Problems with SuSE 10.0

Summary: Although there are many improvements, SuSE Linux 10 is missing many well-known packages and contains only minimal libraries and include files. This makes it difficult for users or administrators to install software.

Improvements

Lilo It's now possible to install a system that uses lilo instead of grub without creating an unbootable system. Previously, it was a challenge to boot up a Suse system if you selected lilo as your boot manager. This appears to finally be fixed.
Linpsk and pcb now compiled without extensive editing of the source code that was necessary in earlier versions of Suse. However, several libraries had to be installed first.
Mozilla now uses anti-aliased fonts.

Solvable Problems

Memory Memory requirements are higher than with previous versions. Installing Suse 10 on a computer with 128 MB or less of RAM is a two-day task. However, the installation software did not crash on any of our computers.
Network On one computer, the setup program did not configure the network. It was necessary to run yast2 or add the default route, hostname, etc. manually. For example, set the default route in /etc/sysconfig/network/routes.
X Window Problems Our biggest problem was with the X Window system. On our test computer, which had a Sony SDM-S53 LCD monitor, sax2 was unable to produce an acceptable display. No matter what setting we tried, sax2 produced a display that contained vertical bands that appeared "fuzzy". After much manual tweaking of the config file (which is now called /etc/X11/xorg.conf), and some tweaking of the phase and pitch controls on the monitor, we finally managed to eliminate the fuzzy regions.
Couldn't start X as a regular user This was fixed by removing the file .Xauthority from the user's home directory.
Rxvt not working Yes, we still use rxvt. The rxvt that ships with Suse doesn't accept any of its Xdefaults settings. Recompiled rxvt from source (using the options --enable-rxvt-scroll and --disable-delete-key). Unfortunately, rxvt still quits if you accidentally press the "." key on the numeric keypad. (This is still not fixed).
Motif-based programs no longer compile. The openmotif package no longer contains the headers that are needed to compile motif-based programs. We downloaded a new openmotif and compiled and installed it. It also appears that most or all Motif apps have been purged from the Suse distribution. We were forced to recompile nedit and a few other programs that use Motif.
Header files needed to compile programs are missing Many of the library packages installed by Suse are now minimal installations that don't have the headers necessary to compile any programs. It's now necessary to download and install many packages that are supposedly on the Suse CDs, but are actually incomplete.
End users now may have to compile and install dozens of libraries on their own in order to get a particular application to install. This breaks one of the primary reasons why we have distributions in the first place, which is to prevent users from having to struggle with multiple, incompatible versions of essential libraries. Installing new system libraries also creates the risk that some (or all) existing applications will mysteriously stop working.
xconsole doesn't work The only thing xconsole now says is "Couldn't open console". The earlier tricks to get xconsole to show syslog entries (making /dev/console world readable and changing its ownership) no longer work. This was a kernel problem, and was fixed by compiling a newer kernel. To get around this problem in the standard Suse kernel, use
```
 xconsole -file /var/log/messages 
```
To use this trick, it's necessary to make /var/log/messages readable. Note that syslogd automatically resets the permissions whenever it starts, so it's necessary to put a chmod in your startup scripts so the permissions are changed after starting syslogd but before starting xconsole.
mc is unreadable Consoles running mc ("Midnight commander") are now unreadable due to escape characters not being handled correctly. Solution: recompiled and reinstalled a different copy of mc.
X programs will not run remotely When connecting to another computer using ssh, we found that it had become impossible to run X programs on the remote computer, even though the DISPLAY variable and xhost settings were set correctly. Attempting to run an X-based program remotely produced the message "Couldn't open display". Changing /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers to eliminate the "nolisten" option and editing /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config had no effect. Finally we discovered that it was necessary to edit /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager and set two variables as shown:
```
  DISPLAYMANAGER_REMOTE_ACCESS="yes" 
  DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER_TCP_PORT_6000_OPEN="yes". 
```
This finally allowed the connection.
Keyboard is slow, can't change keyboard settings in sax2. Sax2 no longer has an option for changing the keyboard repeat rate. Solution: copied the parameters from an old XF86Config file from an earlier machine:
```
  Option       "AutoRepeat" "27 250"  
```
The configuration file is now called /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Uuencode missing Many useful utilities, such as uuencode, are now missing. Solution: copied the binaries from an older computer.
Can't start ftpd and telnetd Inetd is no longer supplied with Suse Linux. Suse also seems to have decided for us that we are supposed to force all our users to stop using ftp and telnet. Use itox or xconf.pl to convert your old inetd.conf to xinetd format. These programs have to be run with I/O redirection like so:
```
itox -daemon_dir /usr/sbin/tcpd < inetd.conf > xinetd.conf
/usr/local/sbin/xconv.pl < /etc/inetd.conf > /etc/xinetd.conf
```
The output is sometimes wrong, so the files may have to be edited manually. So you end up with the following in /etc/xinetd.conf:
```
service ftp
{
	socket_type     = stream
	protocol        = tcp
	wait            = no
	user            = root
	server          = /usr/sbin/in.ftpd
}

service telnet
{
	socket_type     = stream
	protocol        = tcp
	wait            = no
	user            = root
	server          = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
}
```
Wu-ftpd is also not provided in Suse, having been replaced by something called "vs-ftpd". Downloaded wu-ftpd from http://www.wu-ftpd.org/ and applied the patch found at their website. Unfortunately, wu-ftpd 2.6.2 no longer compiles in Suse because it uses bison instead of yacc. Bison generates numerous errors with wu-ftpd. The yacc in Suse is now no longer a real program, but merely a script that calls bison.
Solution: copied an old version of yacc from an old Suse 8.0 system, temporarily renamed yacc as bison to force wu-ftpd to use yacc. Then started xinetd in /etc/init.d.
Can't set time and date. It was not possible to set the system clock to any date later than Apr 1, 2006 using the 'date' command or from within Yast2. I can only guess at the reason. Maybe the clock in Linux is actually just an offset from the hardware clock. To set the Linux clock, it is now necessary to reboot and set the clock in the BIOS if the computer's hardware clock is more than two months off.

