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openSUSE 11.1 Reference Guide
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12.2 Software Changes from Version to Version

The individual aspects changed from version to version are outlined in the following in detail. This summary indicates, for example, whether basic settings have been completely reconfigured, whether configuration files have been moved to other places, or whether common applications have been significantly changed. Significant modifications that affect the daily use of the system at either the user level or the administrator level are mentioned here.

Problems and special issues of the respective versions are published online as they are identified. See the links listed below. Important updates of individual packages can be accessed at https://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/ using the YaST Online Update. For more information, see Section 5.0, YaST Online Update.

12.2.1 From 10.1 to 10.2

Refer to the Bugs article in the openSUSE wiki at https://en.opensuse.org/Bugs.

The Standard Kernel

The kernel-default package contains the standard kernel for both, uniprocessor and multiprocessor systems. The kernel comes with SMP support and runs with minimal overhead on uniprocessor systems. There is no kernel-smp package anymore.

Add-On Medium with Additional Languages

Include the language add-on medium in your list of installation sources, if you want better support for one of our tier 2 languages. Tier 2 languages are all but the tier 1 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, simplified and traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Czech). Support for tier 1 languages is available on the standard media set.

12.2.2 From 10.2 to 10.3

Refer to the Bugs article in the openSUSE wiki at https://en.opensuse.org/Bugs.

Text Installation Pattern

The scope of the text installation pattern is very limited. It is not recommended to install this pattern without adding additional software. Add packages from other patterns. The purpose of this pattern is to have a minimal bootable system running on real hardware. It provides a multiuser system with local login, network setup, and the default filesystems. No service is enabled by default and the only YaST modules installed are those needed during installation.

Adding Extra Software Repositories During Installation

After setting up the update configuration at the end of the installation, YaST offers to add the following three software repositories as additional installation sources:

  • The oss repository contains the complete FTP distribution including more packages than available on the CDs.

  • The non-oss repository contains software under a propietary or non-open source license.

  • The debug repository contains debuginfo packages used for debugging programs and libraries and getting backtraces. If an error occurs, this additional information helps you write good bug reports.

The source RPMs for oss are available at https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/src-oss, the source RPMs for non-oss are available at https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/src-non-oss.

Localization Support

The 1-CD installation media (GNOME or KDE) come with language support for American English only.

Support for all the other languages is available separately. If you are interested in additional languages, add an extra online repository during installation offering these translations. The oss repository, as mentioned above in Adding Extra Software Repositories During Installation, is such a repository.

AppArmor 2.1

Find more detailed information about new features at https://en.opensuse.org/AppArmor/Changes_AppArmor_2_1.

The syntax now distinguishes directories from files. There are additional minor syntax bug fixes.

The reporting of change_hat related events and information has changed. The log messages and profile state (as available via /proc/<pid>/attr/current) are reported as /profile//hat.

A new change_profile policy specification has been added. change_profile is similar to change_hat, but allows changing to any profile, including hats. The profiles you can change to must be specified, that is the only restriction. To change to a hat via change_profile, the hat name hsa to be specified by separating the profile and hat_name with // .

GAIM Renamed to Pidgin

The GAIM instant messenger has been renamed to Pidgin.

New Location for KDE and GNOME

GNOME 2 is installed under the /usr file system hierarchy since openSUSE 10.3 and KDE 4 now follows. KDE 3 will stay in /opt for compatibility reasons.

Before starting the update, make sure that there is enough disk space under /usr (approx. 2.5GB for both desktops is required). If you are short on space under /usr, resize or rearrange your partitions.

Berkeley DB Change Affects OpenLDAP Server

There is a format change in Berkeley DB's on-disk log files between Berkely DB 4.3 and 4.4. This change prevents an installed OpenLDAP server from starting after the system update.

To avoid this issue, export existing LDAP Databases using the slapcat utility before starting the system update and re-import the data using slapadd after the update. On an already updated machine get the LDAP Server running as follows:

  1. Stop the LDAP Server.

  2. Remove all files starting with _db. from the database directory.

  3. Start the LDAP server again.

libata for IDE Devices

libata uses /dev/sda for the first hard disk instead of /dev/hda. Disks with more than 15 partitions are not handled automatically right now. You can disable libata support by booting with the following kernel parameter:

hwprobe=-modules.pata

Now you see all the partitions over 15 again and can access them for installation.

Changes in Setting up Encrypted Partitions

The back-end technology of boot.crypto has been changed from cryptoloop to dm-crypt.

