SuSE Linux! Does anything just install and work!? NO

English Soapbox
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SuSE 11.2 - Loosing the will to live!

Does anything install and work without spending hours / days trying / retrying, reconfiguring and messing about with it?

NO!

Installing simple plug ins to get online music from various radio stations (mplayer & RealPlayer), by default you can’t do this as a beginner not knowing what to do, such a simple thing to do on an MS Computer.

Getting Avira Antivirus software installed, not a chance of that ever happening!

Your told to un-install apparmor, install Dazuko then AntiVir. NO sorry it doesn’t work. So download Dazuko, Antivir from there respective websites and try again. Oh dear if thats not enough now i have to install cmake, C Compiler and Kernel Source files too.

ALL I WANT IS TO INSTALL AN ANTIVIRUS APPLICATION!!!

Guess what - it still doesn’t work, i’m loosing the will to live by now, i’ve messed up everything and i re-installed SuSE from afresh, no that doesn’t work either. It did something but previous user accounts etc still remain and i wanted a fresh clean install. Get out an MS Windows install disc and remove all partitions from the hard drive then put the linux install disc back in and try again!!! Ugh!

You have to make changes to the Software Manager to get additional applications that are needed, nobody tells you, you have to do this yourself until you start asking questions!

Punch in the word C Compiler, jesus a long list of installable bits are listed!!! What on earth am i supposed to select, ALL of them, one item (which one!) or just a selection and if so which ones do i select? ALL I WANT IS C Compiler installed and working, get on with it. AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

Now i need burning software installing, OK a little research and i’ll go for K3B!!! What can go wrong. A relatively short list of installable bits are offered AGAIN, what do i select this time…No idea but lets give it a go.

Well i think its installed, where is it??? so ok a little more research and up it pops. Lets test it.

Bugger me it doesn’t work, what a surprise! access denied. A little research and several hours later i can now burn data CD’S and DVD’s but not as i want them. The data is burned to disc using all capitol letters, it replaces blank spaces in file and directory names with underscores and replaces special characters with underscores too, how do i stop this from happening. I still can’t burn ISO files, access denied. I want file and directory names preserved including upper / lower case lettering, blank spaces and all special characters preserving un-molested. K3B is still useless to me as it is more research required or give in.

Get the drift i can go on, nothing just installs and works without swallowing copious amounts of pain killers many days fiddling around messing everything up and starting again.

I was hoping this new PC would replace an old SuSE 9 server and two other MS Windows computers too. This isn’t going to happen and i’ve spent over £900 on bits to achieve this. I now have a very expensive server running Apache, Samba, vsftpd and Sshd without any issues at all , excellent, but absolutely nothing else works that i require to replace an MS Windows computer, Ooops sorry i can listen to ClassicFM and BBC Radio Two now.

I could of spent less than £350 to get Apache, Samba, vsftpd and Sshd running on SuSE 11.2 to replace my ver 9 box and that would of been excessive. I may do this yet and accept that i will have to continue to use an MS OS Computer to get the more mundane computing tasks done. Seriously thinking of putting Win7 on this new box and selling it on as a gaming machine to get my money back.

Mark

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Hi akwe-xavante .

I’m going to move this thread to Soapbox in about 10 minutes, as it appears you need to blow off some steam, as opposed to any specific help requests.

Please feel free to start new threads looking for help on the areas that are frustrating you.

NNTP users, please wait until you see another reply in Soapbox (from me) to akwe-xavante’s post, before replying. Thanks!

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Hi akwe-xavante,

I moved this thread to SoapBox, with a link back to applications that will expire in one day. After that to find it you will need to go to Soapbox subforum area directly to find the thread.

NNTP users, this is the new thread location.

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Bad news folks.

akwe-xavante was found dead this morning sat at his new SuSE computer.

Judging by the length of the hair on the floor at his feet it appears that he hasn’t had the time to get a hair cut for many months.

Food in the fridge has gone rotten with decay, akwe-xavante is a shadow of his former self suggesting that he hasn’t had time to eat or drink anything substantial for some time.

The large indentation in the surface of his desk and blood all over his forehead and face suggests self inflicted mutilation caused by frustration.

