Help a newbe out?

English Open Chat
#1

Hello

I’m new to the world of Linux, well not that new as I’ve had a little play with other distros for a few weeks but that’s about it.

I’ve just installed suse 11.0 onto my laptop and I must say that it is exceptionally pleasing on the eye however the learning curve is not so much a curve as a cliff edge.

I would be most grateful if somebody could post me a few links or offer me advice/guidance that will help me with my first faltering steps?

Some of my sticking points are watching DVD’s and how to even find the repositories so that I can hunt stuff down.

Idiot questions I know, but as I say I’m new to all this and as such I don’t have much experience apart from solving how to use my wireless connection.

Little steps. :slight_smile:

#2

for most of your multimedia woes have a look here Restricted Formats/11.0 - openSUSE-Community
as for wireless, have a look at the stickies in that section,if you are still stuck, post the problem in the wireless section & one of the wireless Guru’s will help

Andy

#3

maybe this guide helps as well:

The Perfect Desktop - OpenSUSE 10.3 (GNOME) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

it is still at Opensuse 10.3 but I think they will update it and besides most of the stuff is valid for 11 too (just not for KDE4).

there are also a lot of general linux guides explaining the internals of linux on the web, just google for linux guide or something

stefan

#4

I’ve managed to get the wireless up and running so at least I’m a little further on the path. :slight_smile:

All I have to do now is learn how to find and use the repositories.

Cheers

#5

I’ve installed KDE4. Is that a good thing for somebody so green behind the ears?

Or would you recommend playing safe and go with gnome?

Either way its not to much of a hardship to put the DVD back in and reinstall the gnome setup.

Cheers

#6

KDE3 is recommended,as 4 is not as stable. you can run them side by side. it will be in the patterns section if software install. nice to see you have wireless working

Andy

#7

i think KDE4.0 is not ready for prime time yet, for veterans or newbies. KDE4.1 will be better and maybe KDE4.2 will be finished. For now I’d say stick with gnome which is great, easy, friendly and stable, personally I never did much care for KDE3.5

stefan

#8

Ah yes,

The eagerness, the fascination, the willingness to learn; nurture it, grow, and enjoy. For the flashier stuff (dvd codecs, multimedia, etc.) go to

1-click-collection - openSUSE-Community and the “1-click” files will add repositories and software to your system. Repositories, or “repos”, are folders on web sites that contain both the software and accompanying files that make the yast/repo system work. You never have to see neither the actual files nor the software, so don’t worry about where they went (hey, I don’t know!) 1-click is automated. Vlc is a dvd player and the 1click includes the files to make it play standard, store-bought dvd’s so make sure and use that one.

For Wireless see

HCL/Network Adapters (Wireless - openSUSE

And the good folk at opensuse.org.

For console commands:

Linux bash commands - MAN Pages

Linux Command Directory: Index

LinuxCommand.org: Learn the Linux command line. Write shell scripts.

tuXfiles - Linux command line tutorials for newbies

Also, keep in mind that Linux is not MS-Windows and it is not the desktop, it’s “the dark place”, the system running at the command line. So if you can’t get to the desktop, your Linux is not “dead” the way 'XP or some Redmond system would be. You do, however , have tools like the vi editor and the command prompt or shell, typically bash. Get “Learning the vi Editor” and “Learning the bash Shell” from O’Reilly books. Also, make use of the “man” (manual) command for the manual of commands that come with Linux and the “apropos” command.

The command “man ls” (without quotes) entered at the command line (open a console/terminal or boot into failsafe mode) will display the manual page for the ls, or list command, and apropos is more like a thesaurus showing terms related to a command.

Read, try, take notes, bookmark/print out pages that help.

#9

You don’t have to re-install… that is if you have some space left :wink:

You can add GNOME using YaST > Software Management , select the pattern view and add the GNOME Desktop.
That should install all you need.

When you’ve installed log out and hit the ‘sessions’ button to select GNOME to log into the GNOME desktop.

This way you get to play with both :wink:

Cheers,
Wj

#10

I tried to follow your guidance anc clicked on the mltimedia codecs for gnome and got the following error message

An error occurred while initialising the software repository details:

Main Repository (NON-OSS):Valid metadata not found at specified URL(s)
History:

  • System management is locked by the application with pid 4309. Please close this application before trying again.

After pressing NO about four times I then got the following error message

Software installation
The installation has failed. For more information, see the log file at /var/log/YaST2/y2log. Failure stage was: Adding Repositories
Error Message
An error occurred while attempting to subscribe to the required repositories. Review the yast2 logs for more information.
The following repositories could not be added
• Index of /distribution/11.0/repo/non-oss/suse
• Index of /distribution/11.0/repo/oss
• Index of /pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.0/
• Index of /pub/packman/suse/11.0

I would have printed the YaST2 log but I can’t because I don’t know how to. something to do with being in Root.

Any ideas where I’m going wrong?

Cheers

#11

Seems there is already something running (install/management) that is locking your rpm/zypper database. Maybe the update applet is running or a second Software xxx screen?

If you cant find what is bugging reboot the system and retry. That should get the install running.

Cheers,
Wj

#12

When you first installed the system, you should have been prompted for an
Administrator Password.

Unfortunately, the Suse 11.0 default is to auto-logon with your user
password - I am not sure, but if you don’t remember expressly writing the
Administrator Password, before installing - or changing anything to your
installed system, you should open a terminal window and type ‘su’ - you will
be prompted for your password - type whatever you remember using as a
password and see what happens when you then install these things?

