Conclusions

[minthaka]

Why,... I spent 3/4 years trying to setup a good SUSE configuration. There were times when I considered myself as a fool, and times when others thought I was it indeed. I'm writing this just as an user feedback, and nothing more, hoping somebody at Novell shall learn a lession. So, let's start:
Configuration:
Intel Celeron-D 2.66GHz on Intel motherboard
512MB of DDRAM (Kingston)
ATI Radeon 9250SE
Creative Audigy 2

I've tried to make music with Suse, but the system was such a consuming one, that I barelly managed to record 2 tracks of audio data with Ardour and others.

It opened PDF files with Acrobat Reader in 15 seconds.

It was terrebly hard to setup wireless network.

Almost impossibile to setup a modemed connection.
Everything was sloooooow !

I've recompiled the kernel, well it helped 10% !
All in all, I had a feeling of running WinXP on Pentium II.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then I've installed Mepis. It took me 11 minutes for the basic setup, and after having created my local repository, another 20 minutes to have a fully operateable OS! ( My personal best time with Suse 10.0 was 150 mins)

It's fast as lightning ! Nice as Mona Lisa, and user friendly as Hyatt hotels!
I'm recording 5 tracks of audio with 50% of free memory!
Opening PDFs in 2 seconds. Built in drivers for Intel 536ep modem, and I could even establish connection (both wireless and modem) with live DVD!

After all of this, I'm leaving SuSe. I realised I wasn't fool asking a Linux to be an OS! Something is not O.K with SUSE, that's a fact for me. I shared my experiences with others to spare them from sufferings I had!

Hey, Novell, think twice !

[MikeTbob]

Bravo!!
I'm glad you found a distro that pleases you and allows you to do what you need. You have provided a few good tips.
Next time someone has trouble with 536 & 537 modems, I'll recommend they try Mepis. If you enjoy LiveCD's, I think you'd like Knoppix also.

[wingruntled]

Bravo!!

Next time someone has trouble with 536 & 537 modems, I'll recommend they try Mepis.

MikeT
Are you talking about the dial-up Intel 536EP?
If so, WOW!!!! After plugging in over 6 different chipset modens, (including the 536EP) into my Mandriva I came to the conclusion that Linux just does not support dial-up. LOL
Looks like I'll have to try Mepis.

[minthaka]

It is Intel 536ep internal modem. It works without any problems. I've tested it for my friend.
In addition I have also:
- Mustek 1200 UB Plus scanner (with a 7kB firmware it works also)
- a noname iPod. The transfer speed with Suse was 600 kB/s and with Mepis 6 MB/s.
- wireless card Realtek 8180L chip. In Suse after hanging-up the wireless connection I had to restart system in order to connect again or to change provider.
- HP LaserJet 6L printer
It has some extras I like expecialy: gFTP, IDE Tagger, a very simple System Settings panel and KlamAV for windows file addicteds.
I've used Knoppix Live CD too, it's also a great compilation!
There's only one trouble with Mepis, but it isn't critical:
the problem with locales. I'm Hungarian, so I cannot use special signs for folder names, but I'll try to fix it.
Have a fun !
The Penguin rulez!

[wingruntled]

Thanks, minthaka
I see you are running Suse 10.0 also. Does the 536ep work with Suse without having to do any special setup configuations?
I hoping one of these days I will be able to get on this forum without having to boot into Windows just to get online.

[netstrider]

I currently run SuSE alongside with Ubuntu (dual-boot) and I have to say, although my suse is not as slow as yours (opening pdf's etc...) it is still probably the slowest Linux I've played with. Don't get me wrong I like suse but man...For example, I listen to music with Amarok, while listening I search for another song then my current song starts to clutter in my ears and then plays on again. When it finally goes on and the search results are returned the little dancing cube thingies which represent the song-waves 'whatever' just glitch (basically the whole amarok freezes for about a minute. Then it's back to normal. When I stop a song there's a two second delay before it actually stops, same counts for when I switch songs.

On Ubuntu these seem to work fine...

[minthaka]

Once I succeeded to install and start modem. I needed some additional RPM's and source drivers

This is the procedure:
1. Get packages: a). Intel-536ep-4.69-14.8.i586.rpm
b).intel-536EP-2.56.76.0.tgz
2. Install the RPM
3. Edit the /etc/init.d/boot.local and replace the content with:

#! /bin/sh
#
# Copyright (c) 2002 SuSE Linux AG Nuernberg, Germany. All rights reserved.
#
# Author: Werner Fink <werner@suse.de>, 1996
# Burchard Steinbild, 1996
#
# /etc/init.d/boot.local
#
# script with local commands to be executed from init on system startup
#
# Here you should add things, that should happen directly after booting
# before we're going to the first run level.
#

insmod -f /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/char/Intel536.ko
Intel536 module should be loaded
modprobe -f Intel536
mknod /dev/536ep c 240 1
chmod g+w /dev/536ep
chgrp dialout /dev/536ep
rm -f /dev/modem
ln -sv /dev/536ep /dev/modem

4. Untar the TGZ and do:
su
password
make clean
make 536
make install
5. Ignore the error
6. Restart the system
7. Kmenu/System/Yast --> Network Devices --> Modem, then set mounting point as
/dev/modem
8. Set the profile needed for your provider.
END

I only forgot wich source did I use. There are many packages for Intel (tars).
One of them worked for me with the described procedure. Unfortunatelly when I tried to repeat the installation on my friend's PC it just didn't work. He also has to use Windows for that. But you can make a trial!

One more thing: It was always strange thing for me that installation of Suse was always a different task. I just could not develope a step by step procedure for installing packages and automated dependency resolvement.

But if you can obtain a Mepis 6.0, do not hesitate, you won't regret!