Installing SUSE Linux - full tutorial

Thanks Mrkvonic for the full tutorial.

Just something I am looking for to start me with Linux ...

I am planning to learn Linux in 3 months time as I need to finish my work project first and am currently lurking around trying to shortlist the Linux (distro ... I think is the word) I want. I am a M$ user and never used any other OS before.

So far I am leaning slightly towards Ubuntu (because someone told me it's very easy to use) and am also looking at SUSE if it is free (last time I checked it was not free) but generally undecided. As there are so many to choose from my head just spins non-stop and I just want something that is "plug & play" ...

My friend has been advising me to get Apple Mac but the cost is too high for me for a new system so I am trying to consider Linux instead. But then my friend told me that with Linux hardware compatibility is usually the problem and I might need to use very old computer to run them. Not sure what he was on there.

I intend to use it as "multimedia system" and am planning to build up from scratch a system i.e. small form factor, if the hardware is compatible.

Oh ya ... if I get Linux it will be Linux OS on the machine only as I don't want to mix it around.

Arrghhh ... my head hurts ... need to learn as I am fed up with M$ ... if I strike jackpot I will get latest Apple but I have no luck so I need to build up a machine from scratch ... arrrghhh ...

Question: How long does it takes to learn Linux for a beginner especially one like me who has never used one before and is trying to build a system up from scratch ?

Question: How resource intense is Linux OS say Ubuntu and SUSE?



P/s: slight rant ... sorry ...

 

openSUSE 10.2 is free...

When I needed to develop Unix skills for my job, I had to practice it 8 hrs or more a day. Vi is still my preferred editor.
And I love shell scripts...

Resources depend on the desktop you want to use, KDE is hungry, XFCE is lean.

I understand that you want a distro that works out of the box, but if you are concerned about resources, you should look for the distro that supports your preferred desktop.

 

Mrkvonjic, thank you for the very nice and detailed tutorial for installing SUSE, I just might try that one after spending shamefully lot of time trying to find the right drivers for my nVidia 8500 in Ubuntu (EVERY one of them caused X to crash, even after doing everything required before install, and i'm not that experienced to FIX that in the console afterwards). I'm not an experienced Linux user, but have tried loads of different distros, some of them even working really well, multimedia 'n' everything, but after buying new machine with this graphic card, it all went downhill with linux
Anyways, since I'm all about 'give it another chance, even after it caused you to kick your machine', i just might try with this one and see what happens. And who knows......(ko pre devojci, sam u nju upada)
Cheers!

 

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

chew:

Q1: Entirely dependent on your time, motivation, perception, devotion, previous skill and knowledge. I think that an average guy could master Linux after 100 hours of active use - roughly 2 months with about 1.5 hours daily. This means good intimacy with command line, confidence with working with configuration files, drivers, scripts etc.

Q2: SUSE and Ubuntu are approx. the same in performance. There's mainly difference in the desktop manager you choose. KDE is heavier.

toxical, why don't you try this:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux_commands.html#mozTocId211806

It might help you install the card.

P.S. It's Mrkvonic not Mrkvonjic ... Haj sa srecom

Cheers,
Mrk

 

Thanx for the link.
I already tried with Envy, but it seems to me that the new nvidia series 8 (and 7 maybe?) are not actually very well supported in inux yet. After spending hours finding a solution to make my HDA Intel sound card to work (made it), now i have this situation with graphics...........well-i'll just wait some time if i don't succeed, maybe it will be fixed soon.
Mrk, i see i gave you another name, my bad (Mrkvonjic was some sleezy minister here a few years ago, LOL)

 

Thanks wilbertnl & Mrkvonic for the extra info.

Guess I need to read up all those KDE, GNOME and other distros.

So many to choose from and I guess it will keep me busy for a while.

 

i just installed webpin, i always use that site to find pre-packaged rpms for suse, but i never looked at the name before lol, i use pin too to help find dependencies i need. now i can search for rpms without going to the site

here's the suse 10.3 version -
http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?distro=openSUSE_103&searchTerm=webpin

and this is the 10.2 version -
http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/index.jsp?distro=openSUSE_102&searchTerm=webpin

if you want it click on the url in the links, then i586, and it will be somewhere on that page.

here's a search for webpin using webpin -

 

i remembered i did this to drop packets to port 113 rather then the port just being closed, i know it's not needed but i didn't like the nmap results i always got when i checked the FW :|

su
gedit /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2
comment out this line -
FW_SERVICES_REJECT_EXT="0/0,tcp,113"
then still as root run this to update the rules -
# . /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2

 

Mrkvonic, ty for that. I 've already buned an ISO and I'm planning on installing SUSE pretty soon.

 

Just noticed how old this is. I hear a lot of good things about opensuse. But i see a lot of people are concerned about novell and microsoft. Opensuse looks better than Ubuntu.

 

Get the SuSE 10.3 LiveCD iso: burn it : reboot it : rattle your paradigm

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04572

 

this thread is old now, suse 10.3 came out a while a go, a lot of the stuff i've written can still be used with newer versions of suse, and other distros too.

earlier i showed how to improve the look of the fonts, one of the things i did was change the dpi to 96. i was justing looking through some settings in gconf-editor and noticed the dpi was set to 85 at desktop/gnome/font_rendering, i changed it to 96 and that made the fonts a bit bigger, so i changed the size of all the fonts in gnome-font-properties. the fonts look as good as i've seen in any distro now

i'm sure i installed gnome-system-log at some time and it doesn't come in the default install. it's a system log reader for a GTK desktop.