Reminder - Release Notes 12.3

Read the 12.3 Notes!

There are some substantial and important quirks associated with installing and running 12.3 for the first time. IMO every person who lends advice to others about openSUSE, and particularly 12.3 <really> needs to read the Release Notes
<link>

items of special note in the Release Notes

Network not working, Network Manager not started
12.3 has a “network starting on install/upgrade” problem. Although the Release notes describe 2 separate problems, to my eye circumstantially they both look the same. In a nutshell, “regular” ifup/ifdown networking is implemented but has to be started only after the NetworkManager service is started if the latter is to work. The “new install” solution is to reboot. The “upgrade” solution may also work for “new install” where you can stop the running network service, start NetworkManager and then start the network service again. It seems to me that this could have been resolved by simply installing Network Manager by default with the option of removing later… Since Network Manager can be useful for <both> wired and wireless (and more) networks, I see no problem using Network Manager for all network management by default.

Anyway, I’d expect a ton of Technical Help posts about the above from everyone who never reads Release Notes before or during installation (I’m pretty sure the majority read the Release Notes only <after> install if at all).

Lots and lots of UEFI gotchas. in combination with various including Secure Boot, installs that don’t use the standard downloadable disks, and encrypted LVM.

Newly implementing Kernel Mode Setting(KMS) interfacing with graphics drivers instead of the legacy User Mode Setting(UMS). Instructions to fallback to UMS manually if it doesn’t happen automatically.

A minor known Gnome bug and its workaround.

Am having fun running my first 12.3 in VMs before taking the plunge and upgrading my "real> systems!

TSU

… I see no problem using Network Manager for all network management by default…

But I do. In my environment, network configuration is done by the system manager and not by some end-user. Thus the so called “ifup” way is the only one applicable. NM is not even installed. lol!

My experience, after several installs, is that this is a minor problem.

After the first boot and final setup steps, the network does not work. But rebooting fixes it. Yast can successfully switch between “ifup” and “NetworkManager”, though it may give a spurious message about a need to install “smpppd” (just continue, and ignore the messages).

This is a big improvement over RC2 (release-candidate 2).

Indeed, and there may be more – see Bug 809038. Specifically, under some circumstances, the installer wants to format the EFI partition, which is a bad idea if Windows booting is done from that partition.

On 2013-03-14 20:56, tsu2 wrote:
>
> Read the 12.3 Notes!
>
> There are some substantial and important quirks associated with
> installing and running 12.3 for the first time. IMO every person who
> lends advice to others about openSUSE, and particularly 12.3 <really>
> needs to read the Release Notes
> <link>

There is no link above. The one I have points to:


> http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html

is dated:

Version: 12.3.4 (2013-02-27)

so it is old already.

And by the way, the above release notes are the ones that get installed
in the system, and thus the notes that we can read on 12.3 if network is
not working :frowning:

I also had a look here:


https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Release_Notes

and there is no 12.3 section.

The correct link might be this one (Version: 12.3.6 (2013-03-13)):


> https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/i386/openSUSE/12.3/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))