Windependent

what type of SuSE installation did you opt for? if you go with a bare bones minumum installation, you can get by with 500MB, but a "standard" installation requires 2.5 GB of disk space, and a portly installation would require even more. SuSE's default WM is KDE, and its a real disk hog. How much disk space do you have left on that 2.5 GB drive? FYI, here are the minimum system requirements for Suse 9.2: http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/su...of/sysreqs.html

I've got a couple of Knoppix questions that I'm hoping someone can answer. I've used the Knoppix 3.3 CD to bail me out of a number of situations when I've borked-up my linux installation. It does seem to have a couple of shortcomings, though -- or maybe I just have some shortcomings when it comes to using Knoppix... 1. how to obtain root privs? sure you can "su" as the regular knoppix user, but some features require you to have a genuine root logon, such as initializing some of the daemons to support fileshareing (lisa, samba, etc). 2. how do you get the lisa daemon to work so you can use Samba with Knoppix? when I'm in a pinch and I've boogered up my linux distro, it would be nice to be able to use Knoppix/Samba to access the shares on some of the Win boxes on the network. whenever i try to enable Samba from the GUI, I'm always told taht I have to initialize the lisa daemon at boot, and unfortunately, that requires a logon as root. any help would be sincerely appreciated.

http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/ind...e_announcement1

that sounds like an apples to oranges comparison. i'm sure that your opinion about what each distro offers would differ if you compared the 3 CD version of Mandrake to the 3 CD version of SuSE. in some respects, the comparison of SuSE to MDK is hampered by the fact that its always been an internet install or a CD purchase, and its never been available as a free ISO download... unitl very recently. lots of guys don't want to spend the time doing a SuSE net install to get the full distro, and lots of guys don't want to cough up the bucks to buy the CDs. imho, you need to have to similarly equipped installations to make a truly meaningful comparison. having had alot of experience with both, i think SuSE Pro CDs are better out of the box, especially in the area of networking. Novell seems to be paying attention in this area.

right now i'm in the midst of a Stage 1 installation, and i'm killing time during bootstrapping. yeah, an automated gentoo install script would be sort of a dream come true...

i beat my head against MNF for quite some time. it has alot of little quirks. for example, if the system clocks on the firewall and the remote administration PC are off by more than an hour... no logon. there should be some juicy MNF threads in the archives if you want to search for them.

fwiw, i had the exact same problem with SuSE 9.1 not being able to print to a W2K Pro SP4 printer share via Samba. SuSE could use Samba to find the windows PC and successfully found all of its shares (except the printer). Windows could see the SuSE box for a while, but eventually something "broke" and no matter how I tried it couldn't see the SuSE box at all. I tried using CUPS on the linux box, and every other trick imaginable. I just couldn't get YaST to successfully install the printer. I didn't even realize that W2k contained a Print Services for Unix service. D'Oh! how i wish i had know that... I finally got fed up to the point that I took SuSE off of my system and repartitioned the drive. For the heck of it, I reinstalled SuSE and all of my problems magically disappeared. I had to have really borked-up one of the components on the SuSE box. I never did figure out what it was, but a reinstall on top of the existing system didn't help. Only wiping the drive and starting over did the trick. I bet you didn't want to hear that -- it sounds like a Windows story.

it initially fell over before the list of boot options came up. presumably that was because i had configured grub but had not written all of the info into the MBR. Duh. After doing that I finally started to receive error codes, which made the problem easy to fix. There are no problems now using the option to boot into Windows. I'm still emerging gentoo onto that PC, so the other boot option isn't viable yet. thanks!

i would now like to withdraw everything negative that i said about SuSE 9.1 Pro in my previous post. although i had one hell of a time with the live CDs (never got them to work), when i finally got the DVD from SuSE, it was simple to install and set-up. as easy if not easier than MDK. i had problems with printing to windows shares, problems with samba, problems with konqueror and firefox, but the browser problems were not specific to SuSE. after about a month of wrangling, i wiped my hard drive and resinstalled SuSE and it magically worked like a champ. EVERYTHING that had been broken before was now fully operational, including printing to windows printers. After the complete reinstall, setting up the printers was TRIVIAL. i had to have had a really borked package or two on my previous installation that made everything work so poorly. As others have mentioned, the KDE in SuSE is great. in many ways i think SuSE 9.1 is superior to windows from the user standpoint. PNGs are painfully slow, and the overall speed of execution leaves a bit to be desired on, for example, a P3-800. but as an out of the box setup, SuSE 9.1 is a great distro. i think that YaST is a bit better than Mandrake's version, as it allows a little more fine-tuning control on the part of the user. If I had to pick a distro that was easy to get up and running, both SuSE 9.1 and MDK 10 would be good choices. but the configurability of SuSE seems to go a little farther, imho.

