NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › abf ventures to try SUSE 10.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

abf ventures to try SUSE 10.

post #1 of 25
11/27/05 at 8:53pm
Thread Starter 
So many of you know that I discourage the use of FC4, SUSE10, and Mandrake2006 on these forums, and for good reason.

FC4 - crap
mandrake - doesn't have that "something" (it is fast though)
SUSE - crap

well, at least suse 9.x was. So what I am doing now is venturing into trying SUSE10. I know its been a while since it came out, but the truth is that a 4gb download does not appeal to me, and the net install is terribly slow. So anyway, right now i am downloading cd 3 of 5.

I am not risking my ubuntu install, I'll repartition the drive making a 10gb "testing" partition on which i'll install random linuxes as i feel like, and keep ubuntu as my primary OS on the larger (49gb) partition (1gb is swap).

LoL....wish me luck peeps.

This is the goal:
- install Suse 10 + KDE (since SUSE was meant for KDE, even though i prefer gnome highly over kde)
- get sound, wireless (via madwifi or ndiswrapper), video (fglrx and resolution 1280x800), PCMCIA, and as much of other crap as possible to work
- test it in terms of stability and speed vs Ubuntu Breezy x86.

results (and ?s asking for help on the config stage) will be posted as i get them.

the ultimate goal of this is so that i can justify my "suse sucks" remarks on other threads, and so it will shut up the Suse fans on here who say i have no justification to flame suse10 if i have never even tried it. however, if suse10 is really better (than suse9, or maybe even ubuntu), then i guess i owe some suse users some green rep
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 25
11/27/05 at 11:24pm
Way to go man. Atleast you will know for sure and speak with authority. THis should be interresting.
/me gets the popcorn.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 25
11/28/05 at 12:08am
I have a question... Why are you so obsessed with finding the perfect distro?

If you have issues with sound, wireless, video and pcmcia it would probably be better to learn how to load kernel modules, or better yet, compile the drivers into a custom kernel rather than spend all of this time installing tons of distros.

I'm not trying to criticize, I just think you might be giving up on the distros you've tried too quickly.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 25
11/28/05 at 12:19am
Thread Starter 
big.... i am settled on ubuntu, because just about everything works out of the box, and works well. i just like trying different distros because each one has some unique feature to offer that others don't. they also all differ in speed and other things...which are often nice. so i am not bent on trying to find the perfect distro...i found it.. ubuntu. at this point i am just checking out suse10 because everybody loves it, and i want to make sure that it is as bad as suse9 (or maybe it is really better)
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 25
11/28/05 at 12:49am
i know how you feel (at least, i think i know). the curiosity plays a role on what your doing, right? i have the same thing on me, it's just that i don't have much time (free) to do that.

Kudos for you. Curiosity is one of the things that moves the world. Congrats! Luck wished as asked...

ps.: i'm talking a lot of b.s. to encourage you to do what I didn't and use your experience! so! go on!! curiosity is what moves us (meanwhile I'm checking your improvements and using some things).
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 25
11/28/05 at 12:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
big.... i am settled on ubuntu, because just about everything works out of the box, and works well. i just like trying different distros because each one has some unique feature to offer that others don't. they also all differ in speed and other things...which are often nice. so i am not bent on trying to find the perfect distro...i found it.. ubuntu. at this point i am just checking out suse10 because everybody loves it, and i want to make sure that it is as bad as suse9 (or maybe it is really better)
Ahh, I see. I had the impression that if a distro didn't detect your wifi or something like that it's off to the next one.

good luck. (maybe you can do a mini review in one thread on all the distros you've tried sometime)

-BT
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 25
11/28/05 at 1:16am
ABF: I too have tried many distro's. I do like kde distro's myself, but do me a favor, PcLinuxOnline .92. It comes as installible kde based livecd. Texstar has made a GREAT flexible distro(mandriva based). I have a M6811 and only had to manually edit xorg.conf to get fglrx running at 1280x800, Ndiswrapper just has to be pointed to the windows .inf to get wireless up. He uses rpm's but synaptic to update and install. Too all who are looking for a nice, well rounded, strongly supported distro goto www.pclinuxonline.com and give it a shot! As after all my ventures I seem to end up back home with PCLOS.


