My thoughts after a couple of months trying openSUSE

English Open Chat
1

Hello everyone, I thought I’d point out what I like and what I think should be upgraded on openSUSE.

openSUSE is a solid, strong Linux Distro. Stable, fast, secure, practical and elegant. It’s my favorite (along with Debian, my affair), but some things really get in the way of a new daily user. For example, using NVIDIA it’s the same as say “Your monitor will go nuts after fresh install” (at least for me), which will force you to manually restart and then go into recovery mode to update the system.
Other thing (the most bizarre and annoying thing) is sound. Buggy/laggy/crackling sound is no news to openSUSE users. Having to open a terminal and typying a command everytime I want to start Steam or Skype seems to be a routine task for openSUSE users, since a friend said “Really? This has being going on for at least 4 years and they didn’t fix it yet?”. I’m not gonna say he’s lying, but I’m not gonna say it’s not the case at least for some programs. Not to mention sound cracks sometimes and only a reboot can fix the problem, but it seems it’s not fixable since you’ll never know when things will start to go crazy.
Other thing is openSUSE trying to display things on a higher monitor-refresh-rate than mine can handle, again forcing me to do a manual reboot after being prompted with a “Hz” message.

Other than those above, I can manually install any driver, the kernel will not break neither my libraries. It’s fast, very customizable since the install, instructions are very clear of what things do, this forum is really powered by knowledge admins and moderators along with very expert users as well, any problems at all can and will get solved here, no discussion about it.

I’m really looking forward to using openSUSE as my main and only Linux distro, but right now it’s pointless to spend time trying to solve things such as sound problems when we’re in freaking 2013, it’s laughable to have such issues. I could be wrong, this could not be an openSUSE problem itself, but I noticed on Debian/Ubuntu based systems they seem to use a different sound manager(?), sound is perfect and no terminal is needed for me to speak on the microphone. Problems with Ubuntu and it’s derivatives are Kernel breaks, manual driver installs which are not from the repositories. So there if I let the system install the drivers with Jockey (same as YasT here I guess) everything should be OK on 12.04, but on 12.10 I have to install Kernel Headers because it’s not enabled by default on Kernel updates. Ubuntu 13.04 is still on BETA but it’s impossible to play with.

So the only thing that really stops me to fully use the advantages of openSUSE is this sound issue. I really hope they fix this soon (if they will ever do so), openSUSE is so great =)
Anyway that’s all for now.

2

Glad to read your overall experience has mostly been positive.

I’ve been an openSUSE user since ~2001 (Red Hat before) and the fact that I have never switched in those 12 years since (this being 2013) speaks to my content with the distribution. Of course it has not always been smooth, with the rough days of software management of openSUSE-10.1 and also the decision to not support proprietary hardware drivers around the same time. The politics of the tri-forum merge to one was difficult.

I recently had to try out some other distribution’s liveCDs (so as to check something wrt the 3.7.x kernel) and to my surprise, openSUSE was far closer to the cutting edge than the vast majority of distributions. That was very surprising and also news to me, and there are good and bad aspects to that.

Wrt your needing to use a terminal to launch Skype, I have never encountered that on many years of openSUSE use on over a dozen different PCs with different hardware. There is nothing to be fixed for me. I do believe you that you nominally need that for your hardware (as I have read accounts on openSUSE forums and other distro forums where Skype needs custom arguments to be launched for some webcams) , but I also supect if you start a thread asking for help in our ‘applications’ area, someone will come up with an approach that you do not need to use a terminal. And if necessary, a simple script can do wonders to give an application an icon click application start feel, no matter what the application.

wrt pulse audio, I was afraid to use it at first, as there were so many bad stories about it. Eventually I did move to use it, and I dont have the problems others have noted with pulse. My view is the problems tend to be hardware specific and likely kernel specific. My view is the problems are only distro specific in terms of what kernel versions and what patches they have applied to their kernel. ie the problems are mostly all upstream and in distro comparison it comes down to how many work around patches have been applied to an upstream problem. Unfortuantely a number of distributions which have patches, do not quickly share them upstream. There is at least one web site that offers suggestions on how to work around some of the ‘crackle’ problems in pulse audio. I think there are various threads on our forum on that.

IMHO thats a direct function of the decision made around the time of openSUSE-10.0 and 10.1 to only use free open source software and IMHO that will never go away. IMHO (and note the IMHO) the approach there means one must either agree to use only open source drivers, or accept the inconvenience of proprietary hardware drivers, or move to another distro that does not place the same emphasis on 'free open source 'that openSUSE places. All of these approachs may be undesireable of course, but this is openSUSE and not** propriety-friendly**-SUSE. Typically one either is ok with this or one hates it. The middle ground is slim.

One thing I like after 12 years of using openSUSE is the benefits that come with being able to quickly work around the distros quirks , where such quirks drive distro hoppers absolutely nuts. But that is true for any distro if one sticks with the distro. More specifically, the things I like about openSUSE are:

  • superb 3rd party multimedia packaged by Packman packagers for openSUSE 

  • openSUSE's excellent KDE implementation (and more recently its LXDE implementation) 

  • openSUSE's YaST configuration software 

  • openSUSE's community (forums, IRC chat ... ) 

  • potential of the new openSUSE Build_Service and SUSE_Studio
  • openSUSE’s Free_and_Open_Source_Software approach (where IMHO one either loves it or hates it).

