openSUSE 11.1

Here is a mini walk-through for those interested in openSuse on their Mac. I'm still a babe-in-the-woods, but thought I'd present my findings in a casual manner.

You basically have two choices - download an entire DVD, or do a net-install, where you download about 128mb for the net-install image to boot from, and the installer downloads the rest depending on your choices.

You can go through their choices to pick what to download here:

http://software.opensuse.org/

Note that what you see may differ depending on if you have javascript turned on or off in your browser. You can also get it here:

http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/iso/

Pick either the DVD or the NET image for ppc. Even better is to use a mirror - I won't go into great detail here as that is covered in their docs.

Assumptions: You now have either the dvd or netinstall image burned as an iso, and preferably at a low speed, and can boot from it by holding down the "C" key upon startup. Although I haven't tried it, reports say that you can also boot from within openfirmware with

boot cd;,install
or
boot cd:,install video=ofonly

FIRST CHOICE

If you have enough ram to support a graphical installation, you can try to install it at the very first prompt with:

install

If you don't have enough ram, or if for some reason your graphics are not configured properly, you can install with the text-based ncurses style of installer:

install textmode=1

For DVD users, you can skip much of the next part since it will concentrate on the net-install method

Make sure that CD number 1 is in your drive
1. ok
2. back

The cd is surely in your drive, but instead of choosing 1, choose 2 to go back!

Main Menu
1. Start Installation
2. Settings
3. Expert
4. Reboot

Let's start the installation by choosing 1.

Start Installation
1. Start installation or update
2. Boot installed system
3. Start rescue system

Again, we want to start the installation, so choose 1.

Choose The Source Medium
1. DVD / CDrom
2. Network
3. Hard Disk

Here we choose 2 to get the rest from the network

Choose The Network Protocol
1. FTP
2. HTTP
3. NFS
4. SMB / CIFS (windows share)
5. TFTP

I decided to try HTTP to do my first install with, so I chose #2.

Automatic Configuration via DHCP?
1. Yes
2. No

Since I am behind a home router that is set up for dhcp, I chose #1

Enter the ip address of the http server
>

For the ip address, I actually used a url:

powerpc.opensuse.org

Enter Directory On The Server
>

/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/

Note the trailing slash! Also, it is here where more advanced users may want to specify mirrors or other repos. I have chosen to use just the canonical setup. :)

Do you need a username or password to access the http server?
1. Yes
2. No

I chose #2, no.

Use an HTTP Proxy?
1. Yes
2. No

I chose #2, no, here as I'm not behind a proxy.

At this point, the installer will download about 80mb of more installation data and will start the install. Be patient!

MAIN INSTALLER NOTES

You should now be presented with the installer, and if you have chosen install textmode=1 at the beginning, the ncurses text-based installer will show up. If you are using that, then use TAB to navigate around, and SPACEBAR to make selections.

I won't go into extreme detail, but off the bat I'd say that for new users, you will want to create a new partition setup, and then let the partitioner "use the whole disk". Of course, this will wipe out everything, but you won't have to have special knowledge on how to set up tricky apple-specific partitions in addition to the normal Linux partitions.

OpenSuse also allows for the user to determine if they want seperate user / root users, and if they want to use sudo. Pretty flexible.

Choosing your Desktop Environment

At this stage, many might want to install Gnome, or KDE 4.x which are the main ones. If you choose "OTHER", you now have the ability to install the older KDE 3.x, XFCE, Lightweight Minimal X, or Server.

These are pretty self-explanatory, but I have chosen to install the Lightweight Minimal X and will follow up with some further notes about that!

The Minimal X installation - instead of a desktop environment, many might want to use just a window-manager to save on ram, or perhaps you just like a very tidy system. Other distros may only offer XFCE or the server as your choices for minimal installs, but openSuse's Minimal X fills a very unique spot.

Typically in Debian or other systems, one can build up their own window-manager lightweight system by installing the server-version, or cli-only version, and then adding in all the other components necessary. OpenSuse saves you this step with the Minimal X - which is great if one isn't familiar with all the components needed.

Ok, so you have chosen the Minimal X option, and what do you get upon reboot? The TWM window manager! For many, that is just TOO spartan! TWM is the default window manager supplied with X. If you like it, great - but openSuse also includes a more modern ICEWM window manager.

If you are familiar with TWM and opensuse already, perhaps you have just called up an xterm, and as root, fired up yast2 and reconfigured everything. There are two ways to get the included ICEWM to come up.

How to Configure for ICEWM instead of TWM

All you need to do is make a change in your /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager file.

If you aren't familiar with TWM, just left-click, hold and drag to get to the xterm menu. Got xterm up? Yeah, it is ugly but it will get the job done. If you want to resize xterm, look in the upper right corner. Left-click and hold it - without letting go, drag the mouse to the lower-right corner and drag that corner to the size you want the xterm to be and let go. Still ugly! Now, CTRL-right-click and hold to see the menu pop up, and drag the mouse to change the font size to something you can use and let go. Ah, much better.

Alternatively, one could just go into a virtual terminal via ctrl-alt-f2, and login....

If your graphics are ok, you can edit the file with your favorite text-based editor, or you can call up the gui mousepad editor, which comes supplied, and is just a piece of it's bigger brother, xfce. VI users will have no problem, but you can also use JOE which is part of the install. You can download others right away such as nano, but at this stage, you probably aren't reading this walk-through. :)

(You'll have to edit the file as root, so depending on your choices, you either change into your root account with su, or preface the following commands with sudo.)

In an xterm, fire up mousepad if your graphics are ok:

mousepad

OR, fire up joe for text based editing:

joe /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager

Note - new joe users can call up the help screen with this combo: CTRL-K (release) H. CTRL-K (release) is the key to using joe.

Now, just change the default window manager to icewm-session:

# Here you can set the default window manager (kde, fvwm, ...)
# changes here require at least a re-login
# DEFAULT_WM="twm" 
DEFAULT_WM="icewm-session" 

Now just save the file, and logout and log back in. Or just simply reboot.

Great - icewm should now be shown upon startup instead of twm. I won't go into detail on customizing icewm in this thread, but at least you'll have something a bit easier to use than twm now.

Configuring your new system

If you are unfamiliar with yast2, or if you are coming from an apt-get cli-environment as in Debian etc you may want to do the following right away - as root, either with su or sudo depending on your choices initially:

zypper update

This should update your system to the latest.

Perhaps get the nano editor:

zypper install nano

Get a browser:

zypper install MozillaFirefox

If you are low on ram, perhaps install links (that is with an "i", not the older lynx with a "y", but obviously you can install that too..)

zypper install links

The reason I recommend links is that you can get a very low-memory graphical browser with just framebuffer support by starting links as such:

links -g

Then, with links -g up and running, go to your favorite website:

g

enter the url:

ppclinux.co.uk/

That is just one way to do it, but thought I'd throw this out for the low-memory users.

Yast2 is the graphical way to set things up, but zypper is the native version of apt-get for openSuse users.

Well, that's about it. It isn't too comprehensive, but hopefully this might help someone get over a few hurdles. I'm new to openSuse myself, so I have a lot to learn.