P.S. PcLinux comes in standard,ATI (above 8500), and Nvidia optimized versions, all livecd's but all installible
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 25
11/28/05 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
ok well, i guess before i take a step forward i'll take a step back.

i just formated my hdd and installing WinXP (20gb partition). I got rid of it last month because ugh..i don't know, but now i am putting it back because after all ET is not CS:S. also i got rid of ubuntu to try suse, i will try to get it to work, but if it doesn't i am back on ubuntu
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 25
11/28/05 at 7:56pm
Thread Starter 
ok, so burning of the CDs went terribly ugh...terrible. Anyway, so i am choking the bullet and doing the net install. A default system + kde = ~2.1gb which is ~ 2 hours on 6mbps comcast cable via mirrors.kernel.org

now we wait
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 25
11/28/05 at 9:45pm
finally...

i also had problems burning the cd's, so i just wen to the net install. i really hope the SLICK one cd install thing gets good enough to be used instead of suse proper.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 25
11/28/05 at 10:27pm
my cd's worked fine. I snagged them through bittorent, tho. Much more likely to get a working set that way.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 25
11/28/05 at 11:51pm
Ugh, I have a policy of NEVER do the net install on Suse, I tried it a few times a while back and none of them ever went good. To much can go wrong when dealing with 2-4 Gigs of downloads.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 25
11/29/05 at 12:03am
Thread Starter 
well, the install complete and the only thing to go wrong was OOo. Anyway, i guess another thing went wrong. It detected i had a AMD64 and automatically installed the 64 bit version, i wanted the 32bit. A 32bit will make installing wireless and ati drivers a ton easier.

What i can tell you guys now is that yes, SUSE10 is better than 9, quite a bit faster too, but its no Vector. Hey, its the first SUSE in years where my sound actually works out of the box.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 25
11/29/05 at 2:09am
Who are you and what did you put in the pancakes???
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 25
11/29/05 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by beaviskob1
I do like kde distro's myself, but do me a favor, PcLinuxOnline .92.
i think you mean PCLinuxOS .92 (pclinuxonline is a news site). Well, I actually read up some reviews and i am intrigued. That said, I am downloading the .92-ati iso right now and will give it a whirl, got nothing to lose, and hell, if it works better than SUSE10 did, i am giving you some rep
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 25
11/29/05 at 9:50pm
Thread Starter 
as of right now pclinuxos is installing and looking very good (from what i was able to tell it found my wireless and installed fglrx out of the box). so far i must say i am gonna rep you up
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 25
11/29/05 at 10:28pm
ooooo look shiny thing. j/k
All this talk of switching distros is making me sorta get the itch to try something different.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 25
11/29/05 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 
PCLinuxOS is installed and RUNNING!

Here is the report on what works out of the box:
video (fglrx), wireless (madwifi), sound (alsa)

Stuff that doesn't word:
media card reader, hardware buttons, power management, resolution


stuff that worked under ubuntu:
sound, wireless, resolution, power management, hardware buttons
stuff not working under ubuntu:
media card reader, fglrx

so in the end this distro is about on-par with ubuntu in terms of stuff working. one thing i will give to PCLOS is that it is quite a bit faster than ubuntu, AND it has a control panel that sets it on par with SUSE's Yast.

Now i am gonna go try resolve my power management and resolution issues.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 25
11/29/05 at 11:16pm
what card do you have and what do you get in glxgears? if its anywhere near decent, i might just end up getting an ATI notebook if nvidia doesn have anything out in the next feew months.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 25
11/29/05 at 11:54pm
Thread Starter 
i have a 9700 128mb and i get in the lower 11,000 (5 sec) ballpark.

I would still suggest nVidia because fglrx does not take too kindly to un-suspending



EDIT:
for those who care, PCLOS takes 1 minute and 6 sec to boot on my system as of right now (almost stock state)
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Linux & Other OS's
NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Linux & Other OS's › abf ventures to try SUSE 10.