There were many empty packets of paracetamol pain killers at his desk too. A postmortem carried out has revealed that he died of starvation and poisoning. The Liver and kidneys were hugely oversize caused by a paracetamol overdose taken over several days.

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akwe-xavante, … I beg to differ about Linux being so relatively difficult. I think you find this easier on an MS-Windows PC because of your MS-Windows experience. My mother, relatives, friends have had tremendous difficulty getting radio stations and such to play with versions of Firefox with MS-Windows. Flash would not work for them on Windows. Shockwave would not work on Windows… etc … Now this difficulty was with an operating system that has THE monopoly in personal computers. This difficulty is with THE operating system that every web site tests their software against. And it did not work. Now I concede the people who have this problem are all new MS-Windows users. And hence their problems. By default, a new MS-Windows user can’t do this as a beginner, not knowing what to do in MS-Windows

If you want to get me going about winXP vs Linux, ask me about how long it took to install WinXP on our Dell Studio 1537 laptop last weekend. Ask how smooth the install went. Ask about my experience with the ATI drivers on winXP. Ask how stable winXP has been, … ask if we have seen any blue screen of death’s with sudden reboots in the past 3 days. Ask if this experience was any better or worse than our Vista experience with this PC. In fact, ask about our Vista experience with this Dell Studio 1537 laptop.

What is that saying? It is: YMMV (You Mileage May Vary).

Is this to run as a server to protect MS-Windows PCs on your network? Because in all due honesty wasting your time putting anti-viral software to defend Linux against Linux virus threats. The TRUTH is that there are no virus to speak of against Linux, and hence it is IMPOSSIBLE to test if ANY anti-viral software is effective. The odds are none of them will work. And the fact is none of them are needed.

Now, try and put some anti-viral software on Windows to protect Linux PCs against catching Linux virus. Its not possible.

Is there not a double standard being applied here?

Try installing applications on Windows as a new user. My 84-year old mother still can not do it.

In truth, a new MS-Windows user does not know how to do this either. This is all about familiarity with the OS. As you inferred, by simply asking some questions this can be explained in Linux.

Just ask the question :slight_smile:

Try going to YaST > Software > Software Management, and select the “base development” pattern. Be prepared for a large download.

Reference your problems with K3b, sorry to read about. It just works for me, but hey, I am not a new user. k3b is easy to find and easy to run. But maybe thats just me ??

Now I note we could not burn CDs nor DVDs with winXP, until my wife went out and purchased a copy of Nero. And then we had to pour over the help to get the job done in WinXP. … But hey, guess what, there is a Nero for Linux, so if you want to spend some money, you can do the same in Linux.

How much of this £900 was for Linux software ? I missed that part. …

Did your machine come with Linux? Come with no OS ? Come with Vista ?

IMHO your Linux experience is, well, to be polite, not very advanced. I believe it was a bit presumptuous to set such lofty goals given your inexperience with this.

However this is a volunteer forum, and dependant on your time and your determination, you can post here and get help from our volunteers (note we don’t package openSUSE, we are volunteers who help users with difficulty), or you could move to what works best for you (which I think is WinXP). Anyway, best of luck to you in your efforts, what ever the future direction.

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ahhh … heart attack based on the excitement of the new successful install ? … one has to be careful. The beauty of a new install can do that.

Glad I moved this thread to soapbox. rotfl!

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If you had asked questions first, we could have saved you a lot of trouble.

AV is not needed on Linux, unless you are handling files for Windows systems, but then you would be a server sysadmin.

You have to make changes to the Software Manager to get additional applications that are needed, nobody tells you, you have to do this yourself until you start asking questions!

You only need 3 repos to start off, OSS, Non-OSS and Update and these are set up for you at installation. And even Non-OSS is not critical.

Punch in the word C Compiler, jesus a long list of installable bits are listed!!! What on earth am i supposed to select, ALL of them, one item (which one!) or just a selection and if so which ones do i select? ALL I WANT IS C Compiler installed and working, get on with it. AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

Just install the C/C++ development Pattern. Software Management > View > Patterns, then check that pattern

Now i need burning software installing, OK a little research and i’ll go for K3B!!! What can go wrong. A relatively short list of installable bits are offered AGAIN, what do i select this time…No idea but lets give it a go.

