July 2005 - openSUSE Users - openSUSE Mailing Lists

SCSI RAID recovery
by Robert Amodeo 19 Jan '06

19 Jan '06

I have a fileserver running SuSE 8.0 with 2 IDE Drives and a SCSI RAID (RAID5). The system boots up to one of the IDE drives, and the SCSI RAID drive runs as a mounted filesystem (/dev/md0). (all filesystems are REISERFS). Problem: The SCSI RAID drive has crashed (won't boot up), and I need to recover it (repair it, through some utility). Further: The software does not seem to want to mount the disks, even though the SCSI BIOS (Adaptec) recognizes the disks, and they are listed as OPTIMAL. I tried to repair the disk(s) (with reiserfsck), but it produced an error message: reiserfs_open: bread failed reading block 2 reiserfs_open: bread failed reading block 16 reiserfs_open: neither new nor old reiserfs form found on /dev/md0 The literature suggested that this error message is hardware related (either a disk is physically damaged, or maybe the RAID isn't recognized), but again, the disks are recognized (and therefore, so is the SCSI Card). I tried to boot up with SuSE CD 1 in Recovery mode, but not sure what to do there (i.e., after the root prompt - just run reiserfsck?). Literature suggests there are plenty of tools to handle disk recovery, and especially RAID support, I can't find reference to them anywhere. The installation of the RAID was trivial (using the YAST2 partitioning GUI window on startup), and yet recovery seems to be a mystery. This can't be right. Does anyone know where there are "decent" and "usable" recovery tools? OR ... does anyone know what "specifically" to do in this case? Can I re-partition without formatting, and recover the existing data? Any help is appreciated - I'm sure I'm missing something "obvious", but can't find "obviously" what to do in the literature, docs, etc. Thank you. Robert Amodeo School of Engineering and Applied Science University of California, Los Angeles

3 4

9.3 Review
by David Johanson 06 Jan '06

06 Jan '06

Linux Magazine (Linux Pro in the US) has a 4 page review of the 9.3 release in the June 2005 issue, pgs 44-47. "Novell's Suse Linux 9.3 is a feature-rich, and robust Linux distribution. At first glance, the new version does not seem much changed from 9.2, but a lot of work has gone on under the hood. The distribution is definitely good for new users. If you already have Suse Linux 9.x or a similarly recent system, the update is only worth the effort if you are unhappy with your current setup. If you use external media on a regular basis, the update is definitely a good idea. . . . " dave -- David C. Johanson Linux Counter # 116410 Powered by SuSE Linux 7.3 People who behold a phenomenon will often extend their thinking beyond it; people who merely hear about the phenomenon will not be moved to think at all. -- Goethe

12 14

New machine problems, looking for culprits
by Paul Alfille 26 Dec '05

26 Dec '05

A new AMD64 bit machine, new SUSE 9.3, should be heaven. Machine hangs after a few minutes of use, but I can't tell why. I hope someone recognizes a problem part so I can address it. Parts: Motherboard: Asus A8V-E includes: Disk controller: VIA SATA and IDE drives Network: Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E gigabit sound, usb, firewire on board CPU: AMD Athlon64 XP3500+ Graphics: Gigabyte PCI-Express 6600GT (NX66T128D) Attempts: WinXP: Embarassingly stable. SuSE9.3 (64bit) crashes Fedora Core 4 64-bit crashes Ubantu64 crashes DamnSmallLinux (embedded under XP with QEMU) stable!!! Obviously SuSE is my choice. I keep trying online update, hoping that the system will stay up long enough to complete and that a fix is coming. Any thoughts? Paul Alfille

7 7

help for sight impaired people
by Doug McGarrett 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Some weeks ago I inquired here about assistance for those who have difficulty seeing, as I am one, at present. I am effectively blind in the left eye and have cataract in the right. Some of this may be ameliorated in the future, some will probably not be. Nothing came back at all. The font in K-Mail out-going is about 8 point on my 17" screen, as is the font on the message names for the incoming mail. I have not been able to change this, altho the actual incoming message font I was successful in changing. I do not have access to my Windows machine at present, due to mechanical failure, and this is the only way I have to communicate. Is there no way to make SuSE Linux friendly to optically-challenged users? Please, someone, reply. --doug

8 9

PC running (SuSE 8.2 Pro / WinME) bootloader lilo -> grub
by Mick Higgins 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Hi List, I have belatedly made the change from lilo to grub carefully converting my lilo config to grub'ese. It seems to work as expected. However, I have a couple of questions which I cannot track down in any off-line source (man, info, howto's etc.) and I am not able to trawl google or list archive with a time-limited unmetered dial-up connection at present. 1. In lilo I always used the boot-floppy option so as not to upset WinME. How do I do something similar in grub? 2. When the bootloader menu appeared in lilo I could interactively overide the default runlevel (ie: boot to runlevel 3 not 5) when necessary. How is this achieved in the grub menu? I will accept a URL to the appropriate list archive entry or web page. Apologies if this has been dealt with before. -- ** Message sent via KDE KMail v1.7.2 on SuSE Linux v8.2 ** Please reply in the format that this message is sent. ** Thanks.

6 5

NTP set up in YAST is loosing time
by Peter B Van Campen 19 Nov '05

19 Nov '05

Hi, I have used NTP in previous SUSE 9.X, but on 9.3 I used YAST to set up NTP. YASTs dialog says that it will sync to a time server at bootup. In the past I am sure that the local PC was re-sync'd quite often. I rarely ever saw a difference of more than a second between my "Atomic" wall clock or watch. But now I see the PCs time getting more and more 'off' the longer it has been booted. This is irritating and non-intuitive. The systems should stay in sync with the 'official' time servers. One should NOT have to re-boot just to get the clock back in sync. Is the a way to tell the system to regularly 'sync up'? Has anyone out there found a way to keep a 9.3 system time accurate? PeterB

10 14

Time
by jim 13 Nov '05

13 Nov '05

Why is it everytime you boot into Suse10, that the time is different, the time zone doesn't change. Jim

2 4

stable,updated,zero-cost,FLOSS virus software
by David Storrs 17 Oct '05

17 Oct '05

What are people using for anti-virus software? I've got BitDefender running on my machine, but I'd like to find something zero-cost that has a nice GUI so that when I set up boxes for friends and family, they can use it. Regularly (and automatically) updated virus definitions are a must, here. Dave

9 10

icewm in SuSE 9.3
by eddieleprince 15 Sep '05

15 Sep '05

I've installed icewm from yast but I cannot seem to access it. Does anyone know how to change the display from kde to icewm? There doesn't seem to be any options in the login screen or the yast sysconfig editor that lists it as a choice for selection. Thanks Eddie

4 5

Overwhelming number of emails
by Lihle 08 Sep '05

08 Sep '05

Hi I really do not like to complain, but is there a way I can reduce the number of seeminly repeating email. Or can I just receive an email that has the problem then a solution instead of every kind of unsolicited email. Not knowing where the conversation started makes it hard to understand. My next option was to unscribe, which I really do not want to do. I am still using windows because I do not know how to setup my SuSE 9.1 to connect to the internet. I need a step by guide please. I attempted with my motoroal internal modem but when prompted to set up my mail accounts I got confused. I have started reading unix books with the hope to understanding better. Which programming language does Linux use for creating applications? I noticed that the openCD has C and C++ header files, a compiler for C and C++. The question is can it also have the java compiler and create applications in java? Best regards, Thembelihle Tshabalala lihle(a)eject.co.za

12 15