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Suse 9.1 Reviews?
Bruha asks: "There have been several reviews of SuSE 9.1 lately in the online press. However I'd like to hear what the buying public has to say about Novell's first release of SuSE since buying the company. I'm currently typing this article from SuSE 9.1 x86_64 and I have to say past a few quirks I'm really starting to love this distro and admire how polished it has become since 8.2 my last SuSE purchase. What are other's opinions of the software after trying it out and what problems and new things have you discovered? And if you're sticking with it after a move from another distro why did you decide to stick?"
Be careful if you're going to put an Escalade 850x RAID card into an AMD 64 box and run SUSE linux on it. I've been having hell trying to get it to work with 9.0. The vendor is sending 9.1 around on Monday (so this story came a couple of days early for me
The hardware is fine (works great in Windows), but the entire system can hang in 5 minutes once it's had Suse 9.0 installed on it. For some reason, the windows drivers are a lot better as well - the peak read and write speeds are higher
Just a cautionary tale - I'll be as happy as anyone if 9.1 fixes it though
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
I do wish, however, that there were an app like Sonar or Cubase (and no, I haven't and won't consider running those under Wine.
and it' s the kernel version downloaded via YOU.
- Beautiful boot screen and polished feel.
- Easy installation from freely available CD-ROM images.
- Automatic hardware detection via kudzu, at install time and when adding new devices.
- Updates released regularly with the Fedora Legacy Project providing updates for older distributions.
- Many pre-built RPM packages are available on-line from projects such as Samba and otherwise.
- Many great console & X11-based applications included by default.
- Files and configurations are in logical places.
How does SuSE compare on some of these points? If I recall correctly, their installer made me select my network card myself, whereas Fedora did it on its own without me having to open up my machine.Suse certainly does provide you with the kernel you're running. If you look at their patches page, you can see all the .rpm's have .src.rpm equivalents, including the kernel.
I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure that the source for all the things on side 1 of the DVD is on side 2 as well...
As for 'real package management', I think (and I've only just started to use YaST today!) it's great. No problems with package management...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
I'm running SUSE-9.1 64-bit on a Tyan S2885 dual opteron motherboard with two SATA drives in RAID-0, just great... Boot from the DVD in rescue mode and it even finds /dev/md0 with no fiddling.
As a longtime redhat guy, I've found the new distribution for me.
jeff
Everything works. That pretty much sums it up. Printing, seeing the network, burning CDs, listening to an NPR stream. Perfect. No extra configuration, aside from downloading lame and the full MPlayer from Packman (both of which SUSE can't distribute).
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I've been testing it since Monday May 10, and it seems to be okay. It is biased toward KDE, but one can fairly easily configure SuSE to be KDE- and GNOME-free, with Enlightenment as the WM.
One little item to note is that not all packages are recognized in YaST. I typically will generate a list of apps using the command:
to allow me to browse descriptions of the packages and see what files are included. (Understand this can be a very large file.) Notably when I wanted to install a couple of rippers, they did not appear through YaST. Hmmm... Installing them manually:worked just fine. They then appeared in YaST as having been installed. This is a trivial issue, but it is annoying.Bottom line is that SuSE 9.1 seems to be fine so far!
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
for evaluation before you buy the distro try here:
i th-md5sum-informations.txt|3559|20BE144F200097BD77 7AAAD92C5BE617|/
- 32bit-dvd1of2-sideA.cue|359|3A8A6E3DD165038EE0191D 436BE5E896|/ m d64bit-dvd1of2-sideB.cue|360|CAF5AD507EA7144FC6C47 75E708F65BA|/
m d64bit-dvd1of2-sideB.iso|3577905152|806CC1FE4B8872 EDACD34ADAB001B494|/ - 32bit-dvd1of2-sideA.iso|4126703616|BF623B58FD6425F 37D19DDBCD079C1BB|/
ed2k://|file|suse-linux-professional-9.1-cd-dvd-w
ed2k://|file|suse-linux-professional-9.1-x86-i386
ed2k://|file|suse-linux-professional-9.1-x86_64-a
ed2k://|file|suse-linux-professional-9.1-x86_64-a
ed2k://|file|suse-linux-professional-9.1-x86-i386
and more..
watch out for the spaces in the urls that get added by slashdot
I've been a SuSE fan since 6.1.
