OpenSuse 13.1 appears to be not fit for purpose

I have tried this evening to update my system from 12.3 to 13.1 , a major mistake as my system for me is now unusable.
I downloaded the 64 bit iso file, ensured the checksum was correct, and burned it to disk.
Used the facility on the disk to check it was all readable then tried to install as an update to existing 12.3 system.
My first problem was file conflict in the packages section, suggested solutions were to not update a particular file or not to install the offered version of KDE 4.
Taking the first option resulted in a completely frozen system each time I tried to proceed.
Trying the second option gave me an installation which I am unable to use, it calls itself ‘OpenSuse 13.1 “Bottle” - Kernel 3.11.6-4 - desktop(ttyl)’
Can anyone tell if I can get to KDE from this and if so how?
Alternatively am I likely to be able to get back to 12.3 if I use the update facility on my 12.3 installation disk?
In case you are wondering how I managed to post this my system is dual boot and I was able to use Xp.
Any help gratefully received.

merkland.

Hi,

Just wondering what’s the procedure you used for the system update.
I just updated 12.3 to 13.1 this morning on my old laptop and it went smoothly using the 13.1 dvd iso.
The old packages which came from third party repositories were left intact but in red letters after the update.
When I enabled the third party repositories for 13.1, I was able to update the old packages in red letters.
I did not encounter the conflicts in the packages section. The system I updated is running kde and xfce.

On 2013-11-26 23:56, merkland wrote:

> Used the facility on the disk to check it was all readable then tried to
> install as an update to existing 12.3 system.

Did you read: Offline
upgrade method
?

> My first problem was file conflict in the packages section, suggested
> solutions were to not update a particular file or not to install the
> offered version of KDE 4.
> Taking the first option resulted in a completely frozen system each time
> I tried to proceed.

The install system froze?

It is best before upgrading to try if the target version works find in
your computer. I usually go as far as installing it in another partition
to test it.

> Trying the second option gave me an installation which I am unable to
> use, it calls itself ‘OpenSuse 13.1 “Bottle” - Kernel 3.11.6-4 -
> desktop(ttyl)’
> Can anyone tell if I can get to KDE from this and if so how?

Basically:

  • ensure you have active only the 4 official repos and nothing more.

In text mode:


zypper up
zypper dup
zypper patch

And verify by examining the output of


rpm -q -a --queryformat "%{INSTALLTIME}	%{INSTALLTIME:day} \
%{BUILDTIME:day} %-30{NAME}	%15{VERSION}-%-7{RELEASE}	%{arch} \
%25{VENDOR}%25{PACKAGER} == %{DISTRIBUTION} %{DISTTAG}
" \
| sort | cut --fields="2-" | tee rpmlist | less -S

> Alternatively am I likely to be able to get back to 12.3 if I use the
> update facility on my 12.3 installation disk?

Perhaps…


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

Having studied your kind replies and slept on it I thought that rather than ‘muddy the waters’ even further I would cautiously go for a clean install.
My main problem with this is that I don’t want to loose any of the existing files on /dev/sda3/home.
I have three hard drives on my system identified as dev/sda,dev/sdb, and dev/sdc. The main drive dev/sda,which is 500G, is currently set up as dual boot with Windows XP and the Windows partition is approx 80GB of this drive.
I am sitting looking at the installation settings for a new install and under partitioning I have:

  • Format partition /dev/sda2 (20.00 GB) for / with ext4
  • Use /dev/sda1 as swap
  • Set mount point of /dev/sda3 to /home

If I move to the next screen ‘Confirm Installation’ it has the warning

“If you continue now, existing partitions on your hard disk will be** deleted** or formatted (erasing any existing data in those partitions) according to the installation settings in the previous dialogs.
Go back and check the settings if you are unsure.”

Does this mean I will loose my existing data on /dev/sda3?

Clarification / reassurance would be gratefully received.

Merkland.

On 2013-11-27 12:16, merkland wrote:
>
> Having studied your kind replies and slept on it I thought that rather
> than ‘muddy the waters’ even further I would cautiously go for a clean
> install.

I would try the zypper commands I recommended before dropping it.

