OpenSUSE 12.3 Is Out

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Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @08:20AM from the upgrade-or-the-lizard-will-be-angry dept.

houghi writes "OpenSUSE 12.3 is out. There are several methods of downloading, as well as different media. It is also possible to boot the live CD from a USB stick. When using the DVD or Net install ISO, the standard is to select between KDE or GNOME, but XFCE and LXDE are also options. ARM images are available as well. More information about the release can be found in this feature guide."

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Favorite Distro by TheNinjaroach · 2013-03-13 08:26 · Score: 4, Informative

I've been using OpenSUSE + KDE as my primary workhorse since 9.1. There have been some bumps along the way, but the 12.x series has been rock solid.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to OpenSUSE!

--
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
1. Re:Favorite Distro by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 08:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I've been using OpenSUSE + KDE as my primary workhorse since 9.1. There have been some bumps along the way, but the 12.x series has been rock solid.
  Thanks to everyone who contributes to OpenSUSE!
  Nice try, Linus.
2. Re:Favorite Distro by Ecuador · 2013-03-13 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  Interesting. I' ve also been using SuSE + KDE since 9.1 (there was no OpenSUSE back then IIRC), having switched from Debian. But with every 10.x version I would get more and more problems. A multi-monitor system that was working great with the previous version would require hours of work to run properly with the latest. Laptops where everything ran smoothly would exhibit problems with newer versions. I continued hoping a newer version would magically solve my problems and give me the stability and functionality I enjoyed with 9.x. I gave up around version 11.1 or 11.2 I think.
  So, are you saying the 12.x series is again solid and installs easily where 10.x or 11.x had problems, or you are one of the lucky ones that did not have problems with those versions either?
  
  --
  Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
3. Re:Favorite Distro by TheNinjaroach · 2013-03-13 09:43 · Score: 2
  
  I had great luck with the 10.x series - especially 10.3 stands out as one of my favorite versions ever, including multi-monitor support. On the other hand, I had a terrible time with the entire 11.x series until 11.4. OpenSUSE, like everyone else, started using KDE4 before they should have.
  
  12.1 is my current production OS for my work laptop - nearly flawless but for this one pesky bug that I reported (and developed a workaround for) long ago. Multi-monitor works very well for me with the workaround, but I generally don't undock during the day just to avoid having to reconfigure resolution & monitor layout.
  
  I've read on Slashdot and elsewhere that the KDE guys have completely redesigned the widget they use for multi-monitor support, so it could be great in 12.3 but I don't know. I probably won't upgrade until nature (a disk failure) forces me to.
  
  --
  I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
4. Re:Favorite Distro by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 11:21 · Score: 0
  
  Same here but using it since 8.0.
  I have an old SuSE 6.4 CD somewhere that I neved used (got it from a computer fair).
5. Re:Favorite Distro by GoJays · 2013-03-14 03:53 · Score: 1
  
  I had some issues with 12.2, so couldn't wait to upgrade to 12.3. But you are right, 12.x has been good for the most part. Another solid release was 11.3, because KDE 4 was then starting to mature. 11.0 was horrible, KDE4 was not ready for the spotlight and was very buggy.
  My upgrade went fine except for the usual video driver nonsense. I think I have yet to have an upgrade where X doesn't crash on first boot due to the nVidia driver. After manually reinstalling the nVidia driver, replacing my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and reconfiguring my dual monitors, all is fine. I have yet to play around with 12.3. Will later tonight.
6. Re:Favorite Distro by Lord+Byron+II · 2013-03-15 23:30 · Score: 1
  
  I've been with openSUSE since the 8.x days and I've had multi-monitor the entire time. As I recall, 10.3 was good, as was 11.1 and 11.4. 12.3 has been excellent so far, especially since it is really more of a service pack for 12.2.
No Live CDs by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 08:35 · Score: 0

The live media this time is DVD media, not CDs, just for those who are interested.
1. Re:No Live CDs by houghi · 2013-03-13 09:30 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They have been tailored towards 1GB USB keys. I personally use the network install without the use of media.
  1) Download linux and initrd from
  http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/boot/x86_64/loader/ and save them as install.linux and install.initrd
  2) Edit grub1 so the entry reads
  
  title SSH-Install root kernel /boot/install.linux install=http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss hostip=192.168.1.200 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1 nameserver=192.168.1.3 showopts initrd /boot/install.initrd
  
  Then boot from that. (Be sure to edit the IP adresses to yours).
  If you add the following to the kernel line, you can even do the install via ssh. Be aware that it will take a time till your ssh is accesible:
  textmode=1 usessh=1 sshpassword="semi-secret"
  Next start with ssh -X -o "UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null" root@[Server to install] and launch yast.
  After the reboot, login again and launch /usr/lib/YaST2/startup/YaST2.ssh for the second stage.
  Great way to install a great XFCE based distribution.
  
