OpenSUSE is one of the world’s most popular GNU/LINUX distributions, known as the community version of SUSE Linux Enterprise, an enterprise distribution. Also is known for its ease of use, great community spirit and for Yast, wich is a control center where you can perform many tasks that, in other GNU/LINUX distributions would be done with the terminal tool, thus bringing it closer to less experienced users. He is considered as an example in his area for the rest.
Recently OpenSUSE Leap 15 was released, with a lot of new features and here we talk about it, and we also show you how to install it, but today we’ll tell you 5 things to do after installing it with Gnome desktop.
1.- Refresh the repositories and update the system
It’s the first thing we should do when we first install a system. Remember that from the time a version is released until we install it, it is likely that security fixes and patches have been released, so it is wise to update. First we must refresh the cache of the repositories and then we order the update.
sudo zypper refresh
And then:
sudo zypper up
In my case, at the end of the update, I notice that there are applications that require a system reboot.
2.- Show the minimize and Maximize buttons in the title bar of the windows
I’m sorry for the developers of GNOME, a desktop environment that I find very good and one of my favorites along with Cinnamon, but I’m not used to not having the minimize and maximize buttons, so I’m going to put them back.
To achieve our goal, we must have Gnome Tweak Tool installed. In case you do not have it installed we can do it with the following command:
sudo zypper in gnome-tweak-tool
Then we must execute it
Once you have started the program, on the left side click on the Windows icon.
And in the Titlebar Actions section, we have the option to add the maximize and minimize buttons.
3.- Enable the packman repository
Packman offers various additional packages for openSUSE, especially but not limited to multimedia related applications and libraries that are on the openSUSE Build Service application blacklist.
We can add repositories by the terminal or by the Yast. In the terminal the command to be executed is:
sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.0/ packman
By yast the process is like this. When executing it and placing the root password, we must click on Sotfware Repositories
When you click on it you will see a window with the list of active repositories
Click on add to enter the desired repository, in this case, packman.
leave Specific URL checked and click on next.
In the next window, we put the name of the repository, it can be the one you want, but it is recommended that it is according to the added repository, in this case, we put packman and below the repository address:
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.0/
Clicking next will start adding the repository, and then it will not skip the warning if we want to trust to add the gnuPG key to the repository. We click on trust and when we finish, we have the repository added to our sources.
4.- Installing multimedia codecs and full compression support
Many multimedia codecs are not included by default in an OpenSUSE installation due to licensing issues and all that kind of stuff, so you have to install them by hand.
sudo zypper in libdvdcss2 libxine2-codecs libxine2-pulse lame gstreamer-0_10-plugins-ffmpeg gstreamer-0_10-plugins-bad gstreamer-0_10-plugins-ugly gstreamer-0_10-plugins-ugly-orig-addon totem-browser-plugin gstreamer-0_10-plugins-good libxine2 libdvdplay0 libdvdread4 libdvdnav4 libmad0 libavutil51 sox libxvidcore4 xvidcore libavcodec52 libavdevice52 libvlc5 totem-plugins nautilus-totem lsb pullin-flash-player vlc-codecs gstreamer-0_10-fluendo-mp3 gstreamer-0_10-plugins-fluendo_mpegdemux gstreamer-0_10-plugins-fluendo_mpegmux gstreamer-0_10-plugins-base gstreamer-0_10-plugins-good-extra libquicktime0 gstreamer-0_10-plugins-bad-orig-addon
You can notice that, Gstreamer was installed on my computer, so it ignores the command given.
To install the compression formats, the command is this:
sudo zypper in rar unrar p7zip tar bzip gzip
Also in this command, it is to be expected that there are packages already installed.
5.- Change the default appearance
The default theme in GNOME is adwaita which I personally don’t like at all. Luckily we are in GNU/LINUX where there are too many themes that can make OpenSUSE look better. One of my favorite themes is Paper: simple, elegant and easy to install. We’re gonna do this.
We first download the.rpm file from this location
Then go to Nautilus (file manager) and right-click on it and select Open with install/remove software.
Once this is done, it will ask us for a superuser password, and when it is placed, it will start to add the dependencies needed to install the package that contains the theme. Clicking on accept will start the download and installation of them.
Now we must activate it in gnome-tweak-tool. Run it, and in the appearance section, in the Theme section, select Paper and we won’t see the horrible Adwaita anymore.
These 5 things explained today, are very basic things to do in a distribution like OpenSUSE, but they serve to further tune up this great operating system.
The customization of the environment will always be of a taste of each user however, it was about showing the most basic things we must do to be comfortable in them.
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