SuSE 10 Arrives (eWeek) [LWN.net]

eWeek takes a look at SUSE Linux 10.0. "Like Linux Pro before it, SuSE Linux 10 is designed both to be a cutting-edge Linux distribution for enthusiasts while providing the easy-to-use KDE and GNOME interfaces for less-experienced desktop users. This distribution comes with GNOME 2.12 and KDE 3.4.2. In addition to its desktop, SUSE Linux 10.0 includes more than 1,500 open-source Linux applications and packages that can be optionally installed for Web hosting, application development and home networking." Here's the official announcement.

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SuSE 10 Arrives (eWeek): Warning if updating Suse on RAID, and missing support

Posted Oct 27, 2005 11:03 UTC (Thu) by mikeguillemot (guest, #33358) [Link]

Suse is a great distro. I've paid for every update since version 7, and it just gets better.

However. I had a 9.3 RAID system, and the update worked flawlessly until it attempted the reboot for stage 2. That gave a "kernel panic". Couldn't boot. Tried all the recovery/rescue procedures. Didn't work, partitions don't exist, they said.

Free install support doesn't cover RAID. No problem, I thought, the manual says you can buy support on an incident by incident basis, gives the number.

I called it, told them the problem. Sorry, they can't offer paid support yet. To get free support, you have to register online, get a special number. If your machine isn't working because of an install problem, that's difficult; anyway, they don't support RAID on the free support.

I asked where I could get any kind of paid support, and eventually spoke to a clued-up supervisor (German, nice guy) who said that their support people don't understand RAID anyway, and to use the Internet and lists. He gave me a couple of hints which helped later.

I got round it; the install DVD would still boot, and booting from that I could still access the RAID disks - so why wouldn't it boot? OK, backup everything I hadn't backed up since my last backup (yes, I know), repartition disks (this time not as RAID, I'll write a cron script to copy data files to duplicate disks), and reinstall.

Yippee. Now everything works; no, it screams. How do they make it better and faster every time?

OK the RAID thing is a bug, if nasty, but hey, that happens. What worries me most is the support. If I can't buy it or, worse still, if the guys behind it don't understand the tricky stuff, where am I when things get critical? I hacked it this time, but life is getting shorter. And insisting you register online before support, when you need support to get online, is just crazy; I had a package with the registration number right there - not enough, they said; bullfeathers.