Home Home > Distribution > Opensuse-112
Sign up | Login

Deprecation notice: openSUSE Lizards user blog platform is deprecated, and will remain read only for the time being. Learn more...

Archive for the ‘openSUSE 11.2’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

News from the Zypper Revolution

April 5th, 2010 by

Maybe revolution is a bit strong, but at this hour in the night I can probably be excused for using a bit of hyperbole – besides, nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion as Hegel would have it, so I am on solid ground here.

I have been going over customer feedback from Novell’s Brainshare conference for my internal “Systems Management Zeitgeist” report, and there are a couple of points I just had to share with you all as they are plain simply inspirational.

Our update stack is, well, zippy.  Like greased lightning, according to this happy SUSE Linux Enterprise customer:

Zypper updates a Linux system across major versions in 5 minutes, full Oracle server update done in 15 minutes

We of course appreciate speed in of itself, as a technical achievement powered by enhancements like libsat and DeltaRPM, and Community users share this point of view with us.  But Enterprise users have a different and equally valid point of view: administrator time is costly, and while many management consoles exist, industry data shows that tools do help, but not nearly enough: administrators are still involved, personally, in most Systems Management tasks —  I could quote analyst data, but not at this wee hour, so just trust me on this point.

This one medium-sized customer actually took the time to calculate what the time savings meant to his business:

The faster update stack is resulting in 56,000 dollars in [operational budget] savings

It is not everyday a customer gives you a precise dollar number in describing what a technology’s impact is on his expenses — So I just had to share it with you all, it is such a nice commentary on our effort’s tangible impact.

I can hear some of you wonder why I blogged this on my Lizard’s Community account, rather than on Novell’s Corporate site, since I am talking up Enterprise distro data and as the Systems Management guy I really have either option.  Good question!  I could say it is because I was not in the mood to dig up analyst quotes, and this setting allows me to be more cavalier and just waltz over those references, but there is a more important reason, read on.

We in the Systems Management team happen to think sleep is for the weak, and have been cooking up our next scheme for improvement — but we need your help to get there.

As the keenest observers among you have long ago noticed, with the 11.2 release we declared “zypper dup” a supported migration path, and received some accolades for it already.  But we all know that live distro upgrade migration across major version changes is a big endeavor, and we would like to solicit your help in improving it: if you have the time and inclination to test zypper dup and provide a properly filed bug report of any kinks you might discover, we would be delighted to use your feedback to improve the 11.3 implementation of this process.

Just a word of caution: comments to this entry, or bugs filed without sufficient data to be analyzed, are not going to further the result we all seek.  If you report something, make sure enough data to reproduce the issue is included, and that you are able to provide additional data upon request of the developer handling your report: if we cannot reproduce a problem, we cannot fix it.

Thanks in advance to those among you joining us in this effort!

Posted in Base System, Distribution, openSUSE 11.2, Software Management, Systems Management | 2 Comments »

Annuncing KIWI-LTSP package updates

March 31st, 2010 by

Hello Community

openSUSE packages are updated to use the latest LTSP. Here are the highlights of this release:

* LTSP 5.2.1
* LDM 2.1.1
* LTSPFS 0.6.0
* kiwi-ltsp-prebuilt 0.8.2
* kiwi-ltsp-bootimage 0.8.2

Follow the Quick Start guide here: http://en.opensuse.org/LTSP

Give it a test and let me know your feedbacks.

On the side note,  jury verdict in the Novell vs SCO Group trial, Novell wins. Good news for Novell, for Linux and for OSS

Have a lot of fun…

Posted in Build Service, Education, openSUSE 11.2, Server | Comments Off on Annuncing KIWI-LTSP package updates

Li-f-e updated

March 24th, 2010 by

openSUSE Education team is happy to announce the availability of the updated openSUSE Education Li-f-e DVD iso. The Linux for Education (Li-f-e) contains the wide selection of education, development, office, as well as multimedia packs to meet all possible computing needs of students, teachers and parents.

