Jesse, Not a bad idea (the Red Carpet idea), but alas, no X, which Red Carpet requires, doesn't it? I wanted to see what I could make of SuSE for a DNS server on an old dual-P133, so I don't want or need X on the machine.
The programs you are thinking of to keep multiple systems up-to-date, are you thinking of SuSE specific ones? Got a name for them? Are they a push type thing, instead of pull like YOU on a cron job? As for the mailing list, if I do decide to stick with SuSE for this machine, then I'd probably subscribe to them, but I want to know that it works first. :-) And before anyone says "well if SuSE drives you so crazy, use another distro", this machine is a little picky - it has an odd AMD SCSI system, it's a dual-P133 which is also odd - and I have already tried several: RedHat won't even boot the installer, Mandrake was ok, but slow compared to SuSE, OpenBSD is highly unstable, NetBSD I just don't know enough about, and then there is FreeBSD - it's the only thing I've been able to run that is stable, but I like Linux. :-) I have a few of the same machine, and I want to make use of them in small infrastructure jobs like firewalling, bridging and DNS, so I want something I'd be happy rolling out to more than one machine. Thanks for your advice. Ian > -----Original Message----- > From: Jesse Kline [mailto:klinej@;telus.net] > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 12:36 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: (clug-talk) For the life of me I can't figure YOU out > > > Well in that case, I'm not sure I can help you. I think that in > general YAST2 is > a good admin system. One option that you do have is to monitor > updates yourself. > I'm sure that SuSE has a security mailing list or web site that > you can monitor > these thing son. That might be a pain in the ass if you are > running just one > system, but if you have multiple systems there are programs that > will apply your > updates to all the systems. Another option that you have is to > install an older > version of SuSE and use Red Carpet to keep it up to date. Red Carpet is > available for SuSE 7.3 and 8.0 from > http://www.ximian.com/products/redcarpet/download.html this will > keep your base > system as well as your Gnome desktop and other components up to > date. Give it a try. > > Jesse > > Quoting Ian Bruseker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Yes, the patches thing is nice (not that I care, cable modem > and all, but > > it's a nice touch). I tried both the automatic and the manual, > they both > > do > > that same thing in terms of selection. And like I said, I ftp'd to the > > same > > mirror I was using for the update, so that I was sure that I > was seeing the > > same thing YOU was seeing, and still it didn't pick up all the updates. > > It's like it's trying to be really smart (the patches thing was > a big hint > > that they are _trying_ to be really smart) but just not quite > succeeding. > > It just worries me that if I do decide to go with SuSE for a system, I > > can't > > trust it to be up-to-date. It's kinda sad, actually. As the poster in > > Mulder's office says, "I want to believe". Their distro looks nice > > otherwise, but the only thing that truly differentiates distros > these days > > is their admin tools, and if YOU is completely useless, then > that's a big > > blow against them. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Jesse Kline [mailto:klinej@;telus.net] > > > Sent: Wedne > > sday, October 30, 2002 10:41 AM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) For the life of me I can't figure YOU out > > > > > > > > > heh, I've never had any problems with YOU myself. In fact I think > > > it works quite > > > well. The ting that I like is that it downloads paths instead of > > > the whole RPM, > > > this makes updates go much faster. I also only have > experience with the X > > > version. You have two options, one is to look for updates and > > > then select the > > > ones you want to install, or let YOU do the whole thing for you. > > > I always chose > > > the automated approach as it made the easier. YOU will download a > > > list of all > > > the updates, even updates for packages that are not installed on > > > your system. I > > > wouldn't pay any attention to this, just wait until it has > > > finnished and then > > > look at the packages that it actually installed. One thing that I > > > did notice is > > > that not all of their mirrors are up to date. This may be why you > > > find updates > > > on the SuSE ftp site that are not being installed. Install all > > > the updates, and > > > then try the other mirrors to see if any of them install updates > > > that were not > > > installed on the firt go around. > > > > > > Jesse > > > > > > Quoting Ian Bruseker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > > > > Catchy subject, non? :-) > > > > > > > > What I really mean is YaST Online Update. What is up with that > > > > program? I've tried using SuSE several times in the past, > only to give > > > > up based on the (apparent) stupidity of this one program. > But so many > > > > people use SuSE, that it tells me either there are a whole lot more > > > > tolerant people in this world than I think that are willing > to put up > > > > with this thing, or I just fundamentally misunderstand what this > > program > > > > is all about. Let's go with option 2 for now. > > > > > > > > As best I can tell, this program is supposed to connect to > an FTP site, > > > > look at the available update rpms, and let you install the updates. > > > > Further, it looks like it is _supposed_ to preselect items > for update > > > > that apply to your system. This seems pretty straight forward, and > > > > pretty common (RedHat has RHN, Mandrake has Mandrake > Update, etc). So, > > > > Monday night I did an FTP install of SuSE 8.1 on an old machine. > > > > Install went fine. Ran YOU after the setup was done, it > preselected 3 > > > > packages out of the several dozen listed that have been > updated. (Oh, > > > > this is all ncurses based, not X, the machine's a bit > underpowered for > > > > that). I let it do the updates, but I get curious - why so many > > > > packages that _don't_ need to be updated. Some stuff is obviously > > > > updates that could never apply to the system in question > (KDE updates, > > > > for example - not a single KDE rpm is installed - why is it > showing me > > > > this? YaST Onine _UPDATE_. Show me updates, not things that aren't > > > > even installed on my system, but whatever, that's the subject of > > another > > > > rant). So I ftp to the site that YOU had used and check the updates > > > > there, doing much 'rpm -qa|grep' on another console. Some stuff is > > > > already up-to-date. I'm guessing SuSE updates their main > FTP install > > > > directory so a clean install comes out fairly up-to-date. > That's cool. > > > > But there are other packages on my system that are clearly not up to > > the > > > > latest version compared to the FTP site. But YOU isn't > autoselecting > > > > them when I run it. It seems when I run YOU I have flip to another > > > > console/ ftp to the site YOU is using/check the rpms > there/rpm -qa|grep > > > > on another console/and manually select the updates in YOU. Am I > > missing > > > > something here? If I have to do the ftp/check/grep thing, > then what's > > > > the point of YOU? I can download things manually and just > do it that > > > > way (I'm already FTP'd in, after all). Isn't YOU supposed > to help with > > > > this in some way, not make the process longer and more painful? Is > > > > there a checkbox somewhere I missed? A magic chant, perhaps? > > > > > > > > Sorry for the long and ranty email. Abject stupidity gets me very > > > > frustrated late at night (that includes my own abject stupidity if > > > > someone can show me exactly what it is about YOU that makes > it in any > > > > way useful). Does anyone have any experience with/understanding of > > this > > > > program that would help me make it something other than a complete > > waste > > > > of my time? I'm asking here before submitting a bug to SuSE that > > simple > > > > reads "YOU suck(s)". ;-) > > > > > > > > Ian > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
