although I am registered in these forums since some time (I used the registration for searching without the spam-prevention), I am now finally in the state where I consider a change: switching from (K)Ubuntu to OpenSuse.
Reason: Kubuntu Karmic is no OS which is worth to be mentioned… >:)
To prepare for the switch I have installed OpenSuse 11.1 64 Bit in a virtualbox (I wanted to install the 11.2 RC but it gets stuck during install all the time) and fiddled around with it a bit. I also tried it as Live CD (11.2 RC again got stuck).
But there still are some questions and I hope that you would answer them
I want to install OpenSuse 11.2 64-bit on a Laptop: Lenovo 3000 N200. Does anyone have some experience with this device? Does OpenSuse run well on it? Ubuntu did, so I asume that there will be no issue with OpenSuse?
In Ubuntu, the graphics driver (the Lappy has a Nvidia 7300 GO graphics card) has had a stupid bug:
the screen could start to flicker from one moment to another and only a restart stops it. There are workarounds for that, but it still could occure.
Anything similar known for OpenSuse? I know, its the same driver in both OS’ses but maybe something is still different in OpenSuse?
Then some questions regarding using and operating OpenSuse:
are there major differences between 11.1 and 11.2 in terms of using the special tools like Yast? I have seen some pics of the 11.2-yast but without using it, I can not tell the difference
as I want to use 64-bit: are there any limitations regarding software, codecs, drivers, whatever, compared to 32-bit?
as I fiddled around with 11.1 in virtualbox I saw a lot of firewall stuff, AppArmor and so on, for configuration in Yast. Ubuntu does not have any configuration thingys installed by default for the security stuff. So my question: do I have to care about this or is it sufficient when I choose the pre-defined security settings in Yast → local security?
and as my questions are mainly based on the 11.1 release, are there any major differences in using 11.2 in general?
The major differences between 11.1 and 11.2 will be what is included and what kernel goes inside.
But one can still use 11.1 after 11.2 comes out, it is far from its EOL.
Me I am remaining on Ubuntu for now, OS 11.1 gave me quite a number of issues and Ubuntu 9.04 worked pretty well for me after some tweaks.
But I have my eye on both OS 11.2 and Ubuntu Karmic 9.10, both seem very solid even in beta/ alpha status.
I was considering 11.1 too, but I “need” KDE 4.3 and ext4 without tweaking
Now an additional question came to my mind:
From time to time during travelling I use my mobile phone as a GPRS-modem to surf the internet. This is no problem at all with the Gnome Networkmanager which is used in Ubuntu Jaunty.
As I saw/learned, OpenSuse uses a different Networkmanager in the KDE version. Can it handle mobile broadband connections as well? Or do I need additional software for that?
11.2 has some improvements with YaST. For example in software management under 11.1, after one has completed updating some software, the software management would close. I believe in 11.2 it is supposed to stay open (in case one wishes to install more software).
In 11.2 YaST the graphics/monitor menus have been removed and are no longer maintained. This is a reflection of 11.2 having more automatic graphic card recognition built in. But if that (auto configuration) does not work, it is still possible to boot to run level 3 (ie boot to an ascii / text full screen mode) and run the program “sax2” with various options ( “man sax2” will provide some of the options) and then sax2 will create a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. If that file exists in 11.2, it will over ride the auto config settings.
11.2 YaST also purportedly has partitioner interface enhancements
11.2 purportedly has other YaST enhancements (yast to QT4)
Aside from YaST, 11.2 promises to have many other updates. As already noted, the update from 11.1’s 2.6.27 kernel to 11.2’s 2.6.31 kernel should provide :
USB-3.0 support
some speed/memory improvements, boot speed improvements
In 11.2 the LiveCDs are to have more language, and packaged with printing drivers (as opposed to download needed)
However for the best 11.2 experience, IMHO one is best to wait for 2 to 3 months AFTER 11.2 GM version is released, … ie with 11.2 being released in mid-Nov-2009, wait until Feb/Mar-2010 before installing 11.2. There are always many bugs that were missed by the testing team, that are not discovered until the masses jump into a new openSUSE release. Hence the time from Nov-2009 to March-2010 will be filled with many bug fixes, as the packagers make an effort to fix the many newly discovered 11.2 bugs.
Edit: Before I forget … WELCOME to openSUSE forums !!
I guess you meant that warning for an everyday productive system. With 11.1, I installed it a few days after it GA’d but in a testing partition where it remained for many months, as bug fixes were fairly slow in coming. It eventually became so stable after applying updates that I just migrated real data onto it, and without a reinstall it became production. I will be doing the same with 11.2 KDE4.