Some of the highlights of this update:

Desktop Environments:

Additions:

Updates:

  • All official updates to openSUSE 11.2 since its release
  • LTSP 0.5.1.99, includes fat-client support
  • Banshee 1.6 RC1
  • Code::Blocks SVN 6182
  • and of course most of the education packages like gcompris and tux4kids suite got updated.

Download:

Direct Download | metalink | torrent | md5sum

More mirrors on sourceforge

More information here: http://en.opensuse.org/Education/Live

Have a lot of fun

Your openSUSE Education team

Posted in Derivative, Distribution, Education, GNOME, KDE, openSUSE 11.2, Server, Systems Management | Comments Off on Li-f-e updated

openSUSE-LXDE Live CDs

March 13th, 2010 by

We have them!

http://en.opensuse.org/Derivatives#Unofficial_updated_LXDE_live_CDs

Thanks to Dmitry serpokryl (The author of SOAD), to make it possible!

i586 and x86_64 isos are both available! But most of all, they provides the latest LXDE packages like pcmanfm 0.9.2

Now it’s your turn, download them, test them, report issues so i can fix them! Oh btw, you can also install them 😉

And finally

Have lot’s of fun

Andrea

Posted in Desktop, openSUSE 11.2, X.org | 9 Comments »

openSUSE-LXDE development status

March 1st, 2010 by

Ok people… openSUSE 11.3 Milestone2 has been released and quite soon we will have the Milestone3.

So now, after lot’s of promises, what is the status now?

IT’S DONE!

yes… it’s done… openSUSE 11.3 allow now to install LXDE directly from installation DVD or Net install. I’m sure all of you reading this post wants to try it, but for lazy people (and i know there are a lot of them outside), just click here and watch some pictures.

Can that be all? No of course not!

Just today i announced to opensuse-lxde and opensuse-factory mailing lists that we switched finally to pcmanfm2.

Even if that one is not yet stable, and even if it’s still on alpha release stage, it’s already feature rich and stable enoguht for daily usage. Of course bugs exist and you report is welcome, so we can fix them.

But it’s not enough, thanks to sidux lxde community we have a couple of nice tools: lxdm-conf and lxcc.

lxdm-conf as name suggest, it is a simple and powerful tool that helps you to edit lxdm settings without take care to manually edit /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf file. This tool is already into repos.

lxcc instead is a small control center, written using python-gtk. It’s based on an idea of PCLinuxOS Community that wrote lxdecc using gtkdialog. Instead to port original lxdecc to openSUSE we choose to cooperate with Sidux on lxcc simply because gtkdialog looks to be a dead project. Lxcc is not yet into repos, so here a screenshot:

Schermata

And to finish a very good news. We are working on live cds. Yes, it’s taking looong time, but now we should be able to provide you better ISOs in shorter time since we moved from suse-studio to OBS kiwi system. Preliminary images can be downloaded from here:  X11:lxde (login required).

Most probably, a preliminary image will be published soon for a testing (based on openSUSE 11.2), in the same way, a Factory based live CD should be ready soon. Of course, i can’t forget, all that work on ISOs couldn’t be possible without the Dmitry serpokryl help (The author of SOAD).

I hope you’ll enjoy openSUSE-LXDE experience. So please, test test test and test it again. We have to provide the best LXDE ever!

Posted in Accessibility, Desktop, Distribution, Factory, lizards.openSUSE.org, openSUSE 11.2, Packaging, X.org | 2 Comments »

AstroGarrobo Beta

February 10th, 2010 by

Space, the Final Frontier! This is the tale of one Amateur Astronomer that have found in openSUSE a terrific tool for public outreach, self-learning and teaching platform.

Ok, that was a bit exagerated.

But the truth is that I am enjoying the new SUSE Studio suite. And that’s because it is facilitating my job as an educator. I work with the Nicaraguan Amateur Astronomers Society (ANASA) in teaching basic astronomy to the public. Obviously, my workhorse is an openSUSE laptop, loaded with Stellarium, Celestia, KStars and Xephem (and many other tools for my personal job as an astronomer).

