Primus:
I'm using a Kubuntu 9.10 livedisk to access the internet...
Having built a new computer from second-hand parts that debuted upon my birthday, I proceeded to install OpenSUSE 11.2 and all was exceedingly well ( apart from random permanent freezes or stop-stuttering that could be down to anyone of the components overheating etc. ---
or could be down to the iniquitous Dolphin file-manager, as it doesn't happen often when not using that crap, nor is it happening using Kubuntu. To their shame, OpenSUSE was equipped solely with Dolphin as admin-file manager, before one could choose Konqueror as file-manager or admin file-manager, now it has been downgraded to merely a browser ( which has no admin rights for chucking vast files from disk to disk )). The router was picked up instantly and all the internet was at my disposal until Sunday night, when a storm knocked out all the phone service for the area, which included the broadband, until the phone was restored at 9am this morning.
Secundus:
Broadband didn't work, except that it did using livedisks, so essentially OpenSUSE is not reading the router. I'm fairly sure that the storm did not knock out the settings in OpenSUSE... However, you may say, surely it is trivial to run a repair from the OpenSUSE 11.2 install disk: so it might be if the sodding disk --- the
very disk from which I installed linux did not immediately report a bad kernel image and stop. [ I remember this happening with Windows 2000 once; the system couldn't read it's own install disk... ]. So I can use OpenSUSE and this blazingly fast computer to my heart's content minus the internet, but believe me, computers are far less interesting without the ability to go online, as I found out the last three days. Or I can go on the internet with Kubuntu and not access the hard disks...
And of course, there's no way to update OpenSUSE online or to find out why their own DVD reports itself as a bad kernel...
On conclusion then, OpenSUSE is to be recommended, but 11.2 has flaws, and should not be downloaded for a month or so until they have addressed the flaws mentioned rather frequently at present in their own forum. In the meantime, I have no idea which network settings in YAST to alter, since they are as vanilla as when installed and when they worked perfectly.
And Dolphin should be returned to the sea.
Claverhouse