After this was done, I discovered that if you set the system clock from the BIOS instead of from within Linux, the time and date are no longer wrong when Linux boots up.
Skencil (a drawing program) was unable to find any fonts. (This problem has existed since Suse 8.0). Users get the following message;
```
Cannot load `-adobe-times-medium-r-normal--9624-*-*-*-*-*-iso9958-1[106]':
no such font
Cannot load `-adobe-times-medium-r-normal--16629416-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1[106]':
no such font
```
Skencil is a python script that uses X11 fonts specified in a directory called Resources/Fontmetrics. The documentation refers to a file named mkfontdb.py, which does not exist in the Suse version of skencil. The font directory appears to be set up correctly, but skencil still does not display text, making it useless. Yast hung when I attempted to re-install from the Suse CD. The other packages required by skencil (tcl/tk, tkinter, python, python-tk, pil, ghostscript, and ttf2) were all installed by Suse.
Solution: Found a file named skencil-0.6.17pre3-jab_SuSE_9.0.i586.rpm somewhere and installed it (after uninstalling skencil and inkscape) and installing these other packages:
```
rpm -q skencil
rpm -e inkscape-0.42.2-3
rpm -e skencil-0.6.17-2
rpm -i ttf2pt1-3.4.4-jab_SuSE_9.0.i586.rpm
rpm -i pmw-1.2.0-jab_SuSE_9.0.i586.rpm
rpm -i skencil-0.6.17pre3-jab_SuSE_9.0.i586.rpm
```
This version worked satisfactorily.
Firefox crashing On one computer, Firefox crashed on startup when it tried to draw a window. This was fixed by removing libcairo.so.2.2.4 from /usr/local/lib and rerunning ldconfig. This caused firefox to use libcairo.so.2.2.2 in /usr/lib, which did not crash.
Acroread (Acrobat PDF reader) and Realplay crashed on startup, regardless of whether they are called from the command line or from Mozilla or Firefox. The symptom is the program starts up, the Adobe icon sometimes appears for a split second, then it disappears with no error messages before it can draw a window. Installing new versions does not help.
According to the Readme file, this is a known problem caused by a conflicting version of libscim and is supposed to be solved by running the command
```
 export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim 
```
before running acroread. Scim and xim are daemons that enable the input of multibyte characters. The command had no effect, and no libscim, scim, or xim file could be found. The bug is acknowledged by Novell and marked as fixed, but the solution that was posted, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the actual problem. This was shown by noting that Acroread crashed on some computers and not others, depending on what software was installed.

Solution: The problem was some incompatibility between the libraries used by Acroread and Realplay and those used by the system. Editing /etc/ld.so.conf, moving /usr/local/lib to the beginning, and re-running ldconfig fixed the problem for both programs. Putting /usr/local/lib last also worked, but made it impossible to compile certain other programs, such as wxGTK. The configure script would give the following errors:
The development files for GTK+ were not found. For GTK+ 2, please ensure that pkg-config is in the path and that gtk+-2.0.pc is installed.
One reason for this message could be that the libraries and header files don't match. In Suse, essential libraries and header (.h) files are strewn in many obscure locations and it can be difficult to track them all down when you install a new version. The order in which the library directories are listed in /etc/ld.so.conf is critical.
ftp The ftp client has some annoying features, like flashing the screen when you press the backspace or down arrow keys. Solution: replaced it with an older version.
syslogd-ng, the new default syslog daemon, does not accept logs from remote locations. Solution: delete syslogd-ng and start /sbin/syslogd -r manually.

