18 years ago I bought the Suse installation media. It wasn’t cheap and I never managed to install it because it was to complicated for me. Since then I’ve used distributions that are more user friendly and free. During the years I’ve tried to install Suse but always failed because of some reason mainly some hardware problem or some obscure installation problem. I’ve now downloaded Opensuse 13,2 DVD 4,4 Gibyte. But…It’s not a live DVD!!! To be able to try this distribution I have to install it! I did that once with Suse but it turned out to not be compatible with my computer. I don’t understand why you don’t make a live install DVD so it’s possible to see if the operating system is compatible? I don’t want to wipe my computer to find out that the operating system isn’t compatible! If you want more users please be more user friendly!
> During the years I’ve tried to install Suse but always failed because of
> some reason mainly some hardware problem or some obscure installation
> problem.
I would suggest asking for help when you run into a problem like that
rather than posting a rant years after your last attempt.
Of course, if you’re trying to do an installation now and are having a
problem, feel free to start a thread asking for help for the specific
issue you’re having.
As others said, there is Live media available. The DVD does not include
a live system because there are so many packages on the DVD; there isn’t
room for the packages that are distributed AND a live system on the DVD,
that’s why the two are separate.
It would be a shame if you have had problems all these years that could
have been easily resolved just by asking for some help or for a pointer
to the live media. openSUSE has always had live media (as long as it’s
been “openSUSE” in any event), and it hasn’t been particularly well
hidden, certainly not in recent years. It’s on the download page
right next to the DVD installer.
I have been using OpenSuse for the same sort of period but pretty sure mine was on a bunch of CD’s bought from PC world in the UK. In terms of ease of installation it was a clear leader even then. It was called Suse of course at the time.
I have just installed 13.2 and have run into problems using defaults - that is a first. I used to just use the defaults but these days I generally lay out my own partitioning and select a lot of additional software. The problem - well I doubt if many people install it on a netbook with an intel atom in it and very limited memory.
One of the big and I really mean big gains with OpenSuse is YAST software management. There is rather a lot of open source software around so much that it’s difficult to know what is available. YAST allows descriptive searches and comes with a massive catalogue. That I feel is a huge advantage for beginners - or even old hands like me. Have to admit though that over the time I have used it I have hardly made any use of the command line in a console. Out of curiosity I also tried Kubuntu. Ok their disc will demo or install but I then tried to use their graphical software management to install some rather common software. It couldn’t find it. These leaves me in the console with apt-get in this case - but just what do I apt-get?
Some packages that I use aren’t in the distribution. Fotoxx is one of them. An excellent packages for doing all sorts of things to photo’s. For this sort of problem the build service is there offering one click installs often even on updated packages that are in the distribution.
Failing all of this I compile from source. Easy. The instructions for doing that are usually in the readme file in the source package. The software needed is easily installed initially or later on.
When 13.2 is installed it’s now possible to specify language as soon as the dvd loads up as well. An improvement some will appreciate.
The other aspects is updates. They are highly likely to be safe. I tried Mandriva some years ago briefly - the first update left me with a very broken machine. Install was easy but …
The Kubuntu DVD is about 1.1GB. It downloads quicker but OpenSuse take the view that it should be possible to load stuff outside of the usual web, office, email set up so is rather a lot bigger.
One failing I found on the 13.2 install was that even though it offered to set up my wifi and internet access early on in the install it wouldn’t actually do it. Not much of a problem as it’s very easy to connect from the desktop - rather similar to windows actually - just click on the network icon. The prompts during install suggest I may be missing something as the wifi wouldn’t connect. The answer to that is to ask on here - how to do the same thing once it has been installed.
So please be explicit - what is difficult? I am sure some one on here will guide you through it but actually it leaves me scratching my head as to what aspect is difficult unless something has gone wrong in the partitioning suggestions area. It should select something suitable without you needing to do anything at all.
As some people who might be interested in using OpenSuse rather than some other distro might read this thread I will add a couple of not so friendly aspects I have found on 13.2
The first one is partitioning during install. If there is a linux distro already on the system it may mess up the automatic partitioning proposal. Hitting next will throw up an error message saying this is unlikely to work. There is a button that will cause it to propose a layout for the disk. What is happening is that it’s trying to retain data that might be on the disk - eg not formatting an existing home partition, just leaving it as it is. If windows from what I have seen nothing will go wrong. I made a disk look like windows on purpose and the automatic aspect worked perfectly. rotfl! If one disk mkntfs -F sda will do that but it takes rather a long time. about 20min on a 300gb drive. This seems to be a decent way of wiping a disk. One method I found on the web hadn’t completed it after an hour. There are also some utilities about but sizeable disks will still take some time.
Wifi can be connected to by clicking on the wifi icon on the kde desktop. Trying to do it during install didn’t seem to achieve anything. On the desktop the network can be selected, pass key or what ever entered and it will connect. Kwallet will probably pop up. I clicked next and finish without enabling it as it will request a password every time something tries to access anything it holds - not something I want to do to connect to wifi. There is another option now which may avoid this. I do use kwallet on my email package but not on anything else.
Now the wifi password will have to be entered each time the machine is rebooted. If the spanner is clicked after the above the network can be selected and the password entered. It will then connect automatically after a reboot. This is a KDE thing, nothing to do with OpenSuse.
From a recent experience in some cases it might be a good idea to remove the install dvd before hitting reboot now at the end of install and not using reboot later. Not at all sure about this. Might just be down to the machine I was installing on - HP Netbook with very little memory. HP have been famous for doing their own thing at times but I haven’t had any problems with my main machine which is also made by them.
