# Release Notes for SUSE LINUX 9.3

These release notes cover the following areas:

- General: Information that everybody should read.

- Update: Changes that are not mentioned in the Administration Guide, Chapter 4.

- Installation: Additional pertinent information for installation.

- Technical: This section contains a number of technical changes and enhancements for the experienced user.

In the Administration Guide, find information about installation and system configuration. In the User Guide, the desktop in general and the most important applications are explained.

General
  1. OpenOffice.org (OO.o)
  2. XView and OpenLook Support Dropped
  3. KDE Online and Offline Modes
  4. Beagle Desktop Search Tool
  5. The tar Syntax is More Strict
  6. Indian Fonts Included
  7. Improving Suspend to Disk Performance
  8. New GeForce Graphics Cards (6200 and 6600) and the nv Driver
  9. WLAN Devices Are User Configurable
  10. Epson Kowa's Image Scan Software for Epson Scanners
Update
  1. Switching from Heimdal to MIT Kerberos
Installation
  1. Mounting Encrypted Partitions
Technical
  1. SATA CD and DVD Devices (ROMs and Writers)
  2. JFS: Not Supported Anymore
  3. Loading Kernel Module "dazuko"
  4. Laptop and External VGA Output
  5. Host Name Change with KDE Auto Login
  6. Suspend to Disk on SMP and HT Based Machines
  7. Wget No Longer LFS Capable

## General

### OpenOffice.org (OO.o)

This is a 2.0 prerelease. Once the official 2.0 release is out, we will offer an update via the YaST Online Update (YOU).

- Impress has a new rendering canvas. This is not yet used for editing, but it is used for the slide show. There may be small differences between what you edit and what you see in the slide show. Verify your presentation before use.

- Multimedia--Because we are missing the Java Media Framework, required for video and sound playback, OO.o will not function in this regard. The relevant menu items have been removed from the default configuration.

- The old StarOffice format (5.x) is no longer supported.

### XView and OpenLook Support Dropped

The packages "xview", "xview-devel", "xview-devel-examples", "olvwm", and "xtoolpl" were dropped. In the past, we just provided the XView (OpenLook) base system. The XView libraries are no longer provided after the system update. This may cause problems with applications installed from other sources that expect them.

Even more important, OLVWM (OpenLook Virtual Window Manager) is no longer available. Choose another window manager.

### KDE Online and Offline Modes

SUSE's KDE 3.4 has a desktopwide offline mode for use when the computer is disconnected from the network. When the desktop is offline, applications do not attempt to make network connections and work using cached data where possible. Applications that already use this feature include

- Konqueror (http)

- Kontact (POP and disconnected IMAP mail, SLOX and GroupWise groupware)

- Kopete (GroupWise instant messaging)

KInternet, the SUSE network utility, manages offline mode. You do not need to set the applications into offline mode—when a modem, ISDN, DSL, LAN or WLAN connection is present, applications detect this and work as normal.

This feature is disabled by default. To enable it check "Switch KDE Network" in KInternet->Settings->Various Settings->Scripts. If this is unchecked or KInternet is not running, offline mode is disabled.

### Beagle Desktop Search Tool

The Beagle Desktop Search Tool has not been enabled to run by default. For users who want Beagle to run automatically when starting GNOME sessions, run "`touch .runbeagle`" in the `$HOME` directory. When GNOME sessions are started with the `~/.runbeagle` file present, `beagled` (beagle daemon) and the Beagle search utility are run automatically.

Under KDE, start the Beagle daemon `beagled` manually then start the search utility with `best` (or select System->File System->Beagle Search from the menu). The Beagle search utility then appears in your system tray.

To enable Beagle in Firefox, the plug-in must be installed with the Firefox extension manager for each user: Select File->Open File, select `beagle.xpi` (from `/opt/MozillaFirefox/lib/chrome/beagle.xpi`), then click Open and finally Install now.

Beagle is an alpha version. It only works on file systems that are mounted with "user_xattr". It does not work with network mounted file systems like NFS.

### The tar Syntax is More Strict

The `tar` usage syntax is more strict now. The `tar` options must come before the file or directory specifications. Appending options like `--atime-preserve` or `--numeric-owner` after the file or directory specification will make `tar` fail. Check your backup scripts—commands as the following will not work anymore:

`tar czf etc.tar.gz /etc --atime-preserve`

See the `tar` Info pages for more information.

### Indian Fonts Included

Fonts for the following nine Indian languages are included: Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Select "Bengali" or "Punjabi" as a secondary language in YaST (System->Language Selection) for the indic-fonts package to be installed.

### Improving Suspend to Disk Performance

If you are not using an ext2 or ext3 file system for the root partition, having a separate `/boot` partition with ext2 can greatly improve the performance of suspend to disk and the resume of the system. `/boot` can be very small. 50 MB is enough.

