Adventures with OpenSUSE

Sam Varghese
Monday, 15 January 2007 05:55

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft Office 365

I noticed that while the installation program recognised the presence of both the network interfaces - the PCI network card and the wireless card - OpenSUSE did not configure the wireless card. I looked for the wrapper program and found it. There were warnings about downloading it as it taints the kernel. (I found the warnings a bit hypocritical after Novell's recent deal with Microsoft.)

With the wrapper program, I used the drivers from the NetGear CD and got the card functioning. But then strangely I wasn't able to access the internet. After a bit of poking around, I discovered that the firewall, a rather gargantuan set of rules, was the culprit. After disabling that, I was able to finally see the internet. (This condition, of having a network properly configured but being unable to see the internet, is often experienced by people who install Windows XP.)

Some things I noticed about OpenSUSE - one, while the installation indicated a total of 2.1 GB had been downloaded each time, my ISP's volume usage table showed only 1.2 GB each time. Funny. I've found that this ISP keeps a pretty reliable usage table - it has matched by own downloads to within 5 or 10 meg over the past 18 months.

Two, I was amazed that a distribution needed more than 256 meg of RAM for its installation program to run. (I wasn't offered the choice of a text-based installation, as Red Hat did.) Three, the firewall annoyed me - what was the point of all the elaborate configuration if you are finally blocked from accessing the internet? Four, my laptop wouldn't power down - I had to manually switch it off. Five, the OpenSUSE menu has become huge horizontally - it spreads across the width of my screen and when you have a 12" LCD screen it's enough to annoy the hell out of you.

I had had enough of OpenSUSE. I went back to Debian, found the latest set of floppies and reinstalled. This time, the NetGear card was recognised. I used the card with the wrapper. I don't feel comfortable with it, though, and I'll get a replacement for  the D-Link as soon as I'm up and walking again. I generally try to practise what I preach.

I learnt a few things: never buy an Acer laptop; stick to your own distribution; persevere and you'll finally get it right; figuring out things for yourself and not looking for pre-built answers is the best way of solving a problem.