openSUSE Tumbleweed part 7

 Yeah, so...

ANOTHER major update.  I mean, it is a rolling release so this is to be expected.  At least the most recent video driver update has been working with each new kernel but...  now my disk mounting was broken.

So I used to define the mount points using things like /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, etc.  I KNOW I KNOW, that is not considered the best way to do it but it has worked for me for years.

My device assignments are coming willy-nilly now so I had to wipe my fstab in safe mode, reboot, then redefine my mounts using UID=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Seems to be working now after reboot.

Frustrating that these "little things" keep happening but I suppose after I get through a few more updates like this I will be in good shape.  Maybe.  Who knows.

openSUSE Tumbleweed update... Yay.

 I've been whining about how the kernel updates no longer worked with the NVidia driver I had been using.  Well YAY!  Finally the driver was updated and when I installed it and restarted, my system came up with the latest kernel and a nice Nvidia-driven UI.  :)  Very happy about that.  Now I need to release that old kernel and stick with the later 6.5 kernels.

openSUSE Tumbleweed Part 6

 Still using OST 6.  Even though a lot of people recommend AGAINST it, and I do understand why, I have frozen the last kernel that works well with my NVidia drivers that are currently installed (470.x.x).  Each successive upgrade with a new kernel BREAKS my NVidia drivers and it kind of drives me a little nuts that it happens.  So I froze the kernel so even with the latest updates to the OS in general, I am sticking to an older kernel.

So long as I do that, I can continue to enjoy openSUSE.  I know that if I want to move on I will have to uninstall my drivers and update to a more recent driver, but the most recent driver(s) cause all kinds of artifacts to dump across my screen at random and that is super irritating.  Also, when I update the driver it cascades through my gaming set up and I have to rejigger everything.

If it comes to a point where I simply cannot keep the older kernel (and to be sure, it isn't an OLD kernel, it is a 6-series kernel) I will do what I will probably end up doing anyway, which is to switch to Linux Mint DE 6.

But I have honestly come to love KDE 5.27.  I think I had said in another post that for the longest time I could not stand KDE, for a variety of reasons (like font rendering, glitchy behavior, TOO configurable - right, I know that is silly), etc.  But with openSUSE KDE has been a dream.  I am absolutely loving it.

Anyway, STILL on openSUSE and will likely stay here until I simply can't any longer.  It has been (except for the drivers/kernel issue) rock solid.

I TRIED the latest version of MX with KDE, because I do have a lot of faith in Debian 12, but MX was actually not as solid, nor was it as easy to get configured for gaming, which seemed odd to me.  There is also another KDE gaming distro out there that I downloaded and might try if openSUSE tanks for me, but honestly I also do like Mint, so I will likely go there.

Well, enough rambling.  I still think if you are NOT using NVidia, openSUSE KDE is probably an excellent choice for you.  Try it out.  Just remember that Tumbleweed updates frequently, and not little updates, updates with a capital "U".  You can be confident you are getting cutting edge versions of software (and pretty recent kernels) if you don't mind your graphics driver getting hosed constantly.

openSUSE Tumbleweed part 5

 

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed Part 4

So a MASSIVE update was waiting for me today.

Unfortunately the massive update included a new kernel and that new kernel broke my UI because I use an NVidia driver.  I ended up allowing the update but booted into the old kernel which was still there, then I applied a zypper lock to it so it would not go away in the future.

The old kernel works perfectly fine.  The whole "Oh it's NVidia's fault - they suck!" argument is becoming quite tiresome since the NVidia drivers worked fine until a new kernel was introduced by OpenSUSE.  So... whatever.  NVidia released their sources too if I am not mistaken, over a year ago now.  How is that progressing, kernel devs?  Wayland devs?  Bueller?  Anyone?

So, be prepared if you have an NVidia card, OpenSUSE will most likely break it.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed part 3

 So I am having trouble putting my finger on WHY I like OpenSUSE.  I want to start with potential problems first:

1) dependency hell
    There have been issues when installing software (previous install)
    where I had to try to repair the dependencies
2) Printer support is a flipping mystery.  Only one of my printers is even SEEN...

Aside from that I don't have many complaints.

Why do I like it then?