Well i think its installed, where is it??? so ok a little more research and up it pops. Lets test it.

Bugger me it doesn’t work, what a surprise! access denied. A little research and several hours later i can now burn data CD’S and DVD’s but not as i want them. The data is burned to disc using all capitol letters, it replaces blank spaces in file and directory names with underscores and replaces special characters with underscores too, how do i stop this from happening. I still can’t burn ISO files, access denied. I want file and directory names preserved including upper / lower case lettering, blank spaces and all special characters preserving un-molested. K3B is still useless to me as it is more research required or give in.

Not sure what happened to you, it just works here and you only need to select k3b and YaST will pull in the dependencies. And it gets put in Applications > Multimedia but you can also make a shortcut to it under favourites or on the desktop. But feel free to post the details of your problem and we’ll see what we can diagnose.

Sorry about your experience but it is not typical. I did the default install on 3 machines without any tweaks and it just worked on them. The fourth I had more problems with, but that’s a special machine.

As I said, there’s no need to suffer alone. Better to ask first than be angry later. Much more productive than a rant, no matter how cathartic that may feel.

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The op is so full of <cuss> that I can’t even bother to respond to it properly.

It’s not our fault you don’t know what you’re doing. Perhaps more… advanced operating systems just aren’t for people like you.

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I’ve been building and repairing MS Windows computers, Hardware and Software for nearly 9 years and i spend a considerable amount of time removing Rougueware, Viruses and Malware too. I also resolve Internet access issues at the customers address.

Welcome Computing - Count on us in a crisis. Count on us everyday

I have three computers in my workshop.

A WinXP Pro box that is nearly 8 years old and needs replacing soon, used for general office chores, researching MS Windows problems, burning huge amounts of customer data to discs for preserving / re-covering etc and of course emails.

A WinXP Home box that is also old and requires replacing soon spread out on a board for easy access for scanning customer hard drives for viruses etc before returning them to there own box, testing components etc.

A SuSE Linux 9 server running Samba, Apache, vsftpd and Sshd. This is old too and has been switched on for years 24/7/365. It hosts several websites and is used for moving huge amounts of MS data around most of which comes from dodgy sources and nearly always contains viruses etc. The Samba server is incompatible with WinVista and Win7 now and the drive is now too small to handle large amounts of customer data.

The workshop comprises of 8 workstations, workstations for customer computer repairs.

If i decide that a customer PC requires formatting and the OS re-installing i currently move out all there data over my LAN to the current SuSE box where it is held until the customer PC is ready for it to be returned. sometimes this data is burned to disc using the WinXP Pro box with Nero. Customer data is ever increasing in size, its common to have to recover and backup 80gig of data. If i have 8 Customer PC’s in at once which happens often and 2 or more require data recovering thats a lot of time and effort. This Samba server also stores all Windows Service packs and common free applications redistributable’s such as Flash, Java and more and other tools too, its quicker to move these service packs, applications and tools etc over my LAN than it is to use DVD discs or download off the net every time i need them. This server also hosts several local customer websites that i maintain.

I was foolishly hoping to save money in hardware and running costs by replacing 2 of the computers in my workshop with one Linux computer to do everything i’m currently doing in one place.

I need antivirus software to scan customer MS Computer data as part of my daily routine repairing them. I don’t want to recover and return viruses to a customer computer or burn a virus to a dvd disc for the customer. That would be irresponsible and dangerous.

I now need to go out on my afternoon calls, i’ll have a look at some of your other comments and answer them later but to finnish…

Never buy a DELL PC, never never never, your asking for trouble. DELL PC’s keep me employed repairing and often replacing them. They are without any doubt at all whatsoever the worst choice.

Mark

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I don’t know anything about Dell desktop/laptop/consumer gadgets, but I’ll say this: we have had excellent, MARVELOUS experience with Dell Poweredge servers. They’re the only thing we use nowadays. I have several here in Birmingham, and we use them almost exclusively around the United States.

