Just a simple method to clone your hdd, doesn't matter if you have also windows on it. I am using OpenSUSE and ddrescue:

I consider:
/dev/sda - old hdd
/dev/sdb - new hdd

    $ sudo zypper install ddrescue  # install the package
    $ sudo dd_rescue -v /dev/sda /dev/sdb # "dd_rescue" on OpenSUSE

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

The quote comes from
A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People by Steven Ozment.

Let’s extend the application to make it even more useful!

* add support for YaST-Repositories

* add Support for different architectures

* use always a random temporary directory

Now, it looks like this:

You can grab it out of my home: in the openSUSE Build Service (for openSUSE 11.0).

Start it with “repoviewer”, add the repository’s url, select the type, the architecture and hit “Go!” .
You can choose the architectures only for the “highest” type of the family as they list the “lower” types, too.
So to see “ppc” packages. use “ppc64” in the combobox and later “ppc” in the “Arch” column.
For big repos (like factory) it takes some time to download and parse the metadata.

Also try in a console-window:
unset DISPLAY; repoviewer

thanks to libyui, that just works !
Update: You can access also local directories (like mounted CDs/DVDs).
Just use “file:///” and the full path ! E.g.: “file:///media/SU1100.001/”

• Configuration file (.zypperrc).
  
• Nice overall install progress.
• Much improved install summary (options to view version/vendor/arch changes, changelog, ...).
• More options to handle patterns (remove, install suggested, ...).
  
• Advanced media error handling with options like eject DVD drive, select DVD drive, edit failed URI, enable/disable medium specific options.
• Fixed or removed zypper shell (can it be useful enough to be worth to maintain it?)
  
• Interface to new libzypp functionality like 'download only'.
• and more...
  

I am using Kubuntu in Vmware just to play arround with it, so I decided to upgrade from 7.10 to 8.10, and this means that I will have as well KDE4. The upgrade process has been very easy, but I needed to upgrade first to 8.04 and finally to 8.10, so, here are the steps:

7.10 to 8.04

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ kdesudo "adept_manager --dist-upgrade" # (using ALT+F2 in KDE)

8.04 to 8.10

$ kdesudo "adept_manager --dist-upgrade" # (using ALT+F2 in KDE)

That's all.

I needed an overview of all zypper's commands and options, so i created this little script that prints all the help texts. It can be used to search for options through all commands, or to create a reference sheet for printing like this:

todo: fix some inconsistencies in option names (see this thread for discussion)

todo: wrap the help texts at 79th column, bug #423007 (no more need for 'fold -s' in the command above)

YaST is one of the cornerstones of openSUSE. It is developed for openSUSE and is released as part of openSUSE. There never was a release of YaST independent of openSUSE. Even the versioning of YaST is tied to openSUSE – the versions are 2.X.Y, where X is increased for every openSUSE release (17 for 11.1) and Y is simply a patch level, whenever a new fix or feature is added. Even more, every YaST package has its own versioning, so the only way to ensure you have a consistent set of YaST packages is via dependencies set in the .spec file of the YaST packages.

But in principle, YaST is a tool that can be used across distributions and there are people interested in this to happen. There are technical barriers to do releases independent of openSUSE (e.g. a lot of openSUSE-specific knowledge and behavior coded in YaST) as well as procedural. During past years, a lot of these non-technical issues has been addressed as we opened up the YaST development (re-licensing the code under GPL, opening up source control system and mailing lists, etc).

But still, there is one big thing left: YaST packages are released in concert with openSUSE. Yes, it is very convenient for openSUSE, but it makes it almost impossible to track the development during for people outside of our great distribution.

If one looks at the way the YaST packages are updated during the hotphase of an openSUSE release, the core parts of YaST (yast2-devtools, yast2-core, libyui, …) are rarely updated, they get a bug fix here and there. However, the distribution specific parts (yast2-pkg-bindings, yast2 common libraries, bootloader, storage, networking, …) get a fast flow of patch-level releases, typically several between openSUSE milestones.

Thus, the way forward I like the most right now is a compromise: a core YaST system should be released independently of the openSUSE release cycle while specific modules could keep their crescendo during openSUSE hot phase. How to do that?

For core YaST packages (a list to be defined) would be released independently of openSUSE and during hot phase, they would be handled the way other FOSS parts of openSUSE are – by patching the code in the package. The rest of the YaST, current practice would stay untouched.

There are clearly advantages – the YaST developers can do a proper release management of the core code and it is much more predictable how the core part of YaST will be released. On the other hand, people would need to be aware of the split.

However, I can imagine there is a lot of I did not realize. I’m definitely interested in comments about this topic.