I’m new to linux and suse and while following a guide from novell.com I ran across a few problems with some hardware.
Monitor-Graphics Card/Keyboard/Mouse
In yast/hardware when I click on graphics card/monitor, keyboard, and mouse I get sent to the grub screen(I think its grub, it looks like Dos in windows) for a few seconds and then get sent back to the desktop. Also got a message when I first booted linux that my monitor X and Y postions are not configured or something like that.
Printer and Scanner
When I try to setup my printer and scanner in yast it seems like everything works fine but when I print a test page my printer loads up like normal and then freezes so I have to cancel. When I try to print from the web it just prints blank page after blank page til I cancel or run out of paper. Can’t get the scanner drivers to download and my printer is on the driver list that yast gives me. My printer is a HP Photosmart C4280 All in one.
Sound
I get a error trying to configure my sound. It says An error occurred during the installation of M C P55 High Definition Audio The kernel module snd-hda-intel for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, inclucing invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
TV Card and Joystick
Found out my TV card isn’t supported in linux can someone provide me one. Either a card or usb tuner. Can someone give me some info on a controller that work with linux. I doubt my 360 controller will work with it.
I’ve just managed to get the Nvidia 8800 GT to work in Opensuse, took a little bit of work but I think I have it sorted now. Here’s my guide;
Use YAST to install the driver. (if you need help with this just post a query)
Restart
Press CTRL, ALT and F1 (this will enter the command, so you may want to print the instructions before hand)
Type logout and press enter
Login as root (same password as main account is likely)
Type init 3 (this will change the level of access)
type
sax2 -r
** NOTE 1: your screen may then go into sleep mode. I pressed enter and spacebar a few times - it did not return to the desktop or display anything. Then reboot. **
** NOTE 2: the second time I tried this X (the GUI) relaunched and went through a setup system - just follow the wizard **
If you are returned to the command prompt, type
init 5; quit
. This may relaunch you back in to X, but may just dump you back at the command.
restart the machine (no matter where you are, desktop or command).
Then after rebooting everything should be working on the GFX front, and you can turn on the crazy effects.
Thanks for the help guys, while waiting for a reply I went ahead and tried Kubuntu and got everything but sound working there. If I run into any problems with it and it leads me having to do another install I will give suse another try.
Enjoy your kubuntu. I have a couple friends who are big ubuntu users and they are happy.
A note about the philosophical difference between openSUSE and Ubuntu/kubuntu.
Ubuntu comes with proprietary drivers and drivers not governed by the GPL (general purpose licence for opensource free software). Proprietary meaning the source code is not governed by the GPL but rather is governed by some other licence and typicall for proprietary one is restricted in one’s use of the driver software.
openSUSE is “open” which means only free opensource software is provided. In the most part this means NO proprietary drivers. This also means that often some hardware will NOT work immediately out of the box … ie one’s graphics, webcam, sound, printers, scanner, tvcard, … etc …
The openSUSE volunteer opensource community in the most part try hard to support such devices by providing opensource drivers. And in some cases such devices have openGL drivers that are GPL based. But typically one will need to go to a 3rd party site to get the correct driver, and hence for new users, if one has a problem setting up their hardware, post asking for assistance, and typically an openSUSE volunteer will try to help. It does mean a moderate amount of patience is required for newbies. For those of use who have been with openSUSE for users, we are ready for this, and have our drivers handy for immediate setup.