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. [1]OpenOffice.org (OO.o)
         2. [2]XView and OpenLook Support Dropped
         3. [3]KDE Online and Offline Modes
         4. [4]Beagle Desktop Search Tool
         5. [5]The tar Syntax is More Strict
         6. [6]Indian Fonts Included
         7. [7]Improving Suspend to Disk Performance
         8. [8]New GeForce Graphics Cards (6200 and 6600) and the nv
            Driver
         9. [9]WLAN Devices Are User Configurable
        10. [10]Epson Kowa's Image Scan Software for Epson Scanners

   Update

         1. [11]Switching from Heimdal to MIT Kerberos

   Installation

         1. [12]Mounting Encrypted Partitions

   Technical

         1. [13]SATA CD and DVD Devices (ROMs and Writers)
         2. [14]JFS: Not Supported Anymore
         3. [15]Loading Kernel Module "dazuko"
         4. [16]Laptop and External VGA Output
         5. [17]Host Name Change with KDE Auto Login
         6. [18]Suspend to Disk on SMP and HT Based Machines
         7. [19]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.

References

   1. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#01
   2. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#02
   3. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#03
   4. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#04
   5. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#05
   6. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#06
   7. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#07
   8. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#08
   9. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#09
  10. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#10
  11. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#11
  12. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#12
  13. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#13
  14. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#14
  15. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#15
  16. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#16
  17. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#17
  18. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#18
  19. file://localhost/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/docu/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#19