  --
  Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
2. Re:No Live CDs by pnutjam · 2013-03-14 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  I do PXE install, but i use the mounted iso on my own machine as the source. It's much faster, but your way doesn't require as much patching.
  Love PXE installs.
  
  --
  Cheap storage VM.
New Distro by dugjohnson · 2013-03-13 08:38 · Score: 2

Will it be called Francis?

--
My brain is overly lubricated
1. Re:New Distro by Cro+Magnon · 2013-03-13 08:40 · Score: 2
  
  I pray not!
  
  --
  Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I look forward to upgrading by AaronW · 2013-03-13 08:45 · Score: 4, Informative

OpenSUSE 12.2 has been rock solid for me and I can't wait to move to 12.3. Of all the distributions I've tried OpenSUSE seems to have the best KDE support.

--
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
1. Re:I look forward to upgrading by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  12.2 has been so great, I'm actually not rushing off to upgrade just yet! I'll try it on my virtualbox setup first.
2. Re:I look forward to upgrading by TheNinjaroach · 2013-03-13 09:44 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I'm in the same boat with 12.1 - I won't upgrade it until the hard disk dies!
  
  --
  I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
3. Re:I look forward to upgrading by richlv · 2013-03-13 09:57 · Score: 1
  
  i've moved to opensuse on the laptop. lately i upgrade every two releases, just to keep fiddling with working system to minimum, while still running a relatively recent release. as i'm currently at 12.1... next week it's upgrade time ;)
  
  --
  Rich
4. Re:I look forward to upgrading by dead_cthulhu · 2013-03-13 11:10 · Score: 1
  
  I'm looking forward to 12.3 as well. However, like all updates, I'll probably wait a month or so before actually doing it in case of any residual bugs. Then again, I tend to do do that with any OS, whether it be some flavour of Linux, Windows, or OS X.
5. Re:I look forward to upgrading by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 15:01 · Score: 1
  
  I upgraded right away because I've been waiting for KDE 4.10 and Mesa 9 (for Intel graphics). IMO, KDE 4.10 is the largest KDE improvement so far (it looks great, and seems to perform better.)
  That said, the dist-upgrade did forget to run grub2-mkconfig, which is a bit annoying. It might just be my system though because I think it did that for the 12.2 upgrade as well.
6. Re:I look forward to upgrading by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 22:38 · Score: 0
  
  I would like to second this. Not only was opensuse 12.2 the most stable suse version I have ever used also it was significantly faster than 12.1. Only caveat: beware of kontact (mail & calendar). Use Thunderbird/Lightning instead.
7. Re:I look forward to upgrading by Lord+Byron+II · 2013-03-15 23:32 · Score: 1
  
  Don't forget the Evergreen project for extended support then. I just started using it with a 11.4 box a couple of months back and so far, so good.
8. Re:I look forward to upgrading by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-17 20:59 · Score: 0
  
  OpenSUSE 12.2 has been rock solid for me and I can't wait to move to 12.3. Of all the distributions I've tried OpenSUSE seems to have the best KDE support.
  why not just Tumbleweeding?!!
windows 8 by crutchy · 2013-03-13 08:47 · Score: 4, Funny

I wouldn't be surprised if win8 runs on a closed & butchered version of the linux kernel and suse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_distributions#Microsoft_agreement
how else would they get a decent performance improvement? not to mention a whole new architecture... without plagiarism it would imply that Microsoft is somehow innovating... pffft yeah right
1. Re:windows 8 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-20 08:10 · Score: 0
  
  opensuse has nothing to do with SLES/SLED. It is not like Fedora.
Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by AaronW · 2013-03-13 08:47 · Score: 4, Informative

From https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade :
Take a look at all repos you have
zypper lr
and remove all third party/OBS repos you no longer needs
zypper rr
Change all remaining repo URLs to the new version of the distribution (needs to be run as root)
sed -i 's/12.2/12.3/g' /etc/zypp/repos.d/*
If you are upgrading from 12.1 or older, add non-oss-update repo
zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/update/12.3-non-oss/ repo-update-non-oss
Refresh new repositories (you might be asked to accept new gpg key)
zypper ref
If you haven't removed third party/OBS repositories you may encounter some errors as these repositories may not exist yet or they may have different unguessable URL. It is always recommended to remove them and add their newer version after upgrade.
Now execute the full distribution upgrade. It is strongly recommended that you run this inside GNU screen or tmux to protect the upgrade process in case anything should go wrong with the X session during the upgrade. Packages for both screen and tmux are available in the main openSUSE repositories. tmux is probably a safer bet, because for example if upgrading from 12.1 to 12.2, you would go from a version of GNU screen which uses FIFO pipes to a version which uses UNIX sockets, and GNU screen has a bug which breaks compatibility between these two approaches, which means that you cannot resume a screen session created in 12.1 using the version of screen from 12.2.
zypper dup
With the above command zypper will download all required packages and install them in heaps. To download all packages in advance, use:
zypper dup --download "in-advance"

