[NEWS] - Now you can SuSe for free

[CougTek]

Fri Nov 14 18:31:43 MET 2003
Dear visitor of ftp.suse.com or a mirror server of it,

this directory is the placeholder for the upcoming SUSE Linux 9.0-ftp
distribution. As usual, it will be published some days after the product
is available on CDROM/DVD media.

The SuSE Linux 9.0-i386-ftp distribution will be available during the
weekend of November 22/23 on the mirrors and on ftp.suse.com.

Despite enormous network bandwidth resources for ftp.suse.com, you might
not see any acceptable performance from the original server. Therefore,
we strongly suggest to use a mirror server instead to download updates or
the product itself.

Thanks,
Roman,
Interim ftpadmin@suse.com.

So soon I'll have the possibility to swear about SuSe just like I did in the past about Mandrake, Red Hat, Gentoo and Slackware. I'm so glad.

(All this means that SuSe will soon be available freely online for FTP installation. Unfortunately, there won't be ISO file so people not familiar with the "how-to install Linux via FTP" will still have to pay to get it...so maybe I won't swear about SuSe afterall)

News source

 

[Mercutio]

SuSE is desktop-y like Mandrake. You might like it.

 

[CougTek]

I've tried it briefly at a university some two years ago. My first impression was positive, but I didn't spend enough time on it to tell for sure.

 

[sechs]

I wish that SuSe would put out ISOs. That would make life easier.

 

[Adcadet]

anybody know of a Linux distro that can easily be configured to run dual monitors off an ATi Radeon 8500? I hate editing X config files.

 

[Mercutio]

As I understand things, official ATI open-source drivers for the Radeon have been added to xfree in the last couple of weeks. So, not yet, but if you're willing to wait through a refresh from your distro of choice (or compile xfree, which is not the easiest thing to do), it'll be here soon.

No word on AIW support though.

 

[Adcadet]

man will I be happy when I can run Linux on both my monitors. I still feel the need to use some Windows programs, but that's what my two laptops are for.

 

[CougTek]

Here's a clear guide for Linux command line newbies for installing SuSe 9.0 via FTP.

 

[blakerwry]

hmm.. I followed the guide. Install was easy, but I was dissapointed by alot of the hardware detection.

1) No sound (ensoniq onboard sound equivalent to Sb 64/128)
2) Incorrect monitor detection (samsung 172T)
3) Incorrect video card detection (ATi RageIIc, mach64 chipset)

I was also dissapointed that the default install did not include many of the standard packages I could get in just about every other distro (make, mozilla, etc)


I did, however, like the icons and the fonts. ;-) I was just testing, so I didnt put much time into fixing my problems

 

[time]

I just finished three server deployments with Suse 9.0, as well as one trial deployment.

It recognized every piece of hardware:

• Via Apollo Pro, KT133A, KT266A, KT333 motherboard chipsets
• Realtek 8029, integrated Realtek something else, Davicom NICs
• Assorted sound chipsets to match :-?
• nVidia TNT (Vanta), MX400, MX440 graphics cards

The only problem I encountered is when I changed monitors on one server (Viewsonic G70 to Viewsonic 15). The screen did the wobbly act, so I switched back to the first monitor and poked around until I managed to change the specified monitor to Viewonic 15GA.

After which it never got any further than the Suse graphical logo.

I hope to fix this tomorrow. I believe it's a problem in SAX2 where the 'server' section of the X config file is now missing a reference to the default 'screen'. Bit tricky - the server's 1000km away and no-one can get into the desktop anymore, but we shall see ...

Except for this last bit, I was seriously impressed with the package. I think Novell picked the right distro to buy.

 

[blakerwry]

Granted, this was not my normal pick of hardware, but Suse mis-identified my monitor and also, I think the gfx card from the start (graphical installation wouldn't continue unless I manually changed resolution down to 800x600)

Even upon manual editing of the XF86config file I was unable to get the machine to go higher than 800x600 resolution (this is a native 1280x1024 monitor and I know the vid card can do atleast 1024x768)

Being stuck at 800x600 made the whole experience aweful. I think I'll just stick to fedora. I'm excited for core2.

 

[time]

You probably know more about this than I do, but ...

Do you know enough about XF86config to achieve what you were trying to do? If you edited the file directly, you're talking about an XFree problem, not Suse hardware detection.

All the bindings in the config file have to match up and make sense or XFree will just ignore you. In case you do need more info, this is a good start.

You can reconfigure the display settings (and detection) from bash with SAX2.

I'd be interested in finding how you go if you choose to revisit it. Fedora has zero interest for me; I only have time for stuff that's usable and supported.

 

[i]

That's a good link, time.

 

[blakerwry]

crud, I just lost my post... oh well.

I like the link. Nice site.


I've had to manually edit the XF86 file many times.. I didnt have my monitors horizontal freq range on hand and everything except the resolutions that SuSe picked were off. So I didnt bother doing anything other than telling X the correct vertical refresh.

I think my main problem was that sax chose the wrong video card driver, i forgot to check what driver it picked, but it acted like my vid card had half(or less) the RAM it should of had, it's a 4MB vid card


Oh yeah, SuSe also couldnt detect my mouse.... pretty minor...

but I am disapointed in the sound... I guess it's possible the CMOS got reset and the sound disabled... or on auto (with nothing plugged in it could have disabled itself).



These are all fixable problems, but they are a hassle. How can Sax be so bad, when things like knoppix can detect and configure all of my hardware perfectly without having to go through an installer at all.

 

[blakerwry]

oh yeah, dunno if it matters, but SuSe tried to add a phantom eth0 on install... pushing my 3com 905 to eth1... dunno what that was about.

 

[time]

It's puzzling that we had such disparate experiences. It's almostv as if PnP was broken on you motherboard. Maybe the hardware I used is just more mainstream?

Is your 3Com chip on the motherboard?

 

[blakerwry]

It is an ATX MSI 440BX slot 1 board that has worked absolutely fine with knoppix. It supports ACPI, has onboard ensoniq sound.. that's about it. (same board I tested earlier when doing network transfers)

I was using a slot1 PIII, 2 sticks of PC133 @ 100MHz, the same fujitsu HDD, the same 3com 905 PCI Etherlink XL NIC, and an AGP ATi Rage IIc. I was, up until recently using a Matrox g400 dual head in this computer, before that a TNT, and before that the Rage IIc(came with the computer).

I've used the rage IIc before with mandrake... other than that I don't know if I've tried it with anything else besides windows 9x and 2k.

 

[blakerwry]

newest version of suse 9

 

[time]

Hmmm, mine wasn't. That is, it was a CD distribution and I didn't bother buying the patch CD or downloading any updates.