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Build Service, Education, GNOME, openSUSE 11.2 | Comments Off on AstroGarrobo Beta

Xen para-virtualized openSUSE 11.2

February 10th, 2010 by

I had to install Xen para-virtualized openSUSE 11.2 (PVM), lucky for me 11.2 DVD iso has broken xen kernel so it does not install, the live CDs do not have any xen kernel at all so they are not useful either. After reading up all the posts on the bugzilla and forums about the subject, found the way to get it done, here is a howto for anyone else who is looking for the solution.

1. Set up http installation source

Install web-server pattern from yast to install apache2 in Dom0

Edit apache configuration /etc/apache2/default-server.conf to follow symlinks, it should look something like this:

#Options none
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

Mount the DVD iso and copy all the files to your webserver root.

mount openSUSE-11.2-DVD-i586.iso /mnt -o loop
mkdir -p /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2
cp -ar /mnt/* /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2/
cd /srv/www/htdocs/suse-11.2/boot/i386/
rm *-xen*
wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/initrd-xen
wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/boot/i386/vmlinuz-xen
ln -s initrd-xen initrd-xenpae
ln -s vmlinuz-xen vmlinuz-xenpae
cd /srv/www/htdocs/
wget http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.2/rpm/i586/kernel-xen-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.i586.rpm (or the latest)
mv kernel-xen-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.i586.rpm kx.rpm
rcapache2 start

2. Start installation via “yast2 vm-install”, select para-virtualization and as installation source use http://dom0IP/suse-11.2/
3. The hack part:
When the install is about 80%  or “Stop” the reboot after the completion of first stage install, switch to tty2 by using “Sendkey > ctrl+alt+F2”.

chroot /mnt
rpm -Uvh http://dom0IP/kx.rpm –force

Reboot and let the install run its course, at the end of it there should be working domU

Edit: If you have fast internet connection available during install, add the update repository as “Addon product”, with that in place the above hack will not be necessary.

Edit2: If the image still don’t boot, mount the disk image to edit grub’s menu.lst:

mount -o loop,offset=32256 /full/path/to/image/disk0 /mnt
cd /mnt
ln -s vmlinuz-….-xen vmlinuz-xen
ln -s initrd-…..-xen.img initrd-xen
vi /mnt/grub/menu.lst #to look like below:

title XEN
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-xen root=…..
initrd /initrd-xen

Posted in Documentation, Kernel, openSUSE 11.2, Virtualization | 2 Comments »

Cheat ocfs2-tools

February 9th, 2010 by

When running ocfs2 on cLVM, openais+pacemaker setup, you may run into something like described below.

The symptoms:

umount /data1
mspx1d0:~ # tunefs.ocfs2 –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1
tunefs.ocfs2: Unable to access cluster service while opening device “/dev/system/data1”
mspx1d0:~ # mount /dev/system/data1 /data1
mspx1d0:~ # tunefs.ocfs2 –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1
tunefs.ocfs2: Configuration error discovered while opening device “/dev/system/data1”

Here is how to get past cluster check when running ocfs2-tools.

From hb_gui or crm stop mounting of the file system and ocf::ocfs2:o2cb resources.

Install ocfs2-tools-o2cb package

Do normal stack configuration using /etc/init.d/o2cb configure, but do not auto start on boot. Read the fine ocfs2 manual.

Bring ocfs2 online: /etc/init.d/o2cb online ocfs2

Start ocfs2 service: rcocfs2 start

Update cluster stack on your partition with ocfs2 filesystem: tunefs.ocfs2 –update-cluster-stack /dev/system/data1

Do your thing with ocfs2-tools, such as: tunefs.ocfs2 -v –fs-features=sparse,unwritten /dev/system/data1

Stop ocfs2 service and unload o2cb: rcocfs2 stop && /etc/init.d/o2cb offline ocfs2 && /etc/init.d/o2cb unload

Re-enable ocf::ocfs2:o2cb resources and run tunefs.ocfs2 –update-cluster-stack /dev/system/data1 again. Re-enable mounting from hb_gui.  Hope there is a simpler way somewhere that I am not aware of.

