Spin Ink

SuSE Linux 10.1 has lot of great stuff to offer; Linux Kernel 2.6.16, XGL, AppArmor, KDE 3.5.1, and numerous fixes and improvements. However, they released SuSE Linux 10.1 with a severely broken package manager. For those of you that do not know, Novell decided to switch package management libraries with 10.1 and thought that they would be able to get all the bugs worked out before the release date. Unfortunately, they were not even close! 10.1’s release date was pushed back just over a month and the package manager is still extremely slow and buggy, to the point of being unusable. *Update 06/09/2006* Novell has released updates that address the YAST package management issues.

Luckily, Pascal Bleser, who is better known as Yaloki on IRC and maintainer of the Guru software repository, has come to the rescue. He built a custom version of the Smart Package Manager for SuSE Linux 10.1 that contains the most important installation repositories built in and ready to go. His custom Smart package contains the following repositories and mirrors for those repositories: the main Install Source, Non-OSS Install Source, SuSE Linux 10.1 Update Source, Packman Repository, and his own Guru Repository. For most people, these are all the sources you will need.

*Update 09/05/2006* A more efficient and less error prone method of installing the Smart Package Manager can be found here, on the SuSE Wiki. When I have a chance I will mirror its contents on this page. (more…)

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SuSE Linux 10.1’s YaST -> Software Manager may look the same, but infact it is running on a completely different set of libraries known as ZYPP. As a result of this change, you can no longer add sources via a root console and the ‘installation_sources’ command. On the bright side, thanks to a bug report by Benjiman from #SuSE, They have made adding network sources via the YaST -> Installation Sources interface much easier than in previous releases.

*UPDATE* WARNING! Do to some major bugs in the new and ‘improved’ package management libraries of YaST in SuSE Linux 10.1, I can no longer recommend the following method . Feel free to try it anyway, but chances are REALLY good that you will have some serious trouble doing so. *Update 06/09/06* Novell has released a couple dozen updated packages that fix the package management issues in SuSE Linux 10.1. However, I still recommend using Smart Package Manager with SuSE Linux 10.1 because it is considerably faster than YAST Software Manager. Then again, if I was just browsing the packages, I would want to use YAST Software Manager. (more…)

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Introduction

After several people requested that I write a how-to on updating SuSE Linux 10.0 to 10.1, I have decided to do so. Personally, I do not care for or trust OS upgrades. This is because I like to run a tight ship that is lean and mean. Since Linux doesn’t have a registry like Windows and I can easily backup my home dir to save my settings, I don’t find doing a clean install much more involved than an upgrade. This is why I always do a clean install. That said, people still insist on upgrading their OS. So, this article will cover 3 ways in which you can upgrade your SuSE Linux install to the newest release, SuSE Linux 10.1.

(more…)

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The much anticipated SuSE Linux 10.1 was finally released today. So far the mirrors seem to be holding up fairly well, but OpenSuSE.org is dead in the water. So if you need any information from it, such as how to make a DVD from the CD ISOs, you will need to use Google Cache. Some new features 10.1 provides are; 2.6.16 Linux Kernel, XGL, AppArmor, ZMD, and my personal favorite feature, the installer now offers to do a MD5Sum check of the install media.

There are some minor differences between SuSE Linux 10.0 and 10.1. From what I gather, there will not be an EVAL DVD this time. Before, the EVAL DVD released by Novell contained non-OSS packages like Flash, Acrobat, Java, and the ipw-firmware for intel 2200, and 2910 wifi adapters. Now, they have released a non-OSS Add-On CD that contains these packages, as well as providing a non-OSS-install-source that you can add if you don’t want to use the ISO. This non-OSS-install-source is the same as the ‘Extra-install-source’ from 10.0, but with a more accurate and descriptive name.

If you would like to do a net/ftp install, I suggest that you visit the mirror with a browser, find a large file like one of the ISOs, start to download it to insure you get a good speed.

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I was at Merlefest from 10am to ~11pm everyday of the festival except sunday (2pm-6pm). When I got home, it was all I could do to charge my camera and download my pictures from my camera. So, my plan to make a post highlighting each day of the festival went right out the window. I will however be writing a review of the festival and my wonderful experience doing photography for it.

Over the course of the festival I took 1,793 pictures, ~775 of which are currently in my Merlefest 2006 Photo Gallery. After my exam today, I will begin the painful process of color correcting all of them. I will also be thinning the herd and hopefully get it down to around 600 to 700 of the best images. If you would like to use any of my images, all I ask is for an email letting me know, proper credit, and a link back to my site.

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