory is under 4GB of RAM you should try to put in 3-4GB of SWAP I should think due to apps chewing it up. rewrite the partitioning software.match the memory size for anything under 6GB, for anything over, use 1/2 or 2/3 RAM size. or at least tell the user how much RAM is there and how much hard disk space is there and ask the user how much swap they want so they can make an informed decision.

linux is not “grown up” into a desktop OS yet.
Not that backup is usually an issue for most people, but what I would like to see is the ability to backup to every kind of device on the planet (DVD, DL DVD, DL blu-ray, LTO tape, DLT IV tape, network (SMB, bonjour, unix networks, ftp server, DRBD, cloud which probably costs monthly), tape libraries, RAID arrays, hard disks, USB thumb drives, usb hard drives, those kinds of things). I don’t like tinkertoy backup programs. also, the backup program should resume if interrupted if the feature is enabled, and if it is on weeklies or whatever, it shouldn’t start a new backup job in the middle of a current job in progress.

when linux can recover gracefully from an unclean shutdown(e.g. power outage) (instead of making me reinstall the OS)… please note - this is considered bad behavior I think even for servers!

then I will see linux as a serious contender as a desktop OS.

I only hope 11.5 is better.

2

On 08/27/2011 10:46 AM, jmichae3 wrote:
>
> I only hope 11.5 is better.

for your uninformed and outlandish expectations, it won’t be…

so, i’d suggest you stick with whatever you use now which makes you happy…

and, i’d suggest to the other here to do as i do: -=ploink=-

–
DD happy with the best desktop on the planet
Hardware-Software

3

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> someone forgot to set things up so that:
>
> - there is a user accounts management app
There is… it’s in Yast, accessible via the Control Center which is
right off the main menu by default on my system (came that way… I
didn’t put it there).

> - apps for manging other “control panel” type stuff in the OS: user
See above.

> - the user you created when you first installed the system needs to
If you say so. My HP printer works and my user is not a member of that
group. Did HP recommend this? Why didn’t their software do this? Have
you told them their software didn’t set this properly? useradd, oddly
enough, is for adding users, not modifying them. Use yast next time…
point, click, done.

> - wireless+wired networking icon needs to be in taskbar so users can
That’s where mine is… the Network Manager icon was there from the start.

> - I am stuck with the much-played-up partition manager’s layout. I
Your personal preferences are your own and if you want to change them,
please do, but they are a recipe for disaster. If you were to ever
start using three to four GB RAM on a system that only has 512 MB RAM
(which makes me think your hard drive is not going to be a high
performer) you’ll wish you were dead before you get very far. swap is
there for when you’re out of RAM, but its performance is so far below
RAM (literally many orders of magnitude both in seek time, throughput,
and every other meaningful metric) that if you highly utilize it for
active applications the system will seem to be sliggish as your system
is constantly waiting on swap I/O. My personal preference is to max out
at 2 GB, possibly having as much as your RAM if you are somebody who
wants to hibernate your computer (which involves writing your RAM to
disk before powering off).

> linux is not “grown up” into a desktop OS yet. Not that backup is
> usually an issue for most people, but what I would
Interesting opinion.

> when linux can recover gracefully from an unclean shutdown(e.g.
> power
Just to make sure this still worked for me I pulled the battery out of
my laptop (without being plugged in) to test this… that was five
minutes ago (meaning I didn’t reinstall). Thinking back over many years
I can’t remember ever installing Linux due to any reasonable type of
failure, even serious hardware ones like processor, RAM, and motherboard
failures. Hard drive failures, sure, since that takes your OS away, but
never otherwise.

> I only hope 11.5 is better.
You’re a little behind… 12.1 is next it would seem.

Good luck.

Want to yell at me in person?
Come to BrainShare 2011 in October: http://tinyurl.com/brainshare2011
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4

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 08:46:02 +0000, jmichae3 wrote:

> someone forgot to set things up so that:
>
> - there is a user accounts management app

There is.

> - apps for manging other “control panel” type stuff in the OS: user
> accounts, Internet options, networking, performance, monitoring, drive
> management, policies, install/remove software should do what it says
> it does(!)

