August 2004 - openSUSE Users - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Re: [SLE] Laptop choice
by James Knott 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

BandiPat wrote: > On Saturday 31 July 2004 11:04 pm, James Knott included these bytes: > [...] > >>>The simple thing to do would be to download the SuSE 9.1 Live CD >>>and burn the iso to a disc. Take it to the store with you and try >>>it on any laptop you are interested in to see how well it works. >>>That should give you a reasonably good idea of what you are >>>getting. >>> >>>Lee >> >>Not necessarily. That Live CD failed on 3 of 3 computers that I >>tried it on, including my ThinkPad, which runs SuSE 9.1 Pro very >>well. >> >>All of those 3 computers were also able to run the 9.0 Live Eval. > > =========== > > I should think that all the newer machines could handle the 2.88 disk > image thing. That seems to be the biggest problem James. I don't know > how new or old yours are and I had one system here I couldn't get it to > run on, but my newer system worked just grand. > > Lee While one of those was an older K6, my Thinkpad (P3) and home (Athlon XP 1700+) systems are both a bit over 2 years old. The failures were at different points, but all well after the initial boot.

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Re[2]: [SLE] Suse Yast2 Servers Down?
by Peli 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

Hi, I think the recent blackouts of various servers could cause problems as well, but take care of the winex3 package:( Doing online_update from the command-line (e.g. with -G) stops while processing the NOT EXISTING winex (winex3-3.2-55.3) package reporting "file not found". No surprise, that the "normal" .rpm couldn't be found because of license reasons on the online_update mirrors, the question is why to keep the dead link on http://www.suse.com/en/private/download/updates/91_i386.html (7 May 2004 winex3: ) as ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/rpm/i586/winex3-3.2-55.3. i586.rpm , and why to let online_update jammed with it... I would rather put the winex3 update somewhere else as e.g. into ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/9.1/misc/ or ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/9.1/ Regards, Peli

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No Sound from Soundblaster Live on SuSE 9.1
by eddie 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

I'm not sure when the sound ceased on my system but I tried everything I could thing of and got absolutely nothing. I did various yast stuff and also tried the mixer but to no avail. I finally bought a new card and to my surprised everything was just the same. So I tried it in windows and it worked fine. Eventually, I did some googling and discovered this webpage: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/189255 where on writer DiWi states that, mentioned on the German SuSE mailing list, there is a known problem with the alsa module in the 2.6.x kernels, and that one line needs to be patched. Solution : Install the kernel sources and patch $KERNEL_SRC/sound/pci/ac97/ac97-codec.c old line 174: { 0x83847658, 0xffffffff, "STAC9758/59", patch_sigmatel_stac9758, NULL }, new line 174: { 0x83847658, 0xffffffff, "STAC9758/59", NULL, NULL }, rebuild the modules and install them I've tried it and it worked. I now have sound. I hope this will help someone who has similar problems but it is also a request for someone at SuSE to pass this on to the relevant person and if possible for it fixed in future patch releases. (The webpage is dated from April of this year.) Eddie

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Laptop choice - REPORT
by Johan Sch 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