As for your other comments, especially the initial one: I think you were speaking largely tongue in cheek and were being a curmudgeon (something that I specialize in myself). As Chrysantine says, it’s hard to respond to something that’s more rant than request. But my experience and attitude on the codecs, at least, is this:

  1. I’ve been able to easily get most of them working just fine with the Packman repository, using the easy instructions provided in the Wiki, and

  2. Yes, there are some formats that won’t play correctly, but I just don’t use them, and tell others not to send me stuff in those formats.

That’s just me.

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I have a friend who has spent the past 40 years working on computers of which around 27 of those years are with Microsoft based operating systems. Every now and then he tries out a Linux distribution, and then he goes back to Microsoft operating systems.

A couple of years ago I asked him why he does not spend more time using Linux, to which he replied, he had already invested 25 years in learning the Microsoft way, and he was not prepared to spend even 1/2 of that time learning the Linux way. He was too old for that.

BUT IMHO no truer words have been spoken. If one has spent 9 years with MS-Windows FULL TIME , then only after one has spent close to the equivalent FULL TIME with Linux can one then expect to do a fair comparison. Other than some vague similarities in the GUI, and some common standards that both support, the two OS are very different.

One DOES not just start using Linux and immediately expect to apply 9 years of using Windows, to Linux. It does not work that way.

Thats not to say one can not pick up Linux quickly, but to pick up quickly one needs determination and one needs to ask, and keep asking, and keep asking and keep asking for help along the way.

rotfl! IMHO once again, YMMV. My mother has a Dell PC that we purchased in 2001. It is still her main PC and it is still running (dual boot between winXP and openSUSE-11.1). One year ago I purchased a Dell Studio 1537 laptop and it works well with openSUSE-11.1 IMHO Dells’ Linux support (for Ubuntu) for this model of laptop has made a difference and indirectly helped openSUSE Linux.

But just like I’ve read of users complain about Laptops from HP, Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Samsung … I’ve also read them complain about Dell.

IMHO YMMV and if one can make a living out of supporting Dell products, then thats great ! :slight_smile:

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Possible frustrated troll detected… now where is my bat?.. hit 'em, hit 'em :smiley:

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In my experience, it’s the users with “years of experience” in some other OS (even similar ones like Solaris, AIX and other Unixes) that have the most difficulty, because they have things to unlearn, and expectations of flying on the first day that have to lowered to walking first.

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Yeah, and I just LOVE how they talk proud about having so many years of experience on some other OS and think that this small fact somehow makes them capable of managing from day one a completely alien environment to them.

“I have XXX years of Windows experience, therefore I should be able to handle Linux and all its power immediately and understand everything.”

What a nice small logical fallacy that is :smiley: :smiley:

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akwe-xavante wrote:
> ‘Welcome Computing - Count on us in a crisis. Count on us everyday’
> (http://www.welcomecomputing.co.uk/)
>

in my humble opinion you need to add a note to that site, something like:

Don’t know much at all about enterprise software. I earn my three
squares by fixing your Redmond Virus Magnets and Game Machines. I know
so little I’ve been running SuSE Linux version 9.1 non-stop without
security patches or upgrades since June 30th 2006 (when it reached end
of life) and I still can’t make any sense out of Linux.

–
palladium

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Hey everyone.

So lets try to keep the tone as positive as possible on this thread (says me as the pot calling the kettle black).

… but no serious, … lets not be too harsh here. The bottom line is we all want to work with a PC that works for us, and we all get frustrated at times. Most of my friends who are very bright people do not want to take the time to even attempt to learn Linux, so anyone who does give it a try, or who decides to try to go a level deeper into its use, deserves some credit. Like anything new, it can often be very frustrating.

I’ve been an openSUSE user for years, but I’ve shied away from all development related aspects, as I know it would send my stress levels skyrocketing. … One can be an experienced openSUSE Linux user, but not a user experienced with the innards of openSUSE.

