Hello,

I recently purchased an AOpen XCCube EX761 with the intent to install Suse 10.0 on it. Unfortunately, I've come to find that the kernel version shipped with Suse 10.0 (2.6.13) doesn't support the mainboard. However, thanks to help from the folks here, I did learn that Suse 10.1A does have a kernel (2.6.l5) that will work with the new computer. The only problem is that it's an alpha release, and I'm having 3 rather large problems with the release:

1. OpenOffice crashes every time I try to open an OpenOffice document I copied over from my other PC
2. None of my Mp3 files play; amarok just cycles through them really quickly and does nothing; xmms does nothing at all.
3. SuseWatcher cannot find the download server so that I can get updates.


I was wondering if anyone can suggest either a fix for the above problems, or perhaps suggest a distro that does support a SIS965 chip or uses the 2.6.15 version of the kernel.

Thanks very much,

SUSE DOES NOT SUPPORT!!??!! OMG! That's something new. If you got the 1A version to work, I suggest that you get over it and... or wait! Go to kernel.org , get the kernel, install that old SUSe 10 stable on another partition, compile the kernel there and .. tada! Runs like magic. You can also wait for the 1A to go at least golden, but that could be a long wait...

I can't decide if that's sarcasm, idiocy or both, but either way it's not that helpful to tell a newbie to partition the disk and compile the kernel

I've had good experiences with kubuntu, just don't try the dapper drake alpha release that they have on the site at the moment, too much is still being worked on. My mom uses breezy (I'm a slackware man myself) and if she can use it, anyone can! www.kubuntu.org Though I have to say, I don't know what the support for SIS is.

Should also add that you need to install something extra to get mp3 support but it's very easy and they detail it fully on the kubuntu website.

dlackovic>

Download the kernel, recompile, and install it. It's not that hard - really! Search these boards or Google for "linux kernel compile" and you will find tons of well-written kernel compile HowTo articles.

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16340.html
http://www.freeos.com/articles/2589/
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...howtopic=13698

Read those pages, and post back here with specific questions if you can't follow them.

2.6.15 has now been released for SUSE 10.0. Not sure what the problem is, but if it's related to the NIC, you could download the RPM for the new kernel, install 10.0, then update SUSE with the downloaded RPM.

I understand the 2.6.15 kernel has been released for 10.0 (it's on my laptop actually). The problem is, when I try to install 10.0 on my new pc, I need to add a lot of options to get it to detect the dvd rom, and hdd. When I do that, I can install the packages to my pata drive (though not where I want them to be installed; but the options still can't see the sata drive), but when it comes to the time for initial boot where the root password, nic, etc get updated, the system can't load because (I'm guessing) all the options kind of conflict too much with the mainboard.

Novell said that although it is possible to update 10.0's kernel, it's relatively impossible to upgrade said kernel from the initial install.

It is also not very helpful to suggest another distribution to remedy a kernel hardware support issue.

Could you tell me what/where I need to go to add in this support?

You should be able to more or less directly use the instruction for this at ubuntuguide.org.

You know what... this poor guy is asking for help and all you guys are doing is speaking geek... Talk about not being particularly helpful!!! He -like most of us- want something to work now... and I'm absolutely, positively sure he doesn't want to recompile the kernel. What a pain in the butt!

I installed SuSE 10.1 (beta 2) on my laptop computer. Though I find it a fine distro, it's not what my laptop fully liked either. You see, I've experienced on-going hardware issues and odd software interactivity issues as well. To solve this, I downloaded six different distros to see what worked out of the box. Of the six distros, Ubuntu Dapper Drake (with GNOME) (6.10) build 1.31.06 with the 2.6.15 Kernel finally recognized all of my "no no" hardware (ATI 200m graphics card and Broadcom WLAN - this is a first among ALL distributions currently as the WLAN was just VERY recently cracked.). With this build, I no longer have OpenOffice document issues either. Though it is still in development stage, as said above, it's working very stably this far on my Compaq V2000Z.

I would go to http://cdimage.ubuntulinux.org/daily/current/ and download the ONE CD install OR... grab the Live DVD at http://cdimage.ubuntulinux.org/dvd/current/?C=M;O=A which is very helpful in trying it out prior to installation so you know what issues you might encounter before you spend the time configuring it on your system.

