Robert B. White 29 Jun 2006

NOTES FROM INSTALLING SuSE LINUX 9.2

MAJOR GOTCHA: APPLIX DOES NOT RUN UNDER 9.2!!

FOREWARD

These are my notes from installing SuSE Linux on a ChemBook N38W and a "tower" using 2.4 GHz P-IV, 1GB RAM, 2xIDE HD, etc. Both machines run Linux as the primary OS, though the laptop can boot MS-DOS 6.2. Some of the "recipes" following are specific to these machines, but most apply generally and even the specifics can be understood as recommendations.

If you're installing Linux for the first time, have a hard disk which you can use just for this so you can experiment. You will probably make more than 1 "initial" installation before you're satisfied with the result, so don't destroy your existing system. Linux (at least SuSE) includes all the tools you need to easily set up multiple boot systems. Since Linux can read Windows file systems, you will be able to access all your existing files from Linux. Windows, however, cannot access Linux file systems.

Please note this is a "what to do" which needs some prior knowledge of how to carry out the actions recommended. A full "how to" for a new first time installer is more than I want to write now!

DISK LAYOUT

Under the Windows OS's through Win 2000, you're allowed one "primary" partition and an optional "extended" partition. In the extended partition you can make as many (within some limit) "virtual" partitions as you want.

Under most (all?) Linux distributions you're allowed up to 4 "primary" partitions, each of which can be further divided into many "virtual" partitions. There will be a provision in the installation software to specify these partitions and whether you want them formatted.

In order to properly prepare a hard disk for suspend-to-disk on your laptop, you will need to make sure there is enough space free to accommodate an additional hibernation partition. The hibernation partition must be a primary partition (1-4), and the required size will be determined by the amount of physical and video RAM in your laptop. To determine the size you need to make the partition, as root run:

lphdisk --probeonly

Having created a primary partition of the proper size using a disk partitioning utility, you should set it to type A0 hex (identified by fdisk as "IBM ThinkPad Hibernation", though "Phoenix NoteBIOS Hibernation" would be a more correct label).

lphdisk will then locate, verify, and format this partition for use. At this point you will need to reboot the system so that BIOS can locate and use the new hibernation partition.

Here are my recommendations (remember to add a "primary" partition on a laptop if you want to be able to suspend it):

1. If possible, use 2 disks for Linux
   1. First one holds swap and the root directory (/)
   2. Second one holds /home, which is where all user data lives.
   This layout permits changing OS without having to back up all your user data (but you'll back this up anyway as normal practice).
2. If 2 disks aren't possible, don't worry about it, user data will automagically appear in the same place in the file system and you can upgrade later.
3. As a minimum, create 2 primary partitions on the first disk: swap and / (root), in this order. If your BIOS requires that the boot-able partition fit within the first 1024 cylinders of the disk, then you may want to create 3 primary partitions in the order /boot, swap and / (root). The installation program will connect all these together correctly. Be sure to make the / (or /boot if you use it) boot-able. You always want swap near the beginning of the disk to avoid having to work the heads over the whole radius of the drive. The file system tries to concentrate data towards the beginning of each partition.
4. Specify the "Reiser" file system for /, and for /home if you have this on a separate disk or partition. /boot does not need to be Reiser, it's not big enough nor used very often. Reiser file systems allow files larger than 2GB, are faster than "ext3", and better protect their data. Look up the documentation for more information than I want to present here. The bottom line is just do as I recommend on this one.
5. There is no really firm rule for swap partition size. It should be as large as memory, some OS's recommend 1.5 times memory. If your distribution recommends a value or you have a rationale for a value, use it. Otherwise use at least as much as memory size, or up to 1GB if memory is less than this.
6. Always format, it cleans up whatever cruft is already on the disk.

NETWORKS

# Request for Comments: 1918
# Address Allocation for Private Internets
#
# From: http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1918.txt
#
# 3. Private Address Space
#
#    The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the
#    following three blocks of the IP address space for private internets:
#
#      10.0.0.0        -   10.255.255.255  (10/8 prefix)
#      172.16.0.0      -   172.31.255.255  (172.16/12 prefix)
#      192.168.0.0     -   192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

These are un-routable addresses and will help protect your computers. Normally you use an address in the last range, which is for "Class C" networks. Your hardware firewall should do the necessary Network Address Translation (NAT). If there's an option to do NAT, enable it. If your hardware firewall doesn't do NAT, replace it with one that does.

INITIAL INSTALLATION

However, during tar | tar to retrieve saved data from Fire-Wire drive, transfers would repeatedly hang with the Ethernet card in lower slot. Succeeded by removing card for these transfers. Later experience indicates (32 bit) network cards will not work for long in the (16 bit) lower slot.

