Introduction
The last time I looked at OpenSUSE was somewhere in version 10. I didn't like it, as YaST was buggy. And when the package manager is buggy, I don't walk away. I run away. I don't remember the specific details, but I went right back home to Synaptic in Ubuntu.
Despite the notorius deal Novel made with Microsoft, I took a look at OpenSUSE 11.1. This is well after a friend of mine said that she really liked SuSE. I'm glad I took another look at it. (Thanks, Kimberlie!!) OpenSUSE found its way on my father's computer, and now it's on mine as well.
YaST got an overhaul, and the biggest thing I like is the partitioner. Sure, I can mdadm -A /dev/md5 /dev/whatever /dev/whatever. But having a functional GUI is important for when moving LVM's around 2am after way too much coffee! And I can install to a RAID array using the DVD. I don't have to download the "Alternate Install" like Ubuntu.
I don't want to go into a full-fledged review of a distro here. But I felt the above was worth mentioning in the event that someone else felt the same as I did about older versions. Without further ado, let's get going!
Get the Install Media
The media I used was openSUSE-11.1-DVD-i586.iso, and is available here. There is documentation that OpenSUSE provides, and is never a bad thing to take a look at. So burn the ISO to a DVD, and let's install!
Installing OpenSUSE
Boot from the CD
Choose Install
Click NEXT to accept the licence agreement.
And now for a little hardware probing
Choose New Installation
Choose your Time Zone
Pick your GUI. Gnome is my choice. KDE is still in a state of flux, and not all apps are ported to KDE4. Don't get me wrong, KDE4 is nice. But is just too 'not there yet' for my taste. Oh, and if you choose XFCE, it installs an unthemed XDM. Hmm....
Create your partitioning scheme. For the tutorial, I'm sticking with the default. But you can create anything from static partitions, to LVM on top of RAID rather easily.
Create your user. Also, I would normally uncheck the Automatic User login. I'm leaving it alone for the tutorial, and I'll show you where to turn it off afterwards. If your password is too simple, you'll be warned!
Here you can review you installion choices. Click install to continue.
This is the point of no return. If you click install here, your disk drive will be modified. Let's go!
Installation time will vary, especially if you happen to be installing on a RAID array. So just kick back and enjoy the view, or go grab another cup of coffee.
Now I'll take the time to offer a few more of my opinions. OpenSUSE feels like a well put together, stable OS. There's some things that bug me about Ubuntu. I've always liked Synaptic, and the YaST package manager leaves a few things to be desired. But what the package manager lacks, the rest of the system more than makes up for.
For example, typical RPM based systems (Fedora, CentOS) rely heavily on the GUI for configuration. To the point where once you configure something via GUI, and subsequently edit a conf file, the conf file will get stepped on by the GUI. But with SuSE, there's a console version of YaST. And (so far) it seems like conf files don't get stomped on by the GUI.
As with any Linux distro, there's pro's and con's. SuSE is more resource hungry than Ubuntu. But SuSE is easier to configure. Yes, I do prefer editing config files. by hand. I can do that with SuSE. But I can also use the GUI if I choose to without fear of my conf files getting stomped on later. (You hear that, Fedora!)
Well, look at that. It's time for a reboot.
Now SuSE will do a little auto configuring
Including probing the graphics card. If hardware requires additional packages installed, this is where you'll be asked. My TV tuner card needed more packages to operate, and this is where I was told.
And here we are. The first thing you'll notice is the Gnome menu is radically differnt than most implementations of Gnome. This was strange to me at first, but then it grew on me.
The first thing I like to do after a fresh install is update the system. Go to the Computer menu and select Yast. Select Online Update under Software. Enter your password. The system will update package manifests against the repos. This may take a few minutes.
To no surprise, there's a long list of updates. However, they're applied in stages since there have been many updates since initial release. First the package manager, then on to the rest of the updates.
Click on Apply to install the first wave of updates. The Adobe Flash player gets installed, and packages get updated. The interesting thing to note is that the updater is downloading delta.rpm files. So if there's an update to a package, the entire package is not re-downloaded. Only the changes are. Nice!! After the first set, we have to reboot.
Go to YaSt and Online update again. This will update the bulk of the packages. And reboot once again.
Go to YaSt and Online update again. Select fetchmsttfonts and click on Install, then Apply. This will be the last time the updater needs to be run to bring the system up to date (for today, anyways!)
Looking Around
While everything was updating, I took a look around too see what applications were installed by default. I found that with the exception of video editing software, I now have a perfectly usable desktop! I suppose I could tell you to install Kino or Cinelerra and call it a day. But since I'm using this on my own system, I'll push this a little further.
Automatic Login
Let's get rid of this. Nothing says insecure like a computer that boots up into a working desktop. Unless it's a public system. Go to YaST - User and Group Management. Go to Expert Options - Login Settings. Uncheck Auto Login.
Hostname
Let's give your computer a real hostname, instead of linux-f26k. Go to YaST - Network Settings. Click on Hostname, and change the hostname, and if you like, the domain name. Click OK. If you log out, and log in, the name will be updated across the board.
