welcome…
> Suse 8.2.
imo, there has been a notable shift in philosophy between 8.2 and
10.3: (paraphrased from elsewhere) while 8.2 was released when ready
10.3 was released on the date set for it to release seven or eight
months prior to the set in concrete release date…and is now only
six months into two years of updates, patches, etc…
remember, way back when SuSE was a little company in Germany making
software they worked until they got it right and THEN released as
stable and dependable a product as they could make…
THEN, Novell bought that little company and set up a community (like
Red Hat set up the Fedora Community) of folks who knowingly
participate in the PAIN and SUFFERING of beating buggy and BETA
software into submission…usually through several cycles or numbered
releases delivered according to a date certain and THEN Novell
release a commercial product (SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop/Server aka: SLED and SLES) for SALE when they are ready…
what i’m saying is: openSUSE ain’t your granddaddy’s SuSE–you can be
certain it IS buggy and will take some fiddling to get to the same
level of stability and reliability you were used to in 8.2, the day
you first installed it…
> I bought an Acer Aspire 5050-3785
that machine is not listed on the community’s Hardware Compatibility
List at http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Laptops/Acer
there is a 5051 listed which states “Dual-head support out of the
box” with openSUSE 10.2
once you have solved your issues you would please be so kind as to
include your machine…
> installed openSuse.org 10.3 64-bit and some things do not work and for
> the life of me I cannot fix them.
two things:
as mentioned 10.3 ages out soon (31 Oct 09:
http://en.opensuse.org/SUSE_Linux_Lifetime)
and, while 64 bit is getting easier and easier to use it still
requires more fiddling than i want to put up with…and, unless you
have specific programmatic needs for 64 bit (million line db,
crunching massive RAW photo files, video editing, and others), you
might find (as others have) the gains are not yet worth the extra
effort…ymmv, read around (there are numerous discussions on 43 vs 64
in these fora, and elsewhere)…
i think if i were you i’d download a 11.1 Live CD with gnome (caution:
KDE4 is a work in progress…and, it far too troublesome for my
time) and see what works and what doesn’t…then i’d install from the
11.1 DVD and choose any DE other than KDE4…
i mean, why go to the trouble of getting 10.3 working and then
(probably) have to do it all again when you move to 11.x in
November, or before…NOTE: there is currently no reliable, supported
way to ‘upgrade’ from 10.3 to 11.x, instead the community suggests to
backup/protect your /home and do a new install from the DVD (thereby
requiring all the fiddling, again!)
> First the sound.
if oldcpu can’t guide you to happiness with sound, then look no
further…just throw your new machine away, or try a different distro,
or [hate to say it] some other operating system…
some have instant gratification with either Ubuntu or others…[each
have their strengths and weaknesses]
> Secondly, dual display. I have the ATi Radeon Xpress 1100 and there
> isn’t a Linux specific driver for it and so I cannot get a second
> display to work.
sorry i can’t help (maybe others know a work around) but i just one to
point out that the current state of affairs is that nVidia provides
the best driver support today…
it has been rumored that Intel will, but they haven’t proved that to
me, yet…
ATI and any others run a distant third…imo
so, lets say oldcpu can’t fix your sound and you throw that machine
away (or worse) switch to a game OS, then next time buy a machine with
known compatible hardware and nVidia supported graphics…
> Multimedia.
have a look at http://tinyurl.com/6jwtg9 even if you are not a noob,
therein you will find a link multimedia which should do what you need
if you give up on 10.3 and install 11.1 instead…
if you stick to 10.3 you need to see here:
http://www.softwareinreview.com/linux_optimizations/hacking_opensuse_10.3.html
and carry a big sack of good luck with you!
> My main use on this machine is internet, watching videos on
> youtube.com, NES emulation. I installed 10.3 the day I got it but gave
> up trying to get things working after a few days.
i’m on 32 bit openSUSE 10.3 with KDE3.5 and all of those things except
NES emulation work flawlessly…but, it took installing the latest
Flash, SUN Java, mplayer plugin and i’m don’t really recall what else
to get all of that working in Firefox 3.0.12
well, it IS almost impossible to get some of the netbanks which run on
M$ servers to play at all, much less nicely…ymmv
AND, i’m afraid to even try to ‘upgrade’ to FF 3.5 (mine ain’t broke, so!)
> Also my Linux
> knowledge is limited. I can start and stop stuff, basic DOS style
> commands in a shell, but that is it.
that puts you MILES ahead of many here…
> Any help would be much appreciated.
listen carefully to oldcpu…
some others may appear more experienced than they really are…backup
and take all necessary protective, track back measures you
need…this is a community of volunteer, not expertise vetted,
individuals with wildly differing understandings of the inner workings
of Merlin’s magic…
if you want a less fiddling, less beta and more stable, 8.2 type
experience i’d recommend you look at and seriously consider
SLED…http://www.novell.com/linux/
caveat: i am not in any way connected with Novell and will receive NO
compensation from same even if you buy 10,000 SLED licenses
–
goldie
Note: Accuracy, completeness, legality, or usefulness of this posting
may be illusive.