Hi list, I had an unbelievable good response to my request for some pointers. I want to thank all those kind people who took the time and effort to try to make my choice easy .. I still like the IBM. Here follow all responses from 4 mail lists compiled in this document. Hope with all this on one doc it my help some one else. ****************************** NEWBIE maillist.. Johan; There's a lot of things to consider when buying a laptop. My personal preference is a laptop that can handle a normal P4, and NOT a P4M. While this means that it will use battery power faster, most of the time I'm using the laptop, I'm plugged in to AC power somewhere. P4M's (Pentium 4 Mobile CPU's) are OK, but a standard P4 and laptop that uses Hyper-Threading will always outperform a P4M without question. Also, you should be able to upgrade the P4 as new ones come out, and P4's will always be less expensive than the P4M's. One other thing about P4's. Some of the newer P4's also have onboard cache that is one MB, and not 512K. This makes a huge difference in how fast the laptop will run. All that extra performance will keep you happy with the laptop much longer than a Centrino or Celeron could ever hope to do. Celeron CPU's are basically the same as a P4, but have a lot less cache onboard, and this is what makes them slower. Centrino's aren't an actual CPU, but a collection of P4M, Intel Chipset, Intel graphics GPU, and wireless and/or Bluetooth technologies built-in. Once I knew they used the P4M, I never kept looking for more details so you might want to look into that a bit more. I've set up or owned Toshiba, Compaq and Asus laptops. My problem is that my clients see whichever one I have and offer to buy them right there! The next one on my shopping list is the ECS G900 which can be viewed here; http://www.ecsusa.com/products/g900.html And that says it all. I know ECS isn't always known for their quality, but I have to see how this one runs before passing judgement. I'm hoping that it will surprise me. Since laptops are very expensive, most people don't buy new ones very often. My philosophy is to buy the fastest, most powerful one you can buy for the best price, so that your investment lasts a long time. Remember that many laptops will have modems which aren't supported by Linux, and others can be a real pain to set up. If you manage to get a modem working, consider yourself very lucky! If possible, try to find one that comes without an OS, so that you can do a fresh install and not have to worry about a Windows recovery CD set erasing your whole hard drive. Lanman ************************************** > celerion .. various speeds. Not as good as equivilent P4, stay away if you can > centrino .. various speeds. Really the Pentium-M. Centroni is a brand that means the combination of the processor, chipset and WiFi card. It has a slower clock speed, but more work per cycle a la AMD, giving a cooler chip that uses less power and does the same amount of work. My 1.6GHz Pentium-M compiles a kernel a few seconds faster than my desktop 2400+. Intel's reliance on the Megehertz myth the past few yeares to try and best AMD has cost them with the Pentium-M IMO. > The centrino seem to be the slower one than the other two. >> Do not mind price .. hardware .. trying to find what would be best in long > run between the 3 processors. In a laptop, the Pentium-M IMHO. > Kindly some pointers and suggestions to IBM laptops .. please. I like the T series the best. A great blend of portability and power. The R's are to big and bulky, and the others are crippled or too small. /g Greg ************************ I would like to put in a good word for Dell laptops. I have used 2 different models. The Inspiron 8000 and the Inspiron 9100. Both are considered heavy at around 8 or 9 pounds. The reason I chose them is that they both are easily setup with Mandrake. I dual boot into both of them. I had minor installation problems, both easily resolved with an email to this list. Another reason that I chose them is that they are both considered gaming machines with dedicated (upgradeable) video cards. No dependence on 'integrated' graphics. The 9100 is new and has a 3.2 Ghz P4 (not mobile). I generally use this machine at two different locations but plugged into power at both. I'm not sure if you have been pointed to the linux laptops page yet, so here's a real good link for that information..... http://www.linux-laptop.net/ Best of luck in your research, I'll give one vote for Dell. (They also have dedicated forums for issues that may arise). Bill W. *************************** > > Best of luck in your research, I'll give one vote for Dell. (They > > also have dedicated forums for issues that may arise). Hoyt *************************** > Dell needed a good word. I was about to place them with gateway. Dell has also recently anounced two linux corporate workstations in their inventory. I can't afford one but at least it is a start. Dell is making a move to include the penquin. Dennis M. Linux user #180842 **************************** I've installed 9.2 on a couple of different IBM's, and a friend of mine put 10.0 on one. With 9.2 the laptops had a Savage vid card, and I had to download and install a different driver than the default that came with Mandrake in order to get the proper screen resolution. The Savage may have been fixed in 10, because my friend's laptop also had that card and he didn't mention that he had any problems. Another gotcha is the LinModem, which requires downloading a driver (ltmodem-kv_2.4.22_10mdk-8.26a9-1.i586.rpm). There was a thread on making the 2.4-kernel driver work with 2.6 here during the past week. My friend with 10 has broadband, so he didn't bother with the modem and I have no more info on that. Everything else worked right from the get-go. Erylon **************************** SLE maillist.. I agree with he IBM Thinkpad choice - been using them 14 years. Each time I stray for a year (Dell, Toshiba) I end up back. The big reasons are operating system support - two years down the road they will not tell you "we don't support linux" on your model or "we only support the original version of Windows that came on your model". Here's my understanding of the speed of the chips. Intel has made mobile processors absolutely un-understandable, with Pentium M, Mobile Pentiums and Centrinos (all are really P4's). - At a given clock speed the Centrino's are by far the fastest. As I recall a Centrino at 1.5Ghz is faster than the normal mobile (not sure which model) Pentium at around 2.5GHz. Centrino's are your best bet in a small, lightweight laptop like the Tnn series. - The Celeron's are generally less capable at a given clockspeed than the same speed Pentium's. They have less processor cache and are usually found in value line laptops. - If what you want is a fast, desktop replacement you probably want a G40 or similar with the fastest speed P4 you can get - 3Ghz or faster). It will be bigger/heavier than a T40 though. - For a lightweight professional laptop that can also do software development, is fast and has a standard 3yr warranty (always check for this though) you want a T40. I saw someone respond mentioning an X40 - its very small and light, you might ask them about that if its interesting. Hope this helps - Richard Oops - my math is off this early on a Saturday, been using them since October 1992 when the first Thinkpad 700C came out. I guess that is 12 years, not 14 :) ******************************** IBM is a good choice. You should check on eBay for IBM laptops SOLD BY IBM. They sell a lot of equipment on eBay. I bought an X30 laptop a year ago for about 33% off and it had a 3 yr warranty on it from IBM. A good deal IMHO. Bruce ******************************** A friend of mine has an IBM Thinkpad T42 and has some problems with support for the Centrino chipset. He is running SuSE 9.1. I would strongly suggest that you go to http://www.linux-on-laptops.com before buying a laptop. Jerry ******************************** FYI: The A3 models of IBM were particularly good for Linux - obsolete now. Several SONY models are feature for feature identical to some IBM models and there is a active support group on the linux-sony mailing list (google for it). I like my Sony. Something to consider: Don't get built in wireless. You have the pcmcia slot and might as well use it. ANY builtin wireless will obsolete before this time next year (usable but obsolete). The wireless field is changing so fast it makes little sense to have this embedded. John Andersen *************************** FWIW, this ThinkPad R31 came with built in 802.11b wireless, which works fine with SuSE. For my needs, it's adequate. Also, IBM has produced WiFi upgrades for some models. The upgrade involves simply replacing one small board. James But at what price? 