Usually, you cannot make changes (like installations) to the system without
issuing the Administrator (Root!) password!

This is typical Unix behavior, and not specific to Suse! If it doesn’t work
I’ll suggest re-installing and to watch out for the specific screens that
adresses the User and the Passwords. There is an option to select ‘Use as
system password’ - this should be DE-Selected!!! and the following screens
will prompt you for an Administrator Password. Doing it this way usually
makes everything else make much more sense.

Tony. . .

#13

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:13:10 GMT
“Tony Sperling” <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote:

> When you first installed the system, you should have been prompted
> for an Administrator Password.
>
> Unfortunately, the Suse 11.0 default is to auto-logon with your user
> password - I am not sure, but if you don’t remember expressly writing
> the Administrator Password, before installing - or changing anything
> to your installed system, you should open a terminal window and type
> ‘su’ - you will be prompted for your password - type whatever you
> remember using as a password and see what happens when you then
> install these things?
>
> Usually, you cannot make changes (like installations) to the system
> without issuing the Administrator (Root!) password!
>
> This is typical Unix behavior, and not specific to Suse! If it
> doesn’t work I’ll suggest re-installing and to watch out for the
> specific screens that adresses the User and the Passwords. There is
> an option to select ‘Use as system password’ - this should be
> DE-Selected!!! and the following screens will prompt you for an
> Administrator Password. Doing it this way usually makes everything
> else make much more sense.
>
>
> Tony. . .
>
>
Hi
You don’t need to do a re-install, have a look here;
http://wiki.suselinuxsupport.de/wikka.php?wakka=HowToResetlostrootpassword

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SLED 10.0 SP2 x86_64 Kernel 2.6.16.60-0.23-smp
up 12 days 21:52, 0 users, load average: 0.18, 0.16, 0.11
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 173.14.09

#14

Give this a try, and make sure you are logged in as root before doing it. Run Yast, click on Software Repositories, and click Add. You’ll get a list of options, Among these, click on Specify URL… Click Next… Copy and paste the first repository address in the list below into the URL slot, and give it a name in the Repository Name slot. Click next, and Yast does the rest and exits. Do the same for the other repo addresses, then try the 1-clicks again (Gnome/KDE codecs). They should open yast, give a warning; say yes to import the key, etc. Remember, leave out the quotes when you copy and paste. hope this helps. :slight_smile:

“http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/repo/non-oss/suse”

“http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/repo/oss”

“http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.0/”

“http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.0/”

#15

click on Specify URL… Click Next… Copy and paste the first repository address in the list below into the URL slot, and give it a name in the Repository Name slot.

You don’t need to manually add the repo’s you can just click on community repositories and then select the one’s that you need.

#16

Ah yes, I knew someting like that would be possible. I am greatful for that
link, it should come in handy at one time. For the OP, though, with a new
installation, I thought it would be a bonus to go through the installation
again, seeing with your own eyes where it went wrong, and what to look out
for in the future.

And the Installer is so pretty, that I am looking for excuses to do it all
over again! Only - I do miss the function where it checks the MD5
internally - that was the most fantastic feature in the history of software
development, as I see it.

Tony. . .

“Malcolm” <malcolm_nospamlewis@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:20080623202656.242527b7@oscar-sled.muppetwifi.homeunix.net…
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:13:10 GMT
> “Tony Sperling” <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote:
>
> > When you first installed the system, you should have been prompted
> > for an Administrator Password.
> >
> > Unfortunately, the Suse 11.0 default is to auto-logon with your user
> > password - I am not sure, but if you don’t remember expressly writing
> > the Administrator Password, before installing - or changing anything
> > to your installed system, you should open a terminal window and type
> > ‘su’ - you will be prompted for your password - type whatever you
> > remember using as a password and see what happens when you then
> > install these things?
> >
> > Usually, you cannot make changes (like installations) to the system
> > without issuing the Administrator (Root!) password!
> >
> > This is typical Unix behavior, and not specific to Suse! If it
> > doesn’t work I’ll suggest re-installing and to watch out for the
> > specific screens that adresses the User and the Passwords. There is
> > an option to select ‘Use as system password’ - this should be
> > DE-Selected!!! and the following screens will prompt you for an
> > Administrator Password. Doing it this way usually makes everything
> > else make much more sense.
> >
> >
> > Tony. . .
> >
> >
> Hi
> You don’t need to do a re-install, have a look here;
> http://wiki.suselinuxsupport.de/wikka.php?wakka=HowToResetlostrootpassword
>
> –
> Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
> SLED 10.0 SP2 x86_64 Kernel 2.6.16.60-0.23-smp
> up 12 days 21:52, 0 users, load average: 0.18, 0.16, 0.11
> GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 173.14.09
>

#17

, with a new installation, I thought it would be a bonus to go through the installation again, seeing with your own eyes where it went wrong, and what to look outfor in the future.]

Outstanding. I read today in Scientific American Mind (May 29,2008):
Houtz: The creative individual thinks of failure as a new opportunity: “Okay, why did I fail? What was wrong? Let me try to do something else. Let me go forward with it.”

One of the nice things about OpenSUSE, and any other Linux, is the total lack of copy protection and required activation that things like XP and Vista have, so enjoy the freedom to install/remove/reinstall/reconfigure/customize:) I love that I can make my installation uniquely my own (and so can you) to a degree not possible with some other OS that is not open source.