Is it a good release, or an “off” one?
Any particular improvement you were impressed by? Any particular issues you ran across or something to tweak?
I’ve only used it for a short time, but so far
PRO:
It gives me desktop effects out-of-the-box with my Intel 855 video. This has been giving problems since the drivers were regressed last year (2010) and reared it’s ugly head with Ubuntu first, but Fedora and openSUSE fell with varying degrees of grace. The last time I had desktop effects for for me was Fedora 14 which came out October 2010.
CON:
My networking is wonky. I am able to get connected to the internet, and even navigate to openSUSE sites but when I try to navigate to non-openSUSE sites I get “site not found”. I first thought it is an issue with browsers and the like trying ot go out on ipv6 but I am not sure. I’ll need to investigate this further and hopefully this won’t be a deal-breaker.
I installed 12.1 Gnome 3.2.1 last night. As a user (not technical like most around here), since 11.1, for me, this release has been the best. My experience so far has been fantastic. With no 1Click Multimedia options at this point, I found posts from RedDwarf and took his lead to resolve those concerns. All set after that. Everything is working great, and I have come to love Gnome 3.2.1 btw.
I have activated my Online Account with Google, and found the Documents App working great for (preview only I guess), Calender, Chat, etc working well. Then I layered in the other IM Accounts within Empathy. So far, Hotmail is not connecting and seems to be a known issue as of late by doing Google Searches. There is MSN in Empathy with XMPP this person working on getting MSN into the Online Accounts feature currently. It appears he has it created and working, only now pending acceptance and then hopefully we will see it upstream. Until then, if anyone has a fix for Empathy and MSN, let me know, I would appreciate that.
Regarding the integrated chat and notifications in Gnome, I really love how that is all working together as I get pinged all day and I hated having to open Empathy each time,etc… so far, so good! I also love searching for Contacts and finding out instantly if someone is online for chat in that exact moment, very handy!
Chrome is starting up and loading pages the fastest I have ever experienced, and Firefox is doing well also. On the browser note, as usual, there is only a slight hint of lag on full screen video (almost perfect). I have not used it enough as of yet to go on mission to get it perfect (if that is possible), but I will be watching for updates to see if any that come along help. Now that I have said that, the confusing thing is that in Banshee, using Miro, watching TED Talks (not downloading, just simply hitting PLAY) the video is stellar and flawless at full screen. I never had it so good with Banshee and Miro. AWESOME!
Vid chat, seems to be working, and I have Skype going as well.
So far, so good! I love it!!
Oh yes, could someone explain to me the whole ownCloud options here. I am not in IT and I am not sure exactly what I can do with ownCloud. Could someone perhaps let me know what my options are, if any, as a user. I would love to have substantial private space (not Google, SkyDrive, etc) if there is a way to set it up a no cost, or is this for IT people only in a corp. environment? Please advise. (I realize this inquiry should have its own post, and I will make it later today).
That is it for now.
EDIT: Packman Repository seems to take forever. I believe I saw a post from Carl, that there are updates happening now, perhaps that is why?
Great to hear the online accounts are working with Gnome 3.2. I am tempted to try out the Gnome edition for this exact reason but decided to go with KDE first.
In part, because my video hasn’t been playing well with Linux since early 2010 so I am encouraged by the current state of affairs.
On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:16:02 GMT
dragonbite <dragonbite@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Is it a good release, or an “off” one?
Like most releases, it depends on your hardware and what applications
you use. For me, it’s a bit of a disaster.
(1) On installation, it freezes midway through (during the first “faux”
reboot) and requires a quick tap on the reset button. That fault seems
to be associated with nVidia.
Once installed, I have the following snags:
(2) It freezes during boot on about a third of occasions. Hello “reset”
again.
(3) Little sound, but that’s no surprise. I daresay I’ll get it working
by dumping pulseaudio and playing around with master channels etc.
(4) Gnucash crashes. A fix has been developed but is only partially
successful as yet.
(5) Claws crashes as soon as the “Fancy” HTML viewer is installed.
(6) Pan works but not very well. Panels resize themselves and get
stuck in the new position.
Before anyone asks, these are all in Bugzilla, though I think (1) was
mentioned as part of an overall nVidia problem so may have fallen by the
wayside. I must check.
–
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 11.4 (64-bit); KDE 4.7.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nVidia driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
Thus far, it is looking very good to me. But I haven’t yet tried all of the applications that I regularly use.
So far, my experience has been mostly positive. Performance for me is MUCH better than 11.4, and 12.1 is the first release of OpenSUSE that I’ve left KDE4 on for more than an hour since KDE4 was released. I’ve had a few minor things happen here and there:
1). NVidia drivers not available in repos yet. I tried the manual install but when I did that KDE “froze” on me after logging in. Trying to track that one down, but reverting back to the nouveau drivers has been the workaround for me. I think I’ve narrowed it down to something’s not write in my xorg.conf file (or I’m missing something in there). Note to self to figure this one out.
2). Kaffeine segfaults on me when it opens. This is on 64-bit KDE. No clue on this one, will raise a bug report shortly.
3). Amarok refuses to recognize ANYTHING on my iPhone4. No clue here, had this problem forever with amarok (but not with rhythmbox, banshee, etc). Note to self to figure this one out.
4). Resume from “suspend to RAM” doesn’t work correctly, it’s a result of #1. If I get the nvidia drivers working, I think this problem will go away.
I tried GNOME3, I like it but I think that KDE fits the way I work better – and I use Linux day in and day out on the job and on the road (as I’m a road warrior). So far I think this is an excellent release, been toying with it through the RC cycles and was all too glad to move this laptop from Ubuntu LTS to openSUSE … sorry I just can’t stomach Unity and Kubuntu hasn’t really ever worked out well for me.
