Post #129,577
12/8/03 8:22:31 AM
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SuSE Linux 9.0 LiveEval
Well, now.
Where to begin?
Boot, hardware detection, and language detection were flawless. The system correctly configured itself for the network, and even determined the correct hostname from the DHCP server.
My USB pen drive works. Automatically puts a desktop icon up when I plug it in, and takes it away when it's removed.
The default desktop is KDE. You're all aware, I'm sure, that I'm a long-time KDE disliker. I just don't get on with it; I find that it's just too damn much interface all at once.
While SuSE haven't eliminated this, they've done a fine job of reducing it. There's definitely an element of "Our competition is Windows XP" in the styling.
YAST2 is really quite nice. It's not Free Software, no. It does, however, provide a sensible interface to the KDE control centre and the underlying SuSE tools in a regular and organised way.
Tools are provided for all the major network services - FTP, NIS, NIS+, NFS, SMB, TFTP, Kerberos - and they seem to work well. At least, the ones I could test worked well.
I really need to get this thing installed on a live system to determine what it's like, because there are a number of things I want to test, none of which are really doable from a LiveEval bootable CD environment.
I want to know what the software install is like. It looks tempting; icons for software update, software install, system update and the like, but obviously they don't actually work. YAST2 hints at such wonders as automatic dependency resolution, interactive visual kernel tuning, IEEE1394 support, etc etc etc. I won't know until I get the real deal installed.
It's promising - and I shall be trying it out at the earliest opportunity, if the LiveEval CD puts in a decent showing on my home computer. Given the decent job it's done on this one (a rather wretched Dell OptiPlex GX240), the early signs are good.
This was posted from said LiveEval.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #129,579
12/8/03 8:28:02 AM
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Re: SuSE Linux 9.0 LiveEval
Most all of that was/is in 8.2 - this doesn't sound like a big leap (which is good, 7->8 was a huge leap). One issue with the desktop in 8.2 was - as you mentioned - a chaotic menu structure that was the default generic KDE menu with spinkles of SuSE menu. If that's better organized, it's a big improvement.
SuSE Update works beautifully even over a phone line. I dial up before retiring and let it cook all night. It all happens automatically.
Also, yes, SuSE has been my favorite distro for some time because the dependencies are thorougly researched and tested - I've never had an issue with libraries or applications that blow each other up.
I wish I had a machine capable of running 9.0 - sounds nice.
-drl
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Post #129,582
12/8/03 8:34:38 AM
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I'm not getting too excited just yet :)
I'm going to do the netinstall - that's the "download a small ISO, boot off it, and snarf the rest from the net" - method.
These things are notoriously difficult to do well; we'll see :)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #129,625
12/8/03 11:31:30 AM
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Re: SuSE Linux 9.0 LiveEval
John has SuSE Linux 9.0 Professional, is that what Live Eval is?
He installed it last night, on my old computer Andrei, and he'll be configuring it more later.
Maybe I can get him to talk about it in here, we'll see.
Nightowl >8#
"The difference between being immature and child-like is that one is what you are, and one is what you choose to be."
Comment by Nightowl {O,O}
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Post #129,760
12/8/03 7:25:01 PM
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SuSE Linux 9.0 Installation Review
This is Nightowl's husband John. She said you might want to know what the SuSE 9.0 install was like.
I have the retail box version of SuSE Linux 9.0 Professional. I decided to install it on Owl's old Celeron 400 MHz computer with 512MB memory, a CD player, CD writer, floppy drive, 2 parallel ports, and 2 serial ports.
Her computer had an old 4GB hard drive. I wanted more space than that, so I replaced it prior to the install with a blank 80GB hard drive. The installation process claims to be able to recognize existing Linux and resize Windows partitions to make room for itself, but I didn't test that.
Setting partitions for the empty hard drive was relatively pain-free. It defaults to just creating boot and swap partitions, and then putting everything else on one big partition. I was able to change that without fuss, and it had helpful hints for partitioning in a side frame while I designated what I wanted.
You can select what you want to install off the distribution pretty easily. There are descriptions of everything, and a way to check to make sure you're not installing something that will conflict with something else. They also have packages of suggested things to install. There were times I was wishing I could just click "I have the disk space, so just install everything, dammit", but I understand why they didn't do that.
I was disappointed with the hardware auto-detection. It figured out OK that I had a Radeon graphics card and two parallel ports, but it kept forgetting some of the things I selected. For example, I tried more than once to activate 3D graphics acceleration, and it acts like it works OK all the way up to where you click Finalize, and then it shows you the summary screen indicating that 3D graphics acceleration is deactivated. I'm going to have to work on that some more. It also refused to remember what I told it my sound card was.
It had a habit of forgetting what I indicated in user setup. For example, I told it I wanted to use /bin/ksh as my shell, instead of the suggested /bin/bash, and it gave me /bin/bash anyway. It also seemed to want to reset my password to something 6 characters long. Very annoying.
I haven't had a chance to work on it very much other than the very basic setup, so maybe the full-featured setup works better than the initial setup. Otherwise, I'm going to have to set things up the hard way. (But then, isn't that what Linux is about?)
"The difference between being immature and child-like is that one is what you are, and one is what you choose to be."
Comment by Nightowl {O,O}
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Post #129,777
12/8/03 11:19:57 PM
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Re: SuSE Linux 9.0 Installation Review
This isn't a review, it's your opinion about the "easy" install process, and you've clearly indicated that you're a tinkerer. And why are you running a brand new version on a shitty computer?
The acceleration works on the Radeon with manual tweaking of the XF86Config file. It's a trivial and known point about Radeons - blame ATI for their legendary obscurity.
As for using ksh - uh...does that make you special?
-drl
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Post #129,780
12/9/03 12:11:32 AM
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You are completely unbelievable.... (new thread)
Created as new thread #129779 titled [link|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=129779|You are completely unbelievable....]
"The difference between being immature and child-like is that one is what you are, and one is what you choose to be."
Comment by Nightowl {O,O}
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Post #129,804
12/9/03 7:56:31 AM
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Lay off, Ross.
Give it a rest already. Yes, we understand you don't like them. Keep it to yourself or the flame forum, for fsck's sake.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #129,830
12/9/03 11:33:30 AM
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Aye
-drl
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