# SUSE Linux 10.0 Release Notes

Copyright © 2005 Novell, Inc.

These release notes cover the following areas:

- General: Information that everybody should read.

- Update: Changes that are not mentioned in the Start-Up Manual, Chapter 2. [still empty]

- Installation: Additional pertinent information for installation. [still empty]

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

In the Start-up Manual, find information about installation and basic system configuration. In the Reference Guide, the system configuration is explained in detail. Additionally, the most important applications and the desktops in general are described.

General
  1. Novell AppArmor
  2. Xen 3 Technology Preview
  3. Adding Software Repositories for Java
  4. Using Eclipse on 64-Bit Platforms (x86_64 and AMD64)
  5. New GeForce Graphics Cards (6x00) and the nv Driver
  6. ATI Graphics Cards and the "fglrx" Graphics Driver
  7. Using Atheros WLAN Cards
  8. YaST Support Module
Update
  1. N/A
Installation
  1. N/A
Technical
  1. PCMCIA
  2. Becoming Superuser Using su
  3. Locale Settings in ~/.i18n
  4. Setting Up D-BUS for Interprocess Communication in .xinitrc
  5. NTP-Related Files Renamed
  6. Hotplug Events Handled by the udev Daemon
  7. Mounting Hotplugged Devices without "sync"
  8. Using Parallel-Port Printers
  9. File System Change Notification for GNOME Applications

## General

### Novell AppArmor

This release of SUSE Linux ships with Novell AppArmor. This feature protects your applications from software exploits. AppArmor protection can be enabled via the AppArmor control panel, which is located in YaST under Novell AppArmor. For detailed information about using Novell AppArmor, see `/usr/share/doc/packages/subdomain-docs/apparmor-userguide.pdf`.

### Xen 3 Technology Preview

Xen 3 is very new and cutting-edge technology. Novell is proud to bring it so early to our customers. It is evolving quickly and some areas it covers are a work in progress and thus not mature yet. Xen 3 brings new features, such as x86-64 support (working), SMP (currently disabled), PAE support (not enabled on SUSE Linux), but we could not make all these features stable or test them extensively.

Expect improved packages via YaST Online Update (YOU). For current information, see http://www.opensuse.org/Xen3_Status_and_Updates.

### Adding Software Repositories for Java

Using the YaST Installation Source module, you can add additional software repositories to your default installation settings. This feature is useful if want to enhance your system with components that are not part of your standard installation source. For example, openSUSE is limited to open source software, but users who need Java and packages depending on Java can add the "inst-source-java" repository in YaST and install those packages. For more information, see http://www.opensuse.org/index.php/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories.

### Using Eclipse on 64-Bit Platforms (x86_64 and AMD64)

Eclipse is included only in a 32-bit version so that it works together with our default java (java-1_4_2-sun), which is not available in a 64-bit version at all. If you want to use Eclipse with SUN Java 1.5.0, make sure that you also install the 32-bit version of java-1_5_0-sun and java-1_5_0-sun-devel.

To do this, open YaST, choose "Software"->"Software Management" and search for "java-1_5_0-sun". Select the packages "java-1_5_0-sun" and "java-1_5_0-sun-devel". For both packages, click the "Version" tab in the RPM description pane and select the i586 version.

### New GeForce Graphics Cards (6x00) and the nv Driver

Currently, some new GeForce cards (6x00 series) can only be used without acceleration to avoid system lockup or graphics distortions. This issue is under investigation by SUSE and NVIDIA.

Some of these cards are configured with `Option "ShadowFB"` in the `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` device section. This setting disables acceleration, slowing down graphics output considerably. We cannot automatically detect for which graphics cards this setting is actually necessary. You must test it on your own by removing or commenting the option in `/etc/X11/xorg.conf`. However, if this test locks up your system, you must boot into runlevel 3 and revert the change.

We set this option only for cards we know to be affected by this problem. Other GeForce 6x00 based boards might be affected as well. If your system locks up and you do not see this option in the `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` device section, add it and restart the system.

If you experience only graphics distortion without `Option "ShadowFB"` but no system lockup, you can use both `Option "XaaNoPixmapCache"` and `Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps"` in the `/etc/X11/xorg.conf` device section instead. This setting does not slow down the graphics output as much as `Option "ShadowFB"`.

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

### ATI Graphics Cards and the "fglrx" Graphics Driver

For ATI graphics cards that are not supported by the open source DRI driver, we have a download solution to enable 3D suppport using a proprietary driver. The proprietary driver currently does not support "suspend to disk" or "suspend to RAM."

You can download the ATI "fglrx" graphics driver with YaST Online Update (YOU) similarly to how the NVIDIA is handled. To install the driver, select the patch in YOU and install the driver. Then configure the driver manually with SaX2. For more information, see `/usr/share/doc/packages/fglrx/README.SuSE`.