BTW thanks for the 11.2 enhancement summaries. I expect there are a few small usability enhancements on the desktop as well.
I apologize if this has been asked before, but is an upgrade from 11.1 to 11.2 sufficient for getting all of the new enhancements of 11.2 or is it better to do a full clean install? For example, will an upgrade give me EXT4 natively? Will speed/memory/stability improvements find their way in with an upgrade?
I always do a clean install. If you do an upgrade, and if you have 3rd party packaged applications, you may have dependency problems. Its possible with average to advanced knowledge (and a fully populated 3rd party repository) to reduce these dependency problems, but there are no guarantees. Some apps may simply not yet be packaged for the new version. But when the dependency errors start popping up, it can be hard to determine why. A wrong decision could cause problems later and hours of wasted time sorting the difficulty.
Hence IMHO its simplest and ultimately quickest to do a clean install. Simply keep your /home partition (do not reformat that).
Unless you are an expert in dealing with dependencies and so on, don’t even attempt an upgrade. Doing a clean install is much safer. Don’t get me wrong, an upgrade can be done. If you do, make a backup of your system, and I hope to G-d that you have /home on another partition. (just in case something does happen )
Now to answer your questions. YaST is like the control panel in Windows. You can go with the default settings unless you need to alter/change something. Ubuntu does have something like this, but not nearly as organized as YaST. AppArmor is openSUSE’s version of SELinux. Here I go with the defaults. But if you want to know more about AppArmor then read here AppArmor Geeks - openSUSE
openSUSE is not limited in codecs and such. You just need to know where to look. In YaST>Software Repositories click add, then select Community Repositories. You want to add Packman and VLC and in your case, Nvidia. This will take care of it so you can install the packman version of xine, Kaffeine, and amarok, and the required codecs. For the 64 bit flash, you will want to get that directly from Adobe. Install the Nvidia driver with YaST. Now you can use 32 bit flash just as well, so you don’t have to get the 64 bit directly from Adobe if you don’t want to.
I did try Ubuntu for a bit. Infact, this computer came with Ubuntu pre-installed on it. I tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Ultimate Edition, and Ubuntu CE (Christian Edition). I just didn’t like the lack of organization. Their forums have more organization than their distro. I find that…sad.
thanks to all for your answers! And thank you for the welcome and the links
Now I am fighting with myself… should I go already now, for 11.1 and after I got familiar with it, upgrade to 11.2?
Because playing around with 11.1 in virtualbox is still something different to the real life. And I am really curious now about using OpenSuse in real life.
I also find that OpenSuse as a system makes a more organised impression. This is also a little bit strange to me. Maybe during using Ubuntu now for nearly 2 years I am used to chaos
@ steffen13 welcome to the forum
Yep. Listen to him, when I started opensuse 9 years ago he is the one who teach me how to add third party repositories in yast. That’s where I started to** have fun** with SuSE.
Interesting post. I installed openSUSE 11.2 RC1 64 bit on my Lenovo Thinkpad T61p. Even though it is a prerelease, the install was easier and more trouble free than the released version of Kubuntu Karmic. (I actually have both install on different partitions on my HDD.)
As a user of Ubuntu for a few years, I have been very pleased by the high quality experience with openSUSE.
I didn’t want to wait on 11.2 final because I wanted KDE 4.3.1 (or 4.3.2) and nothing earlier. So I took a chance on 11.2. As I said, it is more trouble-free than the final release of Kubuntu Karmic.
I’d love to hear your feedback after you use 11.2.
Still closes by default I think, there is a setting to change it though.
I created a feature request on bugzilla to add the configuration option in an easier to access location.
I noticed the same on my 11.2 RC2 install on my Sandbox PC. I suspect, as you note, there is a control somewhere that this can be changed (to leave open). Since I use the Smart Software Package manager 95% of the time, this is not an issue for me, and hence those who are more impacted by this need to follow this up.
This is my issue here, the auto config **** can screw up and this method relies too much on the DE/ WM to provide the end user config tools.
Gnome might be fine, XFCE might be fine but KDE4 is fugged.
So are most WM’s
I thought the goal was to get away from commandline, not go back to 1993.
I still say SAX2’s GUI should remain until a more suitble replacement is made so that when auto config messes up you have a tool to help you instead of relying on commandline or manually editing xorg.
KDE 4.3 and ext4 without tweaking 