I dual boot my system, up until recently it has been Ubuntu/WinXP.
Due to Ubuntu/Firefox performance issues I decided to give openSUSE a shot. I loaded the KDE flavour, all was fresh and exciting. I set for immediately to understand my new KDE environment. Unfortunately the next day when I booted my machine, the autologin did not work. The boot process stopped at the login text. Most of the text was off the screen as displayed on my 24" widescreen monitor. I logged in using the username and password used to install openSUSE 11.1. I remember from years gone by that if I entered startx that would start the gui. I didn’t work.
I gave up after this. Why so easily? I have not had this issue in recent years with modern distros, and I didn’t have it with Ubuntu.
The next day I loaded Kubuntu, it all worked fine, even after many reboots, to satisfy mself. But now even though I don’t have any major issues with Kubuntu, I am wondering if I was too harsh with openSUSE.
I’d like to hear your considered opinion and thoughts. Is my experience common? Was I too harsh with openSUSE?
I’ve had 2 days experiences with Ubuntu before I turfed Ubuntu with major disgust. rotfl! … so in truth I can not criticise you for turfing openSUSE after the same length of time, as that would be hypocritical …
I do note that you did not ask for help on our forum, … and maybe if you had that might have changed the end result of your experience. … and maybe not.
My view is openSUSE have the best KDE implementation around with openSUSE-11.1 and KDE-3.5.10. And openSUSE also have the best KDE4 implementation around (although its not as good as KDE3). … Others, I’m sure, disagree with me.
I’ve also read posts by others who think the openSUSE Gnome implementation is pretty good.
I’ve had Fedora-10 (with Gnome) on my test PC for over a month now. I don’t boot to it very often, and while I do not dislike it as much as I did originally (I almost turf’d it after 2 days) I still still prefer both openSUSE-11.1’s KDE3 and KDE4 over Fedora-10’s Gnome (and Fedora purportedly has a good Gnome implementation).
I no longer test Ubuntu (nor a Ubuntu derivative) for opensource free software “political reasons”. Thats a very personal decision, and I’m not one to push my views on others. I have a couple of friends who like Ubuntu, but they don’t share the same open source free software views that I have, and hence they are more forgiving to Ubuntu. Thus they like and use Ubuntu (or Kbuntu).
IMHO if Kbuntu works well, then stick with it. But if you do decide to try openSUSE again, give the forum (or IRC freenode #suse) support a chance to help you make the experience better.
I had used SUSE back in the v5-9 days, I still have V9,1 SUSE DVD/CD’s.
Perhaps the problem lay with incorrect graphics driver/resolution at setup for X, I don’t know. I just feel it is a fundamental thing to just be able to boot up and login, and just acted to my initial thoughts which was: Bol**ks to this.
I don’t have too much of an issue to using non OSS drivers etc, if there isn’t a properly working OSS equivilent. I just want services to work as they should, ie flash, mp3s mpeg4, but I digress.
I also heard openSUSE had the best KDE 4 distro, and it was one of the things that drew me to it, as I use a lot of KDE apps.
Perhaps I will give openSUSE another go when they release a stable version of KDE 4.2
If you do install 11.1, wait until tomorrow at least
nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early and it’s causing a conflict with the kernel, our daddy Marcus is on the job and should have a new kernel release ‘soon’*.
You shouldn’t attempt to reason a person out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into, it is often said.
Turfing out an OS after a single failed boot without requesting help is not a reasonable thing to do - that isn’t a criticism; you seem like a reasonable person judging by this post, but you surely know the answer to your own question.
The point is you will run into issues using any operating system doing any task eventually - that is the nature of modern, complicated OSes. What’s important are patterns of failure, and how well designed the processes for getting around them are.
If you want to try SUSE, go for it - I think it’s a really good distro, with a very helpful community.
On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:16:01 +0000, Ascenti0n wrote:
>> nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early and it’s causing a conflict
>> with the kernel
>
> I’M SHOCKED
>
> SUSE doesn’t test before making public?
I let the updates install on my system and it wasn’t apparent there was a
problem until I tried to run apps that required acceleration.
Or perhaps there are installs that worked. There’s a lot of possible
hardware configurations out there.
Since you already have a working Kubuntu is it possible for you to do a Kubuntu/Suse dual boot?
As for your 2 days I came straight from Windows to Suse back in the 10.0 days & left after 12 hours! But I did come back after a day gave it 2 weeks & have been here ever since. I’d say give Suse another shot but do it in a more cautious approach, like the aforementioned dual boot. In that way if you run into problems you can get to here & still have a functioning PC. You’ll then either grow to like or dislike Suse.
As far as I’m concerned if you’re using Linux, any Linux os then it’s all good. Of course being a Suser myself I do hope that you grow to like Suse
One more thing, you mentioned Ubuntu experience,that’s Gnome ain’t it? You know Suse has a pretty decent Gnome set up, that comes to you from a quintessential KDE user;)
Let me make this easier for you to understand: nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
Now read that again.
For further purposes, read it yet again: nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
And for the third time: nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
Now, have you understood the crux of the problem?
nVidia put out the drivers into their repository before the kernel matching those RPMs was release by Novell. The drivers were compiled “against” it but it’s not out for users yet for testing purposes.
Let me make this easier for you to understand:
nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
Now read that again.
For further purposes, read it yet again:
nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
And for the third time:
nVidia pushed out the new drivers too early
Oi, enough with the offensive talk, bud. >:(
Now, have you understood the crux of the problem?
I understood what you said the first time, maybe YOU don’t understand, the openSUSE distro is released WITHOUT TESTING software from third party suppliers against it’s own. No matter how you want to spin it that is the bottom line. I am an end-user, I re-booted my FRESH openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 installation up, and it broke, that’s it. (If Linux users had the same experience with a Windows install, they’d be shouting how crap it was from the highest www rooftops).
