A newbie with SuSe

Hi!

I installed SuSE, but after the installation I didn't get past the text. I loged in, and all I got was command prompts (of which I know nothing), so for the moment, Im going back to windows 98se, and then I may reinstall SuSe or Mandrake or Slackware on my E Drive--what was I doing wrong not to even get to the graphics? I felt like a lost dog. I was a lost dog. Any info would be appreciated.

Im on my kids puter right now.
Thanks,

Xico

 

I've only tried to use SuSe once and had trouble installing it (ver. 9.0). Later, I switched to Gentoo and found that the computer had bad memory The long compile for Gentoo finally made the memory quit, I guess

My point is that it could be hardware related (I'm guessing and am a beginner to Linux).

 

I just put in a new stick of 256 of mem--I've got 512. That was part of the problem with Windoz--the other part was some sticky malware--net.new--so I formatted, and then decided to try this SuSe that had been sitting there for a while.

Im really totally lost with SuSe. I'd been using Knoppix, but I couldn't get it configured to get on the net--or the printed, etc.

 

Knoppix should be coming out with version 3.4 soon ... maybe that will help with the hardware recognition. I had the same problem with getting my nforce2 motherboard ethernet slot recognized by Knoppix 3.2. Knoppix 3.3 worked. I could never figure out how to get the network printer to work, ever, for any Linux distro I've used so far...

I haven't given up yet...

 

linux printing support is limited to one of two options. Cups (which people have trouble with, there's some good documentations out there, and some who will say its the worst thing ever) http://www.cups.org/documentation.php

If you want to do it thru a windows machine you have samba, which is both a file and print services application. So basically you connect to windows to print. Or you use native linux Cups to do it.

A

 

To take a stab at answering the original question (and this is only a stab, since I don't run SuSe): during installation, you may have been given a choice to start with either a text or a graphical environment. It might have been hidden in a question like "run X-windows at startup?" or something else that may not have made a lot of sense to you at the time. Assuming that you installed X-windows, however, (usually done by default in most major distributions), you can invoke the graphical interface by issuing the command: startx at the command line. This should try to run your default GUI environment (likely KDE or Gnome). You may run into problems if X-windows is not configured properly for your video hardware (card + monitor); if so, try using cntl-alt-F1 (or F2 or F3 ... F6) to return to a text screen, where at least you can shutdown the system and figure out your next step.

Hope this helps.

 

At the risk of hijacking the thread ...

Configuring printers often is difficult for people new to Linux. Most distributions that I am aware of include several print spoolers, from the venerable lpd (ancient by modern standards) to very flexible, full-featured spoolers such as CUPS or lprNG. Your distribution likely has chosen a default print spooler for you, although you may also be given the option to select a different one during installation (Slackware does this, for example). Virtually all print spoolers support directly-connected and network printers.

Samba is a completely different animal; it does not handle Linux print spooling at all, and for the most part, you only need it if you wish to export Linux resources (files, printers, etc.) to make them available to Windoze machines. To print from Linux to a Windoze machine, you only need the smbclient executable (now a part of the samba package, I believe), but you don't need the configuration files, daemons running, etc.

Hope this helps. Please put printer configuration questions, etc. in a separate thread -- I know the folks here will be more than happy to help out.

 

It wont boot to a GUI because you're using my avatar.
Seriously, during installation SuSE gives you the chance to configure/re-configure your hardware near the end of the installation. If you just click next, SuSE will assume you want to use the configuration Yast2 came up with. If startx works you can check your /etc/inittab file and see if there is a line like this:

Code:

id:3:initdefault:

If so, change it (as root) in a text editor to read:

Code:

id:5:initdefault:

If you dont get the GUI with startx, log in as root and run SaX to configure your graphics card/display.
HTH
lynch

 

THANK YOU ALL (EVEN YOU WHO HAVE HIJACKED MY AVATAR BUT i MUST SAY YOU HAVE GOOD TASTE )

There's a lot to chew on in this thread. Whoa! I'll be back. I've got to try out the suggestions and see what I can do.

 

Well, I am getting stuck in the installation process with YaSTZ. It won't let me do a new Install, so I had to try the update of the existing system which didn't work. I clicked on "abort" and came up with the Main Menu with Settings System Info KernalModules Start Install /Systems and End / Reboot

In Settings there's Language Display Keymap and Debug (expert)

In System Info Kernal Messages Hard Disks / CD0Roms Modules PCI Processor Memory I/O Ports Interrupts Devices Network Cards DMA

In Kernal Modules Load SCSI Modules Load CD-Rom Modules Load Network Card Modules Show Loaded Modules Unload Modules Autoload Modules

I went to Start Installation: Start Installation /update Boot Installed System Start Rescue System Eject CD

and chose Boot Installed system which got me "Error: Cannot fsck becuase root is not read only"

and then I got a white cursor on a black screen

I tried ctrl-alt-del which didn't work, so I had to shut it down with the switch.

THE QUESTION IS: is there something in the main menu that I can use to either run the OS or delete it? The Debug probably has to do with code which is well beyond me unless it could delete the system. But what about the Rescue System?
Your input is greatly (I mean GREATLY) appreciated.
Thanks

The slowest component

 

Did it give you the option to install on existing linux system?

 

I don't know. I formatted my C drive, and installed SuSe--without partitioning C. I can get in bash, but I really don't know what I'm doing. It's hits and misses. From bash I clicked alt and F3 (I think) and came up with YaST installation which said to put in disc 2.And then gave me the message

could not mount source media: block device /dev/hdc is write protected mounting read-only mount: No medium found.

Can I change the write protected? with the sys administrator? But I don't even know how to get to that point.

 

You have 3 hard drives?

 

hdc is his cdrom. For some reason it's not seeing that cd. Bad burn?

 

Not with SuSE, unless someone made copies of the commercial CDs. The only download you get from them is the ftp install and the Live-Eval iso. No free iso offerings.
lynch