LINUX Opensuse 10.3 Systems Handbook
for Socket 370 M754LMR Board




Compiled by: Waldis Jirgens. Last update September 2, 2014.

I have installed Opensuse 10.3 on my stand-by PC. It serves as back-up in case one of the other ones fails.

Note that the usual disclaimer applies:
If you use this information here, don't blame me, should you, your data, or your PC get hurt!

This is a supplement to my original Linux Mandriva handbook.
Installation
System Board
Partitions
Some File Locations
Upgrading via RPMS
Changing System Settings
Boot Parameters
Startup Processing
Window Managers
Applications
  1. Amateur Radio Digital Modes Programs
  2. Text Editors
  3. Word Processing
  4. Spreadsheets
  5. Screen Capture
  6. Graphics Editors
  7. Browsers
  8. Image Scanning
External Links for LINUX Amateur Radio:
Linux Hamradio Applications
Xlog Logging Program
Fldigi Digimodes Program
gMFSK.hkj Digimodes Program
WSJT (Linux Versions)

Suse Links:
For online SUSE documentation try: http://www.novell.com/documentation/opensuse103/
For Suse reference documentation, try this link: file:///usr/share/doc/manual/opensuse-manual_en/manual/index.html
Note that you might have to copy the URL manually into the browser, because this link refers to your own system. Konqueror however will follow it!

Installation:
After installation (which went quite smoothly) I encountered - just as in release 10.2 - the following:

Xorg worked for a while (seconds to minutes), then it locked up the system. The larger the screen and the more colours were displayed, the quicker the lock-up happened. I tracked this bug down to the "nv" driver in xorg.conf. Replacing this entry by "vesa" fixed it. However I have to use color-depth 16 now. Another fix is to add Option "NoAccel" to the pertinent section of xorg.conf. Still color-depth 16 is required for 1024x768 resolution.

Here the fixed part of xorg.conf: 
Section "Device"
  BoardName    "Aladdin TNT2"
  BusID        "1:0:0"
  Driver       "vesa"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  Screen       0
  VendorName   "NVidia"
EndSection
In 2014 I upgraded to a flat panel monitor, which was a bit tricky. The PC cannot handle native resolution, but 1024x768 at 16 bit colour depth was OK. After the regular installation I installed some additional rpms from the installation DVD. Also:
openmotif-2.3.0-0.4 (MWM Window manager).
fftw-2.1.3-1108.i586.rpm and fftw-devel-2.1.3-1108.i586.rpm for the AR digimodes programs.
mtools-3.9.9-201.i586.rpm (for Suse 9.3)
gftp-2.0.11-2.i386.rpm (Red Hat) to transfer files between PCs.
removed symlinks S21SuSEfirewall2_setup -*gt; ../SuSEfirewall2_setup and K01SuSEfirewall2_setup -> ../SuSEfirewall2_setup from /etc/init.d/rc3.d, and 4.d to avoide double firewalling and enable ftp between local PCs. Had to change firewall status in Yast as well and replace vsftpd with version vsftpd-2.0.2-3 and tweak the control files to make local network ftp work.
This has carried through to release 10.3, just the new vsftp version 2.0.5-78 works OK now.
Installed grok from xmbase-grok-1.5-813.i586.rpm.
Installed idesk-0.7.5-1mdv2007.0.i586.rpm to have icons on the desktop plus ported the TCL script idescicon from the main PC.
Installed FileRunner-2.5.1-11mdv2007.0.i586.rpm to have a lightnig fast 2 pane file manager.
Changed windowmanager control-files to reflect icondesk.
Compiled and installed jwm 2.0.1 windowmanager.
Installed the Java plug-in for seamonkey.
Installed fluxbox-0.9.9-64164cl (after prereq libexpat0-1.95.8-32.i586.rpm) and added $HOME/.Xb and the sb command to start it.
== Upgraded to OpenSuse 10.3 ==
Seamonkey 1.1.18 (from tar.gz)
xfe-0.99-1
libgsm-1.0.10-72.i586.rpm
sox-13.0.0-40.i586.rpm
mozplugger-1.10.1-1.i386.rpm
timidity-2.13.2-129.i586.rpm
timidity-instruments-1.0-alt1.noarch.rpm
mpg123-1.6.2-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
To keep the clock accurate I use the NTP protocol (in yast2) with the NTP-server: au.pool.ntp.org
To give access to serial ports and even /dev/dsp for normal users I created a file /etc/init.d/after.local which is executed after all the other runlevel scripts are done and before each runlevel is started:  
#! /bin/sh
# script with local commands to be executed before X comes up
chmod ugo+rw /dev/tty*
chmod ugo+rw /dev/fd0
chmod ugo+rw /dev/dsp
exit 0
Note: It is imperative to run SuSEconfig after the installation otherwise you may encounter some weird and unexpected behaviour!