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Sorry for your problems, akwe-xavante. I lack your knowledge on Windows systems since I stopped using them with 98SE. I will say as a simple user of Linux that your approach is probably what you would never recommend to those who come to you with their Windows problems. I am sure you have more than your fair share of Windows users that screwed things up due to attempting stuff that they did not take the time to understand the ramifications first. Read first, ask questions when you are not sure, and realize that we all make mistakes.

openSUSE is not that hard if you start simple and build up. If you attempt to fly before learning to walk, you will crash to the ground. If you fail to learn from this crash you will crash again. There are many good folks at the various Linux Forums that are happy to provide teaching and assistance. They do require that you ask politely and that you follow instructions when given. Yes, there are also those on Forums that are not that way, but that is no different from people you encounter in your daily travels. One advantage is those that volunteer their time to help others are likely to be of the friendly sort.

Now if you really would like to start from the beginning and get somewhere I would suggest reading some of the setup guides and How-tos that kind folks have written on this and other Forums. Ask a few questions explaining where you are at (things like which version of desktop, what you have done, what you want to get done and hardware you are using). Trust me, if a old simple computer user like myself can get this stuff to work for themselves, then someone of your background should have no problems. That is no problems if they start from the beginning instead of launching themselves off the nearest cliff.

Good fortune!

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Thank you all for your responses and comments etc.

I could elaborate and keep this going for a long time and i’m sure i’m not the first in this situation.

Before any more posts here please read through carefully and let me say yes i am an experienced MS windows user with years of experience even before i started my business.

I’ve had a SuSE linux box from virtually the day ver 9 was released, it was very painful getting it going then but once sorted, it worked 24/7/365 seamlessly and has proved to be invaluable. This first box runs a number of servers only, i log in perhaps once a week to to check logs files etc perhaps setup a new account for webhosting thats it.

I don’t expect to use SuSE Linux 11.2 without issues or problems initially and if you read through this thread i have not said that i expect anything different. Of course things are different but why should they be so very different.

Is it too much to ask the software manager to install the C Complier as an example without having to select items from a long list of bizarrely named components. Why can’t i just ask for C Complier to be installed job done and expect it to work. C Complier being an example, i’m not having trouble with it specifically before somebody replies about this.

I started asking questions on this forum weeks ago about the build of a new SuSE server for my workshop for those of you that have ask me to do this. I have asked questions, requested help from the beginning of this new build that began roughly 10 days ago and have received excellent help and advice from several people along the way for which i have been very grate full, and i genuinely am.

This forum is an excellent resource for help and advice which i have found very useful over the years. I hope to continue to do so too.

I just needed to complain and let off some steam!

I can build from out of several cardboard boxes a new Computer, install an MS OS and drivers for the mobo etc, install all MS OS updates, install an MS Office Suite and updates, install antivirus software, flash, java and Nero without any issues or problems at all whatsoever in less than 2 1/2hrs and it will work no issues no problems. Very rarely will there be a problem.

Several days later, 3 attempts and i’m still not getting very far with anything other than the more important essential servers i want which go in and work seamlessly.

Getting basic browser plugins to work and burning software etc surely is very basic stuff and getting servers up and running securely is more advanced.

I had major problems trying to get Avira Antivirus software in and working on SuSE 9 several years ago after much help here and several fresh installs i gave up and i wasn’t the only one that gave in the end other people hear on this forum gave up too.

I’m having exactly the same problem with Avira now and more specifically Dazuko i recon. Avira continues to tell me its not installed and it is / was as i have re-installed SuSE since.

If there is anybody that can help me get Dazuko and Avira Antivrus in and working in detail out there please let yourself be known and get in touch because theres a lot more to it than simply un-installing apparmour, installing Dazuko followed by Avira Antivirus software.

Having now let off a little steam and had a moan and groan i’m hoping to try again here and ask for more help to try and get these applications i want up and running as i want them.

I will however wait a couple of days perhaps until the new year before i try again

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Hi
Looks like some people have already done the work for you for dazukofs
http://software.opensuse.org/search?baseproject=openSUSE%3A11.2&p=1&q=dazukofs

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.39-0.3-default
up 2 days 15:26, 3 users, load average: 0.14, 0.14, 0.10
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.18

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@akwe-xavante

  1. go to yast
  2. change to patterns
  3. select the development pattern
  4. install it
  5. ???
  6. PROFIT!!!

Indeed, rocket science it is :smiley: