blackbelt_jones
04-12-2007, 07:39 PM
(NOTE: This is still a work in progress; it's going to take me a few days.)
To my way for thinking, a good tutorial provides you with painstaking detail in case you need it, and then gives you the signposts necessary to avoid as much reading as you possibly can. The text that is in bold print is the concise summary. The regular text is the painstaking detail. If you can get away with just reading the parts printed in bold, you have my best wishes.
Here's how I install openSUSE, for the best Linux experience I've ever had. On my hardware, which is good but not special, openSUSE 10.2 playes every media file I want to throw at it, and runs every application I want, including a couple of Windows applications in a virtual machine. I don't want to say there haven't been any headaches, but I can say that, offhand, I can't remember any headaches since I learned how to set up SUSE with everything I need-- so how bad could they have been?
This isn't a lightweight install. I've got over half a terabyte of hard drive space, so I'm not going to be stingy about installing all the development packages that will prevent me from having to hunt down specific libraries later on, when I want to install something, or the base packages for both KDE and Gnome to provide me with an eclectic selection of applications-- K3b and gedit in the same desktop. The whole takes about 3 gigabytes. In my view, it's worth it for a comfortable experience. My 320 Gigabyte hard drive cost me a hundred dollars, so that's about a buck's worth of bytes.
Also, the techniques used here presume a fast connection. If you've got a dial-up connection, you're going to be more dependent on the SUSE CDs to install software. With a DSL connection, I get most of my software directly from the internet after I set up the online connection.
The procedure comes in three parts:
1. Installing the OS
2. Setting up the repositories
3. installing all the software necessary for a comfortable and empowering Linux experience.
1. Installing the OS
I start by installing a default KDE system for my default desktop, though I could just as easily choose gnome.
except that I don't install amarok, or any xine-based media players. The versions that come with the distro don't have all the drivers, and more complete versions are available online. I want to leave room to install the complete version later on, without any conflicts.
In the beginning, I start with the default KDE installation, which only requires the first three of the five CDs-- however, I deliberately refrain from installing any applications that use the Xine media player or its libraries. I do this because the version of Xine that shops with openSUSE doesn't have proprietary drivers for formats like mp3 and wmv. I'm going to install the complete versions later from an online repository, so I don't want the incomplete versions in the way where they might create a conflict later.
After choosing KDE as my default desktop (either kde or Gnome will do)
Screenshot: menu for selecting destop Gui for opensuse installation (http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/3639/yast2007lo7.png)
I reach the installation settings page.
The dafault installation settings page from the openSUSE installer. (http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7001/yast2008ur4.png)
In order to customize my software packages, I click on "Software", which takes me to the preinstallation version of the YAST software management menu:
Screenshot: where to click. (http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/6636/yast2008rt1yd5.png)
The software selection menu comes up, and I click on "details",
SCREENSHOT: the software selection menu, and where to click to make finer choices. (http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5185/yast2011kv1.png)
and then I click on the filters menu, and select "search".
I do two separate searches, one for "amarok", and one for "xine"
I click on the boxes to disable the installation of everything that comes up in the two searches, except "xinetd".
And then I proceed with the usual installation.
2. Setting up the repositories
Using Links from the "Additional YAST Online Repositories" page from opensuse.org, and the "installation sources" menu in YAST, I set up the YAST package manager to download and install software from the "Packman" and "Guru" repositories.
I then go to the opensuse mirrors page and add the "installation source" repository links, so I can install software from the official distribution without needing the CDs .
Finally, I disable the CD ROM listing from the installation sources, to assure that YAST looks to the online repositories for official packages, and doesn't try to get them from the CDs.
Once I get the OS installed and online, I can add the "unofficial" (not affiliated with SUSE) YAST repositories by going to this page (http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories), where it's all been helpfully assembled in one place.
There's links to a whole long list of unofficial repositories on this page, but the only two that I have found to be essential are the ones named "Packman" and "Guru", which are right at the top. One by one, I copy the appropriate link addresses to my clipboard in the usual way. If I'm using Opera, that's a right click on the link, followed by a click on "copy link location".
From the KDE menu, I open up the YAST control center (requires root access) and click on "Installation source" which opens a list of "Configured Software Catalogs"
YAST takes a couple of minutes to get started. Get used to it. YAST ("Yet Another Startup Tool") is a comprehensive, reliable, and powerful tool that provides an intuitive interface for nearly every administrative task, and gives the user options that other administrative GUIs don't.
I click on "add", which gives me a list of options for adding a respository. Since I'm using SUSE 10.2, all I have to do is click on the bottom (and easiest) option, "Specify URL", and then I click on "Next"
This opens a little window, where I can paste the link addresses that I copied to the clipboard from the Unofficial Repositories page.
I copy the link to the Window, and click "Next". As these are unoffical repositories, I might get prompted with a warning that the key for this repositories is unknown the system and therefore "untrusted" and do I want to install it anyway?
I do, and so I get another dialogue asking me if I want to import the "untrusted" key.
And that's it. The repository is added to my installation sources.
Now, since I have a high-speed DSL connection, I have the luxury of being able to set up an online installation source from one of the SUSE mirrors. This will enable me to install any "official" software I want from the internet, without the need to fumble with the disks. It's also the reason why I didn't need to download the last two openSUSE CDs.