System Board:
My machine is a dual boot system. CPU: Celeron with 566 MHz, RAM: 184MB (actually 192, but 8 of it is used for the integrated graphics adapter), HDD: 60 GB (/dev/hda - this disk is actually 80 GB, however for the sake of the BIOS I had to restrict it to 33 GB, however LINUX accesses more than that), 6 GB (/dev/hdc Windows ME).
My System Board is a Socket 370 M754LMR:

PCI / Plug and Play Setup:
Primary Graphics Adapter: Onboard Adapter
Assign IRQ for VGA: No
PnP Aware OS: Yes

Power Management Setup:
Power Management/APM: APM
All other parameters: Disabled

Mainboard Jumpers:
JP7: Enable Onboard LAN (Short Pins 1-2)

Partitions:
Current 10.3 fstab: 
/dev/sda7            /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/sda5            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/sda4            /home                ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/sda3            swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/sda1            /usr                 ext2       acl,user_xattr        1 3      
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
/dev/fd0             /media/floppy        auto       noauto,user,sync      0 0
/dev/cdrom           /mnt/dvd             auto       umask=0022,users,noauto,ro,utf8=false 0 0

Command to mount a DVD in 10.3: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/dvd.
/dev/cdrom is actually a symlink to /dev/sr0 which does not appear in fstab.


Some File Locations: Upgrading via RPMs:
Start konqueror and click on the rpm. This will give info about the package and allow you to install it with YaST which takes care of all dependencies (if any). You can also use zen-installer, or (if you can sort out dependencies manually) rpm -i. The new application or driver is available immediately.

Changing System Setting:
Do this as root using yast2. This program is the equivalent of mcc in Mandriva. There is an anomaly when trying to install the Canon PIXMA iP1300 printer: This is done by downloading iP2200_Linux_260.tar.gz from the Canon website, unpacking it and installing the 3 resulting rpms:
cnijfilter-common-2.60-1.i386.rpm
cnijfilter-ip2200-2.60-1.i386.rpm
cnijfilter-ip2200-lprng-2.60-1.i386.rpm
When subsequently trying to add the ppd file /usr/share/cups/model/canonip2200.ppd to the ppd database, yast2 does not accept it, claiming that the resolution of 600 is incorrect. To trick it into accepting the file, I zipped and copied it to /usr/share/cups/model/Canon/ip-2200.ppd.gz whereupon I could install the printer.

Boot Parameters
These can be specified at the LILO boot prompt  (to which you get from the nice menu by hitting "Esc") as follows (example):
boot: linux ide0=ali14xx vga=ask
Note that parameters must be separated by spaces NOT commas!

Startup Processing
It is controlled by /etc/inittab. I now use default run level 5 and icewm as window manager

Window Managers:
I use icewm (icewm-1.2.26-32) by putting in ~/desktop the following text:
desktop=icewm-session
Alternatives are: jwm (jwm-2.0.1), fvwm (fvwm1.24r), mwm (openmotif-2.3.0-0.4), fluxbox (fluxbox-0.9.9-64164cl), and KDE. In the "lightweight" managers the trick is to start idesk, which allows you to put icons on the desktop - just like KDE or Gnome. The lightweights have far less overheads than KDE. Typically firefox starts within around 14 seconds under the "lightweight" windowmanagers and within 34-40 seconds under KDE. So why wait for no reason when you just want to run applications?

Applications
One can source applications not only from Suse, but also from some other places like the net, Linux Magazine DVDs, as well as various old installation CDs. Of course not every application gotten this way works - test it!

Amateur Radio Digital Modes Programs
One needs a /etc/init.d/after.local file allowing users read and write access to /dev/dsp and /dev/tty* Without that digital modes programs won't work!

Avoiding monitor noise: I get monitor noise in some digital band sections. One way to overcome it is to change monitor resolution dynamically with Alt-Cntrl-KP+ or KP-

Fldigi
I use version 2.10.3 is a nice upgrade of the older 1.342. I have installed the binary from the archive fldigi-2.10.3.bin.tgz. The installation is straight forward. To run, the program requires libportaudio.so.2, which I obtained by installing portaudio20-20.0-0.pm.1.i586.rpm from
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/5537032/com/portaudio20-20.0-0.pm.1.i586.rpm.html
The program is lightning fast (but a CPU hog) and works nicely with xlog. The new version also allows you to copy text from its windows.
URL to download http://www.w1hkj.com/Fldigi.html.
It is also good to download the help file (in pdf format).

