European Wafaa

As many people will have noticed from my ramblings on twitter and identi.ca and also from my sporadic almost dumb sounding questions on IRC (thanks very much for your patience in IRC btw), I have been working on getting a usable installation of openSUSE on the eeePC 701 – both GNOME and KDE4. As I have a 4GB SSD model my aim is to have a feature full install taking up no more than 2.6GB. Yes I know this doesn’t help those with the 2GB model, but I’m scratching my own itch here . Ultimately I would like to be able to create USB and CD images of the builds in time for 11.1’s release which is in about 43 days time, problem is KIWI does not like me but I will persevere and see what I can conjure up in time. I am a happy user of openSUSE 11.0 with XFCE on my eeePC at the moment, but I fancy a bit of a challenge and a good dose of stress and anger trying to get it to work will be a welcome distraction from the stress and chaos I have to deal with at work

So what packages am I looking at putting on there? Below are a couple of tables of applications and what I have selected for each DE including ASUS eeePC related drivers (ACPI/Events) and also bluetooth; I have tried to stick to those that come with the DE e.g. all KDE apps are KDE4 variants, and if a DE provides an app for a function I try to use that.  So the first iteration of the table is:

	KDE	GNOME	XFCE
Terminal	Konsole	GNOME-Terminal	Terminal
Text Editor	Kwrite	Gedit	Mousepad
Web Browser	Konqueror	Epiphany	Epiphany
File Manager	Dolphin	Nautilus	Thunar
Music Player	Amarok2	Banshee	xfmedia
Video Player	Dragon Player	Totem	xfmedia
PDF Viewer	Okular	Evince	Evince
IM client	Kopete	Pidgin	Pidgin
IRC client	irssi	Pidgin	Pidgin
Office Suite	OOo	OOo	OOo
E-mail	Kmail	Evolution	Claws-Mail
RSS	Akregator	Liferea	Liferea
Calendar	Korganiser	Evolution	Orage
Addressbook	Kaddressbook	Evolution	Claws-Mail
Flashplayer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Java	Java-1.6	Java-1.6	Java-1.6
Codecs	Xine	Gstreamer	Xine
Photo Viewer	Gwenview	F-spot	Ristretto
FTP Client	Dolphin	Nautilus	Gftp
Networking	NetworkManager	NetworkManager	NetworkManager
Total Space Taken Up	2.6GB / 2676552k	2.7GB / 2752336k	2.6GB / 2718412k

 

As you can see KDE4 takes up the least amount of space followed by XFCE with GNOME dropping into third place.  This surprised me as I actually expected XFCE to be way ahead in the lead.  I then tried to minimise the number of applications and tried to use apps that could multi task, still prefering those that are included as part of the openSUSE distro:

	KDE	GNOME	XFCE
Terminal	Konsole	GNOME-Terminal	Terminal
Text Editor	Kwrite	Gedit	Mousepad
Web Browser	Konqueror	Epiphany	Epiphany
File Manager	Dolphin	Nautilus	Thunar
Music Player	MPlayer	Totem	xfmedia
Video Player	MPlayer	Totem	xfmedia
PDF Viewer	Okular	Evince	Evince
IM client	Kopete	Pidgin	Pidgin
IRC client	irssi	Pidgin	Pidgin
Office Suite	OOo	OOo	OOo
E-mail	Kmail	Claws-Mail	Claws-Mail
RSS	Akregator	Claws-Mail	Claws-Mail
Calendar	Korganiser	Claws-Mail	Orage
Addressbook	Kaddressbook	Claws-Mail	Claws-Mail
Flashplayer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Java	Java-1.6	Java-1.6	Java-1.6
Codec Framework	ffmpeg	Gstreamer	Xine
Photo Viewer	Gwenview	Eye Of GNOME	Ristretto
FTP Client	Dolphin	Nautilus	Gftp
Networking	NetworkManager	NetworkManager	NetworkManager
Total Space Taken Up	2.6GB / 2662540k	2.6GB / 2682516k	2.6GB / 2716364k

As you can see KDE is still the leader, but GNOME has managed to close the gap significantly.

You will notice that there are some notable applications missing from both tables, both from the Mozilla family – FireFox and Thunderbird.  I chose not to use FireFox as the browser as I have been experiencing some icky lockups with it, and this is irrespective of platform.  I decided against Thunderbird because it just did not like to display correctly on the 7″ screen, even the version supplied by Xandros refused to display nicely.  As KDE4 doesn’t have a native IRC client yet I have chosen irssi, i will update the list when a native KDE4 client is available – most likely Quassel.  Also as it stands Kaffeine is not available for KDE4 yet, when that happens I would imagine I would replace MPlayer with it.

Both the GNOME and KDE4 builds were based on a minimal X install – for GNOME add gnome-panel and gnome-session; for for KDE add kdebase4-session, kdebase4-workspace and kde4-win; XFCE was based on the supplied pattern.  One thing I did notice is that 11.1 (Beta4) seems to have put on a bit of weight in comparison to 11.0, a base install appears to be ~400MB more O_o.  I am going to to do a verification shortly and file a bug so hopefully I can thin them out even further.