> My main problem with this is that I don’t want to loose any of the
> existing files on /dev/sda3/home.
> I have three hard drives on my system identified as dev/sda, dev/sub,
> and dev/sdc. The main drive dev/sda,which is 500G, is currently set up
> as dual boot with Windows XP and the Windows partition is approx 80GB of
> this drive.
> I am sitting looking at the installation settings for a new install and
> under partitioning I have:

Wait. One of the installation screens allows you to tell the system to
read the current fstab and reuse it. That way you get the exact same
layout you have now.

And when it asks for your user name, you can also tell it to import the
previous user list.

I’d recommend to use both features. Fewer error chances.

> If I move to the next screen ‘Confirm Installation’ it has the warning
>
> “If you continue now, existing partitions on your hard disk will be*
> deleted* or formatted (erasing any existing data in those partitions)
> according to the installation settings in the previous dialogs.
> Go back and check the settings if you are unsure.”
>
> Does this mean I will loose my existing data on /dev/sda3?

If there is a red line about sda3, yes. No red line with sda3 in teh
text, no.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

Since your upgrade did not work and you only got to text mode:
Maybe it was a graphics driver issue? Maybe booting to recover mode (“Advanced Options” in the boot menu) or specifying “nomodeset” would help?

In that case you should expect the same issue on a fresh install.

What graphics card do you have?
Which driver did you use on 12.3?
Did you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf? (that could prevent X from starting if it specifies a driver that cannot be loaded)

And the conflict you mentioned, was apparently ibus vs. libreoffice-kde4.
ATM you cannot install both, they conflict with each other. Having both installed could cause problems, so the conflict was added.
This has been changed already, and the issue worked around in a different way AFAIK, but there’s no update yet.
But most probably you don’t need ibus anyway, it’s used for entering chinese characters f.e.
And you don’t exactly need libreoffice-kde4 either. That just provides a better integration into KDE4 (i.e. file dialogs), but has its own problems.

Sorry things didn’t work out for you, but please be aware that threadtitles like yours are left unread by a lot of forum users, simply because they think it’s another rant. Rather use the title to describe what went wrong. Or what was fabulous :).

In the install menu , on the partition part, one of the columns is about formatting.
In the next screen you will see a line in red of every partition openSUSE is going to format.
The lines in black are partitions it wont format. ( just mount)

I thought that by putting “appears to be” I was indicating that I was not having a rant but indicating that I could not tie down my problem to one specific thing.
Having followed OpenSuse from version 9.1 through each new version along the way to 13.1 this is the first time I have had any problem with installation! Perhaps it was a mistake to call it 13.1 but should have been 12.4 and so on until it could be called 14.1!!
I regret to say that in all that time I have failed miserably to learn the command line business - I claim feeble minded ness due to age! Give me a GUI and I can usually manage.

I will give the Zypper commands a try to see what happens before reverting to a clean install.

Many thanks for attempting to help an old ignoramus.

Merkland.

An update on my progress:

It did not matter what I tried my system would not allow me to use the update installation but kept throwing up errors. In the end I bit the bullet and went for a clean install.
The clean install went without a hitch and I very quickly had my system back up and running however I have run into the same problem as others in that I can get no sound in Skype. I have attempted the suggested work around without success as I cannot find where in .skype to apply ** Exec=env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype** %U as there does not appear to be any kind of config file.

merkland.

I believe that the idea is to start skype with **PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60

ie PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype
at the command line or perhaps in the menu line
**
But also I believe that that fix is for distorted sound not NO sound. But I could be wrong

When I upgraded to 13.1, I kept my existing /home partition.

The first application I tried to use that involved audio, produced no sound.

Initially I thought there might be some problem with that particular application. I checked other programs and discovered audio wouldn’t work for them. Then I found that my audio “Mixer” settings had been effectively changed by something connected with the install.

After adjusting various levels, audio worked for most things.

WRT Skype specifically, some versions have a preference that allows Skype to do what it wants with the mixer settings. When I have a problem with no sound with Skype, checking that setting can sometimes overcome the problem. Also, I tend to use the front Microphone input jack on my computer, only with Skype, but other inputs are used with other programs. If a particular version of Skype has no way for me to tell it which mic. input I wish to use with it, I have to manually make sure the inputs that are used only with Skype, are enabled and adjusted on the audio mixer.

HTH.