Swapping Ubuntu for Suse
Okay, so I have switched from Ubuntu to Suse. Why you might ask? Well because a laptop that is not connected is a useless paper weight in my world. How can I possibly hold my forever waning attention if I don’t have a world of sparkly distractions at the disposal of my finger tips? No web, no good. And since Ubuntu decided that a week of internet was evidently all that it was going to supply me, Ubuntu in turn was no good. Luckily I am a fickle mistress, so I am not so attached…Goodbye Ubuntu, hello Suse.
Now I chose Suse only because I had a start up kit for it. The very first page of said kit states that Suse was made easier so that anyone could install it which in turn would make it the easiest Linux distro for new and experienced Linux users. Considering my success rate thus far with Linux, I thought this was a good omen for me! I took out the new shiny disk, opened the book and began the process of swapping out the dead brick of Ubuntu for the shiny newness of Suse.
- Inserted disk, picked install and saw the blue screen that is Suse for the first time
- Started media check ( note that on the side is the explanation of each step, saying what it was doing and why…very cool) Picked new install and answered several admin questions like time and language
- Gave me a choice of GNOME or KDE desktops, I chose KDE since I know that GNOME deals with Evolution as its mail server and we all know how much me no likey Evolution! So lets give KDE a try (note that when you get this choice it tells you the differences between the two, again very cool!)
- Next do the partitions. It shows me what partitions it wants. In the beginning prior to starting this Linux journey I had created a drive for my windows stuff, it was on HDA1. There is no mention of said drive in how Suse wants to partition my drives, so I say okay since it seems okay ( It deleted partition/dev/hda2 created extended partition/dev/hda2(32.2GB) created root partition/dev/hda5(12.8GB) with reiserfs created partition/dev/hda6(19.3GB)for home with reiserfs and used /dev/hda 3 as swap)
- It then performed the installation. Suse then goes through an explanation of some of the features like Fire Fox and Suse open.org
- Rebooted, chose host name, and tested internet connection
*******ROAD BLOCK *******
No internet, the logs say there is no wireless. GRRRRRR. Decide to continue install and work on that later. It is up and running now!
Go to utilities chose YAST and networking device and networking card…still can’t get the card to work….me starting not to like Linux! I will have to try later…that is enough for tonight! For Now I will simply play with the desktop of my new Linux distro, distro number two, Suse!
July 25th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
And I just finished telling Jon I wouldn’t tell you to use a different distro anymore, since you were so determined to use Ubuntu! Now I know to read your blog before Jon’s stuff.
So does this mean we can suggest distros without fear of Bloreo being sent after us?
July 25th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Oh heck, this thing has borked-up spell checking and ate my long and well thought out comment. So here’s the short version:
Try the liveCD of Mepis before you give up on the penguins entirely. The older 3.x version should just work with your wireless. The new 6.0 version should also work, but since it’s based on Ubuntu you might need to blacklist the bcm43xx driver.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:23 am
Google on “SUSE Linux Forums”. The SUSE community is very helpful. You forgot to mention what version of SUSE Linux you installed.
Here are a few sites to help you right away!
http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/links/index.html
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/
(This site is in English.
Germany is the home country of SUSE development.)
http://www.suseforums.net/
Hope this helps!
July 26th, 2006 at 2:28 am
Here you go. This will take you directly to the sub-forum on “Wireless Networking.” You may find the info you need in what’s already there.
SuSE Linux Forums > SuSE Linux > Network & Security > Wireless Networking
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.php?showforum=26
July 26th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Mandeep, thanks for the insight. Yes this does mean I am onto the suggestions of new distros. And, as stated in the following entry, I am going to try new live cd’s! I will give your mepis a try…..
KPG
July 26th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Penguin Powered, thank you so much for all the links. I have looked into them, and you are right, I have nothing but helpful suggestions so far! Alas, I also came to the realization that my 4318 is just not working with this distro! But keep tuned as I try other distros in the future!
KPG
July 28th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Kelly, do try the MEPIS 6.0 Final LiveCD on your Laptop.
Check out my graphical Screen snapshots, showing howto
setup the wireless network interfaces once you have the drivers loaded.
http://home.kendra.com/tulip/mepis6
http://www.mepis.org/node/9660 Good Detail on how to use NDISWRAPPER with the Broadcom BCM4315.
If still having problems, log in as root to console
iwconfig
iwconfig wlan0 channel yourchannel#
iwconfig wlan0 essid YOURESSID
ifconfig wlan0 up
ifup wlan0
dhclient
{get working first without encryption — add encryption later}
your channel # above is actual # like 11
Mepis OS Center expects freq — 11 = 2.462
http://www.mepis.org/forum/111?page=1
http://www.mepis.org/node/10384
need blacklist bcm43xx
Submitted by mdmarmer on Sat, 06/24/2006 - 18:46.
If you have a newer kernel (the Mepis 6.0 Ubuntu kernel)
you need to blacklist bcm43xx
See here http://www.mepis.org/node/9752
Mike
Post to http://www.mepislovers.org — very helpful forum
Download the user guide at left
Use the wiki http://www.mepislovers-wiki.org you can search it.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Fred, that is a very complete note, thank you for that! I will be getting on with my little project, via live cd, shortly….I just got married you know! I made Jonathan an official penguin guy…..
KPG