Upgrading SuSE Linux 8.2 to 9.0

After some days of having used SuSE 9.0 Pro, we also detected some negative points, which will be mentioned further below.

Update

- For those who have a NVIDIA Graphic Card: Firstr download the newest driver
  from www.nvidia.com and store it on /tmp (e.g. NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4469-pkg2.run)
- Insert DVD, Side A up
- Boot
- Installation
- Language selection (Deutsch) -> Uebernehmen
- Choose 'Update of existing system' -> OK
- If asked: choose appropriate partition
- Installation Settings: Carefully check this!
  * Backup: I have a complete backup and do not need a backup here.
  * Keyboard-layout (Tastaturbelegung): Deutsch (Schweiz)
  * Pakete: many packets now use libcrypto.so.0.9.7 and libsssl.so..0.9.7
            while my installed MPlayer uses the versions ...0.9.6
  * 'Abbrechen' (abort)
  * right-click in the software you want to delete and choose 'delete'
    In my case this was the case for all, with the exeption of
    - hfslinmodem (for the Dell Inspiron 8200)
    - VMwareworkstation
    - xcdroast
 - Accept
- 'automatic changes'-Window appears: Continue
- Yes, start Update
  Make some notes during the 'slide-show' - you may want to try some software
  later, after the installation:
     presentation program 'Presenter'
     Drawing program 'Draw'
     KOrganizer
     Sodipodi: Vector drawing program
     Games: Enigma, and Frozen Bubble
- Let the system "Reboot from Harddisk"
- Internet connection: click "Continue" if you have a connection to the internet
  (in case of an error: continue)
- Online Updates: Yes -> continue
- Continue
- If screen is messed up (possibly with lots of colors) and if you have a
  Nvidia graphical card, do the following:  
  * remove DVD
  Choose:
  a) * ctnl/alt F1
     * login as root
     * init 3
  or
  b)
     * shutdown -r 0
     * add the "3" to the boot prompt
     * login as root
  Now install the new NVIDIA driver:
  * cd /tmp
  * sh NVIDIA-Linux-x85-1.0-4496-pkg2.run (or whatever package you have)
  * Accept
  * No
  * OK
  * OK
  * shutdown -r 0
- Login as yourself
- Click on the "Blue House Icon" on the bottom and *move* the new icons
  into this directory

- Unfortunately, xcdroast is not anymore on the SuSE 9.0 installation DVD!
  However, since we hat both the cdrtools and xcdroast already installed on
  our previous SuSE 8.2 distribution, it was still here after the update to 9.0
  and we successfully used it; however, xcdroast must be started with
  xcdroast -n

SED-People only:
- If your machine is a printer-server:
  * Start YaST2
  * Network services (Netzwerkdienste)
  * Network services (inetd) / Netzwerkdienste (inetd)
  * Choose 'xinetd'  --> OK
    (xinetd is more powerful than inetd; a useful link - in German - is
     http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/1998/11/Xinetd/xinetd.html
     xinetd has extremely useful features, such as 'only-from', 'access_times', etc.)
  * activate / Aktivieren
  * Click on line with 'printer'
  * Change status to 'On' ('An')
  * exit / Beenden
  * If you are using 'turboprint', modify the file
    /etc/xinetd.d/cups-lpd
    The line with 'server_args' should look as follows:
    server_args     = cups-lpd
    (without the arguments -o document-format=application/octet-stream)
    I had no time to find out how to re-start xinetd, so I used YaST2 to
    activate 'netstat' and then deactivated 'netstat' again; with this, xinetd
    re-read the config-files and I could print from a remote machine.
- Login as root (sux -)
  * cd /app/vpnclient
  * ./vpn_install
  * exit
  * as normal user:  vpnclient connect ethz
    - enter username, password, and  Save Password with 'Y'
- Re-install the netbackup-software; proceed as described on
  
  http://www.sd.id.ethz.ch/htbin/bp_linux_install.cgi
  --> and perform the ultimate test at the end: telnet YourMachine 13782
  --> Note: use and create the xinetd.d files as described
  (so: xinedt and not inetd should be started; xinetd provides many interesting
  and new features!)
- Start 'Mozillla', goto http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/div/ch_weather.html
  and click on 
  "Meteo (RealVideo) from Swiss TV from 7:50 pm (in german language)"
- Download RealPlayer and install it with: 
  rpm -i rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2_rpm
- If you have a tv-card: Click on the symbol 'TV-Card' and click on 'properties'
  (Eigenschaften), and 'Execute' (Ausfuehren):
  Enter:   motv -device /dev/video1 (video0 is the webcam here)

Some problems / negative points

- Default player for video clips (*.mpeg) is 'Noatun', which did not work and
  which still has the ugly 'feature', that you first have to start it again
  (after having clicked on a symbol for a clip, it should be clear what I want!)
  - In Konqueror, choose 'Eigenschaften (Settings)' and go to 'Konqueror einrichten (setup konqueror)'
  - Choose 'Dateizuordnungen' (left side, 4th icon from top)
  - On the right, click on the '+' before 'video'
  - click on 'mpeg', then on the right on 'Kaffeine' and right of it to 'Nach oben'
  - Click on 'Anwenden (Apply)'
  How I miss the Mplayer! I think, even the video quality was better there.
  (Well: if you increase the 'color-value' of Kaffeine, pictures look better)

- The default skin of the xmms player is (in my view) ugly
  - On the left side of the small window click on the letter 'O'
  - Goto 'Skin Browser' and click on it
  - Click on '(kein) (none)' and get the nice black skin back :-)

- WLAN (wireless LAN) with a Cisco Aironet 350 PCMCIA card worked on our
  Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop fine with SuSE
  8.1 and 8.2. We first had problems with WLAN... sometimes it was working,
  often it was not.
  Thanks to an e-mail from John Fiore, who wrote me that he was successful
  by entering the wireless settings by hand: 'iwconfig eth0', we now have
  solved the problem by doing the following:
  After changing the profile to WLAN, the following lines are entered as
  root:
  * iwconfig eth1 mode Managed essid public key XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    (where XXXXXX is your key in hex form)
  * ifconfig eth0 down
    (note, on my laptop eth0 is the LAN interface, eth1 the WLAN interface)
  * route add default gw 192.168.0.1
    (in my case 192.168.0.1 is the default gateway; the router to the internet)
  We also have to add the default gateway (sometimes) manually, when
  changing to the LAN-profile; so we enter (as root):
  * route add default gw 192.168.0.1
  With these modifications, things work quite smoothly. However, while with
  SuSE 8.1 and 8.2 we had (almost) never problems changing the WLAN-card
  between regular and monitoring mode, this switch now often leads to a freeze
  of the system (the same is valid when taking the PCMCIA-WLAN-card out and
  inserting it again).
  
  SuSE has provided a patch for WLAN-problems in mid-November for those who have
  upgraded from SuSE 8.2 to 9.0 - however, our problems still remained.
  Another problem was, that 'airtraf' (Version 0.5.0) did not work properly.
  --> Therefore we decided to go back to SuSE 8.2, where things really work
  fine... and we are happy again!

  And the future? We will now explore Debian Linux and see, how things work
  there.....