setting the fstab problems aside, my problem was grub related -- the machine kept locking when attempting to load grub, so it wasn't even getting far enough to read the fstab file before the lockup occurred. my problem was that when following the recommended gentoo instructions in the gentoo installation handbook, grub wasn't installing itself on the MBR. i fixed this by installing grub using manual insructions instead of grub-install: Installing GRUB in the MBR: # grub (starts the grub shell) grub> root (hd0,1) (Specify where your /boot partition resides) grub> setup (hd0) (Install GRUB in the MBR) grub> quit (Exit the GRUB shell) here's the grub.conf that works for the dual-boot windows system: default 1 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title=Gentoo Linux # root is on the 3rd linux partition, the 4th disk partition, or (hd0,3) #since grub starts indexing at zero kernel (hd0,1)/kernel-2.6.9-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/hda4 # the next 4 lines are for dual boot windows systems # in this case, Win is located on /dev/hda1 title=Windows XP rootnoverify (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader +1

whoops. that was a typo. you're right, it should have been 9964. that's what the real partition table reads. i think that the "umask=000" statement is a valid parameter under <opts>, while the "0 0" is a valid parameter under <dump/pass>. you can't see it in my post, but those two sets of zeroes are separated by a tab delimiter. is this right? i'm checking on the rest... Thanks for your help!

I'm working on a dual boot installation with Win XP and Linux on the same physical drive. (The PC only has one hard disk). I'm running into GRUB problems, and I'm hoping that someone can help. The distro I'm using is Gentoo, which requires all of the disk partitioning, fstab and grub.conf files to be configured manually. I THINK that I've got everything configured properly, but when I try to boot the system Grub halts with the message, "Invalid Partition Table." Aargh. But everything looks right to me. So if anyone can look at the following config files and point out some silly error on my part, I'd appreciate it. Let me preface my posting the structure of the partitions with the statement that XP was already installed on the system, and Linux was added afterward. The hard disk is an 80 GB IDE drive that was partitioned with 40 GB for XP and the remainder of the disk left as unpartitioned space. The unpartitioned space was then used for Gentoo. So it seems that since XP was already occupying the first partition on the drive, linux had to go on the following partitions. Here are my configuration files: here is my disk partition info: fdisk -l /dev/hda Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes 255 heards, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 82225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 4079 32764536 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/hda2 * 4080 4084 40162+ 83 Linux /dev/hda3 4085 4147 506047+ 82 Linux Swap /dev/hda4 4148 9964 46725052+ 83 Linux fstab : # <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts> <dump/pass> /dev/hda1 /dev/hda1 vfat auto,noatime,users,umask=0 0 0 0 0 /dev/hda2 /boot ext2 auto,noatime 1 1 /dev/hda4 /dev/hda4 reiserfs auto,noatime,notail 0 0 /dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0 /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom0 auto noauto,users 0 0 /dev/cdroms/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 auto noauto,users,ro 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,users 0 0 # NOTE: The next line is critical for boot! none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 and grub.conf: default 1 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.3-r1 # partition where kernal image (or OS) is located root (hd0,1) kernel /kernel-2.6.3-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/hda4 # Win is located on /dev/hda1 title=Windows XP rootnoverify (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader +1 unfortunately, i've looked at this stuff so many times that i just can't see what's wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated!