The main sticking point for me was at that time it was the only distro that could recognise and auto-configure 2 seperate video cards for multi-head X right out of the box. It follows standard (mostly) structure so other software is easy to compile. It seems like there is the Redhat way and the Common way. I would by far recommend SuSE for newbies as the YaST tool (install/admin) is very, very easy to use. Network browsing is impressive to have working right out of the box.
I'm having allot of fun!
A friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "damn that was fun!"
you have got to be kidding me?
Yast has allot more ability to configure network services in 9.x
You don't think there is much difference between a 2.4 kernel and a 2.6 kernel?
KDE from 3.1 to 3.2 is dramatically better/faster. Has tighter integration with PIM/kmail.
from LILO to Grub.
Now, it would be true however, that your 56k modem still isn't any faster.....
A friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "damn that was fun!"
Jem Matzan of thejemreport.com reviewed SUSE 9.1
SuSE Linux 9.1 Personal Edition Review
SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional x86/AMD64
Jem has lots of great info at his site.
I have to admit that after reading the other comment about the known issue of the Dell mod, It wouldn't surprise me. Dell is known for buying surplus stock of non-standard (beta) hardware and writing custom drivers to make them work to be able to sell "cheap" (as in used-beer) computers.
/var/log that will tell you the output of the install. I know there were some issues with 2.6 kernel and Nvidia driver, but if you let YaST handle the install. it should work. If you can't figure out how to use SaX to configure the card (just pick any name for the card even if it is not the correct one, uses same driver, and check to see if 3D is enabled. if it is, it is using the new nvidia driver, if it isn't it is still using the stock driver), after a successfull install (error log file says so) you only need to change the one line in XF86Config from driver "nv" to driver "nvidia".
On the Nvidia card, after an on-line update, you should see a recommended update (not checked) to download the nvida drivers. If you don't have the source installed you will see an nvidia.install.log in
A friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "damn that was fun!"
set ACPI=0FF in your kernel boot manager. ACPI problems often casue NIC problems (failure to work). This drove me batty with my SUSE install, untill I found that out.
..........FULL STOP.
I'm a long-time Redhat user (also a long-time reader, first-time stander-upper). I've been bouncing back and forth between Fedora Core 1 and SuSE ever since Redhat EOL'd Redhat 9. Fedora core 1 is more familiar to me since I've been using Redhat products for so long. However, I can't help but be impressed with SuSE. They've produced a very clean, very user friendly distribution that actually eliminated some of the problems I'd had with Redhat 9. I'd heard from friends who tried it that Fedora core 1 was not a good choice for laptops so, when it came time to install Linux on my new laptop, I went straight to SuSE.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was to configure my laptop's wireless card (D-Link DWL-650) in SuSE than it had been under Redhat 9. The graphical boot is beautiful and the default configuration is sleek and easy to use. I won't get into the whole default Gnome versus default KDE issue except to say that I liked the look of their default desktop better than the default desktop look of Fedora.
I upgraded from 9.0 to 9.1 three days ago and so far my only complaint is that my Cisco VPN client refuses to build under it. I've tried and tried, along with several other SuSE users in my office, to get the client to build under the default 2.6 kernel with no luck. Googling for help returns only a few references to discussion groups in German that say (roughly translated) "konfoundit! Cisco VPN clienten builden broken! Sheizer!"
I attribute the incompatibiltiy of Cisco's VPN client with SuSE 9.1 to SuSE's need to be on the bleeding edge. They're (arguably) the first big distro to release a version with 2.6 as the default and they've done an admirable job. Unfortunately, Cisco isn't going to get their ass in gear and support 2.6 until almost EVERYONE is using 2.6 as their default kernel. Oh, well.
If anyone has found or knows of a way to get the Cisco VPN client to build on SuSE 9.1, please post.
