1. Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the optical drive
2. Insert the OpenSUSE install DVD into the optical drive.
3. Boot the machine
4. Select the menu option “Rescue System”
5. When prompted to login, type “root”
6. Mount the Linux root partition, typically something like “mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt”
7. If the Linux /boot area is on a separate partition, also mount that into the root partition, f.ex. “mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot”
8. Bind the rescue system’s /dev to the mounted root filesystem with “mount –bind /dev /mnt/dev” – this will make sure all your device nodes are correct
9. Chroot to the mounted root filesystem with “chroot /mnt”
10. Mount proc and sys: “mount /proc” and “mount /sys”
11. Re-generate initrd image with “mkinitrd”
12. Remove DVD and reboot

The correct way to install the ATI driver is documented in the ATI HOWTO. Basically, you have to build a distribution-specific package and then install that using rpm. At the end you should have full 3D acceleration as witnessed by running fglrxinfo:

ckm@zeus:~> fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6400 (8.35.5)

Check that you get the same result both as root and a normal user. If you get permission problems with a normal user, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, find the section labelled “DRI” and change the Mode line to:

Mode 0666

Save the file and restart X.

Installation

The setup I wanted was a dual-boot with OpenSUSE as the default OS and WinXP as an option. I decided to keep the recovery partition, create a small FAT32 partition for easy sharing of files between the OS’es and split the remaining disk into two equally sized partitions for Linux and Windows.

At the time, OpenSUSE 10.2 had just been released, so I figured this would be a good chance to try it out (I am still using 10.1 on my stationary PC). When I started installation for the first time, the installer reported that the filesystem in the Windows partition had been uncleanly unmounted and therefore it could not safely resize the partition. This happened because the WinXP installation was somehow broken so all attempts to install updates would hang the machine. Well, this was easy to fix, so I booted WinXP and shut down without allowing it to install updates. Points to SUSE for detecting the filesystem inconsistency!

On the next attempt the Windows filesystem was successfully resized and the remaining partitions were created. However, after completing the partitioning, the installer reported errors reading from the drive… The error message mentioned something about SATA. Not quite sure what to do about this, I tried rebooting and repeating the installation steps. Same result.

Realizing that the SATA controller was probably causing the problem, I rebooted and went looking for settings in the BIOS. Under SATA I found a setting for SATA mode set to AHCI. I changed this to Compatibility and restarted the installation.

This time, the installation worked like a charm. All of my hardware was detected automatically.

First impressions

One of the first things you notice coming from 10.1 is that the Gnome/KDE menu has been changed from the traditional program groups into a Windows-ish menu with your favourite applications, a Beagle-driven search field and some system-related icons. I have rather mixed feelings about this new style of menu.

The search facility is useful in that it finds applications, documents, recently visited web pages, etc. Generally it is quick and the presentation is clean. However, once you launch an application, the search window remains. Soon, you will have a whole bunch of Beagle windows open on your desktop. To me, it would make more sense to close the window once an icon is activated.

When you want to browse to an application rather than search, you have to click the More applications button. First problem here is if you do not want to use the mouse, you have to hit Tab eight times to get to the button! Once you have the application browser window open, you will find a huge number of icons (ok – depending on how many applications you installed) sorted into nine groups. Rather confusingly, the individual elements of the Gnome Control Center have been included as individual applications. Maybe I am just stuck in the old way of doing things, but I find it to be illogical.

On the positive side, I really like the NetworkManager applet, which makes it a breeze to switch between wired and wireless networks. I am not sure if it was included in 10.1, but I have not used it before. It automatically lists available wireless networks with their signal strength and security setting. It also manages VPN connections, though apparently only OpenVPN and Cisco type VPNs – not PPTP, L2TP or IPSec.

As with most Linux distributions, OpenSUSE comes somewhat crippled in terms of media capabilities. No DVD or MP3 playback and no or limited 3D graphics acceleration. Fortunately, the fabulous Jem Report will have you playing all your favourite DVDs, MP3s and WMA files in no time and have 3D acceleration for your games or perhaps 3D desktop effects with Compiz.

Compared with 10.1, the package management applications work much better. YaST is still takes a long time loading the package database, but it has been markedly improved. The Zen updater also seems to be more robust in this release.

All in all, OpenSUSE 10.2 has been a pleasant experience so far.

Users who have already installed OpenSUSE do not need the new version, as all the patches should already have been installed through online update. Users doing a fresh install of OpenSUSE, however, should definitely get the new images to avoid the problems with libzypp (online update) that were present in the original images.
The OpenSUSE download page does not yet mention the update, nor does the news on opensuse.org. Perhaps they are waiting for the DVD image. Unless you are in a rush, you might want to postpone the download until next week.

At first, I thought it was just because X remembered the setup from the CRT screen, which supports a much higher refresh rate (85Hz compared to 60Hz on the flatpanel). Setting the monitor type and resolution in SaX did not help, though.