This exists, and install/remove software does exactly what it says it
does.

> - I DON’T want to do everything from an xterm folks. isn’t
> that why we have GUIs? I don’t care if you put the OS on 2 or 3
> DVD’s. make it usable for joe user. but don’t flaunt what you have
> now as a desktop OS.

Odd, I’ve been using it as a desktop OS for around 10 years now. On
multiple systems using many different distributions over the years.

> - the user you created when you first installed the system needs to
> be added to the lp group. somehow the opensuse developers forgot
> this. now HP printing is broken. and I don’t know how to fix (not
> that I am asking how). just fix it. tried useradd, it says the
> password file is locked. user unfriendly. I shouldn’t have one
> reason to open a cmd shell.

Doesn’t seem to be necessary - I have always been able to print and have
never added my user to the lp group. Ever. Not once in 10+ years. And
I use HP printers.

You don’t have to open a command shell, just use the Yast Module for
manging users = problem solved. (Chances are you ran useradd as the user
rather than as root - which means it can’t do anything privileged).

> - wireless+wired networking icon needs to be in taskbar so users can
> configure their desktops. it has been said that you configure this in
> YAST, but I see nothing in YAST that does this, it just wants to
> update packages. VERY USER UNFRIENDLY!

NetworkManager runs in the taskbar.

> - I am stuck with the much-played-up partition manager’s layout. I
> have only 512MB of RAM, so it decided to give me a 504MB swap
> partition and 10GB for user. I wanted 4GB for swap. any time the
> memory is under 4GB of RAM you should try to put in 3-4GB of SWAP I
> should think due to apps chewing it up. rewrite the partitioning
> software.match the memory size for anything under 6GB, for anything
> over, use 1/2 or 2/3 RAM size. or at least tell the user how much RAM
> is there and how much hard disk space is there and ask the user how
> much swap they want so they can make an informed decision.

This is a personal preference, generally, but for modern OSes of any
kind, 512 MB of RAM is a bare minimum. There’s a grain of a good
suggestion in here - providing the user with info about their system
configuration. You should submit that idea to openFATE so the developers
see it.

> linux is not “grown up” into a desktop OS yet. Not that backup is
> usually an issue for most people, but what I would like to see is the
> ability to backup to every kind of device on the planet (DVD, DL DVD, DL
> blu-ray, LTO tape, DLT IV tape, network (SMB, bonjour, unix networks,
> ftp server, DRBD, cloud which probably costs monthly), tape libraries,
> RAID arrays, hard disks, USB thumb drives, usb hard drives, those kinds
> of things). I don’t like tinkertoy backup programs. also, the backup
> program should resume if interrupted if the feature is enabled, and if
> it is on weeklies or whatever, it shouldn’t start a new backup job in
> the middle of a current job in progress.

There are commercial backup solutions for those who need them that can do
all you want and more.

Oh, and me? I’m an IT professional with over 20 years’ work in the
field. So don’t think that for me this is a ‘hobby’ and that I’m willing
to put up with the kinds of problems you claim to have. I have pretty
high standards, and Linux generally exceeds them.

I tell you that to give you some perspective on where I’m coming from.

> when linux can recover gracefully from an unclean shutdown(e.g. power
> outage) (instead of making me reinstall the OS)… please note - this
> is considered bad behavior I think even for servers!

I do this more often than I’d like to. Turns out one of my UPS’ is
faulty, and when the power cuts, two of systems go down hard. Never ever
had a problem with them coming back up, and the recovery has always
been graceful.

> then I will see linux as a serious contender as a desktop OS.
>
> I only hope 11.5 is better.

12.1 is the next release.

Now, here’s a suggestion: When you run into problems, instead of keeping
notes for things so you can post a rant like this, how about you ask some
questions instead? We don’t bite, and we’re here to help. Posting a
rant (and this is nothing more than that) is not going to get you
sympathy, especially as only one of two posts you’ve ever made here in
the forums.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

5

I can count over a dozen reasons you should have called for help, here or somewhere else. Not openSUSE is missing features, you missed openSUSE’s features.

6

People: Do not feed the trolls!