Installation using images

From openSUSE

Warning

This article describes unusual and not officially supported, but under Linux possible way to install openSUSE. While there should be no problems, it is operating system installation and there is no guarantee that is risk free. Use it on you own.

Introduction

For those with that test new versions of openSUSE or other distributions, and don't want to burn many CD's or DVD's, there is an easy way to install openSUSE with only one CD that will be used to boot the computer and start installation. That CD can be a boot-CD for older version. However, it is safer to use mini the one released with the version you want to download. You will need an internet connection to get the data.

Getting the data

Get the wanted iso-images from the Download page. If you do not have an older boot-CD or want to play safe, you need to download the Net Boot Image too. Best thing is to download the DVD-image, however CD-images may work fine also. In that case make sure the CD-images are located in the same folder.

Preparation

Burn the boot-CD

If you do not have an old version of the boot-CD, burn the boot-CD image on a CD.

Check where the installation image located

10.3: for some reason, installation image must not located in Windows NTFS partition. see problem reported by using NTFS

In the next step you will need to enter the location of the installation image. This have to be entered with the absolute partition-path, starting with /dev. If you do not know what that means, here is an example:

You have downloaded the image openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso to /home/myhome/downloads/. However, this is not the real path to the partition the image is placed at. To find out the path you have to enter later, open console and enter 'mount'.

# mount
#> /dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
#> proc on /proc type proc (rw)
#> sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
#> debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
#> udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
#> devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
#> securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)

In the first line of the output you can see that partition /dev/hda2 is mounted to /. There is no other line that says /home so /home will be at / (and therefore on /dev/hda2).

The absolute path to the installation image will be: /dev/hda2/home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

On installing 10.3 please refer to the alert below.

Installation

Boot your PC using the boot-CD. If the boot screen appears enter on the command line:

install=hd:[location of the image]

In the example

install=hd:/dev/hda2/home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

The install begins using the image(s).

If you don't know the device, you could type this:

install=hd:////home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

In this case, the installer scans all of the devices looking for the specified file.

10.3 Alert /dev/hda now mapped to /dev/sda.

I have just followed this for 10.3 and my Primary Master IDE drive where my installation iso resides is no longer mapped as /dev/hda by the installation program. It appears to have been remapped to /dev/sda so my install path is now.

install=hd:/dev/sda1/isos/openSUSE-10.3-GM-DVD-x86_64.iso

The knock on effect is that what was /dev/sda is now /dev/sdb and what was /dev/sdb is now /dev/sdc. In the installation you can check disk sizes of the various disks but do not rely on the output of

df -h

being usable for a safe installation.

Do not place iso image on the partition that will be formatted during installation.