Alpha 5 Install, Continued

Tasks completed for the afternoon.

When we parted last time, I had managed to get my test system back to normal with the (brilliant and fast) 1-disc KDE install, and was still looking at (re)burning the 6 CDs of the original distro — until it hit me! I could point YaST to the Factory installation source, and stay absolutely current on a day-to-day basis!

This was a piece of cake to do. Head over to the download page for the development version, and scroll down to the Factory Tree section. Right-click on the Internet Installation Repository link, copy it and open YaST Installation Sources. Add the source and it’s done.

BTW, I forgot to mention in the earlier post two things about the new install that actually floored me:

• The internet setup: I don’t know how many SUSE installs I’ve made on how many machines, but not until this one did YaST correctly figure out how to get online without some manual tweaking after the main install. It found the network card and the DSL connection instantly, and Firefox loaded beautifully the first time around. Should not have been a major trick, but I’m glad this annoyance appears to be behind us now.
• SaX/Video setup: The last thing YaST does in a typical install is set this up. Again, almost never did it immediately set up X correctly. Occasionally, I’d trust YaST too much (a recurring theme) and boot with its default X settings, only to find the screen was “outside parameters” or some such and wouldn’t display anything until I repaired the install. More recently, I got more savvy on X setup and could make changes manually. SaX would then test the setup and tell me if things were cool. If they weren’t, I could fix things after Ctrl-Alt-Esc’ing. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when this install didn’t have the Test Configuration button. But to my astonishment, it worked!

Add to this list of stuff that just works (in Alpha even!) the new YaST Installation Sources dialog. In the last few iterations, it was hard to figure out where the “source URL” ended and the “Directory” began, and there was no help/documentation to help you avoid repeated trial-and-errors before you started wondering if you would ever add a location. No more: just select “from URL,” paste it in, you’re done. It connects to the source and adds it. Feeling exceptionally lucky, I also add the previously-burned Non-OSS Add-on CD to the list, without any trouble.

Back to the Software Management module to start downloading the rest of the distro. Everything goes well until I try selecting the Eclipse IDE. The module completely freezes up. A reboot is required before YaST can access the RPM database again. Eventually we finish adding things to the list and start installing. One last problem: YaST no longer recognizes the Add-On CD. This problem is resolved by simply downloading the Add-On ISO to the test machine (remember, no burner on this drive) and adding that Local ISO as a source (hear that folks? Just download the ISO and you don’t have to burn discs at all!)

With access to the Factory (i.e., bleeding edge), I can now put all of the KDE 4.0 Alpha on this system, but I’m probably going to hold off on that for a little while. In the meantime, I’ll continue to see how well the “ordinary Alpha” works, and keep eyes open for UI changes as we get closer to the release of both the distribution and openSUSE Linux Unleashed.

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