SuSE Install (was Re: Can't really decide: Ext3 or Reiser?)

[Leo J Mauler]

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 22:01:55 -0600 Chris Bier <chris.bier at cymor.com>
writes:
> Leo J Mauler wrote:
> | Which one has been tested more than the other?
> 
> Reiser has been in the kernel longer.

Well I did the full SuSE FTP install, and I went with Reiserfs after all.

Took me awhile to figure out how to change the default number of X
desktops from two to four.

I used mirror.mcs.anl.gov for my install (SuSE requires the IP address,
140.221.9.138) and it only took a little less than three hours.  Sounds
like a decent alternative if, like me, you can't get into ftp.novell.com
for your SuSE FTP install (yes, I know the IP address for ftp.novell.com
too: 130.57.1.22).

I was installing onto a Duron 850Mhz machine with a 20GB drive and a 15GB
drive, 320MB RAM, 10/100 Hawking NIC (Realtek RTL-8139 chipset), the one
MicroCenter at 93rd & Metcalf sells for $9.99.  NEC MultiSync XV15+ for
the monitor, 52X CDROM drive.  I decided to play around with Linux TiVo,
so the machine also has an AverMedia AverTV Stereo card (bttv driver). 
The motherboard had its own built-in audio, VIA Apollo Super AC97/Audio,
which SuSE detected and used easily.

All in all, if you have broadband and the time, the SuSE FTP install was
one of the easiest installs I've ever done with any distribution.  Very
little of it requires you to fight the system to get it to do what you
want, not what it thinks you need.  The only real problem was that it
defaults to a graphical login.  Most people probably won't find that a
hindrance since most people are coming from a Windows graphical login,
but I personally prefer a text login screen.  I found where I can change
it, but for now I think I'll leave it where it is for awhile.

I ended up having to do some technical stuff, for example one drive
needed its partition table reset.  Unlike other distro installers, expert
options were available all the time, not only if I had set an option back
at the beginning of the install.  My technical issues probably won't come
up for most people (I'm trying to squeeze another year out of a very old
15GB drive) but its nice to have expert options available.

When I was creating user accounts, the graphical installer gave the
option of giving user accounts additional features right there in the
installer, such as additional group associations.

I also liked not having to swap out CDs, and the installer didn't mind me
using a manual KVM switch to use another computer on the same monitor and
keyboard (each computer has its own mouse) while the install was
proceeding.

My printer is on a regular Windows machine (Win98 peer-to-peer shared)
and while YaST was able to find the "server" and the share, it couldn't
get to the printer (probably that Epson thingy people mentioned).

Mozilla 1.4, the version in SuSE 9.0, doesn't have the "Allow All, Deny
Some" bug from Mozilla 1.3.  Mozilla 1.4 does "Block all unrequested
popups, Allow Some".

One problem that did come up: OpenOffice.org requires libjawt.so, and it
was not installed during the SuSE install.  YaST package manager noticed
the problem with the dependencies, but it didn't have the option of
installing the appropriate package, only "Ignore the error".  I have no
idea which package to install to add the libjawt.so library, and this
should have been caught during the package install.

I'm thinking of just reinstalling OpenOffice.org anyway.

One side note about SuSE 9.0: since "Beneath A Steel Sky" has been put
out in the public domain (or at least freeware), it is included in the
Install and you can find it on the Games menu.  It was a GUI DOS game.

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