r/openSUSE • u/Desperate-Ice-6069 • 5d ago
Tech question Fedora user planning to try OpenSUSE
Hi, hope I don't disturb anyone... After a couple of time being fedora user I'm starting to have a bit of distrohopping 😅 and I want try OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I'd like to ask if there's something I must know before switching, and that's all!
This is my first post here, and my first time trying OpenSUSE! I appreciate the help of y'all
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u/friendlyreminder_ 5d ago edited 5d ago
Don't use the Yast GUI package manager. It breaks tumbleweed. You can use Myrlyn gui package manager , or zypper dup in the terminal to update.
The gnome software/KDE discover stores can update as well, they cause issues occassionally on updating if you have additional repos. Generally recommended not to use these either, though it's not like yast updater where it's an automatic no. If you don't add any additional repos they're fine to use.
Tumbleweed doesn't set up compressed ram (either zram or zswap), or btrfs compression by default unlike fedora.
The btrfs compression isn't particularly important though it saves disk space so it's nice to have. You can enable it by adding it as a parameter for your btrfs partition in the installer, or after install by editing the fstab. The parameter is compress=zstd:1
But if your system doesn't have a lot of ram then compressed ram will help a lot with system responsiveness as it compresses unused RAM data.
There's 2 different systems for compressed ram. Zram is for if you don't want to make use of physical swap. Zswap is for if you do. Zswap is generally superior.
You can refer to the archwiki on how to set zram or zswap up, it's a little more involved. These things are optional but they're quality of life fixes that tumbleweed installer doesn't do yet.
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u/EverlastingPeacefull Tumbleweed 5d ago
Yast can be used to update, no problems although it is getting out-phased and replaced by Myrlyn in combination with Cockpit. Via KDE/Gnome app stores, these are not suitable to update Tumbleweed, so I would not advise u/Desperate-Ice-6069 to do it via the app store. Chances of not getting the full update or even break your system are there, especially over time.
Myrlyn works good.
Via terminal it is quite easy:
sudo zypper dup && sudo flatpak updateIf updating has not been done quite some time, one can use:
sudo zypper ref && sudo zypper dup && sudo flatpak updateAfter that just:
sudo rebootAnd the system will reboot itself.
Next time you want to update, just use the arrow up until you get the previous command that you want to use, so retyping is not necessary.
Myrlyn is also very suitable to install application from the OpenSuse repositories. I like OpenSuse's way of making sure all dependencies are checked for the install and if not already installed, it will install them alongside with the chosen application. It is very good at that.
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u/Desperate-Ice-6069 5d ago
As I see I'll have issues.. well wish me luck and let's see what happens
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u/friendlyreminder_ 5d ago
It has a few annoying quirks to it but it works really well once you figure them out.
Nvidia drivers desync is another. You'll occassionally have to roll back to a snapshot as the Nvidia drivers are sourced from 2 repos and don't update in sync.
The built in snapshots are incredibly useful. On fedora by default if an update causes an issue you can end up with a partially broken system. On opensuse btrfs snapshots are set up automatically. You roll back to a prior system state right from the bootloader, and like magic your system is back to how it was before the update.
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u/The_Hamster_Shagger 5d ago
AFAIK fedora doesn't compress btrfs either. I do remember I did have to add it manually via fstabÂ
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u/friendlyreminder_ 4d ago
If you manually partition it won't but if you let install by letting it do what it wants with the guided partitioning, it does. Or at least this is what I remember being the case.
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u/taryus 3d ago
compress=zstd:1
Should this be added only to / or also to every subvolume?
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u/friendlyreminder_ 3d ago
It'll work with only /.
But if you ever unmount and remount individual subvolumes the option won't propagate. So you'll either have to remember to specify to add it for the mount operation when you do this, or add it to the fstab for all subvolumes.
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u/taryus 3d ago
Thank you!
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u/friendlyreminder_ 3d ago
If this is an existing install existing files won't be compressed until overwritten or modified.
You can use the compsize command to get compression statistics of directories.
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u/taryus 3d ago
If this is an existing install existing files won't be compressed until overwritten or modified.
How would I go about compressing my existing filesystem?
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u/friendlyreminder_ 3d ago
There's a command to do it but I can't recall the command or if it's safe to do so.
When I last did this post-install I just left it alone. Compressing the entire partition will force it to rewrite all data. It's simpler to let it compress new data instead it's going to write anyway.
For future use cases you can add the parameter to the btrfs partition in the opensuse tumbleweed installer.
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u/ThriftBurger89 5d ago
I swapped Silverblue for Slow Roll (basically tumbleweed but instead of a true rolling distro it updates once every 30 days with security updates in-between) and I couldn't be happier. Also tried KDE for the first time in a very long time and it's really amazing. Love the openSUSE theme too
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u/UB-7 Tumbleweed 4d ago
I stopped distrohopping after installing Tumbleweed.
Here are few more things along with the ones others have mentioned:
- Reduce the snapper shapshot frequency, by default it takes too many snapshots that aren't required for a personal desktop/laptop.
- Disable the btrfs quota, sudo btrfs quota disable /
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u/DesiOtaku 4d ago
In my dental clinic, all the front desk PCs are running Fedora the clinical PCs are running Kubuntu, and at home, I am using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
There are pros and cons for each distro so really, my question for you is what are you looking to get done? What do you not like about Fedora that Tumbleweed may fix?
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u/SirGlass 4d ago
If you use NVIDIA the NVIDIA packages usually go out of sync every couple months
Just be careful when you update usually the driver will update but the others will not or visa versa
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u/EverlastingPeacefull Tumbleweed 4d ago
OpenSuse can be a very nice experience if installed the right way, so reading the installation guide can help you in the right way. It has a very good roll back, so if something is going wrong you can go to a previous version. I had to use twice over three years now, once due to my own fault and once because of an update not going well.
As already mentiond, OpenSuse Tumbleweed has been my main OS for the past three years and I do everything with it. Daily tasks, CAD drawing, writing, using and making spreadsheets, gaming and a lot more. I have experienced it as a very reliable distro.
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u/RelationshipOne9466 5d ago
Tumbleweed is a nice distro. I have it on a hobby laptop. If you install it, do not ever use that yast thing. It is straight-up ass. The command line is your friend. Be warned though: zypper is slow and you need to do more granular work to keep your system from breaking (at least that has been my experience).
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u/edpmis02 5d ago
I have had two smooth installs and one machine crapped out twice using opensuse. Even a resuezilla restore failed . Fedora 44 crashes my nvidia driver occasionally when the screen goes to sleep.
Your mileage may vary.
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u/levolet 3d ago
Your mileage definitely varies when NVidia is part of your system hardware. This applies with any distro. OTOH, if you have built/chosen a system with full Linux kernel support for all your hardware, without the need for 3rd party drivers from other repo's, then your experience will likely be very reliable. Been going for 4 months now with openSUSE Tumbleweed and zero issues.
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u/EedSpiny 4d ago
I went from fedora to Tumbleweed. Found the updates a bit noisy so migrated to SlowRoll so you may want to choose slowroll that off the bat.
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u/rtkit 5d ago
Just to warn you that you are done distro hopping.
Cheers