--
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
1. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by DiamondGeezer · 2013-03-13 08:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You see? Now that's the sort of simple upgrade that will have all those windows users just green with envy
  
  --
  Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
2. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 08:55 · Score: 0
  
  And this, my friends, is why Linux will never be more than a toy on the desktop.
  Don't get your underwear in a knot; I want to see Linux slap down the evil, greedy giant from Redmond as much as ANYONE here; my pain with MS goes back to their very earliest days, and I truly detest them and their products. But until the entire Linux development community gets serious about making Linux an OS that lets the user do real work (which it does already) without being a system expert and mechanic (not even close today), then it will remain a niche product.
  Having said that, I'm off to DL this new release and give it a spin, as I haven't played with SUSE in some time.
3. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Gothmolly · 2013-03-13 09:06 · Score: 1
  
  Clearly, this will be the year of the Linux Desktop. This will run on my iPad, right?
  
  --
  I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
4. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by armanox · 2013-03-13 09:18 · Score: 2
  
  Applications break left and right when you upgrade a Windows version, so I don't see the complaint here.
  
  --
  I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
5. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by houghi · 2013-03-13 09:34 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is that Windows makes users believe that they can handle sys admin tasks. The fact that I need to filter out spam is an indication that this is not the case.
  
  --
  Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
6. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 09:36 · Score: 1
  
  You are more than welcome to use the "Windowesk" approach to upgrading, where you buy upgrade media, pop it in and let the GUI ask you couple of question before upgrading your system. Unlike windows the process requires just one restart at the end. Don't let this stress you out. The process described by the GP will do network upgrade on the installed system even if you are skipping a generation. I don't see how copy-pasting five lines and going to see a movie while the system upgrades is more complicated than windows upgrade.
7. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 09:46 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It's actually quite easy. The poster is just making the assumption the user is using third party repositories etc, which really isn't all that necessary save for packman.
  My version would sound like
  1. open Yast, go "software", "software repositories"
  2. disable any thirdparty repos you might have. If you don't know what that is, you don't need to.
  3.change all occurrences of 12.2 to 12.3 in all listed urls. Use the edit button to achieve this.
  4. When done, click on the OK button and proceed, then close Yast.
  5. open terminal
  6. become root
  7. zypper ref -> answer all questions with "yes"
  8. zypper dup
  9. Get a cup of coffee.
  If you don't know how to become root, you have no business performing this procedure, just like you'd have no business upgrading your windows installation.
8. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by TheNinjaroach · 2013-03-13 09:46 · Score: 1
  
  sed -i 's/12.2/12.3/g' /etc/zypp/repos.d/*
  Thank you for sharing that trick. It's useful!
  
  --
  I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
9. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by SomeKDEUser · 2013-03-13 09:51 · Score: 1
  
  In fact, you could make that into a pretty GUI. Oh wait, that's what the update dialogue is when you pop in the new DVD/network install CD.
  It is still nice that the CLI option exists and works well. Maybe windows users are not green with envy, but it makes my life as a SuSE use nicer.
10. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 10:33 · Score: 0
  
  This makes about as much sense as, "The problem with Honda is that it makes drivers believe they can handle raceways. The fact that I need to put oil in my car is an indication that this is not the case."
11. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 10:40 · Score: 1
  
  You should have seen the mess that an upgrade from Fedora 14 to 18 caused. You can't even do that in one shot, by the way. Have to upgrade from 14 to 16, then 16 to 17, then 18.
  And nothing worked. Would have been simpler to just wipe the drive and do a clean install.
12. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 11:32 · Score: 0
  
  -esque is the suffix you're looking for.
13. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 12:42 · Score: 0
  
  yes
14. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 13:46 · Score: 0
  
  Did you ever had to upgrade anything "enterprise" grade. Try a peoplesoft upgrade skipping to minor version, try to skip a revision on an oracle fusion upgrade, try do the same with Maitre'D or with Banners/Datatel upgrade or a WebSphere or.... You will find that applying each service pack between any major upgrade up to the patch level you want is the only way to avoid unnecessary pain.
15. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 16:37 · Score: 0
  