1) I have never met a version of KDE that I liked prior to this.
    It is smooth, flawless, no issues.  The KDE app suite is also good.
2) While I prefer to use zypper, YaST seems to be competent.
3) Performance is good!

I know, no hard numbers to back things up regarding performance.

With Mint and other linux distros I tend to install kernels like xanmod or liquorice.  But I haven't had the urge to do that with OpenSUSE, perhaps partly because I am afraid to, or perhaps because the KDE UI is actually quite snappy and responsive, and when I game there doesn't seem to be any reason to NEED a performance kernel.

Anyway, I am enjoying OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, let's see how long that lasts.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed Part 2

 So I had been using Tumbleweed for a week or so and ran into some issues because when I first configured it I made a couple of mistakes.

So I went to MX Linux KDE and quickly learned that MX Linux is not as super-duper-awesome as everyone makes it out to be.  From there I jumped (after a day) to Linux Mint again.  But I found myself longing for the KDE interface (I cannot even BELIEVE I am writing this, I really disliked KDE for a minimum of a 14 years) that OpenSUSE delivered.

So guess what.  Lessons learned, I reinstalled OpenSUSE KDE and started configuring and installing software in small steps.  First thing was to make sure I installed the NVidia drivers the right way, first time around, installed codecs, got the base system the way I wanted it.  Then I moved onto installing Wine, Steam and other components useful for gaming.

So far so good, knock on wood.  I've been through my first update with no issues.  The one thing I did install that, while it makes me nervous I still love it, is Kvantum and the Irixium theme.  So love that.

So anyway, I have the most important things to me installed:

1) Nvidia drivers

2) Video and music codecs

3) Google Chrome

4) Thunderbird

5) KDE Irixium theme

6) Wine (so I can run VTMB without issue)

7) Steam (so I can play at least SOME of my steam games, and GE Proton)

8) Some fonts I like for programming

9) MS VS Code

10) compilers...

With these things I am pretty satisfied.  I can do the things I like to do on my personal computer, watch videos, game, program...

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

 I tried openSUSE before, not sure if I blogged about it at the time.  The first time I tried SUSE I was sorely disappointed and struggled with a number of configuration issues.

But, it had been awhile and distros generally continue to get better and better with time so I thought what the hey, I'll give it another shot.  Not only that, but I decided to install the KDE version.  Normally I am all about GTK/GNOME but, I always read people's posts raving wildly about KDE so I thought, again, what the hey, I will give it a shot.

So here I am rocking KDE on openSUSE Tumbleweed linux.  So far it has been pretty rock solid.  No major issues.  Well, one issue:  do not install the 535 version of the NVIDIA driver... it is imperfect to say the least.  I actually installed it first and had to contend with frequent artifacts flashing across the top of my monitor.  So I backed it out and installed the 470 series and it has been fine, no artifacts.  Beware, backing out NVIDIA drivers, while not super difficult, does take a little time, at least in my case, because not all of the old components were removed correctly and I had to boot into terminal mode and continue the process there.  Again, not a huge deal but, just beware... if you are installing NVIDIA drivers, avoid 535 (recommended for G06 GPUS) driver...

I was able to get steam and wine installed and able to play my usual games.  Although minor complaint, that has NOTHING TO DO WITH OPENSUSE:  Flipping world of warships has broken my ability to play the game on linux AGAIN.  They do this with updates that break your ability to log in or do other things with a fair amount of frequency... you can find the people who complain about on reddit.  :)  But aside from that the system has been solid.

The Chrome and Thunderbird both seem sharper and nicer on OpenSUSE/KDE... I don't know if it is the distro or KDE, but they seem more slick than usual.

Font rendering has been very nice; in older versions (awhile back) of KDE the font rendering always annoyed me (one of the reasons I stayed with GTK UIs).

Oh, if you think my screenshot is ugly, that's just because I am old and have a "thing" for 80s-like UIs and installed UI components that are supposed to resemble IRIX.  I love it!

I would love to get the dock looking more like CDE... but... unlikely.

So I am actually quite enjoying this so far.  I will probably shift back to a GTK-based system (most likely Mint but...) like Pop OS once their new interface is released in January, or when the next Linux Mint DE version arrives, based on Debian 12!

But for now let's see how long I can stick with a much lauded distro like OpenSUSE.