On the laptop, installing "ifplugd" to enable switching between network cards rendered the Ethernet card "eth0" non-startable. Even with "eth0" configured:
yast2: Network Devices -> Network Card -> {Change | Configure} -> Edit -> Advanced -> Detailed Settings "At Boot Time"
to start at boot and "ath0" (wireless) configured to start on hot-plug (which required "ifplugd"), "eth0" could not be found.

Use the following kernel parameters, and ensure they are installed through boot loader (these work for me, you may need something different. You can safely omit them and let the installation program figure out what to use.):

  acpi=off apm=on,inupower_off

  vga=791

On desk-side, have scanner connected and on before installation, be sure to install S/W for it. I have not been able to get the scanner to work with the laptop, though it used to. Still works fine on desk-side.

The following change allowed the scanner to work long enough to hang the system during setup using
yast2 -> Hardware -> Scanner
After that it was no longer detected.

From: http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/04/thallma_scsiscanner_91.html

You want to set up your SCSI scanner in SUSE LINUX, but your scanner
model is not detected by YaST.

The kernel module for the support of generic SCSI devices is not loaded
on your system. Currently, the reason for this error is unknown. Possibly,
the problem may be related to block devices (hard disk, CD-ROM, etc.) that
are also connected to the SCSI bus.

The temporary solution will not work after you reboot the system.
Proceed as follows in order to load the module automatically when the
system is booted. This procedure places the kernel module "sg" in the
initial ramdisk. Subsequently, the module will be loaded automatically.

   1. Open the YaST Control Center and go to the following dialog:
          * System
          * Editor for /etc/sysconfig Files
   2. Open the following path in the /etc/sysconfig editor:
          * System
          * Kernel
          * MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT
   3. Append the value "sg" to any existing values in the input field to
      the right. The individual values must be separated with blank spaces.
   4. Click "Finish".
   5. Confirm the "Modified Variables" dialog by clicking "OK".
   6. Close the YaST Control Center.

REBOOT BEFORE CONTINUING

Have given up on getting laptop to work w/SCSI scanner. (24 Jan 2005) Might be worth trying the following before attempting to install scanner:

     yast2 -> Network Services -> Network Services inetd
	      Enable SANE port

     yast2 -> System -> Runlevel Editor
	      Enable SANE

CONTROL CENTER

1. Desktop -> Window Behavior: set "focus follows mouse" and un-check "click to raise". You may prefer other settings, please use what works for you!
2. System Administration -> Login Manager -> Convenience: Preselect user and focus on password.
3. Edit /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/XOsview: set disk to True.
4. Edit /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/XTerm: comment out ScrollBar
5. yast2: System -> Sysconfig Editor: run updatedb as root.
6. Set up network initially on 192.168.2.x, getting x from another system's /etc/hosts. But it looks as if it's still necessary to edit /etc/hosts to install the new machine's IP address. After installation ftp in the complete file from another machine.
   As a minimum, the following will be useful to access other machines on the home network to get a copy of /etc/hosts (you use addresses for your network):

   192.168.2.1	router.my-home          router
   192.168.2.12	rel-home.my-home        rel-home
   192.168.2.16	bob-port.my-home        bob-port
   192.168.2.20	print-serv.my-home      print-serv
   

7. Network printer can be set up if it's IP address and queue are supplied: 192.168.2.20 (in my case). This printer should be identified as lp (default) on all machines.
8. yast2: Network Services -> NTP client: set up to use Public NTP server. See ntp.conf,laptop for servers. This is really slick: it sets your clock on every boot-up.
9. Shutdown, remove SCSI card, insert network card. Restart, configure network and printer. yast2: Network Services -> Network Services (inetd) set up desired services: netstat, ftp, login, rstatd, systat. THEN use System -> Runlevel editor.
10. yast2: System -> Runlevel Editor: enable what's needed. Curiously, pure-ftpd does NOT have to be enabled here to work, but it DOES in inetd (above). Starting pure-ftpd here results in anonymous ftp access only with no cd allowed!
11. (VERY OPTIONAL!) On laptop: shutdown, put SCSI card in lower slot and network card in upper. Then connect scanner and boot machine. LEAVE SCANNER CONNECTED UNTIL LAPTOP IS SHUT DOWN! SuSE claims disconnecting or connecting scanner from live OS is bad, and certainly on 8.1 this "poisoned" scanner access. Configure the scanner: yast2: Hardware -> Scanner

FIREWIRE DISK

12. From notes for SuSE Linux 7.3 on support portal: http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/03/mlasars_firewire.html Add these modules to the list at:

    yast2 -> /etc/sysconfig Editor -> System -> Kernel -> MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT
    
    ohci1394 sbp2
    

    The disk should have been powered long enough to start before plugging the FireWire adapter into it's PCMCIA slot. 5-10 seconds after plugin cat /proc/scsi/scsi will identify the disk and a few seconds after that it will be automounted as /media/ieee1394-*

XSERVER

13. Per Novell TIDSuSE89, 28 Jun 2004
    As of SuSE 9.1 the XFree server no longer accepts any remote access. This has been disabled by the option "-nolisten tcp" which is passed as a start argument.

