13.2 SuSe Linux (Novell)

20.02.2008

[ up ] - [ top ] - [ linux a-z ]

14 Linux Links →

From RedHat to Suse

You never have a second chance to make a first impression
ISPs are often using SuSe for root Servers. Reason enough to take a closer look to verify if I could use the same system at home for compatibility and gain better configuration know-how.

After two years I tried again to make a move from RedHat to SuSe but it looks SuSe is still away from a painless handling like it's used to be with RedHat (or Fedora). I used the current (Aug 2006) OpenSuse 10.1 release.

The good part in advance:
The installation worked without problems and although I had to enable the 3D mode of my graphic card manually it was regonized correctly and some of the bundled games are very good for free games. Even my forgotten TV card (Haupauge) was found in the configuration panel.

The not so good part...
The setup procedure tooks about an hour (which is okay) but with many interactions whereas important settings like configure the keyboard layout or set the firewall policy are at rather hidden places.
If you like both worlds, GNOME and KDE you cannot install both - there is a radio button whereas you will find check boxes in RedHat setups. Because rpm and yum are not available, at least not after a normal setup, I had to use yast to install missing packages. yast is pretty slow, even at startup and from a remote console the default colors are horrible to read, see yourself:

I had the need to install an Apache Webserver. After typing yast --help I found out I should be able to install Apache by typing
yast -i apache2
I had to ignore many useless questions by clicking it away but finally it looked like Apache was installed.

I didn't know where the configuration files and start scripts are located (certainly my ignorance). The very useful locate command is not available after a normal setup. I found out SuSe is calling Apache as apache2 and tried to start it by typing
service apache2 start
Then, the response was
suse:~ # service apache2 start
Starting httpd2 (worker) /usr/sbin/httpd2-worker: error while loading shared libraries:
libaprutil-1.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The command line was:
/usr/sbin/httpd2-worker -f /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
                                                           failed
My personal conclusion

It was hard to find some quick information on the Net. Since SuSe is a part of Novel and I didn't find support pages on the redirected Novell start page I had to make a detour via Google and last found the URL www.novell.com/documentation/suse.html↑.
I found some huge manuals (600 pages or more) but it was filled with information for beginners, e.g. what is a Firewall, what is a Webserver.

SuSe is convenient for non Power Users like people that want to move away from Microsoft and want to have a nice system with a good hardware recognition and multimedia capabilities.

People who like

fast and almost unattended installations

the command-line

often makes installation of server software or are compiling packages

have the need to make non-graphical remote administration of their systems

will probably make better experience with RedHat or Fedora products.

Probably I will throw SuSe away and re-install Fedora 5. But I will first of all show the funny games to my wife. Maybe I will keep SuSe as a host system and install Fedora 5 as a guest system with Xen.

As mentionned above, all of these information reflect my personal opinion.
If you'd like to leave a comment on this, please go to my Blog. If your comment has good arguments I'd like to add your notes at this position as well.
Enjoy!
--reto

Further references

SuSe Linux (Novell) - Reference CInternet:Webmaster
From RedHat to Suse. You never have a second chance to make a first impression.
infocopter.com/know-how/linux/suse.html

Linux Distros: What sucks, what rocks - Reference Livestyle
damn smal, debian, fedora, gentoo, knoppix, mandriva, redhat, slackware, suse, ubuntu, xandros
bentham.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/media/linux-srom.html

Which Distro Is Best? - Reference
SuSE is from Germany, and as such you would expect it to be a pretty well-oiled machine. Let me state it plain and clear right here: SuSE is no BMW. Or to put it in the common vernacular: SuSE sucks.
edgy-penguins.org/compurants/whichdistro.html

SuSe sucks! - Reference Livestyle
You might enjoy this blog.
noone.org/blog/English/Computer/SuSE/