Updating Linux

Support for SuSE 10.0 has ended ... (well, IMO a bit early, MS still support W2k). So, to get new security patches and other updates (e.g. Firefox 3), I had to update my operating system.

I first tried Ubuntu 8.01. Unfortunately, it not only made a buggy and unstable impression (couldn't use ntp properly (apparently a Gnome configuration problem), download of ATI drivers resulted in a 404, configuration dialogs freezing), but it also was very slow in startup and during network usage. Possibly a WLan driver issue.

So I gave up and installed SuSE 11.0. That worked rather well, because of good backups (and hey, Firefox and Thunderbird really can store everything in /home and use it for new versions; great job there). The only issue is that I can't get compiz to work with my xinerama settings (notebook and an external LCD monitor configured to be one big screen). It seems as if compiz always thinks that the desktop has a much smaller width then in reality ... doesn't repaint the background after a certain vertical line, can't resize windows beyond that line. An update of the display drivers didn't help (oh, and BTW, sax2 doesn't work with the new ATI drivers, had to use aticonfig). Setting the output sizes in the compiz configuration didn't help. Updating compiz lead to it not working at all (only white rectangles instead of windows). Oh well, I didn't have compiz before, I don't have it now, so no loss.

More annoying is that still a restart of the X window system is required if I wish to switch the external monitor on or off. Possibly an architectural problem there ... but Windows XP shows how to do it: I plug the monitor in, I have a bigger desktop. I remove the monitor, I have a smaller desktop. No re-configuration required, no logout required.