After all the various probs I've had with SUSE 9.3 --I've decided to "Bin" it and keep with 9.2

I've posted a few probs I've already had with it --spent more than 2 DAYS with this stuff.

X (nvidia card) crashed the whole Desktop -- Not even just X -- I was right back to the Computer's BIOS boot -- no shutdown nothing.

Evertually got X to work but some resolutions missing.

Internet -- FireFox needs DSN's Hardcoded even for DHCP server -- KDE (KONQ) did work normally however.

Anyway I thought --now for a Laptop.

Anyway this was the last straw. -- Laptop Sony VAIO (nothing particularly special or difficult about these Laptops)

--anyway SUSE 9.3 fails to recognize A HARD DISK. -- If I plug an external USB drive then it will only recognize that drive.

SUSE 9.2 no probs.

Now my laptop is quite a common one so who on earth TESTS THIS STUFF before it goes out of the door.

I can imagine this for a Beta --no probs but this is meant to be a commercially tested and Production Distro.

I've NEVER EVER had as much problems with ANY previous release.

True there is usually something that has a problem --but usually it's liveable with and a fix comes out

But 9.3 --- and I've read everywhere that it's the Best Yet.

Maybe my hardware is just jimmixed -- I'm trying this on 2 DESKTOPS and a Laptop. ALL have made me give up.

Now I like SUSE so I'm stickling with the distro -- I'm happy with 9.2 so I'll continue to run that until 9.3 seems more stable or 10.0 comes out of beta.

Somebody said once -- always avoid the ODD numbered releases or updates -- 9.0 OK, 9.1 "Doggy", 9.2 fine --so it seems to be true.

Cheers

-K

So you probably won't try this:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2005/04/akulk_sis93.html

Thanks for the Link --but there are too many other probs with this release at the moment -- even simple things like getting SAMBA up and running is causing probs.

9.2 automatically gave me Windows and Network browsing 9.3 --this seems to have Vanished off the face of the planet (Network Browser likew Windows Network browser) -- I'm sure I CAN eventually get this stuff to work but I haven't got a lot more time to spend ages with this .

Maybe I was wrong in thinking this would be a "Quick Easy" upgrade.

I might give it ago in a week or two again.

I still think SUSE is the most stable and useful Distro out there --just that having had it "Easy" for so long I've sudenly run into a whole slew of problems.

Thanks anyway for the link.

Cheers

-K

You're welcome!

I was planning to have a try with 9.3. I hope I have more luck.

I had the same problem with my laptop... no hard drive was detected... after using everything went smoothly

very surprising. I run SUSE on my laptop as well, and 9.2 was the buggiest SUSE I had ever used(for me anyways). It was great as far as multimedia support and such, but just very unstable. I put 9.3 on after it became available via FTP and voila! Much better (and faster).

Maybe you'll have better luck with 10.0? openSUSE beta4 will be out on Thursday (9-1-2005) and RC1 will be out Sept. 8. Final release sould be available by mid-late September as beta testing for 10.1 begins on September 28. Good luck though. openSUSE seems pretty good thus far, and being compiled with gcc 4 certainly helps speed things up.

If it says no OS is found, then google for BootIt!, write that to floppy, use that with your 9.3 machine, find the swap and set it active (w/out installing bootit on the HD). restart (w/ out disdk) and it should work! I've had to do this a couple of times.

I had the same problem as a number of users of SUSE seem to have had. Version 9.2 worked fine on my laptop as did Mandrake 10.2 but when I came to put SUSE 9.3 on it couldn't find any hard disk drive.

I tried this after reading a few threads.
At the menu screen when you choose "Installation" type:
insmod=ide=generic

This seemed to work for a few people but it didn't work for me.

I had Mandrake on my laptop at the time so I looked at the hardware settings for this distro and noted that my IDE drive was using the "sis5513" module.

At the Installation screen prompt I typed:
insmod=sis5513

Problem Solved! SUSE 9.3 alive and working on my laptop.

This was an OLD post of mine -- problem long since solved (insmod=ide-generic as boot option when doing install)

now using SUSE 10.0 RC1

Cheers

-K

Yes, working OK on my Novatech (Metac) laptop too!

Even the pcmcia card though three other units would not work with the ndiswrapper.
2 x usb's and 1 pcmcia.

Looks good so far, but had a problem with wireless and ethernet combination this needs a fix as they do not appear to work
together.

Now will try to upgrade my QSI cd-rw/dvd-rom sbw-161 to a dvd writer (double layer preferred)

Anyone know a source of laptop dvd's UK?

I got a Panasonic (Matshita) UJ845-S -- fits into 99% of all known laptops -- it's a typical slimline model - Has DVD+/-R(W), Dual Layer as well AND DVD-RAM (unusual for a laptop DVD writer in a laptop).

Have a look at my post on another forum on details of how to change a DVD writer on a typical laptop.

In this post there are some embedded links with pictures showing you how to do it --it really IS easy.

http://www.911cd.net/forums/lofivers...hp/t13208.html


To source the drive just google. You should get it within 2 days.

Cheers

-K