Multipsk
This is the Windows version running under wine.
Download and unzip the windows version in a directory. Then run it from there.
I use the following script to start it: 
#!/bin/bash
cd /home/waldis/AR/software/MULTIPSK
wine MULTIPSK.exe &
exit 0
After complaining about Sndvol32.exe it comes up with the configuration menu, where you tick "Sound Input", complete your personal settings for the Macros, save them (only the first time you start it), and then go to the RX/TX screen.

WSJT
This program is now available under Linux. There is source code plus installation instructions available. But there is also a rpm that fits for OpenSuse 10.3 (with some rpms from other distros...):

Download from: http://lz1bb.bfra.org/ the rpm: wsjt-5.9.6.r309-1.i586.rpm or the newer wsjt-5.9.8.r558-1.i586.rpm

It requires as prerequisites the (Suse) rpms: python-imaging and  python-numeric.

From http://rpmfind.net/ download the Polish(ed) Linux Distribution rpm libg2c-3.4.3-4.i386.rpm and install it.

From http://rpmfind.net/ download the Fedora Core 4 rpm libgfortran-4.0.0-8.i386.rpm and install it.

The only missing library then is libgfortran.so.1. I got it by downloading from http://rpmfind.net/  the rpm gnat-gcc-4.1.0-SuSE_9_2_r4.i586.rpm
and installing it (there might be easier ways to do this - gnat is > 100 MB!), afterwards I did a
cp /opt/gnat/gcc/lib/libgfortran.so.* /usr/lib

Then finally all prerequisites are satisfied and one can install wsjt-5.9.6.r309-1.i586.rpm or wsjt-5.9.8.r558-1.i586.rpm

Setting up WSJT is virtually identical to Windows! If the NTP timeserver is down, one can set the time by listening to WWV(H) and using as root the command:
date -u MMDDhhmm

gMFSK
Another program I use is gMFSK.hkj V53. It is available in source format as a tar.gz archive. Read the installation instructions VERY CAREFULLY. Do NOT configure any CAT support, that you don't use (in the hkj-config.h file), lest your serial port PTT won't work.

Prerequisites:
Gnome 2 Libraries, Gnome 2 development libraries and: fftw-2.1.3-1108.i586.rpm, fftw-devel-2.1.3-1108.i586.rpm, libgnomeui-2.0.3-3.i386.rpm,  pkgconfig-0.20-32, scrollkeeper-0.3.14-125.

A funny thing with gtk2: You HAVE to run the script /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.gtk2 otherwise gMfsk won't find /etc/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf-loaders and won't display some icons!

Installation:
  1. Unzip and untar the archive to your home directory giving you a directory $HOME/gmfsk.hkj.53
  2. Go to $HOME/gmfsk.hkj.53/src and edit file hkj-config.h - make sure all "define" statements are "commented" out but put in the values you want!
  3. As root do a ./hkjconfigure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
  4. Follow up with: make
  5. and: make install
Preference Settings: 
Sound card device: /dev/dsp
Requested sample rate: 8000
TX rate offset: 0
RX rate offset: 0
Do NOT tick 8 Bit sound, nor Stereo sound nor Full Duplex!
hf
Another program I have used is hf which needs as prerequisite gtk and the gtk+ toolkit.
Dowbnload from the rpm repository the rpm:  hf-0.7.3-0.i586.rpm (the newer version 0.8 doesn't install, and if forced on doesn't work. The source does not pass the configuration stage) and install it.
After some experimentation the following set-up (in /etc/hf.conf) worked: 
serial=/dev/ttyS0 
audio = /dev/dsp
soundcorr=1.0
Ttimecorr=1.0
kerneloptions="-n -R"
x_prefix=" "
Still the user interface leaves a lot to be desired. The operation is very un-intuitive and not even a waterfall is provided.

As mixer application aumix works fine. Adjust the PCM-output on the mixer so as not to overdrive the sound-system.

gMFSK and fldigi use as a logging application xlog, which can be easily installed by unpacking the Debian version xlog-0.9.6-i486-1.tgz on the "/" directory - works OK on Opensuse 10.2
Prerequisite: hamlib-1.2.0-1.i386.rpm
General info about xlog: http://www.qsl.net/pg4i/linux/xlog.html. 

Text Editors:
Xedit - the tk version - and Nedit are the ones I use.

Word Processing:
  1. OpenOffice 2.0 is very good.
  2. AbiWord 2.4.5 is lightning fast and very good.
Spreadsheets
  1. OpenOffice is very nice.
  2. Gnumeric is excellent too.
Screen Capture
Ksnapshot is very nice, and easy to use.

Graphics Editors
OpenOffice has an image-editor.
Gimp is excellent!

Browsers
Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla-Seamonkey are both OK. Seamonkey has also a composer and a mail-client available.

Image Scanning
Xsane in connection with Sane works just fine for the Canon Lide 25. It had to be configured in yast2.


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