54meg 802.11G pcmcia cards can now be had for under under $30, and Buy.com has the Asante 802.11G for under $14 after rebate. ************************** IBM notebooks tend to be well supported in Linux. For example, I'm typing this message on a ThinkPad R31, using wireless to my home network, while sitting out on my balcony and drinking a beer. The wireless, modem and everything else I use works fine with SuSE 9.1, right out of the box. I didn't have to download any drivers for any hardware. James ************************** Or Linux Certified (http://linuxcertified.com). I have the LC2430, and it works great with Suse 9.1. The built-in modem and ethernet, as well as the external wireless card they sell with the laptop, all worked after a plain install of Suse 9.1. So does accelerated graphics. The only thing I haven't worked out yet is how to connect the laptop to an external monitor or projector and have a resolution I evaluated laptops for my wife recently and am looking at a new one for myself. O only buy Dell, but that is another story altogether. My wife bought HP/Compaq. Got it yesterday - looks VERY nice (droole) Now about those processors. >From what I could understand, the P4 will be a std. desktop type processor, and thus be quite power hungry. The Centrino is built for a mobile device (like a laptop) that will obviously allow your battery to last much longer. Look at the power/duration specs. on the machine and that should indicate something of what I am saying. But, yes, I agree, the centrino IS a lot slower than the P4 equivalents. other than 640 x 480 on that monitor. I am sure this can be done somehow, but I couldn't be bothered yet to play around with the XF86Config file. Claus ************************* Besides www.linux-on-laptops.com, take a look at http://www.tuxmobil.org It's an excellent resource. Barry ************************* Well, as for laptops, I personally prefer by FAR the IBM laptop T-Series... And for IBM Lappers, that's the only series I really like... Now, there is a group in Atlanta that will preconfig and ship a lapper with whichever linux mutation you wish. Ran into them at Linuxworld this spring in NYC. Checkout www.emperorlinux.com Don *********************** There's no doubt that IBM make very solid laptops but they are by no means the only Linux-friendly ones: the converse isn't necessarily true, either! I'm running SuSE 9.1 on an HP Pavilion zd7000 and previously had an ASUS L/C3000 - no problems with either. Worked out of the box (except for wireless on the Pavilion, which is fine now, after some fiddling). Just might be worthwhile casting your net a little wider. You might want to take a look at http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ Please don't think I'm trying to put you off IBM...........! David ********************** Before you get to far into selecting a laptop, google on 'complaint <name_of_mfr>' and see what kind of troubles you can expect from the various makers. IBM was one of the few mfrs that didn't return a bunch of hits and horror stories when I ran the test a month or so ago. I found many BAD stories about Sony, Gateway, Dell, Compaq and HP to name a few. Caveat Emptor! Richard *********************** While working at Compaq (actually the Alpha group not the PC people), I was helping a friend with his laptop. We could not get Linux to recognize the NIC. I spoke to the technical product managers as well as the guys at Conexant (The chip mfr) and Dave Becker. Essentially, Conexant told me to go to hell as they did not have the time to write a Linux driver or to give the info to Dave. Jerry Feldman <gaf(a)blu.org> *********************** My neighbor wanted me to install SuSE on his Compaq box ...no dice. Coudn't even get a boot off installation media. Wonder what it is about Compaq. My HP has a Conexant internal modem & that works great (when the SuSE driver pkg is installed). I think many of the companies must guard their driver info closely. Wish more would be forthcoming for Linux. C Hamel ************************ The simple thing to do would be to download the SuSE 9.1 Live CD and burn the iso to a disc. Take it to the store with you and try it on any laptop you are interested in to see how well it works. That should give you a reasonably good idea of what you are getting. Lee ************************* Not necessarily. That Live CD failed on 3 of 3 computers that I tried it on, including my ThinkPad, which runs SuSE 9.1 Pro very well. All of those 3 computers were also able to run the 9.0 Live Eval. James ************************ I, too, run an HP --ze5570-- and have had pretty darn good luck w/getting things set up. The internal modem had problems on 9.1 so I reverted to 9 Pro, the wireless works, the wired NIC works, I didn't mess w/the IR so don't know. All in all, my HP experience has been a positive one, though I noted that each & every time I applied any updates to the installation things started breaking. This happened three or four times in a row, so I just stay w/what comes off the CD-Rs --though I do have roughly 60 RPMs installed from various other sources, as well, so that is not a limitation. C Hamel ************************ I happen to own 2 Compaq Presario Notebooks, each running SuSE. Neither had any difficulty. However, it is very important to check on a laptop model before acquiring one, since not every laptop will work, even those made by Linux-friendly companies. Jerry ************************ SLUG maillist.. I evaluated laptops for my wife recently and am looking at a new one for myself. O only buy Dell, but that is another story altogether. My wife bought HP/Compaq. Got it yesterday - looks VERY nice (droole) Now about those processors. >From what I could understand, the P4 will be a std. desktop type processor, and thus be quite power hungry. The Centrino is built for a mobile device (like a laptop) that will obviously allow your battery to last much longer. Look at the power/duration specs. on the machine and that should indicate something of what I am saying. But, yes, I agree, the centrino IS a lot slower than the P4 equivalents. Hamish ************************* CLUG maillist.. The Centrino is a laptop specific cpu and has better power consumption, heat management blah blah blah. The P4 & Celeron stuff are desktop cpus so they will run hotter & chew more battery power. There is also the Pentium-M - the older brother of the Centrino........ Zoltan *********************** Not as far as I understand. Pentium-M is the CPU component of Centrino. Centrino is a combination of Pentium-M and some energy-efficient components (including Wifi). Neil *********************** > Intel p4 .. various speeds. "fastest" CPU, big working caches. > celerion .. various speeds. celeron: disabled (or much smaller) caches than the P4 > centrino .. various speeds. much less power consumption, performance on par with faster clock rate P4s but those appear to be the interactive office work type applications. > The centrino seem to be the slower one than the other two. Noted that the AMDs are lower clock rates, but performance on pat with higher clock rate P4s?? MHz/GHz aren't everything with regards to performance. Hendrik ********************** Speed comparisons for the intel chips is http://developer.intel.com/hardwaredesign/processors.htm#2 click on "Intel® Processor Performance Benchmarks". Like with other cpu's, you cannot really compare the MHz speeds of a mobile and desktop p4 cpu. If battery life and portability is your primary concern get a centrino platform, otherwise a desktop p4 might be best. Jacobus Brink ********************* Regards Enjoy -- Johan Sch Registered Linux User #330034 May this be a good day for learning

