SuSE v.10 with Gnome and related puzzlements

pofadda · 11-26-2005, 05:52 PM

A few OpenSuse/gnome newbie questions...

Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't bring up Log out screen - I have to goof off to Desktop to click a Log Out option (and it's a long trip on my screen!)

Installed Thunderbird from tgz (h'ray!) but found no icon except an xml one (it said) that gnome wouldn't recognise. Is this a gnome or a Suse thing?

Not all apps in the distro seem to be in the panel menus. How can I track them all down and iconise those that I want to?

ATI driver: downloaded the .tgz and did as told and it seemed to install as per ATI's instructions. I re-did the glxgears test and there was no improvement - still 1600-1800 fps and a 'frame-rate too low' message from the GL-117 game! Being an ex debian (apt-get and forget!) user I probably fell down choosing where the thing should be installed to. Or where the XF86config file should go. Or something. Any ideas?

Can't get my Palm T5 to work with Linux (this, Mepis, Ubuntu). Any foolproof tutorials you Palm users recommend?

Opinion please: Is there any solid advantage to using Evolution rather than Thunderbird for email and news? Does having a Palm swing things?

Opinions please 2: Is there any solid reason - outside of the religious wars - to stay with a rpm-based distro and forsake a debian one?? Does it make any real difference to getting upgrgades, failing installations, etc? I was SO impressed with debian over Windows but have v. little experience to compare it with rpm.

An observation: as a new user, I think OpenSuse 10 works even better out of the box than Mepis (also nice) and is quite the prettiest distro I've seen. I dunno it just feels so smooth... a bit like a Mac, I guess).

Tha's enuff.

Sargek · 11-26-2005, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pofadda

Code:

Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't bring up Log out screen - 
I have to goof off to Desktop to click a Log Out option (and it's a long trip on my screen!)

Not sure on this - works on mine.

Code:

Installed Thunderbird from tgz (h'ray!) but found no icon except an 
xml one (it said) that gnome wouldn't recognise.  Is this a gnome or a Suse thing?

Not sure - most icons are in /usr/share/pixmaps.

Code:

Not all apps in the distro seem to be in the panel menus.  
How can I track them all down and iconise those that I want to?

Most apps are in /usr/bin

Code:

ATI driver: downloaded the .tgz and did as told and it seemed to install as 
per ATI's instructions.  I re-did the glxgears test and there was no improvement - 
still 1600-1800 fps and a 'frame-rate too low' message from the GL-117 game!  
Being an ex debian (apt-get and forget!) user I probably fell down choosing where 
the thing should be installed to.  Or where the XF86config file should go.  Or something.  Any ideas?

No idea - I use Nvidia, sorry...As for XF86Config, it should be in /etc/X11

Code:

Can't get my Palm T5 to work with Linux (this, Mepis, Ubuntu).  
Any foolproof tutorials you Palm users recommend?

I use a Palm Zire31 with Jpilot and it works great. I cannot remember where I read how to do this, but I'll look and post back.

Code:

Opinion please: Is there any solid advantage to using Evolution rather than 
Thunderbird for email and news?  Does having a Palm swing things?

I have never been able to get Evo to sync with my Palm, and Evo is HUGE, so I don't use it. T-bird is much faster, but if you need the functionality of Evo, by all means use it.

Code:

Opinions please 2: Is there any solid reason - outside of the religious wars - 
to stay with a rpm-based distro and forsake a debian one??  Does it make any 
real difference to getting upgrgades, failing installations, etc?  I was SO impressed 
with debian over Windows but have v. little experience to compare it with rpm.

Well, I have always had better luck, and lost less hair, with debian-based distros. Apt is wonderful. Rpms can be a pain, but some of the new tools out there are pretty good: yum, for example. Your choice, really. I am a source-distro guy, so don't use either anymore, but my fondest memories were with apt.

pofadda · 12-11-2005, 02:49 PM

Sorry for the late response, Sargek.
The non-working of Ctrl+Alt+Del(ete in Mepis KDE) seems to be a SuSE thing. I want it gone!

.../pixmaps; is it agreed that apps put their icon images there in addtion to the lot that seem to come with Linux?

Oh well, I'll keep looking!

Sargek · 12-11-2005, 03:18 PM

No problem on the response - I am super busy with graduate work, so understand the lack of time! Can't really help with the ctl+alt+del because on my Gentoo/Gnome box, it works fine. You can always alt+F1 to get to the "Applications" menu and right arrow over to get to the logout menu under "Desktop", or have you checked "Desktop" --> "Preferences" --> "Keyboard Shortcuts"? That's where you set a keyboard shortcut for several tasks.

As for /usr/share/pixmaps, I am not sure what the standard is. You might check out http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Home to see if there is a standard being developed or in place for this. For the most part, most applications place their icons there, but there are exceptions. Depends on the developer.