More on OpenSUSE

Well, this has been the most successful openSUSE experiment I have had in awhile... still... I have run into configuration issues.  Most of them are around codecs and non-free software.  Whereas Fedora makes it SUPER simple to just clickety-click, add repo, install non-free software, openSUSE makes it clickety click, install and... FAIL.

I am not sure what is the difficulty here, but repos seem to be out of sync, requirements ancient, stuff like that.  It is a little disappointing that I cannot get VLC or Firefox running with the required libraries... or, when I DO add the libraries, I have to MANUALLY install various dependencies for the libraries themselves.  Super annoying.  And I still cannot get Firefox working properly with our local news website.

There IS an easy workaround:  Google Chrome.  Comes self packaged with all the goodies you will ever need.  I am aware it phones home and google can monitor my every thought wave but... they already do through my smart phone, and other ways.  (Paranoid much am I?)

Anyway, so I am still running openSUSE because it is working (with Chrome) and I can also play all of my games so far.  Not sure how long this experiment will last though.  I don't know what it is but openSUSE just does not feel good.

OpenSUSE?

I have never been a fan of openSUSE, simply because I always ran into some kind of problem during install or post install trying to configure and run my preferred applications.

But I am a hopper so I cycle around and from time to time I get back to those distros I could not previously use, and I try again.

I am also growing stir crazy from the whole corona virus mess... working at home for weeks.  So I actually took a day off for sanity and played with linux and am doing some programming as well.

First I attempted to install openSUSE using GeckoLinux, which is basically a bunch of openSuse "spins."  It failed miserably and I could be heard yelling "A HA! OPENSUSE NEVER WORKS!"  But instead I downloaded the official Tumbleweed distro and tried again.

It worked!  Flawlessly, at that.  I even got NVidia drivers installed and working first try.  It DID take a little research though.

Part of my "test" for every distro is to be able to install and play two of my favorite games:  Star Stable Online and Diablo 3.  Now, Steam is important too... but these two are "guages" to me.  If I can get them up and running in WINE on linux, I am golden.  SSO installed easily, and Diablo seems to have installed as well, just downloading all the data now.  I will try the games once Diablo load finishes.

Otherwise, I installed Thunderbird, some fonts, a couple of GTK themes, installed Dash To Panel, Arc Menu and a few other extensions.  All working.  Looking pretty good actually.

Gnome is a little behind, but I can live with that, especially since some of my preferred extensions are not working on the latest version of Gnome.  So, while performance might suffer a little, it evens out.

Performance-wise, SUSE seems to be a little memory hungry in the sense that it definitely does a lot of in memory caching.  That is not necessarily bad, just an observation that my cache bar in my memory monitor fills the graph.

So far so good!  First time I've ever been OK with openSUSE and because of that I think I will try to stick with it for at least a week or two.  It will be interesting to see how smoothly updating occurs.

Anyway, hope you are staying safe and sound!

KDE adventure

Ages ago, back between 2005 and 2011, I had switched from Macs to an All-in-one IBM pc.  What I ended up installing on it was PC-BSD because the networking that came with it out of the box worked very well with my company's firewall/network security.

It came with a KDE interface.  I used it for a year until I switched back to a mac and purchased a product that I was able to log into work with...  But while I have not been a KDE fan in recent times, mostly GTK/Gnome, I did have fond memories of that year.

A week or so ago I began hunting around for a good KDE distro.  The caveat was that I did want to be able to install WINE and PLAYONLINUX so I could play a couple of my favorite games.  I tried Neon, KaOS, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu and Fedora.

KaOS is, without a doubt, the best looking KDE distro (of course that is subjective).  But it was limiting when it came to getting gaming software set up.  OpenSUSE was OK but the actual installation did not end well for me.  Neon is the KDE kitchen sink and worked alright, but I did run into one or two struggles with Ubuntu software.  Kubuntu was loaded to the hilt, and it worked well, but I felt there were some KDE performance issues.  Finally I installed the KDE spin of Fedora 31.  I always have a love/not-love-so-much relationship with Fedora as I always end up breaking something in some update.  But so far it has been very nice.  KDE performs very well, and Fedora performs well in general.

There is also a KDE version of Solus that I might try...

Anyway, just an update of my computing adventures.