On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 06:36, Anders Johansson wrote:

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 14:27, Preston Crawford wrote:

...

I've contacted both the feedback email address and support regarding this mysterious GDM problem and they won't help me. It's a baffling problem and it's nothing I changed, yet they won't help me.

I think they're understaffed

When you say "they won't help me", I think it's closer to the truth to say "they don't have time to help".

Whatever problem you're seeing, did you file a bug report with the people who actually write the software you're having problems with?

Who would that be, though? I filed a bug with SuSE under the advisement of someone else here. I can fix the problem easy enough by going to command line Yast or by calling xhost + localhost before firing it up, but I just wanted to make sure it was solved correctly and I'm not exactly sure who is responsible for that not working right. The people that wrote GDM? The people that wrote gnomesu? The people that wrote X? Preston

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 17:26, Anders Johansson wrote:

Exactly what is the bug you're referring to? I can't find your original question here, but from your suggested solutions it sounds dangerously close to a faq

try

su rm /root/.Xauthority exit

then run the gnomesu program again

That worked. Weird. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Wonder how it got messed up that way? Preston

On Tuesday 15 July 2003 07:14 am, Anders Karlsson wrote:

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 13:27, Preston Crawford wrote:

...

I've contacted both the feedback email address and support regarding this mysterious GDM problem and they won't help me. It's a baffling problem and it's nothing I changed, yet they won't help me.

Well, SuSE is a business and offers free basic installation support. I believe, you may purchase advanced support "tickets" from SuSE Linux if you desire the type of support you have mentioned ... from SuSE. Linux is a free/Open source operating system and is supported solely by the linux comunity; It is supported by its users and developers. Although certain components of SuSE Linux are proprietary, SuSE linux is a free/opens source OS and as such to be competitive SuSE Linux must charge for support services beyond basic installation support. This is pretty much the story with any OS these days, including some very well know proprietary systems. Yes, some of these vendors offer "free extended support" via e-mail, but this often amounts to no more than mere pretention of help in which the techs fail (I assume to save time) to correctly assess the problem, then give a set of cursory solutions that could apply to any known problem, and eventually suggest that you, the user, either reinstall the OS, or pay for premium support services. A blanket statement that SuSE support "sucks", I feel is a poor assessment of the situation, and perhaps you might have expressed this as your feelings that "I don't like SuSE's free installation support because my technical question is not covered by it." I am not criticizing you here. You have a valid problem. Fortunately you have come to the right place for help. The fine and knowledgable people here, many of them Linux Gurus (get your yoga mats out ~~~ ) in most cases are able to help you solve most technical questions relating to SuSE Linux. It may take some time, trial and error, but your problem will be solved. Max -- Remember: Always think positively and you will prevail. http://www.tuxgames.com http://www.suse.com http://www.linuxformat.co.uk http://www.linuxjournal.com http://www.transgaming.com

On Wed, 2003-07-16 at 00:50, David Benfell wrote:

But you're still getting a hell of a bargain. And you won't find many here who are much impressed with a complaint that "SuSE support sucks."

I agree with all of the above snipped. That's why I use SuSE. Because it's an incredible OS for the money you pay. And I like the idea that I'm helping support (in some small way) development of Open Source software. I wasn't saying SuSE sucks. Nor was I saying SuSE Linux sucks. It's just there support that leaves something to be desired. In the net it's not that big of a deal, you're right. It's not going to stop me using it. I just wish they'd respond. To be honest I'm more annoyed at the fact that they didn't respond to my Gnome-conduits complaint. I wasn't so much saying they should go bundle me an RPM for Gnome-conduits as I was suggesting that in the future they include that with the distribution and even that I got a "We don't support that" type of answer which is disturbing to me because I was just trying to give constructive feedback. Thus my opinion that overall their support sucks. The distribution, however, is the best there is hands down. Preston

Hi folks... I have been following this thread as I dealt with an installation problem myself... "NumLock/Numeric Keypad doesn't work in new 8.2 install..." My comment is that "SuSE Installation teaches self-reliance." Of course you could say that about Linux, Windows, &c...... All in all, the path to self reliance is easier in the open source community :-). Larry Johnson -----Original Message----- From: jfweber@bellsouth.net [mailto:jfweber@bellsouth.net] Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 08:39 To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [SLE] SuSE support sucks *** Reply to message from Preston Crawford on 16 Jul 2003 07:42:17 -0700***

To be honest I'm more annoyed at the fact that they didn't respond to my Gnome-conduits complaint. I wasn't so much saying they should go bundle me an RPM for Gnome-conduits as I was suggesting that in the future they include that with the distribution and even that I got a "We don't support that" type of answer which is disturbing to me because I was just trying to give constructive feedback.