I had some issues with X (xorg-noveau driver?) after initial install, screen image became all blury and impossible to comprehend, but I solved it (somehow) with detaching one of my monitors, rebooted and the installation process continued just fine.
Now, on KDE, most seem fine except Stardict which crash with the message:
(Gdk) [critical] IA__gdk_window_set_cursor: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
**
I installed 12.1 only an hour ago, though, so I can’t really tell how it will work for me.
So far I’m liking it. Some things don’t work as easily out of the box as they did when I was running ubuntu, but I may also just know that distribution better, not to mention not being “fluent in KDE”. However, they are not show-stopping problems by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve got it setup, connecting via NX, basic development environment setup as well, and of course got my wireless working. Overall, I like it.
I find that to be inexcusable for a major distro. I guess the developers don’t realize that first impressions make a difference. Or maybe they expect everyone to do it the long way. (that will go over well with noobs) How can I recommend opensuse if one can’t (easily) get what’s needed? No ati, no nvidia, no vlc. The boot up screens looked very amatuerish and glitchy. There’s no network icon on the task bar, and I had to “activate” my wireless card in yast. Really? Every other distro recognizes it automatically and gives me the opportunity to connect from the task bar.
I try opensuse every release, and every time I’ve been at least slightly disappointed. It is the only distro I’ve tried over the years that consistently gives me grief. But that’s OK, all other distros work just fine, and there are plenty of choices. I’m sure the devs worked really hard, and there are people that it works well for, but it’s just not for me. Good luck to everyone.
I’m sure the developers do know how important first impressions are.
I’ve also been trying and trying openSUSE with each release, only to move on to my usual distros. Except for a networking issue at this point, this version has the best chance of lasting at least for a while!
I’ve also had the frozen screen during install from 64-bit DVD, and I wasn’t able to add Packman from the community repositories on the first try.
Other than that, it’s been quite a pleasant experience so far. The desktop seems snappier, more responsive to me. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll install nVidia drivers the “hard” way, or wait for the repo.
I’m still waiting for a few packages to pop up in Packman, but most-if not all-of the essentials are there.
Hi
They are all proprietary/patent encumbered which is not the openSUSE
philosophy, those packages are provided by third-party’s not openSUSE.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.9-desktop
up 1 day 1:00, 3 users, load average: 0.43, 0.22, 0.14
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 285.05.09
I’m well aware of that. But those repos should be made available at release time. How am I supposed to use an operating system if the tools I need aren’t there? Believe it or not, a lot of people use those things and are available in other distros. I wasn’t asking for the world, just typical things.
But as you can see from the mailing list, openSUSE has no control of
them…
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2011-11/msg00845.html
Install the drivers manually, or build your own rpm.
VLC is there;
Likewise for libdvdcss, it doesn’t change very often, so a quick rebuild
of the src rpm on your installed system and it’s done.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.9-desktop
up 1 day 1:39, 3 users, load average: 0.03, 0.08, 0.11
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 285.05.09
@malcolmlewis: I knew this. But people arrive on NVIDIA’s FTP site, they see a folder “openSUSE”, with 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, no 12.1, but a README, which says the repo is not maintained by NVIDIA but by Novell/SUSE. Confusing. Isn’t there anybody that can build an rpm from the .run blobs?
It is confusing… for me it’s just quicker to run a command and no
need to wait to update a kernel because the driver isn’t ready.
AFAIK, ATI have only just release their latest driver in the last few
days.
http://software.opensuse.org/search?q=nvidia&baseproject=openSUSE%3A12.1&lang=en&include_home=true&exclude_debug=true
I guess some people do 
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.9-desktop
up 1 day 2:28, 3 users, load average: 0.25, 0.20, 0.16
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 285.05.09
I’ve got to say that this release is actually the worst so far. Why? Well, because it failed to install smoothly.
First after the install when it switches to the configuration screen my screen went black and did not revive. So i had to restart after which it worked again.
The second what did not work was the internet. Why??? Well, it seems to be that the enabled IPv6 in the network section prevents any connection. Since i have no idea about that stuff i disabled it and after a reboot the internet was there.
So this is a bummer really. Now i will install all the apps i need.
Even considering that my hardware is not current, but it isn’t that old either. Is IPv6 essential or needed? Or does it just need some tweaks.
Otherwise it seem a nice polished new openSUSE. Even after this rocky install i will always hold on to my good old friend that gecko.
Sadly, Chrome seems to be not right in the packaging (c’t stated it would) but it may be that it is in packman which explains it. At least claws was right there but no plugins. mmm…
Oh, yes the NVidia drivers… another road block. But it takes just some days i am sure. Not to worry about.
p.s. i was silly, Chrome is not but Chromium is which is what i was looking for. My mistake
I agree with what you said, and while the system is stable in my case, i can’t understand how can they release a distribution without nvidia drivers, I mean i tried a lot of distro’s and haven’t seen this yet!
The other issues i have:
- plasma themes or desktop themes, however they are called, are not working for me. I downloaded two themes and they dont appear in the themes list so i can’t select them.
- the other issue is i dont see any network manager in the notification bar.
other than that, everything is working properly till now.
I know Opensuse team worked hard to make the system stable, but some minor things do need to get fixed, and the nvidia driver should have been updated before the release.
just my thoughts and opinion.
I like this version. Gnome 3 has made me a KDE-user. Unless Gnome 3 makes some drastic changes, I’m very happy with sticking with KDE. Restricted formats & wireless connections seem to be getting easier with every distribution. All else is fine other than my Gnucash issue with Guile 2.0.