[opensuse] New v11.4 installation -- odd behaviors
Because my venerable Pentium 4 motherboard died yesterday, I have a new MB (i5 CPU on an Intel HD67BL board) and have installed 64bit v11.4 on it. I am non-plussed by some of the behaviors I observe. I hope someone can help me understand them. 1) But immediately upon booting the installation DVD yesterday, and again when I started up the installed system todday, I was asked to choose a display mode. I was offered a small group of options to pick be entering the number. The one I wanted was listed as: f 35A 1600x1200x32...(I would have chosen 60Hz if it were offered) I tried enterring "f", "35A", and "f 35A", and was rewarded each time with an error message telling me that the entry was not a valid mode. Permitting the system to make up its own mind, the boot proceeded, and I went to Systems Settings to see what it had chosen. It is 1024x768 at 60Hz (no better resolution is offered). Even the ancient Pentium 5 was able to give me the higher resolution, and at the 60Hz refress rate. My conclusion is that there is an setting I must change, but I see nothing suggestive in the BIOS, so I may be overlooking something. Perhaps someone can see what that might be. 2) In System Settings > Common Appearance > Account Settings > Password and User > User Information, I am asked to enter my name, email address, and SMTP server. After doing so, the following error appeares: "An error has occurred, and your name has probably not been changed.The error was chfn." II had enterred the very same neam I had written in the installation process, with no changes. I have no clue what "chfn" should tell me. What does it want to see in the name field (if that is really what is bothering it)? 3) I want to use the Lancelot launcher. I unlocked widgets and clicked on "Add widgets", then found the Lancelot widget. Clicking on it brought it on to the Desktop, after which nothing I could do would move it to the Panel, where I think it belongs, as I had done in v11.3. What is the trick for doing this? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2011/07/14 16:29 (GMT+0300) Stan Goodman composed:
my venerable Pentium 4 motherboard died yesterday
Died how? Many motherboards supporting P4 chips were built using defective caps. Typically cap replacement puts them back in service, and as long as your eye/hand coordination and vision aren't too bad, it isn't too hard to do. There are howtos describing the process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague describes the problem and may have a howto link. If you're using the same case and PS for the new motherboard, better open up the PS and inspect for possible bad caps. You wouldn't want to risk damaging the new one and have to install all over again soon or suffer downtime for warranty replacement for an easily avoided problem. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 14 July 2011 2336:49 Felix Miata Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
On 2011/07/14 16:29 (GMT+0300) Stan Goodman composed:
my venerable Pentium 4 motherboard died yesterday
Died how? Many motherboards supporting P4 chips were built using defective caps. Typically cap replacement puts them back in service, and as long as your eye/hand coordination and vision aren't too bad, it isn't too hard to do. There are howtos describing the process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague describes the problem and may have a howto link.
I'm very good, in fact, with a soldering iron etc., but I thought it was time anyway for a new board. As for capacitors, nothing that fails only after nine years can be said to have been defective. How it died was very sneaky. The first step was a popped-up notice that the amount of RAM had changed. I removed the RAM cards and cleaned the contacts thoroughly. The following day, it wouldn't boot at all because it didn't see the HDs. I interpreted this as meaning that some connections had become intermittent, and that the time had come to retire the board, the BIOS date of which is 2002 (which you remarked about recently), so it deserved to go out to pasture (retirement to stud is not available to MBs).
If you're using the same case and PS for the new motherboard, better open up the PS and inspect for possible bad caps. You wouldn't want to risk damaging the new one and have to install all over again soon or suffer downtime for warranty replacement for an easily avoided problem.
I am indeed using same case (but little else other than HDs). The PS had been replaced only about two months ago. Since the new board doesn't support ATAPI, the DVD drive is new. There is no support for floppy drive, which was anyway a nostalgic feature of little utility.. Over the weekend I will google to see what Tumbleweed is, and likely try it out. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 14 July 2011 2336:49 Felix Miata Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
On 2011/07/14 16:29 (GMT+0300) Stan Goodman composed:
my venerable Pentium 4 motherboard died yesterday
Died how? Many motherboards supporting P4 chips were built using defective caps. Typically cap replacement puts them back in service, and as long as your eye/hand coordination and vision aren't too bad, it isn't too hard to do. There are howtos describing the process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague describes the problem and may have a howto link.
I'm very good, in fact, with a soldering iron etc., but I thought it was time anyway for a new board. As for capacitors, nothing that fails only after nine years can be said to have been defective.
How it died was very sneaky. The first step was a popped-up notice that the amount of RAM had changed. I removed the RAM cards and cleaned the contacts thoroughly. The following day, it wouldn't boot at all because it didn't see the HDs. I interpreted this as meaning that some connections had become intermittent, and that the time had come to retire the board, the BIOS date of which is 2002 (which you remarked about recently), so it deserved to go out to pasture (retirement to stud is not available to MBs).
If you're using the same case and PS for the new motherboard, better open up the PS and inspect for possible bad caps. You wouldn't want to risk damaging the new one and have to install all over again soon or suffer downtime for warranty replacement for an easily avoided problem.
I am indeed using same case (but little else other than HDs). The PS had been replaced only about two months ago. Since the new board doesn't support ATAPI, the DVD drive is new. There is no support for floppy drive, which was anyway a nostalgic feature of little utility..
Over the weekend I will google to see what Tumbleweed is, and likely try it out.
You may want to ckeck out this page: http://en.opensuse.org/Tumbleweed. It has all the information needed for people who want to try the Tumbleweed repo. Special concern if you are using Virtualbox (which is what I actually do): it is not explained in detail on the above opensuse page, but the effects of Tumbleweed on Virtualbox use are as follows: 1) the opensuse version of Virtualbox cannot be used, rather the download version from virtualbox.org needs to be installed 2) you have to recompile the Virtualbox kernel module each time your kernel gets updated from the Tumbleweed repo. This however is straightforward as Virtualbox pops up an error message that tells you what to do in this case. BR, Karl-Heinz
-- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Felix Miata -
Karl-Heinz tm -
Stan Goodman