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usb network card
by josue duran 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

My mom has a labtop with windows 98 and she decided to connect to the internet using cable television. It happened that she did not had a network card for the labtop and she used an usb network card. I then decided to install suse 9.0 which is working fine, but I do not know how to configure the cable modem using an usb network card. Can someone help me? Josh __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

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9.1 Yast Online Kernel Update HANGS on ASUS A7N8X-E
by johnswolter＠provide.net 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

The 9.1 Yast Online Update intoduces a kernel boot HANG inside /etc/init.d/boot.localfs at about line 114 with sync. The man pages say sync flushes the disk buffers. The lines nearby are... 113: fi 114: sync 115: test $FSCK_RETURN -gt 0 && touch... 116: fi I tried loading all the updates except the kernel update and everything worked. When I did the final SUSE Yast Online kernel update, the boot stopped at sync. After this point in boot.localfs the filesystems are to be mounted for use. Of course it never gets there. Could this be a kernel problem or a kernel update setup problem or both? SUSE are you listening? The SUSE 9.1 install required I use the "Installation - Safe Settings" to avoid Kernel Panics. That means amoung others acpi=off, apm=off, and ide=nodma. I added per the admin manual page 21, hdc=cdrom. The ASUS A7N8X-E is configured per the ASUS defaults with the SATA disabled by jumper SATA_EN1 2-3. The BIOS setup uses the defaults with CPU External frequency shown at 133 Mhz. A 133 Mhz DDR IS in Slot A1 and the CPU is an AMD Athlon XT 1800+. BTW /etc/init.d/README explains the startup process, useful to debug boot HANGs. John Wolter mailto: johnswolter(a)wolterworks.com

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gpg front end gnome?
by Carl William Spitzer IV 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

in KDE we have kgpg. what do we have in gnome? CWSIV

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