i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

The good news is I have a clean install of OpenSUSE 11.4.

So, see, there is this new "systemd" to replace systemVinit.  And the Tumbleweed repositories explicitly told me not to install it.

...

But did I listen?  Of course not.  Well, sort of.  Tumbleweed scared me because systemd is being "removed" because they are still working on stability for systemd for the new OpenSUSE 12.1.

Fair enough.  They got my attention.  First of all, "what is 'systemd' and why do I want it?"  And second of all, I better remove it.

A quick search told me it is going to be better and more wonderful, speeding up "boot-up" and all the cool linux users are going to have it.  And, if they don't have it, they are going to need it.  Plus it will have GRUB2 instead of "massively patched" GRUB 1

These were not precisely the right things to tell me to convince me I didn't want systemd (yet).  But, anyway, I checked in YAST to see if Tumbleweed had installed it.  No.  In fact, not installed.  In fact, the only reference to systemd was as a 11.4 package.

So ... I'm sure you can follow my thinking.  "This is really cutting edge PLUS it's in 11.4 so I don't need to worry about stability.

Therefore, instead of UNinstalling it and avoiding pain, I "INstalled it" and created, well, pain.

I mean, true, GRUB gave me new never before seen options, such as the right screen resolution for my monitor, ability to change languages (although this was backwards for me -- menu and keyboard were initially in German, I had to switch to English ...)

HOWEVER, tiny problem, on boot ... NO KEYBOARD OR MOUSE.  Oh, oh.  And other than that, non-functonal.

So, I had to burn an 11.4 network install disk on another computer, reinstall 11.4 and start with all the reconfiguring.  Some issues here, such as there are apache configuration mods I don't have explicitly backed up, some mysql and database stuff, some LAMP server modifications.

Well, not totally "not backed up" -- this is my old server, I have migrated these things to my new server, but that leaves me minus my "failsafe" backup copy.  The poverty of my backup stragety is breathtaking to behold.

Then there are the problems arising from extreme customization that is not written down anywhere.  As in, "how do I reconstruct everything?"

But, when I think about it, this computer seems to be running better now -- the earlier version of 11.4 was not a clean install but a "change the repositories and upgrade."  Among other things, I have recovered a couple of gigabytes of the root file system, which is good, because I am running on a pretty old and small hard drive.  In fact, I had moved some things (such as the /usr and /srv directories to an external drive and linked them back vi symlinks.  This is one of the "customizations" I mentioned being worried about ...

Here is an anomaly I had to address -- I mount the external drive via fstab "disk-by-id".  First, I had to figure out the id in order to get it to mount in the correct location.  But no sooner did I have that "fixed" then I ran the Tumbleweed update.  And, upon booting with the 3.0 kernel, my external drive had disappeared.  What?

Turns out, 3.0 apparently sees (or generates) a different id.  So, I corrected to the new id and it works again.  The old version was a "usb" id and the new one is prefaced "scsi".

Though I find this puzzling -- I had previously upgraded the kernel 3.0 without this becoming an issue.

Not that anyone will ever find any of this (or find it useful), but another reminder to me I guess:

gscan2pdf is installed thusly:  Add the illuusio repository from download.opensuse.org (under repositories, home, where all the Build Service users are located).  "Illuusio" does not put this in the Build Service search system any longer, but he apparently still compiles it.

I am becoming fond of command line "zypper" for adding repositories and install software btw.  Very simplified if you know what you are looking for -- as opposed to using the GUI Software Manager.

Anyway, keep in mind this is a "clean" install, with only the stock repositories and the Tumbleweed one(s).  So, now I have a pretty good handle on what it takes to get gscan2pdf to install.  Because, I all I had to add was the perl repository, again from download.opensuse.org.  This one is found under "devel" subdirectory "languages".

Later:  And now my "comic display" widget is working.  It hadn't been.

This time out (so far) I just used the auto-installed repositories and Tumbleweed (plus Packman/Tumbleweed repositories).  I'm unclear as to why Tumbleweed sticks with KDE 4.6, isn't 4.7 already stable?  I've got the the3.0 linux kernel.

