Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 16:21:53 +0000 (GMT) From: "Eric L. Green <exec@prysm.net>" <exec@softdisk.com> To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: [S.u.S.E. Linux] Installing SuSE Linux I installed SuSE Linux last night. Here are my impressions: 1) Gosh, there's a lot of software on those disks! I set aside a 1gb partition for SuSE on my "big" drive, and swiftly filled it up with goodies. Nice stuff. 2) I like the various default configs you have. It would allow me to standardize on a reasonable set of software without doing what I have to do with Red Hat, i.e., tell the technicians "install the whole bloody disk". 3) I like the ability to read a config off a diskette. That would similarly allow me to standardize things. 4) Gosh there's a lot of options on that install menu! I had no problem because I've installed Linux a couple hundred times, but I *know* that my technicians couldn't do it. They install Red Hat Linux all the time, a minor miracle in itself (I could swear they couldn't pull it off, since it does not require a soldering iron, but they manage -- except for partitions, where they always beg me to set up the partitions for them). Even the Slackware install is easier for the newby to get through. I know it's all explained in the manual, but Reading The Fine Manual is something we here in the 'States always do AFTER we mess up :-). 5) The LILO config in YaST needs help. What we are typically doing is upgrading machines that previously had Windows 3.11 or Xenix on them. Most of these machines were originally configured with 270mb hard drives and later upgraded with a 1.0 or 1.2gb hard drive when the 270mb was filled. They are generally configured as /dev/hda and /dev/hdc. Here is how I partition them: Drive /dev/hda: Partition 1: DOS (200mb) Partition 2: Swap (50mb) Partition 3: /boot (10mb) Drive /dev/hdc: LINUX Note that there is no Linux root partition on the first hard drive. However, it is quite legal for LILO to install a boot sector on the /boot partition. In fact, the Red Hat "liloconfig" tool in their install will allow me to do that. Note, though, that I had to fuss at them for over a year before they got that fixed. I'm sure you can do it faster :-). Also: SuSE installs the kernel in the default location, /, rather than into some directory such as /boot that can be placed on the first hard drive. That's a problem here because we're talking old computers without LBA mode, and a /dev/hdc with more than 1024 cylinders. Yes, it'd be nice for them to upgrade their hardware, but we are talking about schools, i.e., no money. Even on computers with only one hard drive I often set up a /boot partition for the kernel on systems that do not have an LBA BIOS. Often the "/" partition does not logically go below the 1024 cylinder boundary because I have to use that area for DOS and can't fit "/" in that area too. I know we're all Linux fans, but DOS/Windows is not going away. Neither are all these pre-LBA machines -- we're salvaging them by putting Linux on them, after all. 6) One thing I messed up was not saving the default config to the hard drive and having YaST come up in German after the reboot. Not nice for me :-(. Thankfully I remembered where the language selection was on the menu. Hopefully the manual guides people through this step. (But, as I mentioned, we Yanks are famous for never reading the manual :-). 7) I need to Read The Fine Manual to see how to install RPM's off of non-SuSE CD's. YaST is great, but I haven't figured out how to point it at any old arbitrary repository of RPM's yet. I did install XRPM, so I can take a look at that next, but XRPM/GLINT/etc. aren't as great as YaST at looking at a repository. Too many keyclicks involved with the GUI tools and they don't give you that summary line beside the RPMs to tell you whether you should be interested in them or not. Overall score on the install part: B. The only real "bug" is the inability of the LILO configurator to set up a boot sector on a non-root partition. The user is not guided through the process as clearly as with Slackware or Red Hat, but the process is simple and good documentation is probably adequate (now if we can only get people to read it :-). Next: a scorecard on initial use of the system, "X" configurations, etc. Eric Lee Green exec@softdisk.com Executive Consultants Systems Specialist Educational Administration Solutions You might be a redneck if you put on insect repellant prior to a date. -- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e