openSUSE setup problems on Mac

I have always found openSUSE to be a little strange compared to other Linux OSes in particular as regards getting it setup and operating normally.
Now, I'm once again involved with this task on the MacBook and have, so far, seen these difficulties:

1. Once it was installed (11.0), I tried to update it. A total of 34 updates were available, including 21 security updates. However, all of my attempts to update were greeted with an error message which seemed to indicate difficulty in connecting to a server. As this went on for more than 24 hours, I started to install the updates one-by-one, then two-by-two until eventually all were installed with no error message. Now this is difficult to explain but at least everything is now up to date.
2. The initial screen resolution was 800x600 as seen from Configure Display. To correct this I had to Configure X11, set the display to 1200x800 for 16.7 mi and reboot.
3. Although I enabled Desktop Effects and set up CCSM as I like it (desktop cube, rotate cube), Windows Decoration with "emerald --replace", I can't get the emerald themes on my windows. Decorator is set to Emerald but emerald is not showing.