Possibly now what I like the most is the people I have met on openSUSE’s community (forums, IRC chat … ) , which helps give me a more rapid/intimate support when I run into troubles and provides a satisfaction/confidence in use, that I do not get elsewhere in computer operating systems to the same extent.

3

Regarding the help of the Terminal to launch Steam: It’s not a hardware specifically problem, as you can see on Steam for Linux Discussion forums. Arch users have to as well as Fedora, openSUSE and other non-Ubuntu based distros. The command would be

export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulseaudio

or

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam

. I’ll add an script to that so if that really fixes I can almost say goodbye to other distros =)

Later on I’ll re-check for proprietary drivers (I’m using 304.x; nvidia’s site is 310.32/manual install) and a kernel update. If all goes well then openSUSE will be my first choice :smiley:

4

Am 24.02.2013 12:26, schrieb amarildojr:
> Later on I’ll re-check for proprietary drivers (I’m using 304.x;
> nvidia’s site is 310.32/manual install) and a kernel update. If all goes
> well then openSUSE will be my first choice :smiley:
>
No need for a manual install if you switch to the G03 driver from the
nvidia repository


nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop-310.32_k3.4.6_2.10-5.1.x86_64
nvidia-computeG03-310.32-5.1.x86_64
x11-video-nvidiaG03-310.32-5.1.x86_64

this is what I use, unless you prefer the manual install (I know some
people do prefer it).

–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.10.0 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.10.0 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.2 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10

5

IMHO Valve/Steam should add the option in the start-up script. If we, the users, manually put it somewhere, chances are that an update will undo it.

But, on topic, thanks for sharing your experiences. IMO it’s the way to go. that is “taking your time to find your way around on a distro”. Enjoy

6

On 2013-02-24 11:36, amarildojr wrote:
>
> Hello everyone, I thought I’d point out what I like and what I think
> should be upgraded on openSUSE.
>
> openSUSE is a solid, strong Linux Distro. Stable, fast, secure,
> practical and elegant. It’s my favorite (along with Debian, my affair),
> but some things really get in the way of a new daily user. For example,
> using NVIDIA it’s the same as say “‘Your monitor will go nuts after
> fresh install’ (http://tinyurl.com/battscs)” (at least for me), which
> will force you to manually restart and then go into recovery mode to
> update the system.

This computer has nvidia and works straight out of the box. I’m
currently using the open version, or nouveau, simply because it works
for most of what I do and is easier. I have also used the proprietary
nvidia driver and it also works very nicely and without problems.

> Other thing (the most bizarre and annoying thing) is sound.
> Buggy/laggy/crackling sound is no news to openSUSE users.

It is news to me. I have no problems with sound on any of my computers.
Not of that sort, anyway.

> Having to open
> a terminal and typying a command everytime I want to start Steam or
> Skype seems to be a routine task for openSUSE users,

I don’t know about steam. I used skype years ago and it worked fine. I
don’t remember if I needed a terminal or not, as that is something that
doesn’t scare me. I stopped using it because they (skype) had sound
problems with the destination country I wanted.

I tried skype a few weeks ago. It worked straight out of the box. No
fidlinkg with the router. Camera recognized, sound works fine. I still
have to find if skype provide good long-distance communications, but
that is not related to openSUSE at all.

Maybe your particular combination of hardware has issues. If that is the
case, you have to report in bugzilla.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

7

Indeed, that is a fair summary in my experience also, especially with the 12.2 release.

Other thing is openSUSE trying to display things on a higher monitor-refresh-rate than mine can handle, again forcing me to do a manual reboot after being prompted with a “Hz” message.

Display mode setting is mostly done by the kernel (rarely is it necessary to configure with a mode line these days). If there is a problem with that, it usually affects multiple distros. Some graphics cards still require drivers that do mode setting in userspace, and some of them are packaged by openSUSE. In all those cases, bug reports can be submitted to openSUSE.

Enjoy the ride. :slight_smile:

8

Hi everyone, new guy here. I’d just like to say I’m really impressed with OpenSuse, after trying about a dozen different Linux distros this one is by far the best one I’ve found. Easy to use and have no problems getting everything to ‘just work’. I’m definitely going to keep using this one! Good job!

9

Welcome =)

I’ll try a kernel update now, everything should be fine.
Video driver update didn’t affect anything so far.

10

I don’t mind that openSuse doesn’t ship the nvidia driver with the distro, because the nouveau driver has come a long way. I still will say that if you don’t move to nvidia later through the right steps which are really not that hard once you know what to do, that the computer still destroys your video experience on a Windows machine if you don’t have an nVidia driver set up immediately.

I don’t get the issues many people do with a linux because I am picky about having certain brands or parts on my computer, since I know certain hardware companies often have better support in the Lin world

11

Since last update of steam, the sound problem for us and Arch is gone.

I had a topic about this and some other stuff on the github.

The place to report bus with steam.

Before posting on the github, fist look if the bug is not already listed.
then when you post include system info ( steam help )

And output from the command line.

Like at the moment the tray icon is not displayed right, might be a kde issue, not specialty suse.
Valve is looking into it.

Tio start steam from the command line, type steam