    To re-enable remote access, set the following variable in the file

    /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager
    

    to "yes":

    DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER_TCP_PORT_6000_OPEN
    

    The changes become effective after executing SuSEconfig and restarting the XServer.
    Notes by RBW:
    1. MAYBE they do, but I had to reboot as well.
    2. The "offending" file is: /usr/X11/bin/startx
14. If you want to run dosemu (xdos), install the font

    vga_cyr8x16.pcf
    

    per

    /home/linux/dosemu/0.98.1/README.vga_cyr8x16.pcf
    

    so dosemu will display correctly. Restart X-Server to make this font effective.

    I strongly recommend using dosemu version 0.98.1. More recent versions work well and may not need the font file installation mentioned here, but believe the drive is network mounted and so will not allow running defrag and scandisk.

KDE DESKTOP

15. (in all KDE logins) If FireFox or ThunderBird are installed add their desktop icons.
    Also, especially after an OS or Kernel upgrade, check ~/.gnome/apps for references to obsolete programs and remove them.
    Note: if an icon for one of these formerly existed and you re-install the application in a different location, you will probably have to remove and replace the icon as well. I was unable to reconnect an existing icon to a new location even though there was no visible reason for the failure.
    Note: SuSE 10 uses a different version of who which has a different date format, breaking the code in .cshrc for setting DISPLAY for a remote host. See my corrected version of .cshrc which sets parameter count according to who version.

VIDEO

16. xine does not play DVD's out of the box. Remove it if installed. Get updates from xine web site: http://xine.sourceforge.net
    Files needed are:

    libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.network.i386.rpm
    libxine1-1_cvs-041122.i686.rpm
    w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm
    xine-mozilla-plugin-1.2-041122.i586.rpm
    xine-ui-0.99.2cvs-041122.i586.rpm	<- install this last
    

    Install these files with the following commend line (from http:/www.xinehq.de, cited in Dec 2003 Linux Journal, page 58):
    rpm --install --force w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm xine-mozilla-plugin-0.2-040826.i586.rpm libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.network.i386.rpm curl-7.10.3-1.i386.rpm libxine1-1_cvs-040826.i686.rpm xine-ui-0.99.2cvs-040725.i586.rpm
    Expected response is:
    warning: curl-7.10.3-1.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID df3d5207

    Reboot after installation to attain full functionality. After this, both xine and kaffeine will play DVD videos.
    To get smooth reproduction from DVD's execute the following. More conveniently add it to /etc/init.d/boot.local

    # 22 Nov 2004   Attempt to set hdparms at boot time since '-k1' appeared
    #               to not persist over reboot.  rbw
    /sbin/hdparm -c1 -u1 -d1 -k1 /dev/hda
    /sbin/hdparm -u1 -d1 -k1 /dev/hdc
    

    Also add the following to the same file to speed up DVD writing (may not be needed with 9.2, but WAS for 9.0):

    # 22 Nov 2004   added per "IDE CD Writer" FAQ on SuSE website.  rbw
    #
    /sbin/modprobe ide-scsi
    

AUDIO

17. Sound driver did not load after installation. This was caused by kernel change from on-line update. Have to reboot to get this loaded. (On amplifier, use TAPE/MD for rel-home, VIDEO for bob-port.
18. Kaffeine (/opt/kde3/bin/kaffeine) plays audio CDs and can produce louder volume than other players. It's track lister is a bit flaky getting started. It's equalizer is non-functional on rel-home at least.
19. alsamixergui (/usr/X11R6/bin/alsamixergui) is a good mixer, but don't use alsamixer.
20. xmcd plays the CD but produces no sound (!). (Maybe I had the amplifier on VIDEO instead of TAPE/MT?)

FTP

21. Classic ftpd is no more with this distribution. Secure ftpd allows only anonymous connections with very limited cd capabilities, and that excludes /tmp and /home but INCLUDES the family jewels!
    Use instead pure-ftp (also in the distribution). Start it in xinit, NOT in RunLevel Editor.
    BUT: DON'T use pure-ftp with SuSE 8.x.
    AND: starting pure-ftpd in Runlevel Editor will also force anonymous connections...

