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SDB:Making installation screenshots

tagline: From openSUSE

The ability to make screenshots with YaST during installation is little known. This is very useful, for example if writing a guide on how to install openSUSE. Normally installation screenshots are easily available on the net - but often only in English - this way you can have installation screenshots in your own language for any purpose you desire.


Contents

[edit] Short version

Press the Print Screen button and save the file anywhere. Be aware that some directories, like /tmp, can be emptied or removed.

[edit] Long version

It's really easy – all you have to do is the following.

[edit] Mount filesystem

You need access to some kind of filesystem to be able to save the screenshots - if you plan to format your entire harddisk during installation it's not recommended to use this filesystem of course. This example uses a floppy disk, you can use any filesystem however, i.e. usb-key, harddisk partition that will not be overwritten or others.


  • When the YaST graphical installer starts, press Ctrl + Alt + F2 - this will provide you with a root terminal.
  • Enter the following command:
mount /dev/fdX /media/

This will mount the floppy disk to /media/.

Note: You need to replace /dev/fdX to match the filesystem you want to mount


  • Press Ctrl + Alt + F7 to return to the graphical installer.

Note:Most of our flash disks are formated by Microsoft's NTFS or FAT partition format instead of Linux partition formats, so the mount command you may use in reality is: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/fdX /media/ (NTFS) or mount -t vfat /dev/fdX /media/ (FAT32); and the mount point isn't /dev/fdX either(floopy disk is 1990s). Here's the simple Linux rule: floopy is prefixed by fd*;CD/DVD-ROM is prefixed by sr*, so if you use a writable CD it'll be sr0(not possible unless you install using USB, or sr0 will be your openSUSE DVD!);Harddisk is prefixed by sd*, so your local partition wanna use might be sda2 and your flash disk might be sdb. you can check it out using "fdisk -l" command, then judge by size, or mount them one by one, "cd" into them, judge by checking files inside using "ls" command.

[edit] Make the screenshots

  • Now all you have to do is press Print Screen.
  • A file dialog will appear asking you where to save the screenshot - save it to the location where you mounted the filesystem - in this case /media/

You will have to navigate to that location (in this case /media/) for each screenshot and only the active window is captured.

During the Package Installation part of installation you're only allowed to make screenshots if certain objects are in focus - hit Tab and Print Screen alternately a couple of times and you should be all right.


The screenshots are saved in PNG format.

[edit] Unmount the filesystem

When you're done taking screenshots or before ending the installation you should unmount the filesystem to ensure all data is actually written to the filesystem.


  • Hit Ctrl+ Alt+ F2 to go to the virtual terminal. Enter the following command:
umount /media/

If you use any other mount point, you should replace /media/ with it

Notice that you cannot unmount the directory you're currently located in - so if you're in /media/ use the command cd to navigate to some other location before unmounting.

[edit] Screenshots in text mode

This is currently not possible. If you really need them you can do the following

  • For installations, use a Virtual Machine
  • For normal YaST, run it in a X based terminal and take screenshots of that
Retrieved from "http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Making_installation_screenshots"