Posted in Documentation, openSUSE 11.2, Server, Systems Management | Comments Off on Cheat ocfs2-tools

My Inadvertent Experiment & Return

January 11th, 2010 by

Hello openSUSE Project! If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that since October, I’ve been a Windows 7 user instead of an openSUSE user. Well, late last night, I got a visit at home from this character:

samurai

So, I am now an openSUSE user again…

OK. Just kidding. Actually I left the project because I needed to concentrate my time on my work in the liberty movement and school, and when push comes to shove, the little green lizard got shoved. In the process, I had purchased a copy of Windows 7 when Microsoft was selling it for $50, and so I essentially switched over to using Windows 7 for a few months. In the end, I moved back to openSUSE because it’s, quite frankly, a better experience in many ways. I’ll probably write up an article or two in my comparisons between the two OSs… but I’m back now, using openSUSE 11.2.

In the course of these three months, I have to say I missed working with the openSUSE Project, especially the people. So… I’m back! I re-uped my mailinglist subscriptions and have been reading back articles of openSUSE News to try and catch up with what’s been going on in the project. I’m excited to be back and I look forward to working with you all again!

– Kevin

Posted in Miscellaneous, openSUSE 11.2 | 2 Comments »

openSUSE 11.2 on Dell Mini 10v

January 4th, 2010 by

The Dell Mini 10v is nothing special from a hardware perspective for a Netbook, and follows along the specs of most other Netbook models on the market today. The integrated buttons in the track-pad take some time getting used to, and IMHO separate buttons are more user friendly. For my recently acquired new toy I increased the RAM to 2 GB and added the larger battery. On the software side the Dell Mini 10v is something special as it is one of few Netbooks available with Linux pre-installed. Other Netbook brands either have no Linux option or charge extra when straying of the beaten hardware and OS combination path, at what I consider to be outrages rates. While as a devoted SUSE user I’d rather see openSUSE than Ubuntu pre-installed getting Linux on the machine and not having any of my hard earned money diverted to the monopolist from Redmond was a key purchasing decision.

Once unpacked and the battery charged I played with the Ubuntu distribution pre-installed by Dell for a while. Network configuration was easy enough and I could probably get used to the Desktop interface if I used it for a while. Next up was Moblin, more out of curiosity than for “serious” evaluation purposes. Having read some concerns about openSUSE 11.2 on Netbooks in some mailing list thread or review I decided to give it a try, knowing that I might be in for an unpleasant surprise. At the same time I was setting up the machine a thread about the Broadcom wireless card used in the Dell Mini appeared on the openSUSE mailing list,very timely indeed. As it turns out my concerns were unfounded.

I downloaded the GNOME Live CD from http://www.opensuse.org/en/, then used the information provided on the openSUSE wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/Live_USB_stick) to create a USB live image. After fiddling with the BIOS setting to boot from USB media first I was able to run the openSUSE 11.2 live image and the installer from the stick. Once openSUSE 11.2 was installed I configured the Ethernet card to get network access. Empowered with access to the Internet I added the packman repository

# zypper ar http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.2/ Packman

This can also be done through YaST for those more comfortable with GUI tools.

Next step was to refresh the repository data

# zypper refresh

and then to install the Broadcom firmware package and kernel driver

# zypper in broadcom-wl broadcom-wl-kmp-default

last but not least I loaded the module into the kernel

# modprobe wl

and now the Broadcom wireless card showed up when using the ifconfig command as eth1. I used the NetworkManager applet to configure the network connecting to my wireless AP and everything works just fine.

In summary, all is well with openSUSE 11.2 on the Dell Mini 10v including the 3D desktop with compiz.

Posted in openSUSE 11.2 | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »