Trying Suse again with a couple simple questions

English Open Chat
#1

Hi this is my 3rd serious try at Suse and my first time with v11.1, I used to run 10.2.

I gave up my first attempt because I could not get my Linksys wireless WPC54G v3 PCMCIA card to connect. I had spent maybe 23-30 hours total over a couple weeks but couldn’t get it to work.

I also had some high end 3D production and rendering software which would not run under Wine.

I had decided to try a 2nd time after discovering linux friendly 3D applications. I wanted to try them out.
I found a couple promising ones (From their description) in the RPM repository files and was excited to see if they were satisfactory.

I tried to install them but found it needed another package to install. I found that package and but that one needed another package.

I found the package that needed the package for the package to install but that too needed another package.

I just gave up at that point and restored my MBR back to M$ XP and recovered the disk space.

That was probably a year ago and only last night downloaded and installed v11.1 on my dual boot XP system.

Toshiba 1905 notebook p4 1gb.

The new version does not notice my wireless is in the PCMCIA slot. I admit my hopes are a bit dashed but I can live with only ethernet if neccessary.

It does however install and work my dual USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. (Whew)

Questions:

1.)Since I had so much trouble with a seemingly endless search for packages, have installing programs gotten any easier since 10.2?

I’d like to keep both OS on my notebook as I am not prepared to make the total move yet, but I don’t want to spend tens of hours chasing resources to install one program.

2.) Does v11.1 handle graphics better than 10.2? If I recall, some of my WIN applications didn’t run very well- or hardly at all as it had a hard time painting the screen properly.

I used to be a fairly competent NOOBE user of 10.2 but that was a long time ago so now I’m back to just a basic noobe.

Any advice or suggestion would be helpful.

#2

  1. Webpin

  2. Some windows software will run under wine. But this is Linux.
    Geoff’s Linux tips - wine
    There have been significant improvements in graphics driver support generally. And there are virtualization options for running windows applications ie: VirtualBox

#3

> Questions:
>
> 1.)Since I had so much trouble with a seemingly endless search for
> packages, have installing programs gotten any easier since 10.2?
sounds like you were installing each rpm from a terminal…something
you didn’t even have to do with 10.0!! (or maybe 9.3, i don’t now
remember)

just, right click the rpm and select Actions > Install with YaST, and
enter your root password when asked…

then YaST does all the install, INCLUDING finding and installing that
string of ALSO needed rpms…AND, it even puts the new application in
the menu…

done, finished, easy! easy!! easy!!!

just requires a little bit of reading on YOUR part…see, for example:

http://en.opensuse.org/Concepts#Software_handling_in_openSUSE_.28Package_Management.29
http://en.opensuse.org/YaST

btw: choosing to install KDE4 is not the best choice if looking for
ease and stability…

> 2.) Does v11.1 handle graphics better than 10.2? If I recall, some of
> my WIN applications didn’t run very well- or hardly at all as it had a
> hard time painting the screen properly.

i assume you are running MS-Win apps in WINE, right?

if you must run a MS app while booted to Linux i’d suggest you run a
real MS-OS inside a VM running in Linux…it will probably be both
faster and better than in WINE…

i say if you must because you are miles ahead if you can ween
yourself away from that Redmond nose-ring…there are lots of
replacement applications, see:

http://jjmacey.net/blog/?p=179
http://www.osalt.com/
http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
http://jjmacey.net/blog/?p=179
http://sourceforge.net/search/
http://forums.opensuse.org/search.php?searchid=929060
http://forums.opensuse.org/search.php?searchid=929064
http://www.google.dk/search?q=“autocad+for+linux”
http://www.google.dk/search?q=“autodesk+for+linux”

and, there are other lists…

> Any advice or suggestion would be helpful.

make it your goal to be free…

–
somebody_else

#4

Thanks for the replys.

I’ve had a chance to look around the desktop and I must say the v11.1 seems far superior to my old v10.2. So much better that I hope to relearn my way around the OS again.

There are a few Window$ based programs which I simply MUST run for my work and itunes to sync my iphone music/programs. I believe the VM is the way to go.

I’ve been using Photoshop CS3 and clicked around GIMP and that looks pretty good.

Thanks for the links, I have some familiarizing work to do.

#5

I downloaded and installed VM machine and am running XP Pro as a guest.

I think this could turn out to be a far better arrangement than a dual boot computer. There’s a couple bugs I need to work out with the VM and I’m only beginning to research.

#1 PCMCIA Linksys isn’t detected when inserted.
#2 USB drives aren’t detected when inserted.
#3 I followed the VM instructions but couldn’t get the VM swap folders between Suse and XP to work.

I tried the webpin link but it seems the archive is no longer available. I’ll look into that this weekend.

Regarding the Linksys and the USB drives:

Because XP is so easy to install inside of VM I’ve deleted the guest copy and re-installing it with all my USB drives plugged in as well with the Linksys PCMCIA.

I don’t know if setup will somehow detect the peripherals but it’s fun to try anyway.

Swap folders:
I’ll look into that this weekend.

Thanks again for the helpful suggestions! This is fun !!! lol!

#6

Small correction- I am using Vitual Box as suggested.