SESSION MANAGER

22. KDE no longer allows changing the window manager list in the control -> session manager tab. In particular, olvwm does not appear even when installed and cannot be added.

    Workaround is to install xsession and make .xinitrc executable in each user's home directory. Need to check that .xinitrc correctly specifies and tests for olvwm. Probably this and defining the wm should be revised to allow choices. Forcing olvwm is sufficient for now.

    Additionally .openwin-init needs some revision for font specification and clock geometry. After xterm initializations sleep needs to be more than 1 second, 3 is OK.

23. Following a kernel update 4 Apr 2005 the following error messages no longer appear and 'clock' displays correctly both locally and remotely.
    Open Look's clock (/usr/openwin/bin/clock) produces the following error messages and fails to display:

    XView warning: Cannot load font '-b&h-lucida-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*' (Font package)
    XView warning: Cannot load font '-b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-sans-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*' (Font package)
    XView error: Cannot open connection to window server: :0.0 (Server package)
    

    However, when invoked from an rlogin it displays correctly on the remote machine. Workaround is to use /usr/bin/X11/xclock. Will need to define display string later

    Unaccountably -title does not display, though it does when run from an rlogin and displayed on a remote machine.

    There's a common thread with these display problems: XF86 on the laptop's SuSE 8.2 does expected things which Xorg on SuSE 9.2 does not. Need to test 9.0. (9.0 appears to use XF86 since Applix runs on it.)

24. .openwin-init may need some adjusting for font specification. More than the default fonts are needed, not sure what exactly. Maybe 100 DPI fonts?

VMWARE

25. VMware: needs kernel sources to install. Updating a kernel requires re-installing VMware, so use the following instructions. An apparently successful sequence is:
    1. Un-install VMware
    2. Un-install kernel sources
    3. cd /usr/src
    4. Remove all remaining directories linux* (which should be all)
    5. Make a fresh install of kernel sources. Modules other than km_vmware* (if provided) appear to be un-necessary.
    6. Perform an on-line (or other) kernel update if desired
    7. REBOOT THE SYSTEM TO APPLY THE NEW KERNEL
    8. Install VMware
    9. BEFORE running vmware-config.pl do the following as root:

       cd /usr/src/linux
       make cloneconfig
       make prepare
       depmod -a
       

       On 26 May 2005 I installed VMware 5.0 without the preceding. This works with SuSE 9.2, other versions need other algorithms.
    10. vmware-config.pl
        Let it build and install the required modules. When setting up networks for the first time let the setup probe for unused addresses. Fill in the resulting addresses below, replacing the ones I use. Use your addresses in subsequent installations instead of allowing probes for networks. This will ensure compatibility among the several machines running VMware.

        vmware-config.pl asks first to setup vmnet8. For compatibility across machines, supply the following:

        inet addr       172.16.64.1
        mask            255.255.255.0
        

        Then it asks for the optional host-only network, vmnet1. For compatibility across machines, supply the following:

        inet addr       192.168.47.1
        mask            255.255.255.0
        

    11. Finally (and this does appear needed AFTER running vmware-config.pl):

        cd /lib/modules
        depmod -a
        

        This step is REQUIRED before reboot with VMware 5.x also. Deceptively, the computer will run normally without this step, but will have major problems finding modules on the next boot.
    
    

    On starting, VMware may complain that the running kernel is more recent that that for which it was compiled. It appears to run OK after that- I started it, installed W2K, and was able to install VMTools, then start updates from it, proving that the basic system and networking were OK.

    Initially leave the floppy connected. For the CD/DVD select /dev/hdc and legacy emulation. After installation, set both floppy and CD/DVD to disconnect at startup. In some cases leaving the CD/DVD connected invites the Guest OS to check the drive for a new disk about every 4 seconds. These checks briefly hang the Guest OS and are extremely annoying.

GUEST OS INSTALL

Initial Virtual Machine

Host-Only Network

Printer

1. Start -> Settings -> Printers
2. Right-click the printer to configure or double click "Add Printer".
3. Select: File -> Properties -> Ports -> Add Port
   The port CANNOT be controlled from Properties under the printer.
4. for "Printer Name or IP Address" use the IP address of your printer server. In my case 192.168.2.20
   A "Port Name" will be constructed, there's no need to change it for the first printer. However, for additional printers you'll need to modify the constructed name to distinguish this port from previous ones.
5. Protocol: LPR
6. In "Raw Settings" if there is a "Port Number" it should be whatever your printer server uses, in my case 515.
7. Queue Name: lpt3
   This is the queue on the printer server.
8. Check "SNMP Status Enabled". Under this "Community Name" should be "public", and "SNMP Device Index" 1.

