SuSE 10.0-Tips

Bugs and solutions

After installing SuSE 10.0 I noticed some things that didn't work like I wanted them to do. Here are the solutions I found, perhaps someone might find them useful, too. Note: Not all problems are SuSE 10.0 specific, some of the hints can also be used with other distributions.

The OSS-emulation of ALSA doesn't work
Message "unable to register OSS mixer device", aumix shows only a few "line"-controllers and (of course) other OSS-programs don't work. The reason is that my tv-card is recognized as first audio card (lsmod -> "soundcore ... btaudio,snd"). Adding the line "options btaudio dsp1=2 dsp2=3 mixer=2" to "/etc/modprobe.conf.local" solves this problem.

The printer doesn't print anymore
When trying to print with the printer not switched on, CUPS goes to "lp is not ready" (command lpq) and will never be ready again, not after switching the printer on and even not after rebooting. The reason is that the "State Stopped" entry in "/etc/cups/printers.conf" will not be reset after switching the printer on. Executing the following script as root does this for you (I have put this in my fvwm2-menu):

#!/bin/sh
su lp -c 'sed -e "s/State Stopped/State Idle/"
          /etc/cups/printers.conf >/etc/cups/printers.conf.new ;
chmod 600 /etc/cups/printers.conf.new ;
mv /etc/cups/printers.conf.new /etc/cups/printers.conf'
/etc/init.d/cups restart

Postfix and amavisd-problems
Although I have a flatrate I prefer that mail is first queued and only sent when a "sendmail"-command is executed. You can get this behaviour by choosing "updial-connection" in yast's mail-configuration dialog. The problem is that local mail including mail fetched by fetchmail will only be delivered with the sendmail-command, too. Changing the first line of "/etc/postfix/master.cf" to "smtp inet n - n - 2 smtpd" solves this, but now the virus-check by amavisd isn't done anymore. To get it back you have to uncomment (=remove the "#") the two vscan-lines at the end of the file and change "/etc/postfix/main.cf": Uncomment the "inet_interfaces = all" line and add "content_filter = vscan" at the end of the file.

Screenshot Gnubg ("http://www.gnubg.org") doesn't compile
Get the following files from "http://www.acepoint.de/GnuBG/sources/":
I)gnubg-0.15-20060202.tar.gz (or a newer nightly tarball)
II)gnubg.weights
III)gnubg_os0.bd.gz, gnubg_ts0.bd.gz

1.)tar xvzf gnubg-0.15-20060202.tar.gz -> this creates gnubg-0.15
2.)copy II)+III) into gnubg-0.15
3.)cd gnubg-0.15
4.)gunzip gnubg_os0.bd.gz ; gunzip gnubg_ts0.bd.gz
5.)cp configure /tmp/
6.)./configure --without-board3d <- I don't like/need 3d-boards
7.)make -> compiling will stop with an error-message
8.)cp /tmp/configure .
9.)make -> program will compile
10.)make install (as root)

Weeks in jpilot and other programs start with sunday instead of monday
1.)cd /usr/share/i18n/locales/
2.)In "de_DE" replace "week 7;19971201;4" by
   week 7;19971201;5
   first_weekday 2
   first_workday 2
3.)localedef -c -i de_DE -f UTF-8 de_DE.UTF8 (this replaces "/usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8")
Non-German users have to replace de_DE by their country-code.

XChat 2.6.x ("http://www.xchat.org") doesn't compile
Make stops with "/usr/lib/gcc/i586-suse-linux/4.0.2/../../../../i586-suse-linux/bin/ld: Invalid version tag EXPORTED'. Only anonymous version tag is allowed in executable." Removing the word "EXPORTED" in "src/version-script" before entering the make-command solves this.

Pidgin 2.4.x ("http://www.pidgin.im"): Disable auto-resize and typing notifications
Pidgin 2.4.0 introduces auto-resize of the input text area in conversations and shows typing notifications as text in the conversation window. Both is annoying because it causes the normal text in the conversation window to move, making it more difficult to look at it while typing the answer.
To disable auto-resize in Pidgin 2.4.0, replace in the file "pidgin/gtkconv.c" in the function "resize_imhtml_cb(PidginConversation *gtkconv)"    "lines = MIN(lines, 4);" by
   "lines = 4;".
In Pidgin 2.4.1 replace in the same function
   "height = (oneline.height + pad_top + pad_bottom) * lines;" by
   "height = (oneline.height + pad_top + pad_bottom) * 4;"
and remove the following four lines up to (including) "height = MIN(height, max_height);".
In Pidgin 2.4.2 replace
   "min_height = min_lines * (oneline.height + MAX(pad_inside, pad_top + pad_bottom));" by
   "height = min_lines * (oneline.height + MAX(pad_inside, pad_top + pad_bottom));"
(i. e. remove "min_") and delete the next line. In 2.4.2 you can change the size of the input field in the options menu of the buddy-list.
To disable the typing notifications (the different color of the nick while someone is typing is still there) put "//" in front of every "update_typing_message" in the function "update_typing_icon(PidginConversation *gtkconv)", which is also in the file "pidgin/gtkconv.c".

Thomas Klein - 03.02.2006, 24.05.2006, 24.03.2008, 06.04.2008, 23.05.2008 (comments are welcome)

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