Hello folks,
I’m a week into a complete disconnect from Microsoft, Google et al. I’ve been using Mint for the past week and it’s been a breeze (cinnamon on one laptop and mate on another). Installing packages is straightforward. I would like to get gently involved in Linux using and I like the history and ethics of Suse. So I thought I would give it a go. It loaded up fine (Leap) and I got to work. I use Vivaldi and Proton as well as other programs. I downloaded rpm files to my Download folder but couldn’t understand how to install them. I searched the internet and there is a lot of advice about Yast but I don’t think Leap 16 has yast.
I tried a few zypper commands, got you need to be root, tried sudo the same commands and the files couldn’t be found, although they’re sitting in my folder.
Where can a complete novice find such simple basic advice?
These are not even distribution specific commands. If you want to install a package downloaded to directory xy, you have to define the path or the installation command can’t find them. Simply:
sudo zypper install /the/path/to/xy/here_your.rpm
There is a graphical tool called Myrlyn, that is used for software management. Check your DE’s System menu … should find it listed.
Only use the information provided in the link with care. It is heavily outdated and not the official documentation. It refers to no longer available tools and software…as example it claims that Plasma 5 is the latest available upstream version…
The menu is helplessly broken as it points to no longer existing chapters…
Even the openSUSE wiki is more up to date.
Edit: The link was removed by former commenter…
Guys, thanks. First…do I unzip the package first…I expect not.
Hui so the path would me something like rowly/downloads/vivaldi whatever.rpm. I did find instructions to get the konsole into the folder (your location became blue writing) running sudo zypper install within the folder would have the same effect?
Myswtest, yeah, before giving up I looked at Merlin but searching for the name of either file i.e. Vivaldi or Proton, just returned a not found.
This is what I’m finding with a lot of online resources.
Yesterday, I updated Brave browser, using a downloaded rpm … first I did a checksum verification:
myswtest@mach:~/bin> ll
[ ... ]
-rw-r--r-- brave-browser-beta-1.97.45-1.x86_64.rpm
-rw-r--r-- brave-browser-beta-1.97.45-1.x86_64.rpm.sha256
[ ... ]
myswtest@mach:~/bin>
myswtest@mach:~/bin> sha256sum -c brave-browser-beta-1.97.45-1.x86_64.rpm.sha256
brave-browser-beta-1.97.45-1.x86_64.rpm: OK
myswtest@mach:~/bin>
myswtest@mach:~/bin> sudo zypper in brave-browser-beta-1.97.45-1.x86_64.rpm
[ ... ]
myswtest@mach:~/bin>
I’m using the browser at this moment 
You didn’t say what desktop you have installed, but in Gnome if you search Software you can find a Discover App for installing many apps via Flatpaks, which are an easier way to install things, although they may take up more space on your system & some people don’t like them, but they are great for ease of install / use as they take care of codecs etc. too.
Specifically I was able to find Vivaldi with one search & you can find Proton apps too.
Hope this helps, this is something similar on KDE but it maybe called something else & I’m not sure if you might have to set up Flatpaks on your system first to get it to work with these software apps. See here for more details about that & Flatpaks in general.
From where? Installing from standard repos does not require separately downloading rpms first. Myrlyn and zypper among other tools both download and install. OTOH, if you download rpms from other places indiscriminately, you may find yourself with unfixable brokenness.
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Vivaldi and Proton are NOT in the “standard repos”.
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I would say that if you download Vivaldi from their website, and Proton from their website, it’ll be fine.
Vivaldi is a well-known browser and has been around since 2015. (I used it for about a year).
It’s not clear which Proton is mentioned … the Windows apps on Linux tool ? Or maybe the Proton VPN tool? Either way, should be fine.
I installed the Kde desktop (simply because a YT’er who I regard said it was good). Yes I’m downloading directly from the companies websites (I tried deb and rpm files)
I think I use flatpack on Mint. I’ve been avoiding snap. That would be a good fall back. I’m hoping to be able to do all this stuff through the konsole.
I must look at how to do the checksum stuff. Mint has a fairly simple automated way.
I will have a go at reinstalling OpenSuse and have another go….
Maybe give Tumbelweed a roll so you don’t have to update / reinstall again in two years time.
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KDE is a popular DE (I’ve been using it for years, not that that is meaningful). There are others: GNOME, XFCE, etc. Which one to use depends on your personal needs.
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I provided a real-world (checksum) example in my previous Reply … plus, showed how to install RPM file.
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Hmmmm. Are you suggesting that you have uninstalled Leap since your original post? If yes, what influenced you to remove it?
For Vivaldi you can just write sudo zypper addrepo https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/rpm/x86_64 /Vivaldi. When thats done you can open Myrlyn and install Vivaldi from there.
I had spent a day putting Cinammon on my wifes old Macbook pro with all the added programs. I then tried to do the same with openSuse but hit too many issues without any support. Thanks to you guys I’ve just reinstalled Leap (KDE) and I’m currently performing a sudo zipper dup. If I can get a program to install I will probably give slow roll or Tumbleweed a go.
Dup is not normally appropriate for updating Leap. It’s mainly for when upgrading to a new release version. Bad things can happen when using dup with Leap other than for Leap version increments. Use sudo zypper up instead for normal updates.
Guys, I installed flatpak, copy pasted the install flatpak repos command line from flatpak, it seemed to go well. I restarted and don’t see any additional software in the Discover thing. So I went to the web page and had to download a flatpacked version of Vivaldi. I couldn’t see an install option in the menu so I went to Myrlin. I have no idea how that works, I searched “vivaldi” but it found nothing. So I returned to Doscover and hey presto Vivaldi is there to be unflatpacked and installed. I now have it installed. If I search Discover for “Proton” I only get that Proton plus tools manager. So Discover only seemed to find my local file? I was under the impression once I pointed suse at the flatpak repo it was visible in Discover? Where am I going wrong?
Thanks, I will use dup if I use slowroll.
I have a suspicion there might be a mis-configuration of your Discover Flatpak sources.
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I instantly found Vivaldi … and still not clear what Proton you’re looking for? Proton VPN?? If yes, I found it instantly in Discover
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Open Discover and click on Settings and check your Flatpak entries … are any similar to what I show (circled) ?
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Well, this is odd. I properly turned the PC off for a break and on coming back to it and checking what you suggested it’s all there! Before hand I had restarted several times. Is there a difference? When the PC starts up I get a kind of blue window with several options for starting Leap, is that normal?
I use Proton mail and pass. I see them both in the Discover gui. I will have a go at the konsole way of doing things Kvitskjegg mentions. A few questions: how do you find a repo address? Once you’ve downloaded it how do you get Myrlyn to install it?
I’m building the machine to do my Open University Course in humanities. It doesn’t need to be flashy I just need the office stuff and to be able to watch and listen through a browser. I use a cloud drive called Icedrive which I shall install and hopefully get to mount on startup. I’m off to bed now my brain’s farting😬. Thanks for all the help so far…