Network
If you're like me, and use a router to connect to the outside world, then you may want to change some network settings. The default install of SuSE treats the network adapter as if it faced directly to the internet, so it blocks all services. I want to change that, since the network adapter connects to a trusted LAN, that which is behind a firewall.
Go to YaST - Network Settings. In the Overview tab, select your network card and click Edit. Go to the General tab, and change the Firewall Zone from External Zone to Internal.
OpenSSH server
If you work remotly, or have several computers networked together, this is a must-have. The SSH daemon is alreay running. If you followed the above in the Network section above, you're good to go. If not, then press on.
Go to YaST - Firewall. Click on Allowed Services. Click on Service to Allow, and select Secure Shell Server, and Add. Click on Next, and Finish.
VNC Server
Another great tool for working remotly. This allows you to see your X desktop remotely. The VNC server is already installed. If you followed the above in the Network section above, you're good to go. If not, then press on.
Go to YaST - Firewall. Click on Allowed Services. Click on Service to Allow, and select VNC, and Add. Click on Next, and Finish.
Open a console, and type vncserver :1. Enter a password for the VNC server. This should be a tough password, if it will face the Internet. Don't enter a View Only password unless you really need it. Now, we have a basic VNC setup. All this does is fire up a generic X server with a terminal open. Let's make it functional!
Edit ~/.vnc/xstartup
comment out (or remove) twm &, and add gnome-session & on its own line.
Now at the comand line, kill the existing VNC session with vncserver -kill :1. Log out of your computer, and start the VNC server from while either SSH'd into the computer, or while logged in as a different user and switch users from a terminal. And then start it up again with vncserver :1.
Please note, if you start the VNC server while logged in to your user account, Gnome will not start. Only TWM. The VNC server has to be started while loged out of the physical machine. Obsecure? Perhaps. But it prevents being loggin in the the machine and VNC at the same time. It doesn't sound so odd now. At least to me. The solution: Create a user account strictly for VNC. This method is more secure.
Keep in mind there's always the Remote Desktop under the Control Center to view your active desktop. Should you so desire.
Firefox
OpenSUSE comes with Firefox. But my wife likes to upload photos to a well known pharmacy website, and pick up the photos at the store. As with many photo sites, the "multiple photo" add-ins do not support the Linux version. (I complain to them every chance I get!) So let's install the Windows version of Firefox, under Wine, and the add-ins will work just fine! As a sidenote, I was amazed that the later versions of Wine also support printing to CUPS. So your Windows apps will print directly to your printer!
Go to Install Software, search for Wine, and install. Alternativly, you could run, at the command prompt, sudo zypper in wine. After Wine is installed, go to the command prompt and enter winecfg. This wil create the ~/.wine directory structure in your home directory.
Open Firefox and go to http://www.mozilla.com. Since the Mozilla site knows your viewing the site from a Linux computer, the main download button will download the Linux version. This is not what we want. We want the actual Windows binary install file. Click on Other System & Languages. Click on the Windows version that corresonds with your language, and choose to save it.
Open a terminal from the Desktop, and type wine "Firefox Setup 3.0.11.exe" This will begin the installation of the Windows version of Firefox. Run through the setup progam. When you're finished, there will be a Mozilla Firefox icon on the desktop. I choose to create a desktop folder called Windows Programs, and move the icon into there. Feel free to delete the Firefox Setup 3.0.11.exe file on the desktop.
Since you have to two copies of Firefox installed (one Linux, and one Windows) you may choose to install the Xmarks add on. This synchronizes your bookmarks to a central server, and any other computer (or copy of Firefox) you like. It's a great add-on, whether you use multiple computers or not!
F-Spot / digiKam
Sorry, I don't like F-Spot. So let's do the swap. On the command line, enter
- zypper remove fspot
- zypper install digikam digikam-doc digikamimageplugins digikamimageplugins-superimpose
Same thing here. Just personal preference.
- zypper remove banshee-1
- zypper in amarok
Multimedia Codecs
This deserves its own heading. We're going to load up on codecs. First, we'll have to add two repositories. Go to Yast -> Software Repositories. Click on Add, Specify URL, and Next. Add the following repository:
Repository Name: VLC
URL: http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.1
Do the same for this one.
Repository Name: Packman
URL: http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.1
Now go to Yast -> Software Management. Change the way packages are shown from Groups to Repositories. Go to the VLC repository. Install libdvdcss.
Go back to Yast -> Software Repositories. Disable the VLC repo.
Go to Yast -> Software Management. Install the following packages:
libavcodec52 libdvdnav4 libdvdplay0 libdvdread4 libffmpeg0 libquicktime0 libxine1 libxine1- odecs libxvidcore4 smplayer vlc w32codec-all xvidcore
Note that libxine1-codecs required a newer version of libxine1. I ignored this dependency and installed it anyways.
There's the basics. I will add a few more packages from the Packman repository. Feel free to pick and choose (if any) from the following list.
ardour2 beast cdnavigator cinelerra datacrow frostwire gdvdcreator mandvd wired xine-ui
After installation, be sure to disable the Packman repository.
So there you have it. So far, I'm very pleased with OpenSUSE 11.1!
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