Monstrous Update

:’( Hello, I am new to Linux, about one month at this stage and noticed recently that all automatic updates to my system have ceased, so I tried a zypper update from the terminal yesterday and believe it or not I got 1110 updates, about 7 deletions a 3 programs were changing architecture. This went all all day yesterday and finished sometime early this morning when I had to force a reboot as the shutdown button did nothing. After all those updates I do not notice any version upgrades for a few things I checked like Office, Amarok, DigiKAM etc but I am back to a most annoying problem that I had in my first few days i.e. my printer an Epson Stylus Color 760 is totally messing up 2nd and subsequent pages in a printout. The last time this happened it seemed to sort itself out because deleting the printers discovered and their drivers did nothing. I am sorry to say it is putting me off SUSE 11.4 which I had liked BUT it is so frustating when I can’t eben print more than one page correctly. I have come from Windows 7 where these problems did not exist.
Sorry for being frustrated but can someone give me easy instructions to resolve this - remember I am not very good with Linux. Thanks so much.
I have more smaller problems but I would like to solve this one.

:cry: Hello, I am new to Linux, about one month at this stage and noticed recently that all automatic updates to my system have ceased, so I tried a zypper update from the terminal yesterday and believe it or not I got 1110 updates, about 7 deletions a 3 programs were changing architecture. This went all all day yesterday and finished sometime early this morning when I had to force a reboot as the shutdown button did nothing. After all those updates I do not notice any version upgrades for a few things I checked like Office, Amarok, DigiKAM etc but I am back to a most annoying problem that I had in my first few days i.e. my printer an Epson Stylus Color 760 is totally messing up 2nd and subsequent pages in a printout. The last time this happened it seemed to sort itself out because deleting the printers discovered and their drivers did nothing. I am sorry to say it is putting me off SUSE 11.4 which I had liked BUT it is so frustating when I can’t eben print more than one page correctly. I have come from Windows 7 where these problems did not exist.
Sorry for being frustrated but can someone give me easy instructions to resolve this - remember I am not very good with Linux. Thanks so much.
I have more smaller problems but I would like to solve this one.
So sorry to hear of your problems, but you know we are here to help. Number one thing I suggest to anyone new to openSUSE is to not do updates from the terminal mode unless you really know what you are doing and a 1000 plus updates would not be all that normal. I normally suggest you start YaST as in:

YaST / Software / Software Management / Package (menu option top left) / All Packages / Update if newer version available

This is the only way I would do it until you are really into using openSUSE. Now, if you have a specific problem with openSUSE, spit it out here or start a new thread on the subject if you like. We are here to help you the best we can.

Thank You,

On 06/11/2011 08:06 PM, tigermack wrote:
>
> :’( Hello, I am new to Linux, about one month at this stage and noticed
> recently that all automatic updates to my system have ceased,

an ever decreasing number of updates is a good thing…it means the
code base it getting to have less and less problems…

unfortunately, you didn’t say what operating system or desktop
environment you are using…but, if you use what i use there have been
very few updates in the last week…

> so I tried
> a zypper update from the terminal yesterday and believe it or not I got
> 1110 updates,

that is bad…well, it sounds very very bad…i can’t imagine what
happened, or why?

exactly what was the command you used in the terminal?

and, please show us the output of entering the following into a terminal


zypper lr -d

and copy/paste the output back to this thread using the instructions
here: http://goo.gl/i3wnr

> about 7 deletions a 3 programs were changing architecture.

changing architecture? do you have 64 or 32, and did the architecture
change to or from what you have??

this is all very confusing!

> This went all all day yesterday and finished sometime early this morning
> when I had to force a reboot as the shutdown button did nothing.

that is not cool…

> After
> all those updates I do not notice any version upgrades for a few things
> I checked like Office, Amarok, DigiKAM etc

and you not expect to see any version upgrades after updates…those are
two different words and they have two completely different meanings…

updates are security patches and bug fixes to existing/installed
software…they come to the user through the update repo…

upgrades move from to a newer application version…they normally are
not provided during the life of an openSUSE version–that is, most often
a version of openSUSE will reach its end of life with the same version
of application that it was born with…those application might be
patched to repair problems, through the update repo…

yes, _some_times an application is SO broken that instead of sending out
tons of patches, the newer version is push to the user though the update
repo…and, sometimes a version of openSUSE ships with BETA software
(like 11.4 came with a BETA firefox) and it is replaced via an update…

> I am sorry to say it is putting me off SUSE 11.4

it seems to me by expecting update to do upgrades you are putting
yourself off by not understanding the system you have…

> which I had liked BUT
> it is so frustating when I can’t eben print more than one page
> correctly. I have come from Windows 7 where these problems did not
> exist.