After beating my head against the wall with SuSE 9.1, I've decided to go back to Mandrake. Yesterday I installed the Download version of 10.0 to give it a test drive, and I've run into a couple of minor configuration problems. When playing an audio CD, KsCD isn't looking up the CD's information in CDDB. I know that the CD info is in the CDDB database, because KsCD successfully identified this CD yesterday when I had SuSE 9.1 installed on my system. When I load a CD into the DVD drive, KsCD loads spontaneously. The CD plays fine, but none of the CDDB info is accessed. When I click on the CDDB button and click on the Fetch Info button nothing happens. Any suggestions? Fwiw, k3b won't look up the CDDB info either. My firewall in MDK 10.0 is shut off, and my hardware firewall doesn't block CDDB access. Ideas?

i went to SuSE 9.1 Pro as a migration path from Mandrake 9.2. i had a tough time with it. the main problem was that on my systems, neither SuSE 9.1 nor Mandrake 9.2 did a very good job supporting a dual/triple video card system. there were always problems. my only solution was to pull all of the video cards except the one built into the motherboard. Windows 98 definitely had both distros beat in this regard. while I was fighting with the Control Center in Mandrake 9.2 (which was frought with problems) i obtained a free promo copy of SuSE 9.1 Pro from Novell as part of their Technical Resource Kit. the plan was to switch everything over to SuSE 9.1 if it worked properly. from the outset, I had problems with Konqueror misbehaving in SuSE. it never crashed, but it constantly displayed KDE crash error messages. the pop-ups were so frequent that it made web surfing a real PITA. the recommended solution, of course, is to try FireFox. I had the infamous problem in SuSE 9.1 of having FireFox spontaneously close due to segmentation errors. This was a problem with Mozilla too. So for me, there was no truly functional browser in SuSE 9.1. for me, SuSE 9.1 also had the problem of being totally unable to see an HP LaserJet shared on a Windows network, in spite of the fact that Samba Client and Server were properly configured for sharing all other resources on the Win/Linux boxes. out of the box, SuSE had problems with k3b. copying a CD took about 4 hours. in SuSE, there's no k3bsetup program, even though the popup error messages told me to use the k3bsetup program to fix the problems in k3b. it turns out that SuSE ships with a proprietary patched version of k3b. i ultimately tracked my probem with k3b down to SuSE's failing to implement DMA on the DVD and CD-R/W drives, even though the popup messages directed me elsewhere. then there's the issue of SuSE 9.1 being SLOOOOOOOOW. i got so frustrated with it that I wiped my system out yesterday and installed Mandrake 10.0. much to my delight, Konqueror works. Firefox works. Mandrake found my LaserJet, so now I can finally print. I worked with SuSE 9.1 for a period of at least 6 months, and I always had problems with it. Mandrake 10.0 download edition installed on my PC without a hitch, and I had a totally useable system on the first day. Fwiw, I really liked SuSE, I just had to do alot of manual configuring, and I still couldn't get everything to work properly. If you're interested in giving it a try, my recommendation would be to wait for the release of 9.2 next month. Hopefully they'll have alot of the problems fixed.

Fwiw, I was thorough enough to listen to the original source CD. Even so, the fact that the second generation "Normal" copy was playable seems to preclude the necessity to test the source CD. Just so that I wouldn't be the guy with his foot in his mouth after making an incorrect statement after mixing up my two second generation CDs, I tried reburning them before I read anna's post. Just like before, the Normal copy of the Audio CD was playable, and the "Clone" copy of the Audio CD was not. Fwiw, I agree with you completely -- the term "clone" appears to have been used inappropriately in this context. A very misleading use of the word, indeed. anna, am I correct in my understanding that the "clone" function should be the preferred method for Data CDs, while the "normal" function should be the preferred method for Audio CDs? Thanks everyone for your help.

i tried both yesterday. IIRC the normal copy of the music CD was playable but the clone copy was not so i thought i'd ask.

when using the k3b CD copy function, there are options to make a Normal Copy or a Clone Copy. what's the difference?

oh, I see the logic. thanks!

fwiw, k3bsetup is NOT on the SuSE 9.1 DVD. a search for it in the YaST package manager comes up blank. even though it seems at all of the distros including Mandrake patch cdrecord, this thread seems to have been exiled into the "other distros" category, even though it seems to be a software issue. while we're on the subject of K3B, what's the difference between the "Normal Copy" mode and the "Clone Copy" mode? thanks again for everyone's help!

