openSUSE 11 Alpha 0 screenshot tour
December 9, 2007 – 7:37 pm | by CosminopenSUSE had yesterday (and still has) most of the votes, so I downloaded the Gnome CD and proceeded to the installation. As I was saying, I’m using a virtual machine powered by VMware Workstation. This time it was configured with 256 MB RAM and an 8 GB HDD.
About openSUSE
The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world’s most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.
About this development release
Stephan Kulow has announced the availability of the first development release of openSUSE 11.0: “We’d like to kick start the development of openSUSE 11.0 with releasing the current state of Factory as Alpha0 release. Since the release of 10.3, we checked in 2,187 packages including such fundamental package updates as GCC 4.3.0, Linux kernel 2.6.24-rc4, X.Org 7.3, KDE 3.5.8 and 4.0 RC1, CUPS 1.3.4, ALSA 1.0.15, GIMP 2.4 and YaST 2.16. The change between 10.3 and Alpha0 is big, but it still works pretty nicely. So please join the openSUSE 11.0 development in downloading, testing and using Alpha0 or daily updated Factory distribution. So far there are some glitches in the installation process that are mostly harmless. But the new kernel in particular can cause some regressions we would love to hear about those through Bugzilla.” See the release announcement for more information.
Via DistroWatch.com
The installation
openSUSE uses the YaST installer, which is quite similar to Anaconda, the installer used by RHEL, Fedora Core and CentOS. Unlike the tendency to use live cd based installers, like ubiquity, the Ubuntu installer, the openSUSE CD is just a plain installation CD, which provides a graphical interface by running YaST in a kernel framebuffer.
Enough with the the talk, look at the following screenshots and read the comments below them:
The boot screen…
Booting…
YaST is starting…
Media check…
It warns that it is a development version…
License Agreement…
Loading hardware modules…
Choosing installation mode.
Network setup…
I don’t get it, why it can’t install “add-on” software if I have only 256 MB RAM? Hmm, maybe “add-on” products = Compiz Fusion…
Time zone…
Keyboard layout - no Romanian…
Partitioning scheme…
Final system settings…
Waiting for a final confirmation…
Installation started, now you can’t go back…
Installing packages…
Still installing…
Almost done…
Finishing the base installation…
Rebooting…
Settings again - root password…
Hostname…
Network configuration…
Testing internet connection…
Internet connection: working…
Registration failing - why?
Authentication method: if authentification at Windows domains is working out of the box, openSUSE might be good choice for companies who want to gradually migrate from Microsoft solutions to free ones.
New local user. Automatic login was enable by default - I don’t like that.
Release notes…
Installation finally done.
Using it
GDM seems broken - at least for me it is not working.
Good old console. Trying the “startx” command…
And…. working - Hurray!
What? Floppy disk? I don’t have one. What does this button do? 
The kernel…
Contents of the home directory. Pretty strange to have public_html in /etc/skel for a desktop installation.
Exploring the menu… It looks good, but it is not an example of good usability. There are just a few apps here. Update: But as Magnus Boman points out, you cand easily add or remove this applications.
Here we find all the apps. But, as I was saying, not the best usability. To open an application that’s not in the first menu, you need to click on “More applications” and that will open this independent launcher, which, in my opinion is also poorly designed. In many cases you also need to scroll a lot or use the left menu to jump to a certain section. But then you can add the certain app to the Applications menu.
Firefox is working OK.
The custom OpenOffice.org splash is pretty nice…
OpenOffice.org Writer is working…
I don’t use F-Spot, but as it was installed, I tried to launch it. Seems OK.
Evolution connected to my IMAP sever.
Tomboy Notes… another useful app, but I almost always forget about it when I want to note something
Now, things that don’t work
Liferea, an RSS reader crashes the first time I try to start it…
When I tried to open the update applet…
Totem offers to install the mp3 plugin…
Opens in Firefox a page from software.opensuse.org…
And when I try to install the package… another error.
YaST2 is working…
But you can’t run any of the modules.
It can’t mount or open the CD drive…
Because I was not running the X session via GDM, I the only option available from the Shutdown menu was Hibernate. Let’s see ii it works…
Nope, it just locked the screen…
Conclusion
This is a development version, so we should suppose that all the bugs I encountered here are going to be removed in the final version. The system itself, and most of the applications that are working are already quite stable. Considering this, openSUSE 11 is going to be a pretty good distribution. It has a big user base, recent versions for packages, some support from Novell, all the components are good integrated, there are nice GUIs for the most common settings, it is supposed to have good interoperability with Microsoft software.
On the other side, from my point of view it is bloated and inflexible. I’m used to edit config files from command line, install individual packages, etc. It may be a good choice for beginners or companies, but not for me.
Still searching for my perfect distro. Have a look at the poll to vote for the next distribution that I should review.
Tags: broken, dev version, openSUSE, poll
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By Magnus Boman on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
FYI; In the application browser, you can right click on an application and then “Add to favorites”. That will add it to the main menu. Likewise, you can right click on an app in the main menu and then “Remove from favorites” if you don’t want it there.
By Magnus Boman on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
Oh, almost forgot… You said “I’m used to edit config files from command line, install individual packages, etc.”
What exactly is it that prevents you from doing that with openSUSE? Just because there *are* GUI utils that can do it for you doesn’t mean that you can’t do it manually if you prefer.
By Cosmin on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
About the menu: I’ve seen those options, but I still prefer the classic menu system. And yes, I know you can add it via “Add to Panel”.