Use what works! if win7 works for you, then use it…

> Sorry for being frustrated but can someone give me easy instructions to
> resolve this

it is really really hard to give easy instructions until we know what
you did…and, even then it might be kinda hard…

> - remember I am not very good with Linux. Thanks so much.
> I have more smaller problems but I would like to solve this one.

one step at a time…


dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10
Acer Aspire One D255, 1.66 GHz Atom, 1 GB RAM, Intel Pineview graphics

  • When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction! *

Guys / Gals, I was too hasty with my outburst. When I rebooted again and went to look at my system configuration I find that my System is OpenSUSE 12.1 Milestone 1 (i586) and my Linux OS is 2.6.37.6-0.5 (i686) and I now have newer versions probably BETA of DigiKAM, Amarok and maybe others. I have a 32 bit system which is what I opted for on day one as I have only a dual core 3.2 processor. What is the threshold to cross to 64 bit anyhow?

I also got my printer problem sorted by trial and error. I used an Epson Stylus Color Footmatic driver for an model 740 (my printer is a model 760) but all my printouts are fine now. I will send on the copy and paste of what happened after that huge update yesterday - I take your point not Upgrade. Thanks for replying. I am liking SUSE again as I see there are lots of people like you two out there willing to decipher and help newbies like me. Talk tomorrow. Good night.

On 06/12/2011 01:06 AM, tigermack wrote:
>
> OpenSUSE 12.1 Milestone 1 (i586)
> [snip]
> help newbies like me.

WOW! 12.1 milestone is NOT software ready for newbies!!

it is for seasoned Linux gurus/hackers to run in their non-everyday
system because it is VERY buggy…if you have anything on any hard drive
attached to that system which is important to you, you need to do
something smart, quick!

only those folks who know how to fix their problems, and trouble shoot
their system to find the bugs that are known to be there should be
running 12.1

highly suggest you fall back to 11.4! immediately.

if you won’t do that then you MUST post only to the the BETA forum,
here:
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/pre-release-beta/

but that forum is for software testers to discuss the testing
milestones and release candidates…you should not go there seeking
answers, instead be prepared to contribute to the bug reports…


dd CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP openSUSE 11.4 [2.6.37.6-0.5] + KDE 4.6.0 + Thunderbird 3.1.10
Acer Aspire One D255, 1.66 GHz Atom, 1 GB RAM, Intel Pineview graphics

  • When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction! *

I don’t know what a dual core 3.2 processor is but most desktop CPUs made in the last few years can run 64 bit instructions. However a 32 to 64 bit change is not something that will happen due to accident. You have other things to worry about at the moment since as DD explains, you now have a bleeding edge version which you may not be prepared for.

I am not here to comment re: your massive update but I will say that CUPS garbling up print pages following the 1st page is a glich I have been encountering for a few months now also. I have seen some refs to that problem during various searches but no solution.
Thus, I think that CUPS messing up print pages after the 1st page is normal and not as a result of your update problems.

Only solution I used was to make a separate print of each page and not try to print multi pages.

I’ve gotten to a separate problem where some update has killed my printer that operated for years with suse.

Good luck,
Tom Kosvic

Thanks James, your advice is good. I will do as you say. You sound like an experienced guy who knows his way around Linux pretty well. I am just excited by Linux and am willing to try a few things but I know now I need to learn a few basics first and maybe read Linux Format or Linux pro magazine. I will talk to you again soon. Tadhg (Tim).

Hello, A Dual Core Processor is twin processors which can process twice as much as a single core. Intel are now at the i-range like i3, i5 and i7 level of processors that have greater processing power over dual core. I was just wondering what the cross-over point is for 32 bit computing as opposed to 64 bit because 64 bit is also faster than 32 bit so if I thought my hardware was up to that level I would want 64 bit computing power. My PC is about five years now and I will upgrade the internals when funds allow. In the meantime SUSE is running very well on what I have. I am grateful for you replying and I am listening to what you are telling me about being careful in what I do with SUSE until I know more. Thanks again and talk soon.

Thanks DenverD. Your advice is taken. I have a lot to learn from you guys and will do as you say. Over and out talk soon.

Thanks James, your advice is good. I will do as you say. You sound like an experienced guy who knows his way around Linux pretty well. I am just excited by Linux and am willing to try a few things but I know now I need to learn a few basics first and maybe read Linux Format or Linux pro magazine. I will talk to you again soon. Tadhg (Tim).
You are very welcome tigermack. I have been using openSUSE since version 10.0 and working here in the forum for over a year. Still, I learn something new everyday and part of that success is due to users such as yourself that come here and ask for help. We all tend to get into what I call a Linux comfort zone. You get what you want to work and then what? Are you done learning? Well, the best answer in my opinion is to come here into the openSUSE forum and attempt to help others. What you will find is you will try new things, new software, do things in a different way and next thing you know, you have helped yourself while helping others. It is the best of both worlds. So, get your setup just like you like. Then stop by here and see if you can help someone else get their Linux rig working just as well.

Thank You,

Hi
Just a note this does happen, but it’s generally an either i586/x86_64
package changing to noarch rather than a i586 changing to x86_64 or
vice versa.

Having a look in the zypp history will show what happened…


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.5-desktop
up 1 day 18:27, 3 users, load average: 0.08, 0.09, 0.11
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 270.41.19

Thanks Malcolm