I’ve recently installed openSUSE 12.1 x86_64 with KDE4 on my desktop PC, using LVM on an encrypted (LUKS) partition set. I’m quite content with it (and really recommend relying on some good full disk encryption — by now, it is fully transparent to the user). Here is a summary of little tips I’ve gathered since.

[TOC]

Get your 7 mouse buttons to work

In my case, it’s a Logitech MX518 (4 regular buttons, 1 middle button (scroll), 2 scroll up/down buttons). You might have to experiment with the button mapping if you own another mouse.

1. Get, compile and install imwheel: http://sourceforge.net/projects/imwheel/.
2. Open /etc/X11/imwheel/imwheelrc as root and add the following:

".*"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
None, Down, Alt_L|Right
"(null)"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
None, Down, Alt_L|Right

3. Insert the following into ~/.kde4/Autostart/mouse.sh:

#!/bin/sh
exec xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7" &
exec imwheel -k -b 89 &

4. Allow execution:

chmod +x ~/.kde4/Autostart/mouse.sh

Automatically unlock your SSH key via kwallet on KDE login

1. Install ksshaskpass:

su -c "zypper install ksshaskpass"

2. Unlock at login by inserting the following code into ~/.kde4/Autostart/ssh-add.sh:

#!/bin/sh
# export SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/bin/ksshaskpass
# Warning! In openSUSE 12.1, ksshaskpass no longer creates
# /usr/bin/ksshaskpass nor any other file in $PATH
export SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/lib64/ssh/ksshaskpass
ssh-add

3. Allow execution:

chmod +x ~/.kde4/Autostart/ssh-add.sh

Install Skype along with its dependencies

1. Install Skype’s dependencies:

su -c "zypper install xorg-x11-libXv-devel-32bit libqt4-32bit libqt4-x11-32bit libpng12-0-32bit"

2. Get the .rpm for openSUSE from http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-computer/linux and install it:

su -c "zypper install skype*.rpm"

Install a Java plugin

1. This one’s really quick:

su -c "zypper install icedtea-web"

For more info, see http://opensuse-guide.org/.