Hardware upgrade

clony · August 23, 2010, 12:47pm

I am a newbie on Linux so please give me detailed answers! I am very pleased with OpenSUSE… I installed it without any problem on my desktop and it works very nice. At this time I use a dual boot system, because I still need Vista for some software but gradually I spend more and more in Linux and hopefully one day I will not need anymore Windows.

I desperately need to do some hardware upgrades… and I am afraid that this will broke my peace but with your help I hope to overcome it!

I simply want to add a new HDD, some more RAM and to replace my video card. I did this many time under Windows… could you tell me what I have to expect doing this in a dual boot system Vista + OpenSUSE 10.2 ?

Thanks in advance for any help!

lOtz1009 · August 23, 2010, 1:20pm

Just add a new HDD or replace the existing with the system on it?
Adding memory is no problem.
Do you want to use a different graphics card manufacturer (e.g. before: ATI, after: NVIDIA)?

knurpht · August 23, 2010, 1:54pm

First a question: 10.2, is that a typo, or are you really using openSUSE 10.2? Then I suggest you do it all at once, i.e. add the HDD, RAM and videocard, then install 11.3.
Why? Because 10.2 is no longer supported, so new software will not be available, nor patches and fixes (read updates). And…you might get in trouble concerning the videocard.

dvhenry · August 23, 2010, 2:25pm

Also, information on the video card (both current and planned) would be useful, and on other hardware if you are running 10.2 and wish to change to 11.3 (or 11.2).

clony · August 23, 2010, 10:51pm

Thanks guys for your fast input. Just few clarifications:

I want to add a harddisk, not to replace any… of course I want to be writable under Linux… eventually to move on it my HOME.
Good to know that RAM addition does not require any special work!
I want to upgrade my NVIDIA card (if I remember right GT 200) probably with a newer NVIDIA if this is simpler. The old card does not work very well…

I did not yet purchased the new card, I want first to see the path I need to follow. I’m not a gamer, I need a card to be great for image processing (RAW and jpeg mostly), even batch processing sometime… this is the only major load for the card, the others are normal (wordprocessing, browsing, spreadsheet, movies, etc… nothing special).

Sorry for mistake… I have OpenSUSE 11.2… not 10.2…

Thanks again for your assistance!

gogalthorp · August 24, 2010, 4:12am

Hard drive. Install it then you can create any nimber of partitions on it you want and mount them any where you want on the directory tree. You can do this from the

clony · August 24, 2010, 9:45am

it seems that your message is incomplete… “I can do this from the… what?..”

What about replacing the video card?

lOtz1009 · August 24, 2010, 10:04am

Changing nVidia to nVidia is no problem.
What does zypper se -si nvidia tell?

If you just want to add the HDD, do it. Then you can use yast partitioner to create whatever disk layout you want.
If you want to move your /home to that HDD, mount it to any location, copy all files from within your current /home to it (best use tar), and afterwards set the mountpoint of your new drive to /home (and change the mountpoint of your current /home-partition, if exists).

clony · August 24, 2010, 11:54am

it seems that i have a problem… I get this message:

inux-y78c:~ # zypper se -si nvidia
File ‘/repodata/repomd.xml’ not found on medium ‘http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Playground/openSUSE_11.2’

Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/?] (a): a
Problem retrieving files from ‘http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Playground/openSUSE_11.2’.
[AbstractCommand.cc:224] URI=http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Playground/openSUSE_11.2/repodata/repomd.xml
Please see the above error message for a hint.
Warning: Disabling repository ‘http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Playground/openSUSE_11.2’ because of the above error.
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
No packages found.

Regarding HDD… is yast the software that let me set the mountpoint of my new drive to /home ?

lOtz1009 · August 24, 2010, 1:31pm

KDE-Repos have changed a while ago. Please check the wiki for correct repos.
For now, please show rpm -qa | grep -i nvidia

Regarding HDD: yes There should be a module “Partitioner” (or what ever it may be called in English :D) or you simply edit /etc/fstab

clony · August 24, 2010, 3:54pm

well… I’m not a native English speaker but not this is my first problem

linux-y78c:~ # rpm -qa l grep -i nvidia
Name : grep Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 2.5.4 Vendor: openSUSE
Release : 4.2 Build Date: Sat Oct 24 05:48:12 2009
Install Date: Tue Nov 3 01:44:39 2009 Build Host: build21
Group : Productivity/Text/Utilities Source RPM: grep-2.5.4-4.2.src.rpm
Size : 636628 License: GPL v2 or later
Signature : RSA/8, Sat Oct 24 05:48:36 2009, Key ID b88b2fd43dbdc284
Packager : openSUSE:Submitting bug reports - openSUSE
URL : grep - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
Summary : Print lines matching a pattern
Description :
GNU grep, the “fastest grep in the west” (hopefully).

`grep’ searches for lines matching a pattern.

Authors:

Alain Magloire        &lt;alainm@rcsm.ece.mcgill.ca&gt;
Aharon Robbins        &lt;arnold@gnu.org&gt;
David J MacKenzie     &lt;djm@catapult.va.pubnix.com&gt;
Karl Berry            &lt;karl@cs.umb.edu&gt;
Ulrich Drepper        &lt;drepper@cygnus.com&gt;

Distribution: openSUSE 11.2

lOtz1009 · August 24, 2010, 4:10pm

Now this is a strange output?!
There should either be 2 nVidia packages or an empty return.
Is this a pipe between -qa and grep? Or just a L?

Anyways…IF you have a working nVidia driver installed now, this should be the same which is needed for your new card (as the 2xx uses the latest driver either…)

Should be really no problem changing the graphics card.

Type glxinfo | grep OpenGL to see which driver is running now. Just to be sure…

clony · August 24, 2010, 4:31pm

I’ve told you that not English is my biggest problem…

It was just a L… now with pipe is even strange…

linux-y78c:~ # rpm -qa | grep -i nvidia
linux-y78c:/ #

Then your other request (with pipe too…):

linux-y78c:~ # glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.6)
OpenGL extensions:
linux-y78c:/ #

lOtz1009 · August 24, 2010, 5:26pm

That shows that you are not using the nVidia driver. Seems that’s only “nv” which is used. OK for 2D, but 3D or video acceleration is not really good with that.
Maybe you add the “real” nVidia driver and see if your graphics performance is better so you don’t need a new card

Asides, since there is no further configuration for your current card, you could easily change to another graphics card without any problems

clony · August 24, 2010, 5:50pm

Well, I’m using it under Windows but when I installed Open SUSE it went automatically… it was very smooth and did not required from me almost anything… surely did not required to choose a driver (or to provide it)… If I will install this driver it may work properly! Thank you!

PS I suppose that are dedicated drivers for Linux… Google must help with that…

gogalthorp · August 24, 2010, 6:26pm

Please read

openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users

dvhenry · August 24, 2010, 6:53pm

PS I suppose that are dedicated drivers for Linux… Google must help with that…

I would definitely follow the link given above to install the correct drivers before thinking about buying a new video card.

clony · August 24, 2010, 8:32pm

Thanks for the link! This is what I really needed!