[Discuss] SUSE looks good!

[John Blomfield]

Just had another thought about this!  Since you are booting a "Live" 
disk I am not sure if its possible to install additional drivers?  
Perhaps there are others with some insight here?  When you boot into a 
"Live" distro it does not (I think) mess with your hard drive, it just 
simulates a file system with perhaps a Ram Disk and gets all drivers and 
applications off the CD as it needs them.  Therefore, you can't change 
the drivers on the CD because its read only.  Whether it can put new 
drivers into the Ram Disk for the duration of the session again I don't 
know.  I used to use an OS called QNX which allowed you to run the OS on 
top of Windows by creating a file system on the HD in the form of a huge 
Windows file, assuming there was free space available.  But I don't 
think "Live" distros work like that.  This is more than an academic 
question since every distro sooner or later comes up against a hardware 
system that it does not recognize and for which it has no drivers on the 
Live CD but would work perfectly well once the correct drivers were 
installed.  It would be nice to know therefore that there is a work 
around such as doing a basic installation and then downloading what you 
need.

Any ideas anyone?

John Blomfield


Joan McIlmoyl Cleghorn wrote:
> Well, this is fun<g>. Did a cold boot and got my cursor and both my monitors
> (only one was operational on the previous try) though they were cloned.
> Though my wired Internet connection showed as functional, I couldn't get
> anything online. So, did a reboot - this time no cursor and single monitor
> (not my primary which is a Sony LCD). So another reboot, still no cursor and
> single monitor. One more....cursor is back and both monitors and 'Net
> connection. Meanwhile, to try and 'unclone' my monitors<g>, I went looking
> for my video card to check the settings....hmmm, it sees my card (nVidia
> 6600) and says I haven't enabled 3D then tells me I need to download a
> driver. When I select to d/l the driver, it tells me this card doesn't
> support 3D nor accelerated graphics......not true. So, I'm unsure how to
> 'enable' the features of my video card (including the settings for dual
> monitors).
>
>   
The most intriguing thing to me is why the difference between boots -
> sometimes a cursor and sometimes not - sometimes one monitor and sometimes
> two<g>.
>
> Meanwhile, now that the cursor is functional, I'll do a little exploring
> before I lose it again.
>
> 8-)
> Joan
>
>
>   
>> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:06:08 -0700
>> From: John Blomfield <jabfield at shaw.ca>
>> Subject: Re: [Discuss] SUSE looks good!
>> To: discuss at vlug.org
>> Message-ID: <47E3EB00.8050007 at shaw.ca>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>> Joan McIlmoyl Cleghorn wrote:
>>     
>>> Well John, this should probably be in the Newbie List, however, as my
>>> problem is all your fault<g>, I'm posting it here. You suggested that we
>>>       
>> try
>>     
>>> SUSE 10.3 so I promptly decided to d/l the Live CD to give it a try. I
>>>       
>> was
>>     
>>> pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to d/l the ISO as I've
>>>       
>> had
>>     
>>> some really bad experiences with 8 to 10 hours of d/ling...... Burned
>>>       
>> the
>>     
>>> disc and popped it in. Up it came and in an interesting shade of green
>>> (guys, don't even think of trying it the day after the night
>>>       
>> before<gggg>).
>>     
>>> I d/l'd the Gnome version btw. I think I might like it if only I could
>>> navigate properly in it.......it doesn't show my cursor!!! I can get my
>>> trackball to work provided I can figure out where it is (i.e., if an
>>>       
>> icon or
>>     
>>> button is suddenly highlighted). Mostly I had to use my keyboard to
>>>       
>> navigate
>>     
>>> which was less than workable in an unfamiliar environment.......so, does
>>> anyone know how I could get SUSE to give me back my cursor?<g> It's a
>>> Logitech Marble FX Trackball and I've never had a problem with several
>>>       
>> other
>>     
>>> Live CDs of different distros e.g. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS,
>>> GenTOO.........
>>>
>>> 8-)
>>> Joan
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> That's an interesting one - no cursor!  This has happened to me but not
>> especially with SuSe, I have always blamed it on the fact that I have
>> two computes that I use through a KVM switch and I have found
>> occasionally the switch doesn't seem to connect with the mouse
>> properly.  However, a simple re-boot has always fixed the problem.  Have
>> you tried a re-boot or did you just shutdown in disgust!  I suppose its
>> entirely possible that SuSe does not have a driver for your trackball
>> but that I would say is extremely unlikely.
>>
>> John
>>
>>     
>
>