Write Access

Suse 10 DVD

I subscribe to Linux Magazine and just received my copy of issue #62 / January 2006. However, after installing Suse 10, I discovered that there are some software packages that are mentioned on the back of the DVD case and also in the article in the magazine that are missing from the actual DVD. Most importantly, gcc appears to be missing, although KDevelop and Eclipse, both of which are mentioned, are also missing.

Is my DVD faulty or are these packages not included?

Steven Meunier, by email

LM

We are very sorry about the confusion regarding our Suse Linux 10 DVD. It appears that Suse did not include some of the development tools that we thought would be on the DVD. We are unclear on why it was done this way, but it seems that Suse does not always include all the packages with DVDs such as ours. We still believe our DVD is more complete than the OpenSuse versions distributed with other magazines, but clearly it was our mistake to call it a "Full" version and to not mention that some tools like gcc weren't included.

We agree that gcc is a pretty fundamental tool, so much so that it is difficult to think of Linux without it. The important thing to remember, though, is that gcc is free software. All the tools that were part of OpenSuse but were not included on the Linux Magazine OpenSuse DVD can still be installed through Yast.

To add gcc or any other tools available for OpenSuse:

  1. In the main menu, select System | Yast to start Yast. (You'll need to enter your root password.)
  1. Make sure the Software icon is selected in the left panel. On the right, choose Installation Source.
  1. In the Software Source Media window, click the Add button and choose FTP.
  1. A dialog box asks you to enter the location of the package files (Figure 1). A list of Suse Linux 10 International mirror download sites is available at: http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/downloads/ftp/int_mirrors.html. The following site is popular for European Suse users: ftp://ftp4.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source Note that the dialog box asks you to separate the server name from the directory path: Server Name: ftp4.gwdg.de Directory on Server: pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source Click OK in the dialog box, then select Finish in the Software Source Media window.
  1. In the Yast main menu (with the Software icon selected on the left), choose Software Management. It may take several minutes for the package list to appear.
  1. In the upper-left corner of the package list window, pull down the Filter menu and choose Selections.
  1. In the list that appears below, check the box labeled C/C++ Compiler and Tools. Click Accept.

Figure 1: Adding a software source in Yast.

Online PDF Hardly Visible

First of all, Linux Magazine is great. I'm a regular reader of the print version. But are you guys aware that the screen shots in the online PDF articles are hardly visible? That's a shame because this problem is easy to solve.

Gert Schoubben, by email

LM

Thanks for your compliments! The problem with the PDFs is the file size. Allowing a higher image resolution leads to increasingly larger files. This would render the Linux Magazine Archive inaccessible for visitors without broadband access, and we don't want to exclude dial-up modem users.

We have played around extensively with different Adobe Acrobat settings to optimize the quality, and we may continue to experiment in the future, however, we will always face the task of balancing graphic resolution with file size.

Please send your comments and suggestions to letters@linux-magazine.com