  Wow, that's so out of touch it's astounding.
  Unless, of course, you were making high satire, otherwise it's attitudes like yours that keep Windows users away from Linux in droves.
  Especially the arrogance of assumption in many of the so called help forums, that everyone should just know how to do something, or RTFM which doesn't help many people who are new to Linux, some 'hand holding' is needed for noobs, but it's generally not there, barely veiled insults insults seem easier to post than actual help.
16. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by GoJays · 2013-03-14 03:45 · Score: 1
  
  http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade
  Same as above post. Handy URL when upgrade time comes.
17. Re:Quick upgrade method from 12.2 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-14 05:48 · Score: 0
  
  Poor little emo-troll getting all worked up. Strangely, I've several "noobs" running opensuse, and they are quite capable of following these instructions.
  Ofc, they are people with an IQ above room temperature who are trying to solve a task with some help, not whiny little emo-trolls looking for an excuse to burst into tears all over teh Internetz.
De Icaza is gone by Seeteufel · 2013-03-13 08:50 · Score: 1, Interesting

Gnome? Thought de Icdaza is gone. Suse is a KDE distribution. KDE 4.10 is fantastic. Back to the good old times.
1. Re:De Icaza is gone by TheNinjaroach · 2013-03-13 09:48 · Score: 1
  
  Suse is a KDE distribution that works very hard to treat Gnome as an equally supported and well-integrated DE. But I'm way too happy with KDE to ever look at Gnome...
  
  --
  I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
2. Re:De Icaza is gone by ulzeraj · 2013-03-13 11:48 · Score: 1
  
  Weirdest thing is that SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop has the best Gnome configuration I've ever use.
3. Re:De Icaza is gone by kernelpanicked · 2013-03-13 16:33 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  openSUSE is not "a KDE distro". Both Gnome and KDE are on equal terms these days.
  - Posted from a freshly installed 12.3 Gnome desktop. Installed from the DVD, which requires a choice between the two but in fact defaults to the Gnome desktop. Only default because G comes before K and the list is alphabetical.
  
  --
  Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
4. Re:De Icaza is gone by Seeteufel · 2013-03-14 03:52 · Score: 1
  
  Before Novell entered Suse also supported a Gnome desktop. Then the Ximian obstructionists destroyed it and favoured Gnome. Now it is KDE again.
5. Re:De Icaza is gone by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-20 08:15 · Score: 0
  
  The installer defaults to KDE, just because Gnome is listed above it doesn't make it the default.
  What radio button is automatically selected? KDE
Bad default kernel package by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 09:06 · Score: 0

Modules (such as Intel gigabit e1000.ko) are missing, even after a package reinstall. Used the desktop kernel grub option to boot successfully.
Microsoft Linux by turgid · 2013-03-13 09:23 · Score: 0

Do you still get a promise from Microsoft not to sue you for stealing their IP when you buy a SuSE license?

--
Stick Men
1. Re:Microsoft Linux by turgid · 2013-03-13 10:45 · Score: 1
  
  Oh come on mods, surely you're not that ignorant?
  
  --
  Stick Men
Out by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 09:34 · Score: 0

openSUSE is now out. The new pope says it's not allowed to marry.
1. Re:Out by turgid · 2013-03-13 10:21 · Score: 1
  
  openSUSE is now out. The new pope says it's not allowed to marry.
  That's OK. They've got other fish to fry.
  
  --
  Stick Men
Trying it by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 10:01 · Score: 0

I installed openSUSE 12.3 this morning. So far it's been pretty good, certainly fast, the documentation is nice. My only complaint to date is I couldn't get Btrfs support working. When i installed 12.2 Btrfs worked like a charm, had a great experience with it. This time the installer chokes when trying to enable Btrfs on my hard drive.
SuSe is out by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 10:15 · Score: 0

I thought that SuSe is already out. How many people use SuSe nowaday ?
1. Re:SuSe is out by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 19:55 · Score: 0
  
  Lot and lots of people. Mostly professionals, busy making money rather than posting inane crap on /.
  You should try it.
2. Re:SuSe is out by Wookact · 2013-03-14 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  Opensuse is number 6 in the top hits on distrowatch. It beats out CentOS handily.
Re:Can't wait ... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-13 17:10 · Score: 1

Can't wait to see the OS that made Miguel de Icaza move to OS X
Here you go. Enjoy...
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home
journald by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-14 01:25 · Score: 0

I was exciting to check out SuSE again until I saw that the big new feature is replacing syslog with Lennart Poettering's bat-shit-insane journald.
openSUSE IS KDE distro by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-14 05:52 · Score: 0

openSUSE IS KDE distro. Historically SüSe favoured KDE desktio environment above others and it was default desktop of choice in installer. Among other things, KDE developers favour openSUSE as their main distro. When Novell acquired Ximian, GNOME was pushed as default desktop. Now, openSUSE is back on track with KDE as main default DE.