If people have any recommendations or suggestions as to what applications to use, then please let me know.  My next step is to create both ISO and USB images, any and all help would be much appreciated – SUSEStudio access would be even better   This list is not meant to be the be all and end all, but more a matter of itch scratching.  Yes I know I could reduce the space taken up if I didnt bother with any of that non-free codec crud, and drop flash from the equation, but I’m pragmatic and ultimately want to see people use openSUSE.  Get them using our distro first, once thatis established then we can educate them on the ugly side of things.  Once I manage to create the images with the above package list i will look at creating a completely free version with no colsed codecs/apps.

Once again I’d like to thank all those on IRC for there help and advice – JP Rosevear, James Wilcox, Stephan Binner, Will Stephenson, Martin Schandler and Hubert Figuiere.

Please take two minutes today to remember the service men and women that have laid their lives down for their country, whether you agree with the political motives behind their deployment or not. The men and women of the armed forces go where they are told to and carry out their orders. For me, today is especially about remembering the men of the RAF Regiment that have died in action in Afghanistan this year - the highest number of casualties the Regiment has suffered since the Korean War. As I served Her Majesty in the Regiment in the past, I hold them very dear to me as I'm sure most service men and women hold their respective regiments dear to them.

So please remember those that can no longer walk with us, not just from conflicts past but also from conflicts present. May they rest in peace.

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favourite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

When selecting the installation mode in YaST, select 'Up-date an Existing System' instead of 'New Installation'.

S.u.S.E Linux Pro 9.2 Administration Guide.

I swear that was the closest book!

After my post, Follow The Netbook Road, I was granted access to SUSE Studio to try and help out with the creation of my proposal - Thanks Nat, Cornelius and team. There was a bit of grumbling about Studio and why was it invitation only etc etc, but to be honest I think the invitation method was the best way to gradually stress test the service. Any way that's not what I'm here to talk about, not yet at least



I'm proud to present to you my first build (well OK not strictly my first build, more like my 27th or somewhere in that region) for the eeePC701. Please have a look over here for details, as you can see only GNOME is done but I will have a KDE images soon followed by XFCE. These images are specific for the eeePC701 as they include a modified xorg.conf file to ensure the correct display resolution (800x480). Please give it a whirl and if it all works I'll add the details to the wiki. All the hardware should work out of the box - Network (wired and wireless), webcam, ACPI etc; I have also included the required codecs so you can watch and listen to your media without hassle.

If people with other netbooks - Acer Aspire One, Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind and other versions of the eeePC would like me to try and do the same, please let me know (comments, e-mail or get hold of me on IRC) I would also like to hear how you get on with it, and if you have any suggestions/bugs etc. Happy netbooking

So I have now finally completed my initial plan on the Netbook front, but for some reason I still feel that there is much more to do. I now have images available for openSUSE 11.0 running KDE4, GNOME, XFCE and KDE3; they were all of course built with SUSE Studio.

To try and fill this whole that I feel I have, I need your help. Yes all you netbook owners can help me If anyone has any of the following please could you send me some info:

- eeePC 900, 901, 904, 1000, S101

- Acer Aspire One A110, A150

- MSI Wind U90, U100

- Dell Inspirion Mini 9

- Advent 4211, 4212, 4213

- Elonex One

- Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Mini UI3520

- HP Mini-Note 2133

The info i need would be best garnered from the original OS if at all possible, so whether that be Linpus, Xandros, Ubuntu or even Windows but if they are not available getting as close to it as possible would be useful. The pieces of the jigsaw I'm looking for are:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/sysconfig/kernel
/etc/pm/sleep.d/*
/etc/rc.d/haldaemon
/etc/powersave/events
Output from hwinfo (if you have openSUSE or SLED on there the output from SIGA)
For those that have Windows on there sending the output of System Information (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information) would be greatly appreciated

If you could tarball/zip/rar them and e-Mail the resulting archive to me saying what device you have I can get to work creating modified images for the hardware and hopefully we can have easy images ready for the new year.

After several requests to get GNOME 2.24 built and made available the GNOME Team (well Magnus Boman really), took on the challenge of making it so.  Unfortunately we were a bit focused on the 11.1 release and didn’t actually think about doing any backports.  This has kind of bitten us squarely on the behind, yes we must bow to the KDE Team’s backporting powers – make the most of it chaps

Unfortunately there are too many dependencies for the backport, and will involve a heck of a lot of maintenece – more so than normal.  After several attempts to coax things to work we must bow our heads in admission to being beaten This doesn’t mean that we won’t be doing any backports in the future, the championship isn’t over just this match.  It does mean that there wont be a GNOME 2.24 for openSUSE 11.0 however, sorry to disappoint.

We have learnt our lesson and with the aim of not disapointing you again we have already instigated measures to ensure that your backporting needs are met.  We are already starting to build GNOME 2.25 against the current Factory and will continue to ensure that each release has the latest and greatest from the Enchanted Wood.  There may well be occaisons where things just won’t work, but we will do our utmost to minimise them and give you plenty of notice.

One thing we do need is your help.  Funny I always seem to be asking for help, but this time there is a really good reason (actually more than one ).  We need more people to run Factory to test things and ensure that bugs and issues/comments are reported back.  This doesn’t just apply to GNOME but openSUSE in general, please please test our latest releases and give us your feedback.  There are several ways you can do this – Bugzilla, IRC and Mailing Lists, oh and at events like the upcoming FOSDEM.