The solution was to install the Nvidia binary only drivers, combined with a custom modeline (though I am not sure this is strictly necessary). There is a special Howto for installing on SUSE. Alternatively, just FTP to download.nvidia.com and grab the files in /novell/sle10/i586 (or x86_64 if you are on a 64bit CPU). There are three versions of the nvidia kernel module, so be sure to get the one matching your kernel (‘uname -r’ in a console will display your kernel version – you should look for default or smp at the end of the string).

For the modeline, I checked the X startup log (/var/log/Xorg.0.log). When the open source Nvidia driver (nv) loads, it dumps the information read from the display via EDID, Among other things, this dump gives the allowed frequence ranges and display timings. This is what I came up with:

ModeLine “1920×1200″ 154.0 1920 1968 2000 2080 1200 1203 1209 1235

This line goes in /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the section labelled Modes. Also, in the Screen section, “1920×1200″ should be the first mode in each of the subsections.
For the changes to take effect, X needs to be restarted. Either reboot the machine or do an ‘init 3′ to go into console-only mode and then an ‘init 5′ to start X again.

With the new driver, the display came up correctly. Next problem was that the text was really, really small. This is because the DPI of the new panel is much higher than the old CRT. Fixing this is easy: Open up Desktop > Control Center > Fonts. Click ‘Details’ and set resolution to 94 dots per inch. This is also a good time to adjust the font rendering setup. I seem to get the best results with Subpixel smoothing and Full hinting, but that is probably a matter of taste.

The Canon driver comes with two RPMs that need to be installed (as root!):

# rpm -ivh cnijfilter-common-2.60-x.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh cnijfilter-ip4200-2.60-x.i386.rpm

Now, CUPS shoud be restarted to read the new driver definitions.

After the RPMs are installed, the iP4200 driver appears when you add a new printer through the Yast2 configuration tool. Start Yast2, select Hardware and Printer. Add a new directly connected printer, select USB as the connection method, select a device (probably /dev/usb/lp0), enter a queue name. Next, you must select the printer model. Click on Canon in the left list, then you should be able to find “iP4200″ in the right list. In case it is not there, manually select a PPD file and enter “/usr/share/cups/model/canonip4200.ppd”. Go to the final step of the wizard, where you will find a test button. Click it to have a test page printed (remember to turn on your printer!). With a bit of luck you will soon see a piece of paper adorned with the OpenSUSE logo emerge from your printer.

Canon printers already have a lot of selling points (and I for one am extremely pleased with my iP4200), but Linux support is a major factor when considering which printer to buy. In the past I have almost always rebooted into Windows when I wanted to print something. No more!

I installed from the DVD edition. For some reason, I had disabled booting from the DVD drive, so the first step was to enter the BIOS and enable booting off the DVD. After restarting, the nice blue graphical installer appeared. All through the installation, a list on the left side shows the steps you have completed and the ones that remain.

Installation screenshot

Partitioning the harddrive(s) can be rather daunting, since if you mess up here, you may loose data on existing partitions. The installer proposes a number of setups that will work fine if you are installing on a fairly standard machine. You can also choose your own partition scheme. My rig is definitely non-standard with multiple disks and partition types, so I went for manual partitioning. I deleted my existing Fedora partitions and created new OpenSUSE partitions. I went with ReiserFS journalling filesystem instead of ext3 – not really sure what the pros and cons are, but ReiserFS seems to be the default for OpenSUSE, whereas ext3 was the default for Fedora.

Package selection comes with the standard package groups that cover the major scenarios for use, like development, servers, games etc. Sensible defaults are provided, so most users should probably stick with the package groups. Advanced users may choose to customize their setup by selecting individual packages from the enormous repertoire included on the DVD. Some versions of OpenSUSE ship with a collection of packages containing non-open source software, like an Adobe Flash Player plugin, RealPlayer and Sun’s Java JDK. These are definitely nice to have, so one should be sure to select the right download from opensuse.org.

During the installation SAX auto-detected my graphics card and monitor and decided on a resolution of 1280×1024@89 Hz! This is better than what I have managed to get it to do in Windows, where I am limited to 1152×864@85Hz. Awesome! In the early versions of Linux setting up X could be tricky business. I remember messing with scanlines trying to get the best resolution and frequency out of my monitor. None of that these days — it just does the job and asks you to confirm. Perfect!

The installation even auto-detected my winprinter, a Canon iP4200. I suspect it may just have read the device descriptor from the USB bus, though. Traditionally, printers have been one of the Achilles’ heels of Linux distributions, because the cheap so-called winprinters have all used proprietary protocols, leaving you stuck with the manufacturer’s Windows-only drivers. With the growing acceptance of Linux, some manufacturers have started either opening their protocols or publishing closed source drivers. Canon, however, have a reputation as being very uncooperative when it comes to printers. Stay tuned for a new post, when I have tested the printer.

In all, the installation took about 1 hour and left me with a modern operating system, an attractive graphical user interface, a full-featured office suite, a very capable image manipulation program, a vector graphics program, a full suite of software development tools, and much much more.

My new OpenSUSE Gnome desktop after some UI customization. Note that the transparent left panel is not using xgl.