new user needs help....

English Install/Boot/Login
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I am brand new to Linux, but I am an experienced Windows user. I recently decided to try to learn something new and try Linux, but which one? So I found a website that advised me to try openSuse based on experience, hardware and my preferences, so I downloaded the DVD version for the 64 bit processor and installed it. Since then it has been a steep learning curve, but I have gotten the hang of a few basics. I am however running into a few problems, like error messages (no I don’t remember what they said. sorry… well one was something about the repositories xml not found?), slow web page loading (alot slower than XP). Firefox is real slow!! Switching between tabs for example really tests my patience. Another was that I was in the root user and when I tried to logout and it simply would not. I had to switch user and then logout. Now I tried to get to Control Center and clicked on Graphics Card and Monitor, it asks for the root password, I enter it and it does nothing, earlier this evening it did work. I was able to get to the gdmsetup from the login screen but now I can’t I have to find the terminal thing and type it in there. but that comes up with a bunch of errors and then gets me to the gdmsetup window.

So I bought a magazine and a book, and both seem to written for Ubuntu. The magazine came with a disk with Ubuntu on it.

So my questions are…

Is OpenSuse the best for someone who knows nothing (well, now I know something about linux but not much.)or should I try another brand?

Can I reinstall reinstall OpenSuse over the opensuse/gnome without having to reinstall firefox/thunderbird and all of my saved settings addons and email?

Are there any other problems with doing this?

I have a networked Lexmark E120N laser printer, I have done a search for drivers and googled it, but no luck. Can I use a generic driver to make it work?

I have a new generic computer.
AMD Athlon X2 64 bit processor
MSN Nvidia 512MB video card
2 500GB Hard drives
1 external 500GB Hard drive
4 GB ram memory

Installed OpenSuse 11.0 with Gnome 2.22?? I think? Is there a better/easier version to learn one then move to something else as I gain experience.

I have setup a dual boot system. Windows XP DME on one 500 GB drive and OpenSuse on the other 500GB drive.

Any other advice? I really don’t want to go back to Windows, but this thing is killing me here…

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.
Tim Williams

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Thread moved to Install/Boot/Login.

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Seems you have a lot of problems: let’s divide them up and work them one by one;)

Did you do a MD5SUMS check on the iso prior to burnning it? Did you burn it at 8x or so? Have you tried a LiveCD just to see what happens?

BTW, don’t use KDE4 if you are new to it; I recommend KDE-3.5.9 as it’s feel is closer to your windows experience.

error messages – we can’t help unless we know what they are.

repositories not found – they may have been busy, but:
Firefox is real slow! – may be coupled with the above in that the network is not setup correctly. Do you have a router? Is it setup to allow openSuSE pass through? Do the extensions match. Turn off the router firewall
Switching between tabs – is a function of Firefox not networking properly, i.e., fix the network.

Go to Yast > Network Devices > Network Settings and look at every tab and every context menu on every page – make sure they are correct – make sure they match the way you have the router setup.

Search the forum for “Nvidia”; there are plenty of posts/threads on setting that up properly.

Do some of that & get back; someone will surely help:)

Good luck.

BTW, welcome to the Forum:)