Any old /etc/cryptotab will work unmodified on openSUSE 10.3 (modulo partition renaming issues from hdX to sdX due to libata changes—see libata for IDE Devices). Additionally, /etc/crypttab (note the missing o) is now supported, which also includes support for LUKS volumes. In contrast to previous releases, boot.crypto is no longer enabled by default. YaST enables it if you create an encrypted volume with YaST. You can also manually enable it with the following command:

chkconfig boot.crypto on

It is still possible to use cryptoloop via losetup and mount. Since we dropped the crude loop-AES patch from the util-linux package, some parameters for losetup (such as itercountk and pseed) no longer exist. If any of these settings are used in /etc/fstab, the device cannot be mounted directly any more. Migrate these settings to /etc/crypttab where boot.crypto contains the necessary compatability code.

Enabling Quota Support

You now can configure quota for user accounts from within YaST. To enable quota support activate the Enable Quota Support check box in the fstab options when partitioning in the first stage of the installation. Thus, ensure that the /etc/init.d/boot.quota script is executed at boot time. In the second stage, the advanced options for user accounts provide the quota module where quota rules can be set.

If you enable quota support in the partitioner in the running system after the installation, either reboot the system or manually remount the partitions concerned and execute the following command as root:

/etc/init.d/boot.quota restart

Zeroconf

The Zeroconf service—also known as Bonjour, Multicast DNS, mDNS, or DNS-SD—is now provided by the Avahi stack instead of mDNSResponder. However, the mDNSResponder and howl compatibility libraries are still available.

To enable mDNS for all network interfaces, use the Zeroconf/Bonjour Multicast DNS SuSEfirewall rule.

Older Intel Graphics Chips

Older Intel graphics chips are supported by two drivers: i810 and intel. Due to the high demand for features like native mode setting (no longer VESA BIOS based) and RANDR 1.2 support, the intel driver is the default on openSUSE 10.3.

When updating to openSUSE 10.3, the i810 driver is not exchanged with the intel driver. Use the sax2 -r command to switch to the intel driver.

The intel driver is still not as stable as i810. Use the sax2 -r -m 0=i810 command to switch back to i810, if you encounter problems that did not occur previously with the i810 driver. In those cases, consider to open a bug report against the intel driver.

Intel Wireless Link WiFi Drivers

Two drivers are available now: the traditional ipw3945 driver, which is installed by default, and the new iwlwifi driver as an alternative offer. Note the following caveats:

  • ipw3945 works on hidden networks. It does not survive suspend/resume cycles.

  • iwlwifi does not work on hidden networks. It supports suspend/resume cycles.

You can change the default using YaST. Click Software > Software Management and remove the ipw3945d package. The alternative iwlwifi driver is now selected automatically for installation.

Tools to Write Optical Disc Media (CD-ROM and DVD)

The cdrecord package has been dropped from the distribution. The new wodim, genisoimage, and icedax packages from the cdrkit project can be used to record data or audio CDs on a CD recorder that conforms with the Orange Book standard. The following binaries have been renamed:

  • cdrecord to wodim

  • readcd to readom

  • mkisofs to genisoimage

  • cdda2wav to icedax

If your application relies on the old names, install the cdrkit-cdrtools-compat package. However, it would be appropriate to have native support for wodim in all front-end applications, because it offers some improvements:

  • The preferred way of specifying a device is dev=/dev/cdrecorder, dev=/dev/hdc, dev=/dev/sr0, etc.

  • Available devices can be listed with wodim -devices.

  • Suid root is not needed.

If you maintain such a front-end or script, consider adding native wodim support.

Use growisofs for writing DVDs. The graphical front-ends handle this transparently.

KDE 4 Applications Path

If you did not install the KDE desktop during the initial openSUSE 10.3 installation, install the KDE Base System and KDE 4 Base System patterns later. The KDE 4 application path is used as default. If you launch a KDE application such as Konqueror, the KDE 4 version of Konqueror loads instead of the KDE 3 version.

Playing MP3 Files in Kaffeine

When you open an MP3 file in Kaffeine, you will see an error message telling you that the software required to play this file is not installed. openSUSE then offers to search for a suitable codec which you can install with YaST. You can also switch the engine from Xine to Gstreamer by clicking Settings > Player Engine to get MP3 support.

12.2.3 From 10.3 to 11.0

Refer to the Bugs article in the openSUSE wiki at https://en.opensuse.org/Bugs.

New On-Disk Format of sysstat

The new features of the sysstat package comming with 11.0 require a changed on-disk format of the data files. After the update of the sysstat package old collected data cannot be used any longer.

openSUSE 11.1 Reference Guide
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