Installing openSUSE 10.1 "Loaded", with YUM

This is a step-by-step guide for installing openSUSE 10.1 in my "Loaded" configuration, as described in: Moving from Gentoo to ... SUSE, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core?

Instead of using the SUSE package management tools, I first install YUM and use it for package management. This leads to a shorter/faster process than using SUSE's own YaST tools.

If you have an aversion to YUM, and only want to do things the SUSE-way, then see Installing openSUSE 10.1 "Loaded" (without YUM)

A quick list of pros & cons:

Pros:

  1. Uses YUM for easy package handling and automatic repository mirror handling.
  2. Easy to keep the system up to date with "yum update"
  3. Very nice "sysinfo:/" custom KDE extension; makes a nice "My Computer" replacement when you feel the need for one.

Cons:

  1. Most difficult NVIDIA setup (it still wasn't hard, but you do have to remember to do it each time the kernel is updated).
  2. Didn't autoconfigure my DHCP connection correctly. Not a big deal since I like to hardwire addresses, but still, a weird thing to mess up.
  3. Non-unified package handling. Using this method, YaST will not recognize the third-party repositories that YUM sees. Also, YUM seems to have some issues installing packages (see below, where I had to remove kaffeine and digikamimageplugins to get the system to update).

Prerequisites:

  1. A complete set of SUSE Linux 10.1 CDROMs (discs 1-5; I only needed 1-3, but it wouldn't hurt to have the whole set).
  2. Your IP address and nameserver addresses, in case something doesn't work with DHCP during network setup.

Instructions:

IMPORTANT: Run these steps in this exact order. The default 10.1 installation has some bugs that need to be patched before moving on to later steps.

  1. Install SUSE Linux 10.1, accepting all defaults, except answer "Configure Later" when asked about configuring "Online Update". I chose KDE as the window manager, but none of this is KDE-specific.
    Skipping the Online Update configuration saved about 15 minutes of waiting on the installer to finish (not sure what it was waiting on!)
  2. Start YaST ("System"->"YaST (Control Center)" from the KDE menu). Click "Software Management". Search for and install "yum". Close the window when finished.
  3. Download this file: combined-sources.repo, and copy to /etc/yum.repos.d (remember to copy it as root).

    Your system is now 100% YUM-capable! Cool

  4. Download and save this script: install-coreset.py .
    Run (as root):

    python install-coreset.py

    This will install all of the multimedia/Flash/RealPlayer/Acrobat plugins, enable DVD playback, install Java, etc.

    You should now be able to play retail DVDs through xine or mplayer. [If DVD playback does not work, make sure that the package "xine-lib" is not installed; only libxine1 should be installed.]

  5. Change your Firefox shortcut to launch Firefox as "aoss /usr/bin/firefox".

    This makes sound sync better with Flash sites like YouTube. It is still a little off, but not as bad as the default.

  6. Installing MS Corefonts:
    1. Download: msttcorefonts-1.3-118.spec
    2. Run (as a regular user):

      rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-1.3-118.spec

      Note: If the process gets stuck while downloading, then edit the .spec file and pick a different download mirror. The list starts at line 45.

      IMPORTANT: You must delete the % character when commenting a line in the spec file! Simply adding a # will not work.

    3. Run (as root):

      rpm -Uvh /usr/src/packages/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-1.3-118.noarch.rpm
      SuSEconfig --module fonts
    4. [OPTIONAL] See if the fonts are installed by doing:

      xlsfonts | grep ^-microsoft

      You should see a list of the corefonts displayed.

  7. AppArmor appears to be incompatible with Java 1.5 ("J2SE 5.0"), and also seemed to make Firefox crash occasionally. For best results, I recommend turning it off from: YaST->Novell AppArmor->AppArmor Control Panel.
  8. The default kernel installation is buggy and you can't install the NVIDIA driver until it is fixed, so run (as root):
    yum update kernel-default
  9. REBOOT, to load the new kernel (required before building the NVIDIA driver in the next step).
  10. NVIDIA drivers:
    1. Go to NVIDIA.com, click "Download Drivers", then "Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris Drivers". Download the driver; it will be called something like "NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8762-pkg1.run".
    2. Log out of KDE, switch to a console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), and run (as root):

      init 3
      sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8762-pkg1.run

      Accept all defaults; answer "Yes" when it asks if it should update your X11 config file.

      init 5

      This will restart the X server. Run "glxinfo" and make sure it says "direct rendering: Yes" near the top.

    3. You have to reinstall the driver each time you upgrade your kernel. SUSE will fallback on the non-accelerated driver if you forget, so it is easy to overlook this step.
  11. [OPTIONAL] Your fonts may be tiny and/or disproportional between KDE apps & GNOME apps (like Firefox). If so, here is how to adjust them:
    1. Check current display dpi with "xdpyinfo|grep resol". If it doesn't say "96x96", then do the following steps.
    2. Run "System" -> "Configuration" -> "SAX2".
    3. Next to "Monitor", click "Change", and select the "Display Size" tab.
    4. Calculate the screen size (in mm) to acheive 96x96 dpi as shown below, and enter these values in the "X" and "Y" axis boxes. For example, using 1024x768 resolution:
      • X = 1024/96*25.4 = 271
      • Y = 768/96*25.4 = 203
    5. Restart the X server and the fonts should be the correct size again ("xdpyinfo|grep resol" should give 96x96, or so).
  12. Finishing up:
    yum remove kaffeine digikamimageplugins
    yum update

    [ugh ... kaffeine & digikamimageplugins interfere with update running correctly, so I had to remove them]

    From now on, to keep your system up-to-date on security fixes, etc., all you have to do is periodically run (as root):

    yum update

Optional Stuff:

  1. jEdit:
    1. Download the Java-based installer
    2. Install (as root):

      java -jar jedit42install.jar
  2. wxPython:
    1. run (as root):

      yum install  python-wxGTK python-wxGTK-doc python-wxGTK-examples
    2. Test it out:

      cd /usr/share/doc/packages/python-wxGTK/demo
      python demo.py
  3. I like to add a few more commonly used Python modules:
    yum install python-crypto python-devel python-doc python-sqlite2
  4. wings3d: Not available through YaST, had to install manually:
    1. Download from Wings3d homepage
    2. (As a regular user) Unpack & run, i.e.:

      gzip -d wings-0.98.32a-linux.run.gz
      sh wings-0.98.32a-linux.run
  5. sshfs:
    1. yum install sshfs
  6. Test cameras:
    1. Attach camera to USB port.
    2. Start digiKam
    3. Camera -> Add Camera ...
    4. Click Auto-Detect button
    5. Click Camera -> <Camera Name> to view images.

Sources:

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