BACKGROUND
A little perspective: I was Apple from the ][ up to a PowerMac. Then I was Windows up until 98. I've been using linux, primarily Redhat, for over 5 years. I have a server running Redhat 9.0, and a desktop that's been running Redhat 7 -> 9.0. I switched to linux for three reasons: 1) it's significantly cheaper to build a machine and install linux (in terms of $, but not time); 2) although I've foobarred the OS more than once, it literally has crashed about 10 times in 5 years, and I've *never* lost my data; and 3) open source development is a fundamentally more sound way of development *for some things*, including the operating system, so I support it by using it.
My choice, money no object, would probably be a G5 tower. Mac has done great things towards making the computer easy to use as a tool right out of the box. But for the reasons above, my considerations were limited to linux. Since Redhat stopped it's support, I decided to consider my options before jumping directly to Fedora. To give away the punch line, I chose Suse 9.1 as my new Desktop. Read on for more details.
DESKTOP, NOT A SERVER
I want a server that I can configure by hand, that has a minimum of software (No X), with uptime that averages around 45 days. Redhat's done a nice job of providing that. Combined with Bastille and a few other things, I've been very happy.
But I use my Desktop computer on a day-to-day basis, and above all else, I just want it to work. I don't want it to crash, and I don't want to lose data, and I'm happy to upgrade regularly for my own benefit, but I don't want it to be difficult or slow me down. I'd like the installation of new software to be be relatively easy (though I don't mind compiling that wondrous open source software when need be).
First, I looked at what several new distros provided. Now, you can upgrade any system all day long, but out of the box (or off the disc), Suse has the newest kernel, the newest KDE, the newest Gimp, the newest mozilla. By "newest," I mean relative to the other distros I checked out, and thus closest to what I could download the source for if I were the gentoo sort.
INSTALLATION RESULTS
Redhat 9.1 (for comparison), the installer crashed repeatedly when I attemped anything other than a stock install. And, they've ceased support.
Fedora is running much older package versions than are available on the web (the 2.4 kernel? helllllloooooo). I decided against it just based on this. Also, I was particularly interested in switching to an "over the counter," distro. My logic is this: If they're spending the money to box it and put it in stores, they're also spending the money (presumably) to make it relatively easy to use.
After ultimately finding the correct command line voodoo to get Knoppix to boot on my machine (already a bad taste in my mouth), I got it installed (once I found the command line instructions for how to do that - grrrr), the installation itself was painless - a giant copy, and then a reboot. At which point, my screen resolutions were wrong, my screen driver was wrong, I was utterly unable to convince the OS that my wireless card existed, let alone get it configured, and -oh- -my- -god- - WHAT is up with that start menu? Don't tell Eric Raymond about Knoppix, or his recent review of CUPS will seem but a pale and pleasant discourse.
Mandrake is a close second to Suse, but it's still running older versions than Suse makes available. Further, I know Mandrake is back from the brink, but it still concerns me that support could evaporate, and I wanted a distro that was likely to last a while. I suspect Novell will work to see that happen with Suse for some time to come.
Suse 9.1 Personal installed pretty easily. The installation appeared to be a Curses interface, which didn't seem very pretty, but it worked. Having had a framebuffer problem during initial boot, it may be that there's a nicer installation inter
I'm a debian fan myself, but this past weekend I installed SUSE 9.1 on my dad's computer.
.wax. So, I had to install mplayer and mplayerplug-in separately.
Having tried a lot of different distributions in the past, I expected that I would need to help him out, or that there would at least be some sort of trouble with hardware detection or a bug of some kind.
Wrong.
I believe SUSE will be the distro that brings Linux to the masses. It is easier to install than Windows. OTOH, if you know what you are doing, there are options to finetune it exactly the way you want.
Install went perfectly. The bootsplash screen and progress bar look great. There is none of this confusing text that people always comment on with Linux distros.
Things that take a long time to set up on Debian, such as java and realplayer plugins work out of the box with SUSE.