About the command line: Yast2 is broken, Yast tells me that there is not repository available, or something like that. So I’m stuck without MC and with that stupid vi (I can use it, but I hate it). In this case, I’m not going to explore that system via command line. openSUSE also gives me the impression of a “don’t touch the terminal” type of distribution.
About the packages: I was thinking about the availability of a minimal system install and then the installation of different packages. Sorry for not being clear on this subject.
Finally, I may be subjective, but this is my search for the perfect distro…
By Magnus Boman on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
You are indeed not very clear… Beneath the screenshot you write;
“To open an application that’s not in the first menu, you need to click on “More applications” and that will open this independent launcher, which, in my opinion is also poorly designed.”
Which is off course not true as I explained above…
As part of your summary you state;
“About the command line: Yast2 is broken, Yast tells me that there is not repository available, or something like that.”
Then I replied above and now you say ;
“About the command line: Yast2 is broken, Yast tells me that there is not repository available, or something like that. So I’m stuck without MC and with that stupid vi”
I really don’t understand what it is you want to do?
But better yet… You replied with “Finally, I may be subjective, but this is my search for the perfect distro…”
I’m sorry but… WTF? You are searching for the perfect distro and you chose to explore an ALPHA0 version…?? Let me spell that out for you:
ALPHA0 (A L P H A 0)
What exactly are you expecting with an alpha version? Why didn’t you review 10.3 instead if you are all that honest about your intentions?
By Cosmin on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
“To open an application that’s not in the first menu, you need to click on “More applications” and that will open this independent launcher, which, in my opinion is also poorly designed.” - this is true, but you can also add the application in menu. True, but not complete. I’ll edit, ok? And I don’t like that launcher because it gives you a very long list, even if you can jump to a certain section.
As Yast is not working, I don’t have access to repositories and updates. So I can’t install midnight commander and explore properly the contents of the file system.
I consider this alpha version something like a preview of the final version. I was looking for features, philosophy, general feeling, not a perfectly working system. Of course this is not my final opinion (that would be really stupid). I’ll test the final version.
By Cyran0 on Dec 22, 2007 | Reply
I have the same proble with X server and OpenSuse 10.3
I can’t start X server , I tried “xstart” on console , but I’m getting the same error
“No Core Pointer
Fatal Server Error
failed to initialize core devices
err 104
err 3 ”
… but it works on my other computer very well .
I think it’s a hardware problem
By Matthew on Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
Hi Cyran0,
Your problem is most likely due to your mouse being misidentified. If so you will need to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/XF86Config (I think this will depend on which xserver you are loading) configuration file to reflect your mouse. I hit the same wall on installation of 10.3. I simply copied/pasted the mouse section of my 10.2 xorg.conf file over 10.3’s and wala I am fixed!
Matthew
mouse section example form my xorg.conf
Section “InputDevice”
Driver “mouse”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Option “Buttons” “12″
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “ImExPS/2 Logitech MX Mouse”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2″
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
EndSection
By Matthew on Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
Oh and as far as I am aware of the command is startx not xstart, so that could be an issue as well when you tried to recover from the above problem. Though I don’t think initating X from the console is going to make any difference if you mouse is being grossly misidentified.
Manually copy the one from the box that booted into ok if the mice are the same, or maybe borrow the other mouse until you get the problem resolved.
My mouse is a wireless laser type on a USB–>PS2 adapt. I think the install missed it because of the adapter since it used values for a standard wired serial mouse that were incompatible with mine.
Matthew
By loopack on Feb 16, 2008 | Reply
gcc -v, command not found.(yes i did run su)
yast2 sucks big time (yast2 –install dosnt even work as root)
that menu sucks to
….
But i think i get it, you dont wont users to use there own setttings and compilations.
conclusion, I just consumed a dvd on garbage and spend a little more on my off my share to global warming.
What a crap distro.
By loopwhat on Mar 10, 2008 | Reply
@loopback
Yes.. it really sounds that you know what you are doing and how things are supposed to work.
Thank you for giving me a good laghf!
@Cosmin
It should be somewhat more stable starting with the beta1 version in April and the distro has got allot of nice features going for it!
I’m amazed that you got the Alpha0 working as smoothly as you did
As Magnus already stated, the nice thing is that with YaST you have the choice to do things via GUI or for the console guru’s just dive in through a terminal console and do your thing. The choice is yours.
Cheers!
By CountessK on Mar 28, 2008 | Reply
You should have installed KDE, not Gnome. KDE is better in Opensuse, about 70% of OpenSuse users use KDE.
By MeUser on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
I agree with Magnus. If you are looking for the “perfect Distro”, why are you using ALPHA? Alpha is meant to be buggy as there are thousands of pre-release modules in the system being TESTED. Come on. Be honest to your site visitors. This is an ALPHA release and you clicked the wrong button. Downlaod 10.3 and start there. Or at least wait for the BETA 1….2…or 3 before you make a blanket statement like that. Geesh!
By MeUser on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
It’s ALPHA people. Read the instructions before downloading. Or better yet, point me to ANY ALPHA build of ANY software and let me slam it. WOW! Were you all (those confused) born yesterday and just getting a new shiny computer with pretty buttons? Oh wait, maybe you are a Vista user! Try ALPHA on that for a change. HAHA!
By justme on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply
Anyone knows that ALPHA wont work well. Now BETA is out I challenge you to update your “review” or wait until RC comes out.
By Cosmin on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply
What you don’t get is that I wasn’t expecting it to work flawlessly, I was mostly looking for features and the overall feeling.