### New GeForce Graphics Cards (6200 and 6600) and the nv Driver

Currently, some GeForce 6200 and 6600 cards are configured with `Option "XaaNoScreenToScreenCopy"` in the device section of `/etc/X11/xorg.conf`. Because this setting slows down graphics output considerably, you can try to remove or comment this option. However, this locks up some systems and you must boot your computer into runlevel 3 to revert the change. We cannot distinguish automatically between graphics cards that work with acceleration and those that do not.

We set this option only for cards we were able to test and suffered from this problem. Other GeForce 6200 and 6600 based boards might be affected as well. If your system locks up and you do not see this option in the device section of `/etc/X11/xorg.conf`, try adding it.

Another option is to install the binary-only driver from nVidia, which does not seem to be affected. Use YaST Online Update (YOU) for this.

### WLAN Devices Are User Configurable

WLAN devices are user configurable. KInternet controls them by default now. Users who want to use WLAN and standard ethernet devices for their Internet connection should switch to `ifplugd` to get a working default route automatically. You can change this in the network configuration (Advanced->Detailed Settings) by selecting On Cable Connection in "Device Activation".

### Epson Kowa's Image Scan Software for Epson Scanners

The following scanners require the Image Scan front-end (`iscan`): Epson Perfection 1250 / 1250 PHOTO, 1260 / 1260 PHOTO, 3170 PHOTO, 4180 PHOTO, GT-7200U, GT-7300U, GT-9400, GT-F600.

Other scanner front-ends, like `kooka`, `xsane`, `xscanimage`, and `scanimage`, may not work. Those scanners can be set up with YaST by activating the `epkowa` driver but as a side-effect the scanners cannot be recognized as "active scanners" by YaST.

## Update

### Switching from Heimdal to MIT Kerberos

`Kerberos` is now the default for network authentication instead of `heimdal`. Converting an existing Heimdal configuration automatically is not always possible. During a system update, backup copies of configuration files are created in `/etc` with the suffix `.heimdal`. YaST-generated configuration settings in `/etc/krb5.conf` will be converted, but check whether the results match your expectations.

Before starting the update to 9.3, you can decrypt an existing Heimdal database into a human-readable file with the command `kadmin -l dump -d heimdal-db.txt`. This way, you can create a list of available principals that you can restore one-by-one using `kdc` from MIT Kerberos. Find more information about setting up a KDC in the documentation in the "krb5-doc" package.

To configure a Kerberos client, start the YaST Kerberos Client module and enter your values for "Standard Domain", "Standard Realm", and "KDC Server Address".

## Installation

The installation is described in the Administration Guide.

### Mounting Encrypted Partitions

Now the mechanism for encrypting file systems (`boot.crypto`) distinguishes between several "twofish" algorithms. For `twofish` the kernel module `loop_fish2` is used. For `twofish128`, `twofish160`, `twofish192` and `twofish256` the kernel modules `cryptoloop` and `twofish` are used. The default for a new encrypted partitions is `twofish256`.

If you want to mount encrypted partitions already created on previous SUSE LINUX systems on a fresh installation of SUSE LINUX 9.3, you must change the encryption type in `/etc/cryptotab` or `/etc/fstab` from `twofish256` to `twofish`.

## Technical

### SATA CD and DVD Devices (ROMs and Writers)

The Linux kernel driver support for these devices is experimental.

To activate CD-ROM SATA support on the desktop remove these lines in `/usr/share/hal/fdi/90defaultpolicy/storage-policy.fdi`:

`<!-- temporary disable polling on SATA devices to avoid a kernel crash -->`

`<merge key="storage.media_check_enabled" type="bool">false</merge>`

### JFS: Not Supported Anymore

Due to technical problems with JFS it is not supported anymore. The kernel file system driver is still there, but YaST will not offer partitioning with JFS.

### Loading Kernel Module "dazuko"

If the kernel module "dazuko" (necessary for antivir) fails to load with the message "unsupported module, tainting kernel", make sure that it will be loaded before the capability module. See `README.SuSE` of the antivir package for more information.

### Laptop and External VGA Output

If you have a laptop with an integrated Intel, NVIDIA, or ATI chipset, you can use the laptop profile to statically activate the external output used to connect, for example, to a beamer. It will always be driven with 60Hz and the same resolution as the internal display, which can be switched with "krandrtray" or the "resapplet" during runtime.

See `/usr/share/doc/packages/sax2/README.profile` for more information.

### Host Name Change with KDE Auto Login

If you use to work in different network environments with auto login enabled, host name setting problems may occur and, as a consequence, starting graphical applications fails. By default, DHCP is used to set up the host name.

To avoid these race conditions, disable "earlykdm" as root with the command `chkconfig -d earlykdm` and restart X.

### Suspend to Disk on SMP and HT Based Machines

Suspend to disk has problems on SMP machines and on machines using Intel Pentium 4 processors with HyperThreading technology. A workaround for the HT machines is to use the default (non-smp) kernel—but then hyperthreading is disabled.

### Wget No Longer LFS Capable

Because the Wget CVS snapshot with LFS support has too many issues, we are forced to go back to wget 1.9.1, which is stable, but still lacks LFS support.