FAQ
Installing openSUSE
What are the different installation methods?
See Downloads and Buy openSUSE.
openSUSE and software
Repositories
Where are the package repositories?
To make use of the standard package repositories, see Package repositories. For information on additional repositories, see Additional package repositories, or use the Software Repositories module in YaST.
What other package sources can I enable and add?
As well as the online openSUSE package repository, you might consider adding the Packman repository. For more information on these and a quick howto, see Repositories on openSUSE-Community.org.
"A ZYpp transaction is already in progress"
If you get this error at any time, make sure that all programs that might be using the package management system have been closed down. This includes Zypper, YaST package manager module and any application accessing the RPM database. If you are sure that none of these are running, then one of them might be misbehaving. To kill the offending process, execute:
That works if it's zypper, but YaST can be running and tying up the lock, and it won't show up with lsof. Instead, try looking at the same thing zypper is looking at when it gives you the error:
/var/run/zypp.pid is the lock file for zypper. If it exists, it contains the pid of the process holding the lock. Use ps to check for what program it is like:
Then kill it if it makes sense to do it. If, as is possible, that process doesn't exist, then
will fix the problem.
Upgrading to the latest KDE
openSUSE always provides the latest version of KDE, should you want it. There's a wonderful guide for setting this up at SDB:KDE upgrade
Are packages X, Y, Z available anywhere? How can I search for packages?
The vast majority of packages will be available in the standard recommended repositories. However, there are hundreds of other packages available through the Build Service as well. There is a package search which will search the standard online repositories, Packman, as well as the Build Service, at packages.opensuse-community.org.
Multimedia
Why isn't MPEG-4/encrypted DVDs/Quicktime etc. support available?
Legal restrictions prevent various packages and formats openSUSE users frequently request to be included in openSUSE from being distributed. See Restricted formats for more specific information.
How can I disable the disturbing hardware beep tone?
Add "blacklist pcspkr" in a new line at the end of /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf. You must be root to modify the file.
Fonts and Styles
Microsoft fonts are missing
Microsoft fonts are not installed by default since they are proprietary but can be downloaded easily by installing the fetchmsttfonts helper package. More modern fonts like Calibri are not provided by this script and need to be installed manually into ~/.fonts. You will find these fonts in the Internet or on a Windows installation under C:\Windows\Fonts
Fonts in openSUSE are too big
Fonts for GUI's on openSUSE (and any opensource distribution for that matter) always look a lot bigger than the fonts on Windows.
KDE users can adjust the font size in System Settings->Application Appearance->Fonts. In order to have the GTK applications using the same font settings as in KDE, switch to the GTK Styles and Fonts tab to adjust your settings.
Chrome has big UI fonts (especially in the bookmark bar) which are unfortunately not configurable. Website fonts, however, can be changed in Settings->Details->Web-Content. You might also want to change the fonts to 'Sans' instead of default 'Serif' and to 'Monospace' for fixed width.
KDE and GTK apps look different, how can I unify the look?
Just in case anyone else has this problem here are my notes for solving this. The problem was that all GTK applications looked really terrible, as though they were using a style from some awful early 1990's window manager. The solution is simple though:
In KDE System Settings->Application Appearance->GTK Styles and Fonts ensure that the GTK-Style is set to 'oxygen-gtk'. 'Oxygen-Molecule' seems to provide a nice clone of the KDE Oxygen theme, however, the fonts included in that theme will lead to awful results.
More, but partially not applicable info can be found in the Arch Linux Wiki
Subpixel Hinting
Normal subpixel hinting is included with Freetype as of openSUSE 11.4. If you want the Microsoft style hinting, you may proceed with these unofficial instructions or read this forum post. Bear in mind that you might infringe Microsoft patents when using unofficial packages.
If you still have some issues, you might check the following:
In order to have subpixel enabled in GTK and elsewhere, you might need to create ~/.fonts.conf with the following content:
<?xml version='1.0'?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'> <fontconfig> <match target="font"> <edit mode="assign" name="rgba"> <const>rgb</const> </edit> </match> <match target="font"> <edit mode="assign" name="hinting"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> <match target="font"> <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"> <const>hintfull</const> </edit> </match> <match target="font"> <edit mode="assign" name="antialias"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> </fontconfig>
You will find further information about this configuration file on freedesktop's page and very complete font configuration instructions in the Arch Linux Wiki.
Furthermore, you might also need to symlink the autohint configuration file by executing the following command:
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-autohint.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
In wine, font smoothing should now be enabled by default. Otherwise follow these instructions.
Composite manager (Compiz/Compiz-Fusion)
Can I get Compiz running on openSUSE?
Recent releases of Compiz can be found on Build Service repositories. There is a guide and more information on Compiz available at Compiz.
If you use KDE 4, you should use the native composite manager KWin.
Communicate
My question isn't answered here or I'd like more help
Try Portal:Support, which is available from any page through Support link on the left side in the Navigation section.
Join us! See openSUSE:Communication channels page.
AppArmor
What is AppArmor?
- AppArmor is an effective and easy-to-use Linux application security system that protects your Linux operating system and applications from the effects of attacks, viruses, and malicious applications. AppArmor is not a firewall or a virus detection application--it is a complete intrusion prevention system.
How does it compare with SELinux?
- SELinux implements labeled security, which applies a tag identifying the appropriate security level to each data file. Although this feature is valued by intelligence agencies, it introduces a significant level of complexity and its applicability to commercial enterprise is limited. Thus, while both AppArmor and SELinux strive for the same objective, AppArmor is much easier to deploy and maintain:
- AppArmor includes a fully automated, YaST-based tool set for developing security policy. In contrast, the SELinux method for creating and modifying a program's policy is mostly text-based, requires many steps, and involves a significant amount of manual configuration and intervention.
- The AppArmor solution is extremely auditable--AppArmor policies are human readable and easily understood.
- No expert knowledge is required. Unlike SELinux, just about anyone can use the AppArmor tools to configure a system and protect it from malicious software.
- Applications don't have to be modified at all to be protected by AppArmor. To get the full power of SELinux, applications must be recompiled and linked against SELinux libraries.
Is there any documentation available for AppArmor?
- See AppArmor wiki page.