Copyright © 2005 Novell, Inc.
These release notes cover the following areas:
General: Information that everybody should read.
Update: Changes that are not mentioned in the Start-Up Manual, Chapter 2.
Installation: Additional pertinent information for installation.
Technical: This section contains a number of technical changes and enhancements for the experienced user.
In the Start-up Manual, find information about installation and basic system configuration. In the Reference Guide, the system configuration is explained in detail. Additionally, the most important applications and the desktops in general are described.
This release of SUSE Linux ships with Novell AppArmor. This feature protects your applications from software exploits. AppArmor protection can be enabled via the AppArmor control panel, which is located in YaST under Novell AppArmor. For detailed information about using Novell AppArmor, see /usr/share/doc/packages/subdomain-docs/apparmor-userguide.pdf.
Xen 3 is very new, cutting-edge open source technology that will allow users to easily create virtual environments for running applications. It is evolving quickly and some areas it covers are works in progress and thus not mature yet. Xen is not completely tested, and it is not entirely stable, for these reasons, Xen 3 is offered in SUSE Linux 10.0 as a technology preview. Although it mostly works, Xen requires more refinement and testing before it can be used for business deployments. Among the new features planned for Xen 3 are: x86-64 support (working in Xen 3), SMP (currently disabled), PAE support (not enabled on SUSE Linux).
Expect improved packages via YaST Online Update (YOU). For current information, see http://www.opensuse.org/Xen3_Status_and_Updates.
Using the YaST Installation Source module, you can add additional software repositories to your default installation settings. This feature is useful if want to enhance your system with components that are not part of your standard installation source. For example, openSUSE is limited to open source software, but users who need Java and packages depending on Java can add the "inst-source-java" repository in YaST and install those packages. For more information, see http://www.opensuse.org/index.php/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories.
Eclipse is included only in a 32-bit version so that it works together with our default java (java-1_4_2-sun), which is not available in a 64-bit version at all. If you want to use Eclipse with SUN Java 1.5.0, make sure that you also install the 32-bit version of java-1_5_0-sun and java-1_5_0-sun-devel.
To do this, open YaST, choose "Software"->"Software Management" and search for "java-1_5_0-sun". Select the packages "java-1_5_0-sun" and "java-1_5_0-sun-devel". For both packages, click the "Version" tab in the RPM description pane and select the i586 version.
If you install banshee separately (not together with the GNOME selection), a number of packages are missing. Install the following packages for banshee to work correctly:
gstreamer-plugins-extra
gstreamer-plugins-excess
Also note that banshee will not play MP3 files under x86-64.
Currently, some new GeForce cards (6x00 series) can only be used without acceleration to avoid system lockup or graphics distortions. This issue is under investigation by SUSE and NVIDIA.
Some of these cards are configured with Option "ShadowFB" in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf device section. This setting disables acceleration, slowing down graphics output considerably. We cannot automatically detect for which graphics cards this setting is actually necessary. You must test it on your own by removing or commenting the option in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. However, if this test locks up your system, you must boot into runlevel 3 and revert the change.
We set this option only for cards we know to be affected by this problem. Other GeForce 6x00 based boards might be affected as well. If your system locks up and you do not see this option in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf device section, add it and restart the system.
If you experience only graphics distortion without Option "ShadowFB" but no system lockup, you can use both Option "XaaNoPixmapCache" and Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf device section instead. This setting does not slow down the graphics output as much as Option "ShadowFB".
Another solution is to install the binary-only driver from NVIDIA, which does not seem to be affected. Use YaST Online Update (YOU) to install this driver.
At the moment, the driver for Atheros WLAN cards is available under a proprietary license only. Therefore, it is not packaged along with the normal kernel packages. To use the Atheros driver, install the non-GPL kernel package matching your kernel (for example, if you use "kernel-default", additionally install "kernel-default-nongpl").
Download the non-GPL kernel package from http://www.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories.
The functionality of YaST Support Module has changed. You can use the module to prepare a support request and collect information about your system. Unlike in earlier versions of SUSE Linux, the support module no longer provides the functionality to actually send the collected data to the SUSE installation support. Instead it stores that information at
/root/support.txt
To send this file to our installation support, change the permissions and grant a normal user access to it by copying the file to a different location:
chmod 644 /root/support.txt
cp /root/support.txt /usr/src/support.txt
Some of the information provided in the Start-Up Guide (Chapter 9.7, Support for SUSE Linux) is outdated. Find up to date information at http://www.novell.com/usersupport.
Before opening a support request either by phone or through the web, you will first have to register your SUSE Linux 10.0 at http://download.novell.com/delivery/reg. If you do not have a Novell account yet, you need to create one first. You will receive an e-mail with a so called "contact ID" once you have registered your SUSE Linux 10.0. The contact ID is needed if you want to contact our installation support by phone.
