Installation without CD

From openSUSE

Situation

Sometimes you cannot burn a CD or DVD because you do not have a burner, or because you do not have any blank disks left. You might still want to install SUSE on that machine. You will need an internet connection to get the data. Whether data retrieval is done before installation, by downloading the sources, or during installation, by connecting through FTP or HTTP, is irrelevant.

Procedures

Getting the data

Getting the data can be done in two ways. Before the installation or during installation.

Before installation

If you download the installation data before installation you need to take some steps to make the data available to the installation kernel. Again there are two ways: on your own machine or with a machine you can reach via a network. If you do it on your own machine, check that you have a separate partition available that is large enough to hold everything, one that won't be formatted during installation.

You can use makeSUSEdvd with the paramater

 makeSUSEdvd -i -t /path/to/source

you can mirror the site, or you can download the ISO files directly. See mirrors for the development build and mirrors for the released versions.

For an installation from an installation Source, just make the data available for the local machine.

During installation

When installing over the internet, just follow the installation via FTP. You need to have a network connection to be able to connect to an installation source, like a mirror or a machine on your local network.

Installing the data

You need to boot into the installation kernel. Different methods are used according to the location of the data. The methods may also vary slightly depending on what OS you plan to set up your install from.

Installing from data stored on another machine (Internet/Network install)

You can either mount the minimal boot.iso and extract a boot/installation kernel for use with the GRUB or LILO bootloaders, or you can extract some floppy disk images to set up and boot from floppy disk.

Internet/Network install using GRUB/LILO

First download the boot.iso from any mirror. The following needs to be done as root. Move or copy the boot.iso to the directory boot. Next in directory /boot do the following:

# mount -t iso9660 -o loop boot.iso /mnt
# cp /mnt/boot/i386/loader/initrd /boot/inst-initrd
# cp /mnt/boot/i386/loader/linux /boot/inst-linux
# umount /mnt

If you use x86_64 or ppc, you can find linux and initrd in /mnt/boot/<arch>/loader/ (please replace <arch> with i386, x86_64 or ppc depending on your hardware).

You can now setup GRUB/LILO to boot into the installation kernel using the instructions further down this guide.

Internet/Network install using boot floppies

To boot and install from floppy disks you need to download the first installation CD iso (SUSE-10.0-CD-OSS-i386-GM-CD1.iso). Now the following needs to be done as root from the directory where you saved the CD1 installation iso. Do the following as root from the folder where the iso exists:

# su
# mount -t iso9660 -o loop SUSE-10.0-CD-OSS-i386-GM-CD1.iso /mnt
# /mnt/boot/mkbootdisk /mnt

It seems that the layout for the 10.1 CDs has changed and mkbootdisk doesn't work well anymore (see this bug). For 10.1 you can do something like this:

# su
# mount -t iso9660 -o loop SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-i386-CD1.iso /mnt
# /path/to/mkbootdisk /mnt/boot/i386/loader/

Be sure to first download mkbootdisk as it doesn't seem to be on the CD anymore. You can get it here. For openSUSE 10.2 can be downloaded from here (new releases may use other URI, watch for any change in ftp structure). Tip: Installation boot disks can be created using Yast (System / Boot or Rescue Floppy) so in the event you have access to another openSUSE installed system this can be a good option.

Do the next command for each floppy disk, bootdisk1-7

# dd if=bootdisk1 of=/dev/fd0

Now use the floppys you created to boot the installation kernel and start your online install.

Remote Network Installation

This is about remote installation, where one has no direct access to machine where SUSE will be installed, using some properties of GRUB that are not widely known:

• http://disruptive.org.uk/2006/01/28/suse_remote_install_howto.html

Internet/Network install direct from existing Windows or Linux install

UNetbootin supports no-CD installs of openSUSE from Windows or Linux. Guide on opensuse.us forum

Internet/Network install using USB Stick

Creating a bootable USB Stick version of mini.iso entirely from Windows

Assuming the version of openSUSE is 10.3 x86_64 or i386 and the usb stick is E: in Windows:

• Extract mini.iso to E: with WinRar
• Move E:\boot\x86_64\loader\* or E:\boot\i386\loader\* to E:\
• Delete E:\isolinux.bin
• Rename E:\isolinux.cfg to E:\syslinux.cfg
• Download syslinux-<version>.zip http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/
• Extract syslinux-<version>.zip to c:\syslinux
• CD to c:\syslinux\syslinux<version>\win32 directory in a cmd prompt
• Run syslinux -ma E:

If you have a large usb drive you can do the same with the install CD!

I have not tried this with the DVD but i know it works with the CD.