On Sun 15 Feb 2015 06:56:01 PM CST, John 82 wrote:
As some people who might be interested in using OpenSuse rather than
some other distro might read this thread I will add a couple of not so
friendly aspects I have found on 13.2
The first one is partitioning during install. If there is a linux
distro already on the system it may mess up the automatic partitioning
proposal. Hitting next will throw up an error message saying this is
unlikely to work. There is a button that will cause it to propose a
layout for the disk. What is happening is that it’s trying to retain
data that might be on the disk - eg not formatting an existing home
partition, just leaving it as it is.
<snip>
Hi
If you have an existing install, use expert and the hit rescan devices
to clear the proposal so you can adjust as required…
On an interesting note for windows preview 10, I did a custom re-install
of it with openSUSE 13.2 already existing. It played nice with it and
did it’s install without interfering with the openSUSE install/booting.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.12.36-38-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!
Sorry but I don’t see that as an option for the sort of people I aimed the comments at - those that will need some time to appreciate what Linux partitioning is about because they haven’t been using it for long and they may have tried another distro and want to try something else. There will also be people about who don’t want to bother - for many a PC is something to use. They might spend time learning how to use a complicated application but they wont feel any need to get to grips with the OS. Why should they ?
IMHO I really don’t believe that anyone that does not have a basic understanding of what a partition and what a file system is should be installing any operating system. Particularly a multi-boot setup. Really if you have an empty system and take the defaults the installer will in most case dot is thing and get a working system. Soon as you throw another OS in to the pot it gets complicated because you have to reserve free space and maybe re-size and/or reposition multiple partitions. This simply takes a base amount of knowledge that most people don’t have and really don’t even want. I’m always amazed that otherwise intelligent people simply shut their brains down when sitting in front of a computer. It’s like magic to them and they are happy as long as the magic works
That’s all very well but people who know diddle squat about os’s computers don’t have any problems at all upgrading windows. Some even build machines buy it and install it. Even so Linux partitioning is still likely to come as shock even if the know what a partition is in what they have used before. It’s pretty natural for most to just expect i to work. That is what OS’s are supposed to do. Going brain dead in front of a computer has nothing to do with it. They don’t want to know, just use it. Same as me with the problem netbook - I just want to see if it’s possible to part use it to control a telescope. Sadly it will have a TV dongle or a Rasseberry Pi running Ubuntu on the other end of it’s comms. I can’t see myself sorting out a stripped down OpenSuse for that end - I want to use my telescope. Perhaps that explains some people attitude a little better because I often think that people who are very conversant with the system forget this aspect. The important thing here is that Linux allows this sort of thing to be done fairly easily - windows - no chance. Software - yes but a lot more effort. This is why Linux is in so many things - even wifi sd cards going on something I read recently.
Partitioning is after all the most complicated part of set up. The rest just involves clicking buttons. A monkey could be trained to do it. A person who is not conversant with it will just scratch there head and look and see /tmp, home boot etc and might not even wonder why they are there. Then what about these sda ’ split into several disks when they just have one. It’s unreasonable to expect a lot of people to cope with that.
rotfl!Any way I extol the virtues of OpenSuse when ever I get the opportunity. Going on what I have looked at it has a lot going for it once it’s up and running. I did manage to get it to propose sensible partitions on the netbook by just pressing a button - after pressing next and getting a pretty firm warning that it wouldn’t work and this only happened installing over another Linux distro. All I did was hit back and press one of the buttons.
I’m sorry, sure they do all the time Windows is not the easiest system to upgrade. Just look at the Windows boards for the sad tails.
Windows is normally installed via the maker and upgrade don’t normally require any knowledge of partitions. Oh sorry Drives in Windows speak. Dual boot takes some knowledge of file systems and that a partition is not a drive LOL
Some hardware is just harder to deal with then others In Windows too if you don’t have the MB drivers
The fact is that the vast majority never upgrade or change OS they buy a new machine. Some get proficient with Windows and think they know about computers rotfl!
On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:56:01 +0000, John 82 wrote:
> As some people who might be interested in using OpenSuse rather than
> some other distro might read this thread I will add a couple of not so
> friendly aspects I have found on 13.2
That’s probably not the most productive way to approach this. This is
actually a “get help here” forum, so if you’re having problems, asking
questions to get help is the right approach.
I agree 100% with that in respect to the forum but when I see criticism such as that which started this thread I feel that the best answer is fact as the original post as I see it is fiction and might even have been made by a troll. The one from the 2008 windows server man doesn’t make much sense either. Something is decidedly wrong on that one and I doubt if it’s the distro. Another aspect which I should have added to my problem post as it’s a good example is that freezing at loading ram disk isn’t all that uncommon on all distro’s. Also maybe that the worst possible answer to the problem was on a debian forum.
Fiction - I started using suse at about the same time. CD’s and a pack of floppies. Install has hardly changed in real terms. :’( it came with phone support so before installing I used it and asked for advice. Then found it didn’t cover my intel motherboad along with several disks and bits and pieces. I did get a couple of suggestions mostly aimed at killing power management which was fixed as far as a desktop was concerned and rather extreme. If anything install is now easier. As far as i’m aware it will no longer mount home over several disks - a bit problematic if changes need to be made and a bit confusing for some one who had never been exposed to this before. Now disks can be added by simply installing them, using root to create a directory on it and setting permission and then linking to it from where even it’s wanted - a bit better than using windoze D drive but people will still moan that all they have to do on that is plug it in - or did. I haven’t done anything like that with it for a very long time.
lol!I tried to install XP on that netbook for a laugh, no intention of using it - it reckoned that it had a virus and blue screened out. So much for backwards compatibility. I have worked for a company that has to ensure there windows software will work from 95 up. They have to use virtual box / a couple of old machines to make sure.
It’s on the download page