Release Notes #

The Live CD installer presents a problem related with the keyboard settings. If the user changes from the QWERTY keyboard layout (the default en-US variant), this setting will not be properly applied, and the new system will stay with a QWERTY pre-configuration.

As a workaround, use the localectl command-line tool after the installation. For example (to install a German keyboard layout):

localectl set-x11-keymap de pc105 nodeadkeys

This issue is not present in the DVD Installer.

After updating from 13.1 to 13.2 using YaST, there are good chances that the new Wicked network method is running together with the old NetworkManager, if you are using a laptop with a wifi connection.

To solve this, first disable Wicked and enable again NetworkManager:

systemctl is-active network.service && systemctl stop network.service
systemctl is-active wickedd.service && systemctl stop wickedd.service
systemctl disable wicked.service
systemctl --force enable NetworkManager.service
systemctl start network.service

Then check whether the currently selected service is actually NetworkManager:

systemctl -p Id show network.service

And update /etc/resolv.conf:

netconfig update

Or reboot after the systemctl commands to restart also wpa_suplicant.

During the initial installation, in the summary view of YaST, a warning as follows can appear bellow the bootloader section: “Warning: No location for bootloader stage1 selected. Unless you know what are you doing please select above location.”

This warning is a bug in YaST (now fixed in Factory) and you can safely ignore it.

If you have Windows XP and want to install openSUSE 13.2 with BtrFS, an error message in YaST will inform you about problems during the bootloader installation.

The safest option is to install in a partition with Ext4 instead of BtrFS. There is a fix that will reach Factory soon, but will be not present for 13.2.

A bug in YaST prevents the branding in GRUB2 bootloader when installed from the LiveCD medium. Note, the preferred way to install openSUSE 13.2 is using the DVD or the NET install. Both mediums generate a proper branded bootloader during the installation.

Performing the NET install using Wifi presents some problems in YaST. Fixing this is work in progress and will be soon available. Meanwhile the only option is to use a wire connection to complete the NET installation.

Prior to installing openSUSE on a system that boots using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), you are urgently advised to check for any firmware updates the hardware vendor recommends and, if available, to install such an update. A pre-installed Windows 8 is a strong indication that your system boots using UEFI.

Background: Some UEFI firmware has bugs that cause it to break if too much data gets written to the UEFI storage area. Nobody really knows how much "too much" is, though. openSUSE minimizes the risk by not writing more than the bare minimum required to boot the OS. The minimum means telling the UEFI firmware about the location of the openSUSE boot loader. Upstream Linux Kernel features that use the UEFI storage area for storing boot and crash information (pstore) have been disabled by default. Nevertheless, it is recommended to install any firmware updates the hardware vendor recommends.

Together with the EFI/UEFI specification, a new style of partitioning arrived: GPT (GUID Partition Table). This new schema uses globally unique identifiers (128-bit values displayed in 32 hexadecimal digits) to identify devices and partition types.

Additionally, the UEFI specification also allows legacy MBR (MS-DOS) partitions. The Linux boot loaders (ELILO or GRUB2) try to automatically generate a GUID for those legacy partitions, and write them to the firmware. Such a GUID can change frequently, causing a rewrite in the firmware. A rewrite consist of two different operation: removing the old entry and creating a new entry that replaces the first one.

Modern firmware has a garbage collector that collects deleted entries and frees the memory reserved for old entries. A problem arises when faulty firmware does not collect and free those entries; this may end up with a non-bootable system.

The workaround is simple: convert the legacy MBR partition to the new GPT to avoid this problem completely.

This only affects machines in UEFI mode with secure boot enabled.

The new version of the shim loader allows more machines to boot with Secure Boot enabled than with openSUSE 13.1. Nevertheless, in case of trouble, first update the BIOS of your machine to the latest version. If the BIOS update does not help, report the model of your machine to the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:UEFI). Then we can track it for the next release.

On some systems with NVIDIA cards, the installer may show garbage on the top part of the screen due to problems with the default nouveau driver. If you are affected by this problem, you can disable the nouveau kernel module to run the installer and then enable it again once the system is installed or upgraded.

To disable the kernel module, once you boot from the installation media, select the 'Installation' entry in grub and press 'e' to edit the parameters. Then go to the line starting with 'linux' (or 'linuxefi') and add brokenmodules=nouveau at the end. Now press F10 to continue booting with the new parameter. After the system is installed, you can re-enable the nouveau module by editing /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf and removing the entry that blacklists nouveau.

For more information about the AMD FGLRX drivers in openSUSE 13.2 and its status, see https://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/11/01/fglrx-warning-opensuse-13-2-tumbleweed/ (https://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/11/01/fglrx-warning-opensuse-13-2-tumbleweed/).

If you see two mouse pointers and have two graphic boards, where one is an Intel board, try uninstalling xf86-video-intel and thus using the other one only. This will make disappear the static mouse pointer.

This and other issues with the Intel driver like (see http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=901506 (http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=901506)) will be worked on and, if possible, addressed with an online update.

If you find a problem executing virt-manager, try installing typelib-1_0-Gtk-3_0, typelib-1_0-SpiceClientGtk-3_0 and typelib-1_0-GtkVnc-2_0.

In the online update there will be a new version with those dependencies made explicit.

openSUSE 13.2 is a more strict in security tha 13.1. If you are connected via a UMTS or 3G modem and you suspend the machine, the system will ask you for the root password before reconnecting.

You can change this behavior changing a line in /etc/polkit-default-privs.standard:

# ModemManager
org.freedesktop.ModemManager.Device.Control    auth_admin:auth_admin:yes
   

with:

# ModemManager
org.freedesktop.ModemManager.Device.Control    auth_admin_keep
   

The GTK interface of YaST does not feature a package search box. So if you are in GNOME or XFCE and you need this feature, use QT interface instead:

sudo /sbin/yast2 --qt

Mounting cifs shares at systems start via /etc/samba/cifstab has been discontinued and obsoleted. Now the generic /etc/fstab handles it.

The migration process requires two steps:

For more information and examples, see /usr/share/doc/packages/cifs-utils/README.cifstab.migration in the installed system.

If the openSUSE 13.1 KDE Wallpaper still appears after the system upgrade, remove it from the user cache manually:

rm ~/.kde4/cache-*/plasma-wallpapers/usr/share/wallpapers/openSUSEdefault/contents/images/*

The MATE desktop is now officially available under openSUSE 13.2 with MATE version 1.8.1, the latest stable release. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

The objective, for openSUSE, is to provide the same experience users had when they used GNOME under openSUSE 11.4, with the main-menu and the Sonar theme.

GNOME autologin can cause a slow boot process. Probably there is a race between services not correctly marked to depend on each other. Until the fix will be available as an online update, a workaround is to temporarily disable the GNOME autologin feature.

AppArmor is enabled by default. This means more security, but might prevent services from working if you run them in unexpected ways. If you encounter strange permission problems, try to switch the AppArmor profile for the affected service to complain mode with:

aa-complain /usr/bin/$your_service

Complain mode means: allow everything, and log things that the profile would not allow.

Even if it helps, report it as a bug! We want to fix AppArmor profiles to also cover corner cases.

In the System section of YaST (Qt GUI) the icon Service Manager appears twice. There is a bug in the Qt version of the YaST Control Center that does not honor the “hidden” flag in the desktop files.

This will get fixed with the next YaST online update.