Installing sound card Creative Labs sound card with the CA0106 chip (Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit, model SB0410 and model SB0570) did not work. The driver compiled, the /dev/audio device was (sometimes) created, and the volume could be set with alsamixer, but there was no sound at the sound card's outputs. Distorted sound was present at the microphone (input) jack.

Tests for an SB 0570 card, with ALSA compiled into the kernel, it will say this:

cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [CA0106         ]: CA0106 - CA0106
                      Audigy SE [SB0570] at 0xd800 irq 5
$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:219: no soundcards found...

Solution (for a kernel without modules):

Disable onboard AC97 audio card in the BIOS if present.

Make sure the following are set in the kernel:

CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM=y
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_RTCTIMER_DEFAULT=y
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
CONFIG_SND_CA0106=y   #(For  SB0410 or SB0570)

Rebuild the kernel (make)
Power-cycle the computer. Rebooting is not sufficient. The sound card should be identified by lspci as a "Creative Labs SB Audigy LS" and dmesg should say something like
ALSA device list: #0: Live! 7.1 24bit [SB0410] at 0xd800 irq 5
Check /proc/asound to find out what is recognized by the kernel.
/etc/rc.d/alsasound start
Use alsamixer to set the volume (default volume is zero).
Type
chmod a+rw /dev/snd/*
so an ordinary user can play sounds.
Use aplay instead of cat to play sounds. By using lsof while aplay was running, you can find the device (in my case, it was /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p). However, commands like
cat test.wav > /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
did not work.

The SND_MIXER_OSS, SND_PCM_OSS, and SND_SEQUENCER_OSS arguments were necessary before /dev/audio and /dev/dsp devices would be created. Without these devices, it is not possible to use any audio applications except those specifically written for the Alsa API. The program 'alsaconf' only works if the kernel is compiled with modules support. However, alsaconf doesn't do much, and does not create /dev/audio or /dev/dsp.

If the sound card still doesn't work, try moving the card to a different slot or giving it a fixed IRQ. The most reliable sound card for Linux in my experience is the Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1, which uses a different chip than the SB Live! 24-bit. This card works very well with the OSS drivers.

Unsolved Problems (Not yet fixed)

Make now prints its warning and error messages in weird colors on the screen whenever you compile a program. This makes them unreadable on anything but a screen with a white background. The warning messages are also filled with garbage characters, produced when gcc tries to create a single quote character, which makes the error messages harder to interpret. Only uxterm handles gcc's weird characters correctly.
Update: According to a fellow Linux user, this is caused by the color_gcc package and uninstalling it will fix the problem.
Man pages contain junk characters Man pages now are filled with weird characters and are only partially readable. Many man pages still have embarrassing, whiny complaints in them. This appears to be a feature of GNU. (This is not yet fixed.)
qps is no longer provided, and it no longer compiles from the source.
ssh still has the hang-on-exit bug. If you start a process in the background while logged in over ssh, ssh will hang when you try to exit. Unfortunately, compiling ssh has become much more difficult than before, because many of the required libraries and header files are no longer supplied by Suse but must be installed manually.
X Window cursors Many of the X11 cursors have been changed for no apparent reason, leaving a very limited selection. For example, the crosshairs cursor is now missing; users get a fat plus sign instead. It's now necessary for X11 applications to create and manage their own custom character to obtain a useful graphics cursor.
Weird graphics cursors in Mozilla and Firefox Mozilla and Firefox now have a weird finger-pointing graphics cursor that makes it very difficult to click on things. This was dependent on the X11 configuration. It is still not possible to specify a printer in Mozilla; it still uses its own unique way of selecting a printer that I have never figured out.
OpenOffice problems Open Office (a MS Office clone) has been greatly improved; it will soon be at the point where it can be used to edit Word documents. This is high praise, because Word is arguably the worst program ever written.
Mozilla and Firefox problems
Mpeg I could find no mpeg viewers on the CDs except for something called MainActor (mactor), which is a huge and resource-hungry program. On my system, with 512 MB of RAM, mactor drove the system load to 18, making the system unresponsive for about twenty minutes, before finally crashing. If you attempt to compile and install any standard mpeg viewers, you'll run into the problem that Suse no longer includes complete libraries or include files. Thus, you will have to spend time installing basic libraries that, in any reasonable distribution, would have been installed by default. Some of these libraries require considerable programming expertise and effort to install, because of errors in the source code that prevent them from compiling. This would be a significant obstacle for an ordinary user.

Conclusion

If you must use Suse 10, be sure to keep at least one computer around that is running Suse 8.x or 9.x in order to maintain access to programs like yacc, xconsole, ftpd and skencil. Save those old CDs!

Back