This is my first attempt at testing prerelease linux/openSUSE, although have tested much software over the years. Just been testing milestone1 in VBox before clearing a partition for the real test of h/w, so I would like to check a couple of basic issues before committing to it and grappling with the usual video driver and xorg.conf problems.
After ditching the KDE4 live-cd iso (DE locked up in VBox), I installed from the DVD iso onto VBox. The installation of openSUSE 11.2 + KDE4 worked impressively well. My first impressions were good generally. On opening up Yast s/w management, I was presented with a summary of additional s/w to install: Flash, fluendo mp3 codecs, etc. I think that is a new feature(?). All the packages downloaded and installed ok. Sound worked OOTB. Firefox worked very well, even remote video streaming of TV programmes (BBC iPlayer using Flash) was clear and stable. Wow! On my 11.1 that is still not working properly. Konqueror didn’t work so well on internet - when browsing this forum. KDE 4.2.2 appeared to work pretty well. No other problems so far, and it gave me confidence to proceed.
I have checked previous threads, but would appreciate your up to date consideration before I continue:
The updater applet kept wanting an update repo defined, even though Yast had one setup. Is this definitely because the devs so far have not supplied one, or is it my problem?
I mistakenly thought milestone1 came with KDE 4.2.3. Having seen some disasters with it in previous threads here, should I bother to upgrade given no easy way back? If I decided to, what is the best repo to add for the most painless upgrade to 4.2.3??
As soon as you update it becomes 4.3 beta if you want the 4.2.3 then you need to use the 42 repo.
I found 42 albeit in vmware perfectly fine but then I don’t play with repositories I have very few. Just the normal suspects plus 42 as the howto thread.
If you’re looking to use 11.2 as a main release I would consider it carefully as these are factory repos. There is only one way to see what is being reported and that is to monitor the factory mailing list and the commit one. Then good use of the bugzilla, just because it works fine today doesn’t mean it’ll be fine tomorrow.
Many problems come with mismanagement of repos, I suspect if you did a clean install from 11.1 with an X less install and added just the 42 repo you wouldn’t have any problems. I suspect like many you installed 4.1 upgraded from that to factory and now are in a pickle.
As for easy way back… Seems easier enough to me not done any real testing but just briefly tested it, just disable the 42 repo do a zypper dup… Looks like it is downgrading fine to me. I suspect this will work from factory back to base, or even factory back to 42.
I’m not sure why more people aren’t recommending zypper dup, I’m certainly not sure what update unconditionally is doing. If you read the zypper wiki page kind of implies this is perfect for this type of scenario. It will try to keep the vendors clean and not just update to a newer package. Personally I would rather all my packages came from the same vendor than not, even if it means downgrading a few. After my 11.1 has finished downgrading I’ll try back the other way, I suspect here to make sense of it I’ll need to disable OSS(But you’ll just have to wait if you really want to find out as I’m strangling my bandwidth upgrading 11.2 at the same time.)
The updater applet kept wanting an update repo defined, even though Yast had one setup. Is this definitely because the devs so far have not supplied one, or is it my problem?
Don’t worry about updates, they’re won’t be any for the milestones from the updater applet. The factory repos will post updates occasionally. download.opensuse.org/factory
I mistakenly thought milestone1 came with KDE 4.2.3. Having seen some disasters with it in previous threads here, should I bother to upgrade given no easy way back? If I decided to, what is the best repo to add for the most painless upgrade to 4.2.3??
KDE 42 is the best one, though these pkgs are for 11.1. They will also work with Milestone 1. Milestone 2 is supposed to be out in 5 days.
If you want to really be brave, KDE 4.3 beta 1 is available from the KDE4 factory repos. I’m using it and it’s pretty stable. YMMV.
There is no update repo for factory the updater applet will bug you for one like a mosquito but just ignore it I believe the repo for the update is */11.2/ and factory is /factory/ so when openSuse 11.2 hits final release the updater repo will be there.
Besides factory does practically weekly updates so having an updater would make no sense
So 4.3beta will come from the factory repo now. I thought updating might be different for 11.2 milestones versus current version. but I normally do as you for repos. I hadn’t even considered 11.1 howtos.
If you’re looking to use 11.2 as a main release I would consider it carefully as these are factory repos…
I wasn’t going to do that. Although I was impressed with milestone1, I would only consider retaining it on a test partition. Thanks for the advice that followed on from the above.
…I suspect if you did a clean install from 11.1 with an X less install and added just the 42 repo you wouldn’t have any problems. I suspect like many you installed 4.1 upgraded from that to factory and now are in a pickle.
As for easy way back…
Not guilty, as I never actually installed KDE4 on 11.1, and where my post mentioned 11.1, it’s KDE 3.5.10. (I only tried KDE 4.2.2 on Kubuntu before). However I noticed Growbag’s pickle; others crashing too much; and wish to avoid it. Again, thanks for all the advice on downgrading, I will try to follow it if/when needed.
I am still working on clearing a partition, since I hit problems with migrating some legacy stuff that I run under wine, and qemu. Just discovered a security update for qemu applied to both 10.3 and 11.1 that installed a new version and it won’t run my saved VM. I successfully backed out 10.3’s update, but still working on other problems. That means today is out for installing 11.2 to it’s own partition.
@pilotgi @dale14846
Thanks Guys. You successfully adjusted my perspective on both questions. The mosquito comment was very appropriate. I’m assuming I can reach 4.3 either direct from 4.2.2 or via 4.2.3?
It looks like kde3.3 beta is in openSuse 11.2 factory I did an update today and my sysinfo says I have kde4.3—
so from your 11.2 install do a zypper dup also there is a new kernel.
Happy testing
As Milestone2 beckons, yesterday I decided to kick another distro out to provide a partition for installing Milestone1, to give some time for testing as distributed with 4.2.2. Have completed most of that and will post results in separate thread. I can’t see much value in trying 4.2.3 now, so will next attempt zypper dup straight to 4.3beta. Testing 11.2 so far has been fun – both interesting and frustrating…
Certainly if you have been looking for a solution to get the desktop-icons back for a day, just to find out that you have to click them once, and KDE4 will adopt them…
And knowing that you cannot be the only one not being able to switch between VT’s, compose charachters, have no touchpadkiller…And yet, yes, to a high rate of pleasure. I’ve seen Ubuntu 9.04 boot, but this is at least equally fast.
Although I was impressed with milestone1, I would only consider retaining it on a test partition. Thanks for the advice that followed on from the above.
