I've used SuSE for years.(almost the whole time I've used linux) I just upgraded 9.0 to 9.2. 9.0 was a 5 cd set i bought off ebay and, had almost any app I could want on the disks. I used it for a year on a computer in my home recording setup with no internet conection. Now I downloaded 9.2 from the novell ftp. It's missing almost everything I had in 9.0 (it didn't even have a ftp server or nmap!). to me this looks like novell breaking a good product so that they can sell The enterprise version. (I even had to buy a dvd-rom cause they don't make the cd iso's available. but you get cd's if you pay for them) Not one time have I gone into yast trying to install something and been asked to insert the dvd. Every single time its this package is not available. every time i get a package off the internet (something i almost never had to do with 9.0) it needs like 2 more so I reconect and get them then they need even more. I've heard that debian doesn't have that problem. that it gets dependencies automatically. is there any way to make suse do this? any one else have these problems?

Yes, there is, but I would like to give a general comment first:
You seem to have a very specific problem with SUSE, and that is missing software and unresolved dependencies. Why do you put so much aggression into your post? Having used SUSE for a long time, you should know that SUSE decided not to make their distribution available on ISO's. But the full set of software apart from some commercial packages is available via FTP. Although I don't know the 'debian way', I guess that APT(?) also grabs software online. You compare your 9.0 (where you spent money for) with 9.2 that you grabbed for free. Doesn't seem to be a good comparison to me.

So now the more technical part:

APT is avalable for SUSE aswell. Have a look here: http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/home.html

Many software repositories work also with YaST. Have a look at the sticky thread about YaST update sources. Since you seem to use the evaluation ISO of 9.2, you might be interested in this little manual: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=266647
If you set-up YaST to use online sources, you'll have full access to whatever you may miss on you DVD. Dependencies will be solved automatically.

I didn't mean to rip on it I'm just frustrated. It's not like I bought 9.0 from Novell either. I got 5 cdrs that someone burned (they don't even have lables) off ebay. I didn't download the Live evaluation .iso I'm missing more then comercial software. It doesn't have any development stuff except the compiler, lots of network services and even nmap. I thought that the download-able version was the same except for the box, manual, support, and the stuff thats not Gnu. I'll try set it up to use online sources that might help quite a bit.

Hey johnson_steve I understand your frustration. Sometimes OS's put me in a position to want to jam my hand into a running blender. However, since I originally had SuSE 8.1, which I really enjoyed and paid for, so I download the ftp packages for free via the FTP ISO installer. My system works great.

You may find it beneficial to install APT and SYNAPTIC for SuSE 9.2. I toggle between the two, depending on my needs. Both are good.

Also, I seem to have nmap on my YaST program, and it is definitely available via APT.

I've got nmap (and a bunch of other stuff) now i just thought it should've been included in the first place. I Tried using yast with an online ftp source and I still get "package not available" eventhough (I checked) the package thats not available is on the ftp site. Do you know where I can get apt and synaptic for suse 9.2?

you can try freshrpm or rpmfind or just google : suse apt.

Here you go johnson_steve... SuSE APT + Synaptic

And here is the direct link to the SuSE 9.2 page: FTP SuSE 9.2 APT.

Remember, read the how to on the first link and just get you packages from the FTP. Good luck and you will enjoy Synaptic APT. It is pretty good.

I noticed the same problem with the 9.2 Eval DVD (note: not the Live DVD). The Eval DVD did not come with many of the software packages I was used to seeing under 9.1 The CDs that I got with SUSE 9.3 did come with all of that stuff, however.

I'm having video problems with SUSE 9.3, though. Other than that, I'm very happy with this product and will give some serious consideration to making my very first purchase for it.

What the f... is your problem guys?

What do you expect a free single layer DVD download to contain?

johnson_steve: tell me what you are looking for and I may be able to tell you a source. The devel-packages are all availabe online.

Ok, I have apt and synaptic installed but the included sources.list file only has security update sources. How can I set it up to get other packages? can I use any SuSE mirror or does it have to be set up to work with apt?

I'm not looking for any certain package I'm just sick of the never ending "Ok now you need this." that I'm getting and yast with an online source didn't change anything I still had to manually download every package.

Email is on its way.

thank you. apt works great now.

abisko00,
I never expected more than what I got from the Eval DVD. I never said I expected more. I knew full well that I was potentially getting a stripped down version of the OS when I downloaded the ISO. I was merely confirming what Johnson was stating regarding it.

What I don't understand, though, is that the total size for the DVD ISO of 9.2, and the total number of bytes I downloaded for the 5 CD ISO images I received for 9.3 were roughly the same. So why is it that my 9.3 install had more applications and options than the 9.2 DVD Eval?

But he didn't get 9.2 for "free" as you say because he had to pay for the electricity to download the iso's, buy blanks for a burner, if he owned one, if not you have to buy a cd burner, get the software, etc. and then he paid for an internet connection as well. Where as the old way, which is the way I got suse, was to buy it in a store, because it wasn't offered online at all and he saved on the costs for the details previously mentioned. As for the way Novell is handling SuSE, they seem to be doing what Red Hat is doing. Using a different distro to make money for their mainstay operating system. Which reminds me of how Microsoft and Apple got started.

As for Debian apt-get way. It works if you have enough repositories set in the sources.list file so you don't get a dependency error. You always do anyway no matter what package manager you use (apt,emerge,yum,up2date) because the repositories are not in sync with each other. Which means some sites might take down a dependency that other sites still have up or they were the last repository to take it down and that's why you get the error that "app or lib is not installed". And then the hunt is on for you. But Debian 3.1 has sort of fixed that with 14 iso's. That way once you've bought or downloaded the CD's or the DVD version, there's no need to go online except for patches. But then, all OSes have that problem in the modern world.

Well.. I believe that johnson_steve in content now. Perhaps we should just let this dog die.