When you start the install it will tell you the repository is not found. simply go to "Start installation or Update" and then choose Hard Disc (local drive), once you have done this select your usb drive (if you don't know look at the sizes), and when it asks you where it is in the drive just enter "/".

Creating a bootable USB Stick from Linux

This assumes that the usb stick is /dev/sda with an active partition /dev/sda1 and 12 megs of available space.

i386

umount /dev/sda1
mount -o loop openSUSE-10.3-GM-i386-mini.iso /mnt
/mnt/boot/i386/mkbootdisk --32 --partition /dev/sda1 /mnt

x86_64

umount /dev/sda1
mount -o loop openSUSE-10.3-GM-x86_64-mini.iso /mnt
/mnt/boot/x86_64/mkbootdisk --64 --partition /dev/sda1 /mnt

Boot the stick and follow other directions in 'Running the Setup' to load a network card driver and specify network settings to reach a network-hosted copy of the install media.

At the end of the install, the grub boot loader mbr may be written to the stick instead of the hard disk. Just leave the stick in and reboot the machine. It will boot into the new installed OS instead of the miniboot install menu. Go into yast, system, boot loader, boot loader installation. Select the appropriate device for your installation, Finish. Now the machine will boot itself without the stick installed.

Installing from data saved on your local machine

If you have put a mirror or the ISO files on a local hard drive, or if you have used makeSUSEdvd to make the Install source for you, please remember in what drive and on what partition it is placed. Write it down.

SUSE needs access to two files in order to boot into the installation system. These files are initrd and linux.

• If you have downloaded the source (mirrored), do the following:

# cp /path/to/source/boot/loader/initrd /boot/inst-initrd
# cp /path/to/source/boot/loader/linux /boot/inst-linux

• If you have downloaded the ISO files to your hard drive you will need to download initrd and linux from an Installation Repository mirror serparately. To do this go to the Mirrors Released Version page, find a mirror in your country, and click on the "Installation Repository" link for the mirror. Navigate to the /boot folder, then the folder for your architecture, then the folder /loader. Inside this folder, find and download initrd and linux. Save these to your /boot directory on your local machine and rename them inst-initrd and inst-linux respectively.

• If you are experienced, you do not need to do this and set mount points to /path/to/source/boot/loader/linux where it uses /boot/inst-linux instead. The same goes for the initrd. You need to know on what partition and directory you have placed it.

Changing the bootloader sequence

The boot sequence will need some things. It needs to know on what harddrive it must look. It needs to know where the kernel is and and where the initrc is. I will asume that / (root directory) is /dev/hda2 and the /path/to/source is /dev/hda3 If after rebooting you need some time to choose what to boot, change the timeout in Grub or Lilo.

If you have used makeSUSEdvd with the -i option, you will be presented what to enter into /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf. No need to move linux and initrd.

Grub

Add the following to /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Install SUSE
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/inst-linux
initrd /boot/inst-initrd

The naming of drives is a bit different in Grub. The first partition is 0 and the next 1 and so on. The first drive is 0, the second is 1 and so on, not regarding the CD or DVD drives. So if your CD player is /dev/hdb and you have Linux with boot on /dev/hdc3 that will become

root (hd1,2)

Second hard drive (0, 1, ...) and third partition (0, 1, 2, ...) See info grub or do the installation with YaST.

Lilo

Please somebody confirm the information below. Add the following lines to /etc/lilo.conf

image=/boot/inst-linux
initrd=/boot/inst-initrd
label=Install_SUSE
root=/dev/hda1 > (You need to set your drive according to your setup)

Do not forget to run lilo before you reboot. This has been tested on two x86 computers with both Grub and Lilo and this works fine.

Others

Look at comparisons on how to configure a boot into Linux and specify the correct kernel inst-linux and inst-initrd on the correct drive.

Using this method of installation with SUSE Linux 10.1 Beta 6 might fail (Bug 155351).

Running the setup

Remove any CDs or DVDs from their drives. You will just need to reboot and then choose Install SUSE Several choices need to be made. It mainly is clicking OK several times until you must select a way to install

• The first message will be Make sure that CD number 1 is in your computer. Press OK.
• You then get notified that it could not find the CD and it will start the Manual Setup. Press OK.
• You need to select the Language. Press OK.
• Choose the keyboard map. Press OK.
• You get the main menu. Select Start installation or System which is the default and press OK.
• You get Start installation or Update and must choose either network (via FTP) or Hard Disc (local drive)
  • Via Network. Choose the server and directory containing the install files.
  • Hard Disk. You will be asked to choose the partition. Next choose the directory.
    • For ISO files you will need to type the directory and complete filename of the first ISO file.
    • Example -- Partition: /sda1 (USB hard drive) Directory: /SUSECDs/SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-i386-CD1.iso