To my way for thinking, a good tutorial provides you with painstaking detail in case you need it, and then gives you the signposts necessary to avoid as much reading as you possibly can. The text that is in bold print is the concise summary. The regular text is the painstaking detail. If you can get away with just reading the parts printed in bold, you have my best wishes.
Here's how I install openSUSE, for the best Linux experience I've ever had. On my hardware, which is good but not special, openSUSE 10.2 playes every media file I want to throw at it, and runs every application I want, including a couple of Windows applications in a virtual machine. I don't want to say there haven't been any headaches, but I can say that, offhand, I can't remember any headaches since I learned how to set up SUSE with everything I need-- so how bad could they have been?
This isn't a lightweight install. I've got over half a terabyte of hard drive space, so I'm not going to be stingy about installing all the development packages that will prevent me from having to hunt down specific libraries later on, when I want to install something, or the base packages for both KDE and Gnome to provide me with an eclectic selection of applications-- K3b and gedit in the same desktop. The whole takes about 3 gigabytes. In my view, it's worth it for a comfortable experience. My 320 Gigabyte hard drive cost me a hundred dollars, so that's about a buck's worth of bytes.
Also, the techniques used here presume a fast connection. If you've got a dial-up connection, you're going to be more dependent on the SUSE CDs to install software. With a DSL connection, I get most of my software directly from the internet after I set up the online connection.
The procedure comes in three parts:
1. Installing the OS
2. Setting up the repositories
3. installing all the software necessary for a comfortable and empowering Linux experience.
1. Installing the OS
I start by installing a default KDE system for my default desktop, though I could just as easily choose gnome.
except that I don't install amarok, or any xine-based media players. The versions that come with the distro don't have all the drivers, and more complete versions are available online. I want to leave room to install the complete version later on, without any conflicts.
In the beginning, I start with the default KDE installation, which only requires the first three of the five CDs-- however, I deliberately refrain from installing any applications that use the Xine media player or its libraries. I do this because the version of Xine that shops with openSUSE doesn't have proprietary drivers for formats like mp3 and wmv. I'm going to install the complete versions later from an online repository, so I don't want the incomplete versions in the way where they might create a conflict later.
After choosing KDE as my default desktop (either kde or Gnome will do)
Screenshot: menu for selecting destop Gui for opensuse installation (http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/3639/yast2007lo7.png)
I reach the installation settings page.
The dafault installation settings page from the openSUSE installer. (http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7001/yast2008ur4.png)
In order to customize my software packages, I click on "Software", which takes me to the preinstallation version of the YAST software management menu:
Screenshot: where to click. (http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/6636/yast2008rt1yd5.png)
The software selection menu comes up, and I click on "details",
SCREENSHOT: the software selection menu, and where to click to make finer choices. (http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5185/yast2011kv1.png)
and then I click on the filters menu, and select "search".
I do two separate searches, one for "amarok", and one for "xine"
I click on the boxes to disable the installation of everything that comes up in the two searches, except "xinetd".
And then I proceed with the usual installation.
2. Setting up the repositories
Using Links from the "Additional YAST Online Repositories" page from opensuse.org, and the "installation sources" menu in YAST, I set up the YAST package manager to download and install software from the "Packman" and "Guru" repositories.
I then go to the opensuse mirrors page and add the "installation source" repository links, so I can install software from the official distribution without needing the CDs .
Finally, I disable the CD ROM listing from the installation sources, to assure that YAST looks to the online repositories for official packages, and doesn't try to get them from the CDs.
Once I get the OS installed and online, I can add the "unofficial" (not affiliated with SUSE) YAST repositories by going to this page (http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories), where it's all been helpfully assembled in one place.
There's links to a whole long list of unofficial repositories on this page, but the only two that I have found to be essential are the ones named "Packman" and "Guru", which are right at the top. One by one, I copy the appropriate link addresses to my clipboard in the usual way. If I'm using Opera, that's a right click on the link, followed by a click on "copy link location".
From the KDE menu, I open up the YAST control center (requires root access) and click on "Installation source" which opens a list of "Configured Software Catalogs"
YAST takes a couple of minutes to get started. Get used to it. YAST ("Yet Another Startup Tool") is a comprehensive, reliable, and powerful tool that provides an intuitive interface for nearly every administrative task, and gives the user options that other administrative GUIs don't.
I click on "add", which gives me a list of options for adding a respository. Since I'm using SUSE 10.2, all I have to do is click on the bottom (and easiest) option, "Specify URL", and then I click on "Next"
This opens a little window, where I can paste the link addresses that I copied to the clipboard from the Unofficial Repositories page.
I copy the link to the Window, and click "Next". As these are unoffical repositories, I might get prompted with a warning that the key for this repositories is unknown the system and therefore "untrusted" and do I want to install it anyway?
I do, and so I get another dialogue asking me if I want to import the "untrusted" key.
And that's it. The repository is added to my installation sources.
Now, since I have a high-speed DSL connection, I have the luxury of being able to set up an online installation source from one of the SUSE mirrors. This will enable me to install any "official" software I want from the internet, without the need to fumble with the disks. It's also the reason why I didn't need to download the last two openSUSE CDs.