The SaX2 screen config program works amazingly well, letting you position the desktop on your screen just the right way. It autodetected my dad's monitor and videocard with no problem.
The only difficulty was that he wanted to listen to preview files from a website that sells classical music (classicalarchives.com). The format is
I have installed a lot of different distributions and this had to have been the easiest. We haven't run into a single bug yet.
If I had to recommend a distribution to someone who had never used Linux before, who didn't want to take the time necessary to understand and learn about their system which is necessary with Debian... I would recommend SUSE 9.1 without hesitation.
I love SuSE 9.0, and have been looking forward to upgrading to 9.1. It arrived in the mail today.
The 32bit sides of the DVDs are not readable in my machines, but the 64bit sides are. Does me no good, my systems are 32bit. A big part of the reason I wanted the boxed Professional version is for the DVDs, and now I find them useless.
So, I still have the CDs. I booted up and attempted to upgrade my system. No go. None of the partitions on any of my drives are identified. It shows "unknown" for every partition. Even if I manually select my root partition, it fails to mount it. Keep in mind this machine was set up from scratch with 9.0 and works just fine.
I checked SuSE support, and it turns out that there is a bug in the SuSE kernel that prevents it from mounting XFS partitions. Amazing, all that testing and nobody tried to use XFS. There is a driver hotfix released as a workaround, but it can't handle root on XFS. Guess what, my root (and others) are all XFS.
This means I can only install 9.1 if I'm willing to throw away my entire config and start over with a fresh install. Unacceptable. At the very least I'd like to be able to download a replacement CD1 ISO that fixes the problem. It's ridiculous to keep shipping a broken product that can't be installed as an upgrade by an otherwise satisfied customer.
So here I sit, with 2 unreadable DVDs and 5 CDs that I can't install because apparently nobody ever tested a perfectly normal and supported configuration as an upgrade path. Sigh.
The specs of my hardware at home are rather common: nForce2 chipsets, some old Intel chipsets, some generic noname nVidia GeForces and some old S3 PCI cards to accomodate other monitors, a pile of generic 8139 ethernet cards, a D-Link ADSL modem, and the aforementioned TFT monitors, together with a Canon flatbed scanner and an inkjet printer. I have never had any problems installing the hardware, although I had to use a commercial driver to make my cheap printer work. In SuSE 9.1 installation of several monitors with SaX went absolutely smoothly and if I weren't so picky about DPI settings and such, I could have just used the default XF86Config it made during the installation. NVidia drivers were downloaded by the YaST Online Update application and installed in the background so that I didn't even notice the fact until I ran an OpenGL screensaver and it was really fast!
The installation went smoothly as well. First of all, I am Russian, and I am oh-so-pleased to see my native language back again in YaST since it was missing in 9.0 due to some glitch. What's even better is that now SuSE ships with decent Unicode TrueType fonts with Cyrillics glyphs, so you don't have to stare at ugly bitmap fonts during the installationg, and, again, if one is not very picky, he or she would perfectly go with these bundled fonts without any need to install standard fonts from Microsoft Windows.
And now for the surprising facts I have discovered so far. Maybe I wasn't reading reviews too carefully, but the default locale is now UTF8. We all remember how bad UTF8 was implemented in RedHat 8.0, and it never became better in RedHat 9.0. It mostly likely won't make any difference for people who don't use Cyrillic characters, but here (in Soviet Russia
Fellow font maniacs, beware! If you try to build the latest Freetype (currently 2.1.8), which you most likely will want to do, at least for the sake of turning the bytecode interpreter on -- DO NOT DO IT. GTK1 and other applications using bitmap fonts will crash your X after this! I've investigated the matter and solved the problem. For the curious I can e-mail an explanation, but to cut a long story short now, the steps to take to make sure your fonts look pretty and no applications crash X, do the following:
After that you should have no problems and crashes. I know that's by far not an elegant solution and will greatly appreciate other suggestions!
Samba 3 on a SuSE 8.2 box and Samba 3 on a SuSE 9.1 box export file ownership and permission data! I don't know why this works and I
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