I'm not really in favour of using DVD's given away with magazines and unfortunately using the DVD given free with Linuxuser which is generally a great magazine only re-inforces my opinion.

The base idea of using a Free DVD was great as it can save a lot of download time -- however on install I just can't connect to the Internet in any shape or form whatsoever.

I can Ping every other computer on the Network (mainly 'Doze machines) but no way will it connect to the internet -- even with firewall totally turned off - also makes no difference if IPV6 is turned off as well.

I can force it by using specific IP addresses and DNS server names from the ISP but my Router with DHCP usually does that and I don't like the idea of having to use static IP addresses anyway and if the ISP server IP addresses change then I'm doubly stuffed.

The connection is via "Bog standard" wired ethernet card which the SUSE package found quite easily. IFUP eth0 gives correct IP address but try and ping an external address and "unknown host" message appears.

I've got SUSE 10.2 running on another 100% identical laptop installed with the same options - but using a DVD ISO image from Download - guess what no problems.


So whilst it appears more convenient to use a DVD included with a magazine it (in my experience) costs you more time and trouble than downloading the "Official" DVD.

Cheers

-K

I totally agree with you. These magazines try to do their own customizations or add on their own packages which end up making the distribution do some funny things. I never want to install any of these free DVD's or CD's. I only trust the source!

i disagree.
i used suse10.1 from the linux magazine and it was the most stable linux i have used to date.
unlike the mandriva 2006 and 2007 downloaded direct from their mirrors. error prone o the max.

It sounds like you either don't have the default gateway route setup, or don't have the nameserver addresses in /etc/resolve.conf. Are you using DHCP or a static setup?

Nope I disagree. I am currently taking a linux administrator course and have in my person system SUSE10.2 which my instructor downloaded for me from one of novells mirror sites. In class I installed mandriva 2007, and guess what neither one can connect to the internet. mandirva already has a fix for it. go to http://qa.mandriva.com and search for "slow internet response". I will try the fix on moday when I get back to school. There seems to be a glitch in the new kernel they are using and since SUSe and Mandriva are running very similar kernels I am hope that it will fix my SUSe, because frankly I like it better than Mandriva, but Mandriva is what our Professor wants us to use.
Good Luck

SuSE's SuSEconfig setup is probably too unique for the purposes of the class. Instead of configuring the standard setup files directly, other files (scripts actually) are edited, or YaST2 is used. SuSEconfig will dynamically read the various files (setting variables used by SuSEconfig) and make the changes to the more familiar (standard) files. The professor probably wants you to be familiar with the standard configurations instead. Or at least one that he is most familiar with. Given all of the distro's available, instructing and grading would be too difficult if any distro were allowed.

I have used Mandrake in the past, and it was may favorite for a while, but I made a swithch when it wouldn't install on a new desktop and have stuck with SuSE since.

You could install both and multiboot. Noting the simularities and differences might be instructive.

Guess what -- I finally got the "blas--" thing to work although more by sheer luck than anything else.

I needed the NVIDIA driver so I downloaded this via a Windows box on to an accessible shared FAT32file system and then installed via the scripts.

The Kernel got recompiled / updated --not sure which and then the whole thing worked fine - no Internet probs at all.

Might be that the pre-compiled kernel on the DVD didn't like my machine.

So if you have Internet probs with the DVD and can't get hold of another ISO just do anything which causes your kernel to get updated --a lot of machines use the Nvidia video.

BTW when all does work COMPIZ and BERYL give great 3-D effects --far far better than VISTA and I've only got 64MB graphics on a rather lowly Laptop.


I'd still in general shy away from Magazine DVD distributions unless you don't really have a choice --and if you DO use a magazine distro sometimes expect the unexpected.

Cheers

-K

I don't install magazine DVD's because I have a x86_64 machine and the DVD's often only have i386/i586 files.