Q I am quite a new user of Linux and have just installed SUSE 10.1. When I tried to use Amarok on this installation I got no sound, even though the soundcard appeared to be working (it sounds at startup, for instance). I noticed a new version on a newer DVD so I have tried to install it through Yast. Can you tell me how I specify the new program to Yast? I know this must be a very basic question but at the moment I do not know how to do it.
A There are two separate questions here: one about Amarok and one about software installation. Look at the status bar at the bottom left of the Amarok window when you try to play a song - this will give you some feedback. If the song appears to be playing but you hear nothing, open the mixer (usually a speaker icon in the taskbar) and make sure that the volume controls are set high enough. If Amarok refuses to play the song, it is probably your sound engine configuration at fault. Look in the Engine section of the Settings window. If this is set to 'aRts' and you are running a Gnome desktop, you are unlikely to hear anything; because Arts is the KDE sound engine.
The best setting for this, in terms of both quality and compatibility with all desktops, is Xine. You may also need to set the output plugin - Autodetect normally works; if not, set it to ALSA. Yast is more suited to installing software from the repositories that it knows about. These include the SUSE directory of the install disc and any online update servers that may have been added automatically during installation, or manually by you later. You can tell Yast to install from individual RPM files from the command line, as root, with
su yast2 --install /media/LXFDVD82/Sound/AmaroK/SUSE/*.rpm
to ask it to install the packages from the DVD. However, Yast doesn't handle dependencies when run this way and may well fail without telling you why. It is better to use the rpm command directly:
su rpm -Uhv /media/LXFDVD82/Sound/AmaroK/SUSE/*.rpm
It may still fail, but at least it will tell you what is missing. A more satisfactory solution is to add a repository to Yast containing the newer software. You can find a list of such repositories, along with instructions for adding them to Yast, at http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories.