Saving Configurations for 13.1 to 13.2 Fresh Install

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello,
I have been using OpenSuse for some time and I believe that I will stick with the distro for a while.

I am a full time student and I am currently on Holidays. I am going to take this opportunity to do a fresh install upgrade to 13.2.

What I like about 13.1 so far:

  1. It has been configured just perfectly for my needs, it took about 48 hours of initial configuration to have the desktop environment customized to my “standards” (.bashrc, /etc/grub, modified and a LOT of install + Codecs)
  2. Very stable, After a successful install, I never had a crash.
  3. Issue(s) I’ve had with Linux Mint 17 and Ubuntu 14.04 vanished completely

Now I have installed a lot of things that I do and don’t need and I am limited to 120GB SSD, where my actual working space is less than 50GB(after swap, 7% over provisioning and I’ve a 50GB VM Windows 7 32 bit for compatibility with some of the apparatus I use).

In short, I have installed and unsuccessfully deleted a bunch of unwanted materials, and I’ve also failed to do an online update to 13.2 due to the fact that I have too many repository dependencies which were only supported for 13.1.

Lately I am noticing a little bit of glitchy boot (I only have “Desktop Icons” activity, and it is the default, and a lot of the times it’s not the case), when I do a zypper up, it lists me options for new keys and etc. and most importantly, 14GB left in the SSD.

I am using the KDE version, and I am currently burning the 13.2 ISO on a dvd and I wish, I wish to keep the configurations that I have going for 13.1.
This Includes
1.Key mapping
2.“Virtual Desktop” configurations
3.Third party task manager
4. list of Codecs installed
5.list of softwares available from default repository (VirtualBox, python IDEs, Dia, texlife-full, etc.)
6. my .bashrc
7. my boot configurations
8.Wifi settings + public(institutional) printer settings.
]

There is a much larger thread regarding my switch from LM17 to OS13.1 which a lot of helpful people from this forum supported me to assemble and run OS13.1 the way I wish to.

I was wondering if it was possible to get the list of programs installed, and maybe saving configurations for the upgrade.

In additions,
1.I wish to ask how to install the newest version of Konsole after the switch.
2.I have successfully crippled my parents’ desktop trying to install Linux Mint 13, 17 32 bit XFCE on their desktop over the summer. Mint was completely incompatible and I ended up installing Windows XP and being unable to find proper drivers. Is OpenSuse recommended for over 10 years old Desktop (2003, Single core 2.6Ghz, 1GB ram)?

Thank you for your time
-SJL

2

You could consider an in place upgrade like I penned about
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/502853-Upgrade-experience-FYI?highlight=upgrade

3

thank you for the suggestion but I think I have too much scraps on my computer that I don’t know how to remove. Maple 13, and MatLab2012 uninstallers didn’t work properly and I simply found their directory and did rm -rf ./., Similarly many crossover scraps MSOffice 2010 didn’t play nice so I went with 2007, moreover my “R” and “ROOT” dependencies seem very questionable because I compiled them from source codes then later added them into my repository, so they do download but since I manually compiled them, I don’t think they re-compile everytime I run an update.

4

In Yast - Software Management
File > Export

The file is a list of all installed packages

I’m not sure how it will translate to a 13.2 install because look at a snip of the output:

<entry kind="package" name="which" epoch="0" ver="2.20" rel="4.1.2" arch="x86_64"/>
    <entry kind="package" name="wget" epoch="0" ver="1.16" rel="4.4.1" arch="x86_64"/>

I’ve never tried it. But it may still work by substituting the different version available in 13.2 than those listed in your file produced from 13.1

5

In your story there is big mix of system configuration and user (desktop) configuration. This is Linux and there is a big diofference between the two. You should realy look at those two as different issues.

The personal settings of all users (you may have only one, but it is about all) is in their home directories. Thus when you have a seperate partition for /home (the installation default and much advised here) the only thing you have to do is not reformat that partition during the new installation and al user settings will survive.

The system settings is different. Making a copy of /etc somewhere maybe a good idea. You can then check later how things were configured. You can also make a listing of installed packages to see what you may want to add later. But the most important thing you should have done is of course: document your actions as system maneger. Trying to find out later what you changed a year ago is not that easy.

6

On 2014-12-21 06:56, SJLPHI wrote:

> I am using the KDE version, and I am currently burning the 13.2 ISO on a
> dvd and I wish, I wish to keep the configurations that I have going for
> 13.1.
> This Includes
> 1.Key mapping
> 2.“Virtual Desktop” configurations
> 3.Third party task manager
> 4. list of Codecs installed
> 5.list of softwares available from default repository (VirtualBox,
> python IDEs, Dia, texlife-full, etc.)
> 6. my .bashrc
> 7. my boot configurations
> 8.Wifi settings + public(institutional) printer settings.
> ]

Some of those are stored in /home, so IF /home is a separate partition
you can keep it intact. The rest, like the list of packages, boot, any
system configuration… you loose.

Well, just a few system configurations are migrated: fstab, passwd.

If you want to keep things, the solution is an online/offline upgrade.
And this intentionally destroys repository selection, defaulting
everything to packages from oss/non-oss (not doing so poses big problems).