As for your MP3 sound issues, you need to install the proprietary WM32codecs to be able to listen to it in any Linux music player. Right now, this repository is good for the Breezy released version. I'm sure the closer we get to Dapper Drake's release (mid April) the link will be updated. I'm not sure (as I'm new to) if a breezy package will work with dapper but if you wish to try, you can add this line to your sources.list:

I would also suggest signing up for a local Users Group. (Search for one on Google.) I've done just that and they are so incredibly supportive.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help you!!! Keep pluggin' away, dlackovic. We're all in this together; which is the heart and soul of Linux.

thanks for the kind comments, kelleychambers.

I've been working on and off with my problems and as of last weekend or so I stumbled across a site that offered instructions on how to get mp3 stuff working.

I also found that most of my open office documents were corrupted when I transferred them over the network (I'm guessing I transferred too many things at once and without doing a very throrough job at configuring Samba no less). When I loaded the files off a CD they all worked except the OpenOffice Calc spreadsheets.

So really, all I think I need to do now is either rebuild the couple spreadsheets I use, or try to submit a bug to the OpenOffice folks to see why OO 1.x Calc files crash immediately on trying to load in an OO 2x environment.

It is a far more productive solution than the one you propose - especially considering that at this point SuSE 10.1 is pretty much bleeding edge and supports far more hardware out of the box than most other distributions. I'm not implying that SuSE is the best distro by any means (which is "best" depends on your standard of measure) however the fact that it is including the latest X, the latest kernel, etc. will naturally make it support the widest variety of hardware.

As far as n00bs compiling the kernel: why the heck not? The multitude of howtos range from ones targeted at novices to ones targeted at security professionals and embedded system developers. Some howtos are great and a six-year-old can follow them - others? Not so much.

When I first installed Linux I was definitely a newbie - not for computers in general (previously I repaired Commodore computers and programmed on both Commodore and Amiga) but definitely for Linux. However I wanted to get Linux running and at the time it required downloading seven floppy images, installing a basic kernel that supported hardly anything, editing the makefiles to include the support you needed (without ncurses installed there is no make menuconfig and at the time it was immature), and then running make. Somehow I managed. The howtos then were sparse and accessible on citadel BBSes (all telnet/text based) or gopher, because the WWW was still in its infancy, nothing more than an academic curiousity.

Perseverence will get you everything. Chiding people for not talking down to a new user because YOU assume he's an idiot doesn't help anyone.

Again: a wrong response from someone claiming that the correct solution is the wrong one. Sorry, but if a bleeding-edge distribution doesn't work, nothing will without some time and effort, and the willingness to read a howto or three. No amount of spoon feeding is going to get around needing to compile a package or two to get bleeding-edge hardware to work, even on a bleeding-edge kernel. With such a new chipset, on SuSE 10, he'll likely have to at MINIMUM recompile 2.6.13, or worst case download the latest stable (2.6.15) or unstable kernel. It's not "speaking geek" to post the correct and possibly only solution (other than "go back to Windows" which again would be hopelessly arrogant).

Of course, you could suggest he take the easy way out and hire a professional to do the work for him, since he's obviously too stupid to figure it out (your position, not mine!) but again that would be a stupid response as well.

Sometimes a newbie should be given credit and intelligence should be assumed, that the person can follow basic instructions, and once he gets the basics then he can be helped with specific issues.

Edit: just a quick note -- SiS chipsets are a pain all round, so ymmv, no warranty express or implied, batteries not included, etc.

dlackovic look here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856140021 for clear specs on your AOpen cube and story from one user who had suse10 with 2.6.13 kernel pre-installed but which didn't work.You are not alone. Those specs will help you chose best kernel(2.6.15).Write them down. Suse should have rpm pkg for 2.6.15 kernel. If not live-cd oses may be useful to try different operating systems on that cube. For example kanotix-2005-04 has 2.6.14+ kernel with pkg for 2.6.15 upgrade,likewise latest mepis may.These 2 are based on debian etch/sid. Fedora and Mandriva live-cds may be current enough too. Distrowatch will have other live-cds to suggest. Good luck.