Q. How long do I have to wait or how can I know when this issue has been resolved?
Thank you in advance for your polite response.
@sagemta
thanks for your input. Even though I currently dual boot, it didn’t cross my mind to triple boot, but I don’t think openSUSE gives you that option at install(?).
I will give openSUSE another try, but that depends if my current issue can be resolved. Hopefully by at least the next release with KDE 4.2.
Its not an automatic setup, but one can select, via the Installation menu GUI, a triboot. It is easy.
Back in early January, I installed openSUSE-11.1 on my mother’s old Dell PC, with a triboot (to winME, winXP and openSUSE-11.1). It was a very smooth install (mind you I’ve done dozen’s of successful openSUSE installs in the past, … and experience DOES help).
All I could say about this topic → you should never give up. If you want to handle SuSE with no pressure, you will have to spend time and be patient. Good luck.
I tend to recommend users approach this in a different manner.
Under Linux, it tends to be anarchy.
Accordingly, when it comes to repositories, I typically recommend newbies setup 4 and only 4 repos (until they understand the risks of adding more than just the 4 repos I recommend). I typically recommend ONLY oss, non-oss, update, and packman. Of those 4, only 3 are looked after by Novell/SuSE-GmbH. The 4th one is a community repos managed by the Packman packagers.
Note I do not include repos for ATI nor nVidia in those 4. From what I understand, Novell/SuSE-GmbH have NO SAY in terms of what ATI and nVidia put on their repos. Nor does Novell/SuSE-GmbH have any control over any testing that is done before drivers are put on those repos. Its all up to ATI and nVidia. Hence my recommendation of 4 repos, with a major caution.
Now this CAN mean users with state of the art graphic card struggle a bit with openSUSE, especially when the graphic card manufactuer’s drivers don’t work well with openSUSE. Again, Novell/SuSE-GmbH are not part of the driver testing process AFTER the openSUSE version has been released. BEFORE the openSUSE version has been released, I believe the testing focuses only on the VESA drivers and on the openGL drivers, but there is NO testing on the proprietary drivers (due to their proprietary nature).
Also, given the anarchy nature of Linux, if a graphic card supplier decides to create a repository for a distribution, and put drivers on their created repository, that is usually pretty good. However if AFTER an openSUSE version has been released, and the graphic card supplier desides to replace their stable drivers with non-stable drivers, thats beyond the controll of Novell/SuSE-GmbH. I’ve occasionally thought, that if the graphic card company’s had macheovelian intent, graphic card companys could conciously favour one Linux distribution over another. Hopefully that is not the case.
When I’ve run into this kinda situation, I’ve tried fixing it or re-installing it. The only thing invested in this current installation is the time it took to install. Then, perhaps, can try and determine what change(s) may have borked it.
I do understand leaving after 2 days, but whatever compelled you to try it in the first place is still there and if the number of people (and more) here in the forum has been successful then it IS possible.
This is from somebody who has is using Ubuntu for a few years and is the current home system, used openSUSE for a server for a while, currently using Fedora 10 on a 2nd hard drive and am experimenting with an openSUSE w/KDE 4.2+ desktop system.
Each iteration and problem I work through has helped with the other systems’ issues so nothing is really “lost”, just “learned”. Give it another try, otherwise you’ll never know…
@oldcpu:
Thank you for your in-depth and informative response(again). I am a bit clearer about the ‘archaic’ nature of a distro now. It seems as if you are saying that part of the install code of openSUSE is tasked with detecting hardware configuration, and instead of pulling in tested manufacturers’ driver from openSUSEs own servers, the manufacturers have compelled openSUSE to download direct from the manufacturers servers, so the distro is in fact downloading and installing 3rd party software ‘blind’. Thanks again for clearing that up.
@dragonbite:
Thanks for your encouragement. From what I have seen so far in recent days, the community is vibrant with mostly knowledgeable and helpful people.
I will probably follow the advice from ‘oldcpu’ and some others and give it another go, at some point in the near future.
Hi
If you look at the repository readme, the above would not be correct
for Nvidia (have no idea about ATI). AFAIK, Novell build/test the rpms
Nvidia just host them?
<ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/README>
On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:16:01 +0000, Ascenti0n wrote:
> I understood what you said the first time, maybe YOU don’t understand,
> the openSUSE distro is released WITHOUT TESTING software from third
> party suppliers against it’s own.
The drivers from nVidia that were available at the time 11.1 shipped
seemed to have worked fine. nVidia provided an update to the drivers and
released it before the kernel was updated to handle it.
IOW, it’s not openSUSE’s fault that nVidia jumped the gun.
I meant to say its “anarchy”, as opposed to “archaic”. Perhaps one might also call the Linux approach “archaic”, but “anarchy” was what I intended.
Yes, there are typically three types of graphic drivers in openSUSE:
a. Vesa drivers ( which work for cards that support the vesa standard, and most do, … performance/resolution is typically limited and not great);
b. openGL drivers (which are typically open source free non-proprietary drivers, that work for most (but possibly not all) resolutions, and have reasonable, but not the best performance). These typically come with openSUSE, and are tested with openSUSE;
c. proprietary drivers provided by the manufacturers of the graphic cards. Novell/SuSE-GmbH has no influence over these, Novell/SuSE can not and do not test these, for they are tested and provided by the manufacturers when ever the card manufacturers want. When they work, they often provide the BEST performance/resolution. But they often do NOT work well and they can cause a lot of users to blaime the distribution for the manufacturer’s folly.
…