> There is a much larger thread regarding my switch from LM17 to OS13.1
> which a lot of helpful people from this forum supported me to assemble
> and run OS13.1 the way I wish to.

Well, keep using 13.1. It will be supported, directly or indirectly, for
two years more, I think. Why upgrade, if it works?

> I was wondering if it was possible to get the list of programs
> installed, and maybe saving configurations for the upgrade.

Not automatically. Manually, perhaps. Up to you. Meaning, up to you
investing many hours.

Yes, yast can export list of packages. BUT, it does not save the data
about from what repository to get them from.

>
> In additions,
> 1.I wish to ask how to install the newest version of Konsole after the
> switch.

Search for it in extra repos, add the repo, install it.

> 2.I have successfully crippled my parents’ desktop trying to install
> Linux Mint 13, 17 32 bit XFCE on their desktop over the summer. Mint was
> completely incompatible and I ended up installing Windows XP and being
> unable to find proper drivers. Is OpenSuse recommended for over 10 years
> old Desktop (2003, Single core 2.6Ghz, 1GB ram)?

And who is going to recommend anything? LOL.

I can tell you that I’m successfully using 13.1 on older machines.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

7

On 2014-12-21 09:26, SJLPHI wrote:
>
> thank you for the suggestion but I think I have too much scraps on my
> computer that I don’t know how to remove. Maple 13, and MatLab2012
> uninstallers didn’t work properly and I simply found their directory and
> did rm -rf ./.,

Well, that’s fine, just delete the directories. If they were not
installed via rpm, it is normally an adequate way. Except for
configurations on /etc, or replaced system files, if any.

> Similarly many crossover scraps MSOffice 2010 didn’t
> play nice so I went with 2007, moreover my “R” and “ROOT” dependencies
> seem very questionable because I compiled them from source codes then
> later added them into my repository, so they do download but since I
> manually compiled them, I don’t think they re-compile everytime I run an
> update.

Certainly re-compiles are manual things.

Look, this machine has been almost continuously upgraded since SuSE 6.2,
around 1998. With hardware migration included, of course. I made many
mistakes, I had some disasters, but I managed. Upgrading DOES work.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

8

I’ve actually successfully installed 13.2 now. I have been configuring everything as it was. I am almost done.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that the network manager has been improved and changed. Konsole has been improved and changed.

As for Network Manager, now it’s asking for the network password each time instead of saving the information I type in, since it’s different I’m unsure how to configure it so it automatically connects to : home, lab, school, apartment etc.

9

I’ve managed to get almost everything out of the way,

There is one small minor thing that’s bugging me now. This is for Dolphin File manager,

My “Forward” and “Back” keys {This is for Lenovo T410S, it has special key called forward and back above the arrows}
These worked perfectly with OpenSuse 13.1, now for some reason only “Forward” key works.

The “Back” key is recognized but, it’s not working, only for Dolphin though.
It works with GoogleChrome

10

Well one last thing remains:
I am finding that I can “Undim” my screen down to 10% and below that blanks the screen.

Is there a way to configure this such that my “0%” is actually dimmest setting before turning the screen off?

11

You have it set to Auto connect when available?

12

At 0% mine is very dim, but not black
http://paste.opensuse.org/98403450
Obviously the dimness doesn’t really show but there you are.

Test a new user, unless you can confirm that /home was clean at install and you didn’t import your old .kde4

13

I looked at other threads and I was able to understand how to work with the new network manager.

As for my /home, It is most definitely brand new because I even re-partition everything, formatting everything on my SSD.

One thing though is that I copied-and-pasted my ~/ Directory to my data drive, installed 13.2 and copied it over to the new home.

It is possible that imported my old .kde4 but unlikely because I couldn’t backup “everything” because I couldn’t figure out how show hidden files/folders using Dolphin

14

I just checked again, it goes down to 10%, then 0% shuts the screen off

15

Create a new user and login and see if it behaves the same

16

The new user does the same thing as well.

17

Please, please. When you have new questions, start a new (or a few more) threads in the correct forum with a good title.

People who can help you very well with your new problem/question will probably not see your it at all when you hide it somewhere in an old thread where they do not participate.

Understand how asking things work. You must draw the attention of the people that know aboutt your problem. The best way to do this is starthing a thread in the correct forum with a good title.

18

Thank you for the pointer.

I currently have two things to address:
Incompatibilities with TeXStudio, and screen turning off at 0% brightness(scientifically, it’s correct, but in general the screen seems brighter than it used to be. I can’t confirm that.)
My laptop model is T410S, and it uses the integrated Intel HD Graphics card(no OS had issues with it yet).

19

Well I don’t really have an answer then.
My behaviour is as you said you previously had and would like.
Your behaviour is now different, even with a new user. Ummm…
Sorry I don’t know.

It’s not a subject that gets much attention from me because I run at 100% all the time

20

I will admit that things are not running as smoothly as it used to on 13.1. Mainly graphic/KDE related, there is display brightness and also when I bring up the “log out” screen using Ctrl + Alt + Del, the entire screen changes colour rapidly.

I think my Graphic Card is not sitting well with the new kernel