SuSE 10.0 on Dell Inspiron 8600 small probs

[Cadillac84]

I have been using SuSE Linux for a long time, but I've never used it in GUI until today. Reason? Because all my available computers were old and did not have graphics capability (to speak of).

Today I replaced my Hitachi TravelStar 60 GB with a Hitachi TravelStar 100 GB and cloned the 60 GB to the new drive leaving 40 GB available for Linux! Yeah, team!!!

I had a set of Install CDs for SuSE 10.0, so that's what I used (the quick and easy way to do it).

All went very, very, very smoothly as one would expect because YaST is so cool

Other than getting used to things, I have just a few small problems. I apologize for starting a new thread, but part of my problem has to do with navigating and I really don't want to use Winders to search and then keep having to reboot to get back to Linux.

So, here goes (complete system description follows)

Synaptics touch pad. It works but the touch is so sensitive that I scroll when all I want to do is move the pointer. I found the mouse adjustment, and it lists the touchpad but there did not seem to be anyplace to select the pressure. I've had this computer for four or more years and never had a problem with the touchpad, so something is different. When I move my finger lightly across the pad, nothing happens. When I increase pressure to cause the pointer to respond, there is such a fine distinction between the pressure required to move the pointer and that recognized as a "Tap" that I have a very difficult time moving around the screen.

Speakers. I am able to control the volume in, for example, the Banshee Player. But there is no response to my mute switch or volume up/down buttons of the computer itself. In order to change the volume, then, I must make the Banshee window the focus and move the pointer to the speaker icon, click it, and carefully (ever so carefully) position the pointer on the slider and drag it up or down to change the volume. It would be awfully nice to be able to touch the mute switch as I always have and silence or enable the speakers.

Video file playback. So far I have been unable to play any video files. I've used Totem and perhaps something else that I can't find right now. The problem reported is lack of codecs. Well, I have a few hundred codecs for my WMP But I don't know how to find or install codecs for Linux. Any clues there. The file types are avi (probably DivX and Xvid and perhaps some H264) and mpg and wmv.

Maybe one other thing would be the file listing (never a really strong point with Linux in my experience). I really like the Folders view with Details that MS has provided for so long and the ability to apply to all folders so I don't have to keep going to View and changing the view to Details. I can get Konqueror to show details (View, View Mode, Detailed List View) but how about a split screen where a list of directories (folders) is on the left and on the right is a list of files and folders contained in the selected folder.

That's enough for one day, isn't it !

My system:
Dell Inspiron 8600
Pentium M ~1.6 GHz
2 GB RAM
WUXGA 15.4" running at 1920 x 1200 (looks Beautiful !!!)
Modem (never use anymore)
1394a (seldom used)
BCOM 10/100
BCOM (Dell 1450, 802.11a/b/g)
Hitachi TravelStar 100 GB 7200 rpm ATA-6 primary
Hitachi TravelStar 60 GB 7200 rpm ATA-6 in bay (removable)
DVD-ROM/CD-RW in bay (rermovable)

WinXP Pro SP-3 and SuSE Linux 10.0 (2.6.13-15.18-default)
All current patches applied to Linux as of Jan 3, 2009

I chose Gnome just for the heck of it, but if I need to change to KDE, I don't mind.

Thanks for any guidance you may offer. BTW, I am not concerned about messing this up because I may hose it and start over after I've learned a thing or two -- maybe even try a different flavor). I'll probably switch over to Open SuSE 11.1 once I get my feet wet (or dry, as the case may be!)

And, Happy New Year to everyone at JLF

[deathadder]

Hey,

I've never had any real problems with touchpad sensitivity, but this Ubuntu post might help: Modify Laptop Touchpad Sensitivity

For the multimedia keys you're going to have to map the scancodes produced by the keys. You can use xmodmap to do that, or xbindkeys. These 2 links should help you with that.

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Using_the...n_the_Keyboard
http://susewiki.org/index.php?title=Multimedia_Keys

The quickest way to get your different video files to play would be to install win32codec, although you can look at the different gstreamer packages and install what you need, I think you'll need to get the "ugly" packages. But AFAIK Suse doesn't ship packages for these codecs because of license restrictions so you'll need to get the packages elsewhere.

HTH

[DanceMan]

I'll have to check out that link for the touchpad. I've found the touchpads on various laptops to be oversensitive in Ubuntu.

[cybertron]

Originally Posted by Cadillac84

Maybe one other thing would be the file listing (never a really strong point with Linux in my experience). I really like the Folders view with Details that MS has provided for so long and the ability to apply to all folders so I don't have to keep going to View and changing the view to Details. I can get Konqueror to show details (View, View Mode, Detailed List View) but how about a split screen where a list of directories (folders) is on the left and on the right is a list of files and folders contained in the selected folder.

Try hitting F9 (or going to View->Show Navigation Panel) and clicking on the red folder (at least on my system) along the left side of the resulting panel that opens. That should give you a folder list like you're looking for.

[Cadillac84]

I will give those things a try. I did try to find the w32... package on the SuSE list; glad to know why. I'll scrounge around and find it. And I'll try the other things as well.

Also, thanks to deathadder for reminding of that great saying which M.D. Watts used. That one and the possum lodge motto (bwkaz?) were always two of my favorites. (Oh, and "if Linux is not the answer, you're asking the wrong question")

Chuck