Also, Tumbleweed apparently sticks with 2.30 or 2.32 Gnome.  Not sure why.  I had 3.0 running before the crash -- though it doesn't matter much because I'm not using Gnome anyway (but I use Gnome software).

But ... here's the thing.  Why is it Gnome, just like KDE, wants to "index" everything AND  THINKS THEIR INDEXER SHOULD RUN BY DEFAULT????

Hey, you know what? ... nepomuk and tracker don't do anything for me.  And even more so, I don't want BOTH of these things running.  So, KDE honored my existing personal settings and did not run nepomuk.  But the processor was going crazy -- it's "tracker".  Where to shut it off?  Somewhere hidden in the Gnome settings, which took me some time to find.  And, tracker did not stop running when I changed the settings.  Further, I could not kill it from system processes.  Why this is important?  Well, I have a rather small and ancient hard drive on this computer, and now it's got a bunch of indexing files that I don't need, don't want, don't know where they are and can't kill them.

Thanks alot, you guys...

Later, Later:

A question in my mind was, would VirtualBox run on the 3.0 kernel?  And at least at the moment, the answer is yes -- and it's rather erie:  I have VirtualBox running on the laptop computer screen, which is displaying the original WindowsXP (that came on this computer) (that hasn't worked for years).  Then on the external monitor in front of me, I have KDE4.6, and I can run the cursor from "one computer to the other".  I mean, it's all the same computer, but to one's brain (at least MY one's brain) it's like having two completely separate computers sitting side-by-side.  Now I want to set up a drag'n'drop that will move files from linux to windows & vice versa.  While I don't think I can drop direct to the desktop, it should be possible to open a folder on Windows, and leave it open as sort of "part of the desktop" and then open the same folder in a "folder view" widget on the KDE desktop, whereby I will be able to pass files across.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Since at the moment, Windows is doing to me what Windows always does to me.  I shut it down so I could change some vbox parameters, but naturally it wanted to install 17 updates before closing and at the moment it is non-usable and eating up the CPU.  Though I have enough cpu left over to type this post.

Anyway, I was unable to find anything useful re virtualbox/3.0 linux kernel at the virtualbox website.  AND THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE WORRIESOME.  Because, if you will recall from above, my whole re-install disaster resulted from not taking Tumbleweed's word for it that I should not be messing with systemd.  The point being that Tumbleweed maintainers had removed systemd from the repository because it was not ready for prime time.

Well, Tumbleweed maintainers also announced they would not support VirtualBox due to it not running on the 3.0 kernel.  So, it would seem any steps in this direction were risky (to say the least)(and expecially on the heals of crashing my system yesterday by not listening to Tumbleweed advice).

So, I did one install from the repositories, which insisted in installing linux 2.6.37 kernel.  Fortunately, this did not ALSO remove 3.0 -- it gave me a choice in GRUB.  But, due to the previously mentioned problem -- that apparently 3.0 is identifying my external drive DIFFERENTLY from the way 2.6.37 is identifying it, I couldn't boot that kernel as it would require a different fstab.

I removed that install and then tried adding the KernelHead virtualization repositories from download.opensuse.org.  There is also a second virtualization respository, but I figured "Kernel Head" must mean something like "works with the most recent kernel."

No, to that.  Again wanted to give me 2.6.37.  I tried just running virtualbox on 3.0 and having it recompile the kernel modules, but they objected that I had rpm kernel modules and would not compile.

So, then I mossyed over to virtualbox.org to get the direct download.  But, there I discovered a further respository for opensuse.  I tried that repository, only to find ... still wanted 2.6.37.

Not giving up, I instead of installed the rpm version.  And yes, the rpm version RECOMPILED the modules and virtualbox is seemingly running just fine.

However, I need to issue a caveat -- I have made a series of changes (including removing the 2.6.37 kernel, which was not running) and I have not rebooted the computer.  So, everything may go to hell when I reboot.

Meantime, I am trying to "perfect" my virtualbox display.  The issue at the moment is that the laptop screen is 1440x900 and that is not offered in the default virtualbox display.  I'm going to look and see if virtualbox has a display option that will be more copascetic.

Later, Later, Later: Nope, I'm stuck with a rather squished looking 1280x1024 in scaled mode.