To open a support request in the Novell portal, go to http://support.novell.com/eService/. In the "open support request" form, choosing "SUSE Linux 10.0" for the "Quick Product" field will populate most of the mandatory fields in this form.
The old e-mail addresses usersupport@novell.com and support@suse.de belong to the old system and cannot be used for service requests regarding SUSE Linux 10.0.
During the update, YaST can break the quoting in /etc/lilo.conf. Add quotes in the append lines as follows:
append = "hdc=scsi"
After installing the fixed package that is available via YaST Online Update (YOU), the problem does not occur if you modify the LILO configuration in the installed system. The defect cannot be fixed for the update, because the bug is in the version burned on the installation media.
The installation is described in the Start-Up Guide.
SUSE Linux can be installed from either the DVD or a set of CD-ROM media. However, not all packages fit on the CD-ROMs. Only those users install most often are included. Find an overview listing the differences at http://www.novell.com/products/linuxpackages/professional/diff_cd_dvd.html.
If your system lacks a DVD drive and you need a certain package, either put the DVD in another machine connected with your network and mount it remotely for installation or use YaST to select a public FTP server as an installation source.
cardmgr no longer manages PC cards. Instead, as with Cardbus cards and other subsystems, a kernel module manages them. All necessary actions are executed by hotplug. The pcmcia start script has been removed and cardctl is replaced by pccardctl. For more information, see /usr/share/doc/packages/pcmciautils/README.SUSE.
By default, calling su to become root does not set the PATH for root. Either call su - to start a login shell with the complete environment for root or set ALWAYS_SET_PATH to yes in /etc/default/su if you want to change the default behavior of su.
If you are not satisfied with locale system defaults, change the settings in ~/.i18n. Entries in ~/.i18n override system defaults from /etc/sysconfig/language. Use the same variable names but without the RC_ namespace prefixes, for example, use LANG instead of RC_LANG. For information about locales in general, see "Language and Country-Specific Settings" in the Reference Manual.
Many applications now rely on D-BUS for interprocess communication (IPC). Calling dbus-launch starts dbus-daemon. The systemwide /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc uses dbus-launch to start the window manager.
If you have a local ~/.xinitrc file, you must change it accordingly. Otherwise applications like f-spot, banshee, tomboy, or Network Manager banshee might fail. Save your old ~/.xinitrc. Then copy the new template file into your home directory with:
cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc.template ~/.xinitrc
Finally, add your customizations from the saved .xinitrc.
For reasons of compatibility with LSB (Linux Standard Base), most configuration files and the init script were renamed from xntp to ntp. The new filenames are:
/etc/slp.reg.d/ntp.reg
/etc/init.d/ntp
/etc/logrotate.d/ntp
/usr/sbin/rcntp
/etc/sysconfig/ntp
Hotplug events are now completely handled by the udev daemon (udevd). We do not use the event multiplexer system in /etc/hotplug.d and /etc/dev.d anymore. Instead udevd calls all hotplug helper tools directly, according to its rules. Udev rules and helper tools are provided by udev and various other packages.
If writing to USB storage devices, such as USB sticks or USB hard drives, is rather slow or if you do not want synchronized writing to these devices, disable the sync mount option.
Create a file with the name 90-storage-nosync.fdi and the following contents:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<!-- disable sync for mount -->
<match key="block.is_volume" bool="true">
<match key="volume.fsusage" string="filesystem">
<match key="volume.uuid" string="UUID">
<merge key="volume.policy.mount_option.sync" type="bool">false</merge>
</match>
</match>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>
Adjust the line <match key="volume.uuid" string="==UUID=="> according to your hardware. Run lshal to retrieve the volume.uuid and enter that ID instead of ==UUID==
Copy 90-storage-nosync.fdi into this directory:
cp 90-storage-nosync.fdi /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty
Restart the HAL service with rchal restart.
If you mount the device without sync you are responsible for data integrity on your own. Before unplugging the medium, check that nobody writes to the device. After any write operation watch the status LEDs (if available) and when the lights do not signal activity, wait some seconds and then remove the device. If unsure, call sync at the command line.
Reboot may be required after setting up a parallel port printer with YaST. If printing does not work when a parallel port printer was set up with YaST, reboot then do not run the YaST printer setup for testing. Only parallel port printers in ECP DMA mode are affected.
For proper functionality, GNOME applications depend on file system change notification support. For local-only file systems, install the gamin package (preferred) or run the FAM daemon. For remote file systems, run FAM on both the server and client and open the firewall for RPC calls by FAM.
GNOME (gnome-vfs2 and libgda) contains a wrapper that picks gamin or fam to provide file system change notification:
If the FAM daemon is not running, gamin is preferred. (Rationale: Inotify is supported only by gamin and it is more efficient for local file systems).
If the FAM daemon is running, FAM is preferred (Rationale: If FAM is running, you probably want remote notification, which is supported only by FAM).