### Using Atheros WLAN Cards

At the moment, the driver for Atheros WLAN cards is available under a proprietary license only. Therefore, it is not packaged along with the normal kernel packages. To use the Atheros driver, install the non-GPL kernel package matching your kernel (for example, if you use "kernel-default", additionally install "kernel-default-nongpl").

Download the non-GPL kernel package from http://www.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories.

### YaST Support Module

The functionality of YaST Support Module has changed. You can use the module to prepare a support request and collect information about your system. Instructions for using the SUSE Linux installation support can be found at http://www.novell.com/usersupport.

## Update

### N/A

No issues known.

## Installation

The installation is described in the Start-Up Guide.

### N/A

No issues known.

## Technical

### PCMCIA

`cardmgr` no longer manages PC cards. Instead, as with Cardbus cards and other subsystems, a kernel module manages them. All necessary actions are executed by `hotplug`. The `pcmcia` start script has been removed and `cardctl` is replaced by `pccardctl`. For more information, see `/usr/share/doc/packages/pcmciautils/README.SUSE`.

### Becoming Superuser Using `su`

By default, calling `su` to become `root` does not set the PATH for `root`. Either call `su -` to start a login shell with the complete environment for `root` or set `ALWAYS_SET_PATH` to `yes` in `/etc/default/su` if you want to change the default behavior of `su`.

### Locale Settings in `~/.i18n`

If you are not satisfied with locale system defaults, change the settings in `~/.i18n`. Entries in `~/.i18n` override system defaults from `/etc/sysconfig/language`. Use the same variable names but without the `RC_` namespace prefixes, for example, use `LANG` instead of `RC_LANG`. For information about locales in general, see "Language and Country-Specific Settings" in the Reference Manual.

### Setting Up D-BUS for Interprocess Communication in .xinitrc

Many applications now rely on D-BUS for interprocess communication (IPC). Calling `dbus-launch` starts `dbus-daemon`. The systemwide `/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc` uses `dbus-launch` to start the window manager.

If you have a local `~/.xinitrc` file, you must change it accordingly. Otherwise applications like f-spot, banshee, tomboy, or Network Manager banshee might fail. Save your old `~/.xinitrc`. Then copy the new template file into your home directory with:

`cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc.template ~/.xinitrc`

Finally, add your customizations from the saved `.xinitrc`.

### NTP-Related Files Renamed

For reasons of compatibility with LSB (Linux Standard Base), most configuration files and the init script were renamed from `xntp` to `ntp`. The new filenames are:

`/etc/slp.reg.d/ntp.reg`

`/etc/init.d/ntp`

`/etc/logrotate.d/ntp`

`/usr/sbin/rcntp`

`/etc/sysconfig/ntp`

### Hotplug Events Handled by the udev Daemon

Hotplug events are now completely handled by the udev daemon (`udevd`). We do not use the event multiplexer system in `/etc/hotplug.d` and `/etc/dev.d` anymore. Instead `udevd` calls all hotplug helper tools directly, according to its rules. Udev rules and helper tools are provided by udev and various other packages.

### Mounting Hotplugged Devices without "sync"

If writing to USB storage devices, such as USB sticks or USB hard drives, is rather slow or if you do not want synchronized writing to these devices, disable the sync mount option.

1. Create a file with the name `90-storage-nosync.fdi` and the following contents:

   `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>`

   `<deviceinfo version="0.2">`

   `<device>`

   `<!-- disable sync for mount -->`

   `<match key="block.is_volume" bool="true">`

   `<match key="volume.fsusage" string="filesystem">`

   `<match key="volume.uuid" string="UUID">`

   `<merge key="volume.policy.mount_option.sync" type="bool">false</merge>`

   `</match>`

   `</match>`

   `</match>`

   `</device>`

   `</deviceinfo>`

2. Adjust the line `<match key="volume.uuid" string="==UUID==">` according to your hardware. Run `lshal` to retrieve the `volume.uuid` and enter that ID instead of `==UUID==`

3. Copy `90-storage-nosync.fdi` into this directory:

   cp 90-storage-nosync.fdi /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty

4. Restart the HAL service with `rchal restart`.

### Using Parallel-Port Printers

Reboot may be required after parallel-port printer setup with YaST. If printing does not work when a parallel-port printer was set up with YaST, reboot and then do not run the YaST printer setup again for testing. Only parallel-port printers in ECP/DMA mode are affected.

### File System Change Notification for GNOME Applications

For proper functionality, GNOME applications depend on file system change notification support. For local-only file systems, install the gamin package (preferred) or run the FAM daemon. For remote file systems, run FAM on both the server and client and open the firewall for RPC calls by FAM.

GNOME (gnome-vfs2 and libgda) contains a wrapper that picks gamin or fam to provide file system change notification:

- If the FAM daemon is not running, gamin is preferred. (Rationale: Inotify is supported only by gamin and it is more efficient for local file systems).

- If the FAM daemon is running, FAM is preferred (Rationale: If FAM is running, you probably want remote notification, which is supported only by FAM).