Developers: I have downloaded and installed openSUSE-11.1-Beta5-DVD-x86_64.iso and verified the md5sum as correct. The install is on: Setup: M/B: K9N2 SLI Platinum CPU: AMD Phenom Black Box Quad Core (125W) GPU: evga eGeForce 8800GT RAM: 4G OCZ Platinum Drives: Current Install of 11.0 x86_64 Two Seagate 500G (ST3500630AS), sda,sdb RAID1 on SATA 1,2 Current Install of 11.1 Beta5 x86_64 One Seagate 500G (ST3500630AS), sdc DVD: LG GH22LS30 PSU: HEC Zypher 750 UPS: APC BP650 (com1, /dev/ttyS0) O/S: openSuSE 11.0 x86_64 Case: Antec 182SE, 3 120mm fans The Good: 11.1 Beta 5 install from the full DVD on x86_64 was flawless on a MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum. All defaults as far as screen resolution and partition scheme were used. All components were identified and configured. It recognized my 11.0 RAID1 install and didn't try to alter the partitions on the array. The partitioner partitioned hdc with 20G / and the remainder for /home. Swap was from the RAID. With the fairly extensive full server type package selection, install completed in just under 50 minutes. The install user_packages.xml can be found here: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/user_packages.xml One thing you need to SERIOUSLY consider for 11.1 is to put the ability to install KDE 3 back on the desktop selection page of the install. It was curious that I saw nothing at all about KDE 3 until I was in the detailed package selection part. I'm all for KDE 4, but I don't think it is all for me yet -- see below. The Not Good: After install, I was prompted to update the system and prompted for the root password. After typing in the root password, the updater promptly crashed with "policy-kit Fatal Error..." See: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/policykit-kde.kcrash http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/fatal_error-1.jpeg Thankfully, when I restarted yast, online update had the policykit update. However, I don't think it is totally fixed. I was trying to access administrator mode in kde control panel after I had installed the policykit update and kcmshell crashed on me as well. See: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/kcmshell.jpeg All in all though, for first impressions of KDE4 on 11.1, I though the KDE 4 desktop looked really cool and I was really ready to get it set up and running and configured the way I would like it. However, the gee whiz soon wore off. One of the first things I do with any desktop is to configure the display with the information I want to see, and set the fonts to something reasonable. For starters, despite my best attempts with sax2, I cannot get my display to change resolution to something other than 800x600. Sax2 allowed me to choose the monitor I have the box connected to at the moment. A NEC Accusync95F, with details set to 19" 5/4 and with the correct size, Horiz. and Vert. freq. ranges. However, sax2 detected my 8800GT as a generic frame buffer card. Sax does allow me to choose the resolution I want 1280x1024, but when I hit test, the screen come up in 800x600 no matter what I do. I have had this problem with XP before, but never with openSuSE. I'm sure a large part of this is due to the fact my 8800 GT was configured as a frame buffer device. Next, the fonts are horrible. Some of the control center dialogs are nearly unreadable. No matter what I change the fonts to under "appearance" "fonts", the fonts continue to look like some old bitstream font, jagged and squashed together horizontally. In administrator mode (that did work this time) I was able to enable subpixel hinting -- nice touch, but it had no effect on the font appearance. Resigning to 800x600 and the ugly fonts, I went to configure the rest of the desktop to enlarge the fonts so I could read what I was looking at. I right-clicked the clock in the taskbar to add the date like I like to see. I enabled the date and applied the change. I looked -- ugh, I can barely see the "Fri. 14 Nov." It looks like it is set to 5pt. type, barely readable on a 19" monitor set at 800x600?? Then I decided I would change the font for the date to make it easier on the eyes. What the heck? Is there no way to change the font on the date?? Nope.. Next, I tried to change the wallpaper. KDE control center, desktop, wallpaper, I selected blue-curl - then apply, then nothing? Huh again.. Why can't I change the wallpaper from the wallpaper drop down in the configure desktop dialog? OK, screensaver. I found it as well. I was able to change the screensaver, but it will not blank the display with, as it had by default, the ACPI settings checked. Working further, I went to set up and configure the way I work with it to add the available pluggins and highlighter themes and such. To my great surprise, there were very few pluggins available that I'm used to using -- code snippets, knosole,,etc. and there was virtually no control for the highlighting choices. Are they in the works? I was relieved to see konqueror on the taskbar. Browsing seemed ok for 20 or 30 minutes, but then konqueror crashed. I was not responsive, so I loaded opera, and then went to the factory repository to get a few more repos added. The konqueror crash took out more than just konqueror, it somehow killed the screen backgrounds' abiity to refresh itself so blank holes in the screen stayed there after windos closing. Reopening konqueror -- konqueror would only display web pages as black (all black) Then I got one of the worst surprises yet. I went in konqueror to save a file similar to one I just saved, but in the save-as dialog you can't do this in KDE 4. In the file dialog, if you choose a prior file to then hopefully add additional text, say maybe filename002.jpg. However, as soon as you select the file, the whole dialog closes and the [overwrite] dialog replaces it without giving you a change to add even a single character to the filename (this is a must fix before 11.1 goes out the door). See: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/konqueror-save-as.jpeg An annoyance more than anything drastic is when you open several dialogs in the kde control-center, the (Apply) (cansel) buttons are hidden under the panel and you have to hide the panel to be able to sapply your settings. Next konsole transparent backgroud does not simply keep a transparency over the background to add a little transparency behind the text. Now in KDE4, the entire window becomes transparent and if you have a white dialog behind it like kwrite, the white of the underlying application bleeds through. See: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_11.1/konsole-bkgtrans-error.jpe... Lastly for the first look, the alt+2 run command doesn't work the way it needs to. In KDE 3 you have the ability to "run as a different user" so that you can run kwrite as root for the purose of not having to login a root or edit the files in konsole with sudo. This is a big short coming and should be addressed before the release. Double lastly, I can't put my finger on it, but there is a speed issue with KDE4. When clicking different dialog, notably in KDE control center, you can count to 3 before the next tab on the dialog actually appears. If I'm seeing slowness on a phenom 9850, 4G and an NV8800GT, then it must be really slow on all the earlier pentiums, etc.. What is everyone else seeing? It is real apparent that a lot of great work has been done working to get KDE4 ready for release and it shows. But based on what I see in beta 5, it makes sense to considure slipping 11.1 a little further to make sure these type of issues are fixed before the release. While I was able to pick agound in KDE4 and find everything, and at least understand where the problem were, that would be a task way over the head of a large majority of all userss. Like I said when I started above, we need to seriously consider putting KDE 3 back on th edesktop selection page. More tomorrow, it's time for sleep. (not responsible for typos above -- it's late) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. | Rankin Law Firm, PLLC | Countdown for openSuSE 11.1 510 Ochiltree Street | http://counter.opensuse.org/11.1/small Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 | Telephone: (936) 715-9333 | openSoftware und SystemEntwicklung Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 | http://www.opensuse.org/ www.rankinlawfirm.com | -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-factory+help@opensuse.org