Did you send this suggestion to the Feedback@suse.com address ?? Sorry if that's been covered, I didn't see your earlier post and I'm on a clean box at the moment, nothing on here older than about 2 hours ago <G> And mail wasn't high on my list setting this one up ... I have a feeling that if you sent your suggestion to the "support" section , those overworked folk probably noticed it wasn't something covered by the "installation" support that comes w/ the purchase of the cardboard box containing the OS and other goodies, and they moved on to the next question in the list. As far as I know they don't have any automagic replies. But that wouldn't have satisfied you right then any way, would it? IIRC and someone official, or more awake than I , can tell if it isn't correct, but I seem to recall there was some sort of payment per call or something like that ... For a while anyway. I don't know what became of it .. but , come to think of it, that wouldn't have helped you either. Since paying for information that would largely say "RSN" or something like that to your query about including some Gnomish item .. paying for that call would likely have made you a bit crazy. <g> However, if it gets real support, I don't think one could say their support Sucks. rather more they have a pretty set method to follow , for suggestions and for support, which really aren't the same thing at all. -- j it's just an afterthought; okay ? : IBM: "Think!" Rand Corporation: "Think? Hell, COMPUTE!" -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 07:14, Anders Karlsson wrote:

Out of curiosity, what is the mysterious problem you are seeing? Is it that GDM will spontaneously just die with an error "gdm_slave_xioerror_handler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0" and you just have to log in again? If so, I do not have a solution, but I do have a workaround. Either use XDM or WDM*. I have (touch wood) not seen the problem since I changed over.

Not exactly, but essentially. Basically what it looks like is happening is that this gnomesu program allows you to run Yast2 as root by entering the root password. I understand how that works. The problem is that apparantly when you start your Desktop or Window Manager with KDM the whole magic of allowing other users to contact the X Server is just kind of handled without your intervention. For some reason GDM doesn't do this *now*. I say now because it did before, but suddenly it isn't doing this any longer. Preston

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 10:20, Rob Sell wrote:

...

I've contacted both the feedback email address and support regarding this mysterious GDM problem and they won't help me. It's a baffling problem and it's nothing I changed, yet they won't help me.

...

Preston

Nothing could be more constructive than bitching about support. Oh here's an idea rather than wasting our time bitching about support why not just ask your question here?

Rob

And remember that you get what you paid for and you did NOT pay for support, so..... This will be a good place to start for help as there are a lot of good people on this list. -- Ken Schneider unix user since 1989 linux user since 1994 SuSE user since 1998

Don't I get some install support. My install doesn't work right. Does it only support clicking through Yast during the actual install?

Ah, but your *installation* apparently worked fine. It's installation support you get -- James Ogley, Webmaster, Rubber Turnip james@rubberturnip.org.uk http://www.rubberturnip.org.uk Jabber: riggwelter@myjabber.net Using Free Software since 1994, running GNU/Linux (SuSE 8.2). GNOME updates for SuSE: http://www.usr-local-bin.org

On Wed, 2003-07-16 at 02:18, Preston Crawford wrote:

I've asked the question a number of times, including asking SuSE in two different ways.

And you get replies, including one from me in this very thread. The least you can do is say "No it doesn't work", "No that's not what the problem is" or perhaps even "yes it works"

On Wed, 2003-07-16 at 09:09, Anders Johansson wrote:

On Wed, 2003-07-16 at 02:18, Preston Crawford wrote:

...

I've asked the question a number of times, including asking SuSE in two different ways.

And you get replies, including one from me in this very thread. The least you can do is say "No it doesn't work", "No that's not what the problem is" or perhaps even "yes it works"

But I have. I've tried out things. Some worked and I knew they would (like dropping xhost + localhost in .xinitrc), but they weren't the proper solution. Some were the solution (like removing that .Xauthority file) and I acknowledged this and thanked YOU profusely on the list for providing the solution. What's the problem now then? Preston

On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 18:16, Anders Johansson wrote:

On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 18:38, Preston Crawford wrote:

...

But I have. I've tried out things. Some worked and I knew they would (like dropping xhost + localhost in .xinitrc), but they weren't the proper solution. Some were the solution (like removing that .Xauthority file) and I acknowledged this and thanked YOU profusely on the list for providing the solution. What's the problem now then?

That mail was sent several hours before you replied saying the solution worked

Ah. No worries then. I really appreciate you finding that. Wonder what causes that. Strange bug. I'll have to file that away for future reference. Preston

On Fri, 2003-07-18 at 06:06, Dylan wrote:

...

Ah. No worries then. I really appreciate you finding that. Wonder what causes that. Strange bug. I'll have to file that away for future reference.

No bug, just the way email works. You can send two mails to the same address at the same time and have them arrive hours apart - it depends on server load and route taken etc...

No no, I'm referring to what causes that whole problem with the /root/.Xauthority file. Preston

On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 08:09, Dave Smith wrote:

On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 05:27:18AM -0700, me@prestoncrawford.com wrote:

...

I've contacted both the feedback email address and support regarding this mysterious GDM problem and they won't help me. It's a baffling problem and it's nothing I changed, yet they won't help me.

And you want us to do what?

I notice that someone has posted a reply to your original request, with a reference to a previous mail where someone solved the same problem. Have you tried this? If you have, and it didn't work, you need to tell us - otherwise, we'll just assume that your problem is fixed.

If you want us to help you, you have to give us some information to work with...

I have replied to them, explaining that although this works it's a bit of a hack. My concern isn't so much with getting it to work as I can figure that out on my own. My concern is with finding out what went wrong because fixing a symptom isn't the same thing as fixing the problem, right? I mean, what if something else is screwed up that I'm not aware of in spite of my using a command to give root the ability to fire up Yast2? I'd like to fix the problem itself if I can, that's all. Prseton