Thanks, LZ. Believe it or not, I really did press the "tab" key in the console as root, but no other commands came up. the cursor just moved over one space. now here's another funny thing -- /usr/bin doesn't have k3bsetup in it. i've even tried searching for the file, but i come up without a hit. it seems that there must be something different about SuSE 9.1... well, i checked, and in SuSE 9.1 k3bsetup isn't there either. i did follow your advice, though, and check the DMA settings for the CD-R/W. even though i had already enabled UDMA support for the hard disk, DMA support was turned off for both the DVD player and the CD-R/W. so i toggled each one of them on, and they defaulted to UDMA 33. I closed YaST and tried k3b again. This time k3b was FAST! i tried simulating the burn of a clone copy music CD, and instead of taking 4 hours, the complete burn (reading from DVD to disk image and then burning to CD) took less than 5 minutes! so it seems that i got k3b working at a reasonable performance level just by turning DMA on for the CD-R/W and DVD ROM. i didn't have to edit the sudoers file or run the k3b setup program. i still get the error messages at k3b startup, but from now on i think i'll just check the boxes that suppress the error messages. now about SuSE 9.1 being a totally different animal -- it seems that k3bsetup may not be included in SuSE 9.1 -- at least i think that's why i haven't been able to find it on the hard disc. after completing my simulated burn i scanned through the debugging output for k3b and found this information buried in the pages of text: so it appears that the SuSE people seem to have modified k3b somewhat. to me, at least, k3b appears to be a different animal on SuSE 9.1 and the conventional tweaks that work properly on every other distro may not be applicable to SuSE. thanks everyone for your help!

the result? "k3b: WARNING: KGenericFactory: instance requested but no instance name passed to the constructor!" logging onto a SuSE system as root isn't as simple as it would seem. the default action is for SuSE to dump you into a session of YaST, and when you close the session, you're back to the user logon screen. to get to a shell or KDE you have to specifically choose that selection prior to logging on as root. to make a long story short, i opened the shell window and typed in the k3b command as suggested. this opened an instance of k3b for the root user within the GUI interface. no new menu options were displayed compared to those displayed for the regular users. the only difference in invoking K3b from the shell command is that the aforementioned error message was displayed. i feel like i'm stuck in a loop.

thanks for the help, guys. there must be something very different about the implementation of k3b in Suse vs. the other linux flavors. the options that you have mentioned do not seem to be available in Suse. maybe i'm missing something that should be obvious. when installing k3b from YaST, i am not offered ANY options for configuring K3b. the installation program takes place transparently through YaST and I'm not offered any form of intervention and/or configuration. just to assure that i'm not goofing this up, i de-installed k3b and reinstalled it via YaST. there are no options during installation. once k3b has been installed, no "setup" program or menu option is available. the closest thing that I can find is the "settings" menu within the k3b applicaiton itself. it has submenu headings entitled "writing, devices, programs, CDDB, notifications, plugins, themes, misc." the last menu option, misc, offers the following menu selections: default temp directory check system config GUI settings. there doesn't appear to be anything related to a "burn group." now i have to admit, the solution that you've mentioned seems so simple that i feel like a complete dolt in asking you to elaborate. on my PC, there does not appear to be a "setup" progam. are you referring to a separate executable application, or a menu option within k3b? ideas? thanks!

When I try to use k3b to burn a CD its painfully slow. I mean, it takes 4 hours or more for a 48x CDRW to burn the CD. after performing a default installation of k3b, I get a couple of error messages on application startup: 1. "cdrecord does not run with root privileges" 2. "cdrdao does not run with root privileges" naturally, the dialog boxes suggest that running the apps with root privs would add stability to the burning process and make the application run more smoothly. the dialog boxes suggest using k3bsetup to solve the problem. interestingly, i can't find a place in k3b setup to make these configuration changes. so i have a few questions: 1. does this fix the problem? 2. where in k3bsetup can you make the changes, and 3. from a security standpoint, what do you think of letting these apps run with root privs? oh, almost forgot: k3b version 0.11.12 SuSE Linux 9.1 Pro thanks! [moved from Software by spinynorman]

that's a great idea. unfortunately, i've run into the problem on all 3 of the different PCs i've tried it on -- one of which is a Dell business PC that's RedHat certified. as far as being a mainboard issue, its kinda funny that all 3 PCs that i tried it on came from different manufacturers and would run SuSE 9.0 Live CD without a hitch, but they all choked on Suse 9.1 Live CD. i have never figured that part out, so I'm just assuming that there was a bug in it. this point has actually become moot -- the free sample of Suse 9.1 pro that i received in the Novell sample pack works fine. Go Figure. maybe they fixed something along the way.

Good question. In theory, you can go into the Konqueror configuration page in KDE and change the timeout interval to make it longer. I tried this in SuSE 9.1, but even though the KDE interface says that the timeout interval has been updated, Konqueror continues to timeout at the default interval.