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.

Here is the official announcement and here is the download page.

Do not expect any revolutionary changes this time around. There are a few new packages and a slew of updated ones. The main highlights are:

• Firefox 2.0
• Kernel 2.6.18 SMP (no non-SMP)
• GNOME 2.16.1
• KDE 3.5.5
• PHP 5.2
• improvements to the online update and package installation tools
• reorganised start menu

Tuxmachines has a review of OpenSUSE 10.2 beta 2.