Trying out openSUSE 10.2

I have been using Feisty for about two to three months now and hoped to try out SUSE on a collegues suggestion. I still have Ubuntu on my home machine. And hope to try out openSUSE at office.


Got my hands on the DVD of LFY (Linux for you) Jan 2007 edition. They have provided a DVD of openSUSE. I tried it quite a few times on Saturday (25 Aug) but failed to load because of a problem with the package check. It said that the integrity check on some files on the DVD failed. On Monday(27 Aug) I got my hands on another copy of the DVD, which unfortunately is giving similar errors. So I copied the DVD into an iso and wrote it onto a blank DVD. Surprisingly, this DVD carried on with the installation without much of a problem. In fact right now, the base installation is done and I am on the "Online Update" section of configuration.

An advice to anyone who is trying to install openSUSE. There is an option to skip the section "Online Update". Please use it. I finished all the other steps in about 45 mins to 1 hr. But the online update is taking a huge amount of time. And to make things worse, there is no way of aborting the update once it is started.

One advantage that SUSE's installation has over Ubuntu is that it allows the features to be selected, while Ubuntu installs the default without allowing any initial customization. Customizations are possible only after the installation is done and you login. For novice users, this is great. But for slightly experienced users, some amount of control is good.

I am now in the middle of installing the system and since it is taking some time, I thought I will write this blog. Using another system to write this blog. With an Ubuntu installation, I could have been doing this from the installing system itself. Ubuntu is quite cool in that way. The Live CD really rocks!

OK back to installation of SUSE....

Well I am now stuck on a screen which asks "Run Online Update now?" and gives the options, "Run Update" and "Skip Update". Any selection and clicking on next does not do any good. Seems like it is stuck on this screen. :(
I just hit the re-boot button. Cold boot, keeping my fingers crossed.
It detected that the previous installation failed. Asking me to continue ? Yes.. No.. but the keyboard or mouse does not respond... Cold boot again...
Great!!! This time there is a response and the installation is back.. but the work done for configuration seems to be lost. I am back to the pre-configuration steps. So in total I am back four steps and lost about an hour and a half of my time.
One new problem this time. A step that says "synchronizing with ZENWorks" did not go through. Skipped that..

And this time I really did skip the "Online Support" section..

OK all other steps were done.. Able to boot into the OS. Lets see how SUSE handles novice users :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan match fixing is denied

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan match fixing is denied : A committee of Pakistan's parliament has summoned the country's cricket captain, coach and manager to discuss new match fixing allegations. "'The nation wants to know how the team lost to Australia,' Jamshed Khan Dasti, chairman of the parliamentary committee, told the BBC. Pakistani cricket has recently been free of match fixing claims He argued that Pakistan deliberately lost in the last group match to prevent India from reaching the semi-finals. Mr Dasti's committee has summoned coach Intikhab Alam, captain Younis Khan and Pakistan Cricket Board champion Ijaz Butt to a meeting on 13 October to clarify the allegations." You have got to be kidding me!!! Aren't there other things in Pakistan that need to be fixed!
Read more

Hurray for the vacation!

Image
The kids almost jumped up as soon as we called them in the morning. What contrast from the going-to-school mornings! Just a mere whisper and they were up. Finally, it was the day they were counting down to. The day I would start my vacation and our family would start the journey to Kerala to meet their grandparents.  They had started the countdown at least ten days back with the ritual question "How many days more to go?". So I remember distinctly the 10,9,8... The question would be repeated both in the morning and in the evening although not necessarily restricted to two times a day. My eldest even prepared an elaborate check-list, complete with all the items that were needed to reach the destination. The check-list started with a "wake up" and went on for two pages. She had even illustrated it! (I was allowed to put it on the blog with a little blur effects.)  So today as soon as they woke up, they grabbed the check-list and ticked of the first item.
Read more

screenshot on android

I had been looking to take screenshots on my android for some time now. But couldn't find a way out without rooting the phone. So it was great to find another way, although a round about one. It suited me because I already had the java and android sdk in place on my work laptop. Yes, its a work around. And you can read about it here . Have also read that the next version of android, i.e 2.2 froyo, is supposed to have built in support with key combination press. Don't know how much of it is true.
Read more