SAMBA

1. Shut down emulated OS so that machine is powered off but VMware Workstation still runs.
2. Edit virtual machine settings -> Options -> Shared Folders
3. Click Add and browse to directory to be added.
4. Give it a Name for Windows to use, and click "Enable this share".
5. OK
6. OK

BROWSER

• JAVA
• Real Player (Real Networks)
• Shockwave Flash (Flash Player) (Macromedia)

27. JAVA
    This is the easiest. Your distribution should have both runtime and development versions. Install at least runtime package (JRE) java-1_4_2-sun or later, install j2sdk for development.

    Get updates from http://java.sun.com/

    Do the following as root: Following installation run "updatedb". Then cd to each browser's plugin directory, for example:

    cd /opt/mozilla/plugins
    cd /opt/firefox/plugins
    

    and run the command:

    locate libjavaplugin_oji.so
    

    Note: in some cases it may be necessary to use instead:

    locate libjavaplugin_oji.so | grep gcc
    

    if this returns exactly one line, then run the command:

    ln -s `locate libjavaplugin_oji.so`
    

    or:

    ln -s `locate libjavaplugin_oji.so | grep gcc`
    

    If there is more than one response, you get to figure out which one to use.
28. Real Player
    This has multiple versions, with current Linuces you'll need "RealPlayer 10", which is in SuSE 9.2 at least.

    NB: it's tempting to "ln -s" instead of "cp -p", and linked files will work. However, linked files drastically slow FireFox's response to changing selections from, for example, bbc.co.uk/radio based on tests 14 Apr 2005- use 'cp -p'!

    Do the following as root: Following installation run "updatedb". Then cd to each browser's plugin directory, for example:

    cd /opt/mozilla/plugins
    cd /opt/firefox/plugins
    

    and run the command:

    ls -lt `locate nphelix.so` | grep -v '^l'
    

    Copy the resulting file into the plugins directory.

    Then cd to each browser's components directory, for example:

    cd /opt/mozilla/components
    cd /opt/firefox/components
    

    and run the command:

    ls -lt `locate nphelix.xpt` | grep -v '^l'
    

    Copy the resulting file into the components directory.
29. Shockwave Flash
    Version 7.x is in SuSE 9.2 at least. Possibly no action is required other than installing the package "flash-player". Check each browser with "about:plugins". If "flash-player" is installed but not recognized by a browser, then do the following as root:

    Following installation run "updatedb". Then cd to each browser's plugin directory, for example:

    cd /opt/mozilla/plugins
    cd /opt/firefox/plugins
    

    and run the command:

    ls -lt `locate libflashplayer.so` | grep -v '^l'
    

    Copy the resulting file into the plugins directory.
    Then cd to each browser's components directory, for example:

    cd /opt/mozilla/components
    cd /opt/firefox/components
    

    and run the command:

    ls -lt `locate flashplayer.xpt` | grep -v '^l'
    

    Copy the resulting file into the components directory.

OPENOFFICE

30. Obtain and Install
    Downloaded versions of this have installers instead of an .rpm package. The version in the SuSE distribution is packaged. When replacing the distro copy with one from openoffice.org, first un-install the distro's package(s). If using an installer, use the command:

    ./setup -net
    

    Install it to /opt/OpenOffice.org<version number>, then link /opt/OpenOffice to this directory.
31. Aliases and Menus
    Set all .alias and .*menu* references to OpenOffice to use this link instead of the specific version.
32. Post Installation
    After installation AND each user has started the new version for the first time:

    cd /home/<user_dir>/.kde/share/applnk
    

    and remove older directories with names in the form of:

    'OpenOffice.org <version_number>'
    

    and YES, that IS a SPACE in the middle of the directory name, hence the single quotes.
    

    After an update or relocating OpenOffice (for instance from /usr/local to /opt), check links in each user's OpenOffice directory and program paths in Konqueror. In each user's home directory is a subdirectory 'OpenOffice.org<version_number>'. In this subdirectory are links to setup, soffice, and spadmin. Each of these must be to the actual installation directory, NOT to the link recommended above.

    
    

    In Konqueror, check "Edit -> Edit File Type... -> Application (in Application Preference Order) -> Edit... -> Application".
    Path for "Command" may be set to either the link or the actual installation directory. Setting to the link will require fewer changes in the future.
    Also, especially after an OS or Kernel upgrade, check ~/.gnome/apps for references to obsolete programs and remove them.