Newbie guide for the net install of SuSe 8.2

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 11799 Location: Iowa

This is my newbie guide for the net install of SuSe 8.2
Read through this entirely so you can familiarize yourself with the steps, and get the data you need to finish your install.

Since SuSe doesn't offer free iso download versions of SuSe, I decided to write this guide on how to do an ftp install (net install) of SuSe 8.2 since that is something that they do offer for free, but don't offer support. They do offer a "guide" to installing SuSe from the net, but it lacks detail and seems intentionally cryptic to me. I wanted to write a step by step guide to make things simpler so others don't have to search and search for hints on how it's done.

The first thing you need to do is select a place to download the boot.iso from. You can do that by searching here : http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/ftp/int_mirrors.html and selecting the closest location to you. I choose the ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/SuSE-Linux (Massachusetts, Boston).

Once I had that page up, I browsed to the
ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2/boot/ directory and downloaded the boot.iso file. Exact url to the boot iso : ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2/boot/boot.iso (File Size 19.7 MB so that shouldn't take too long.)

After I had the boot iso downloaded, I burned that as an image. (I won't go into detail here, but there are many helpful tutorials on the net if you need help with that.)

Next, simply insert the disk into your computer, and reboot. You should be rewarded with a screen that displays some welcome message and then be forwarded on to the boot options screen. At this screen you should be able to choose from Installation

Choose Installation --- then hit the enter key.
You should get a {Loading Linux Kernel...............} and then proceed to the next screen.

You should get to a MAIN MENU screen. Several options there. Starting with Settings. System Information. Kernel Modules. Start Installation. Exit/Reboot. Power Off.

Choose Settings first. Make sure your Language selection is correct.
Then choose KERNEL MODULES and then select Load network card modules. Choose your network cards modules and load it.

If you need to load other modules do so here before proceeding. When that's done go back to the main menu and choose START INSTALLATION. Then Start Installation again....... hmmmmmmm Smile

Then choose the source medium (NETWORK). Then choose FTP. Then to enable your card to access the internet you need to choose AUTO CONFIG VIA DHCP or do it manually. I choose auto, since I'm on a dsl router that does DHCP.

Next is the hard part. You have to enter the IP ADDRESS of the FTP server. It took me several trys to figure this out. But after a little research, I found that the IP address can be had via the DIG command on Linux.

You must use the dig command in a terminal to find the IP address of whatever FTP server your using. I was using the ftp.rpmfind.net FTP server. Using the dig command : dig ftp.rpmfind.net returns two IP addresses. 216.254.0.38 and 194.199.20.114 Enter one of these numbers into the box asking for the IP address. After hitting enter it asks you if you want to specify a username and password, just say no. Then it asks if you want to use a Http proxy. Say NO again.

If things have went right so far it should say "trying to connect to ftp server". Once connected it says "Please enter the directory on the server"

For the rpmfind.net ftp server the correct entry would be: linux/6/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2/

You should then see a small screen that says "Loading data into ramdisk (45800 kB) WOOT..... the hard part of the install, getting connected, is over!!

After that data is downloaded into the RAM disk, you will be greeted with the YaST Installation and System administration program.

The first thing you get to do is choose your language again. Then Yast detects hardware and checks to see if you want to load those drivers/modules. Choosing yes to detected hardware seems like a no brainer to me... so choose yes. The rest of the installation seems fairly straightforward and should be easy. The YaST installer has a very NICE partitioning tool.

At a minimum, you should probably have these partitions.

/boot small 50 mb
swap 500 mb unless you have alot of ram
/root 2+ gigs at least
/home the rest of the hard drive...or dedicate more to other partitions and root.

The net install once it begins does take some time, even with fast connections. The servers are all running and alot of time are running at full capacity. My connection, installing KDE and the rest of the default install, takes about 4 hours or a little more. I set it up to start downloading the packages right before I go to bed :)

Wake up and finish the install, setting root password, users, graphic card settings, and that's about it. Reboot and you get rewarded with a SuSe 8.2 Linux Desktop workstation !! I'm very impressed with the ease of use of the SuSe enviroment. I look forward to using it more and more.

I hope this short tutorial was useful to you. If so, let me know :)

Main Download Page http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/suse_linux/index.html

SuSe Mirrors Page http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/ftp/int_mirrors.html

The installation guideline ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/README.FTP

Most current version of this article: http://www.usalug.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=524

By Crouse
http://www.usalug.org
USA Linux Users Group

mr_ed · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 2:27 pm Post subject:

I'm going to try this tonight. Thanks!

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 11799 Location: Iowa

Let me know how it goes..... and if i missed anthing Smile

I'm sure I did somewhere Very Happy

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 11799 Location: Iowa

Just some notes on the PATHS needed for the SUSE install .....

ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2

but ftp with IP in it : resolves like this

ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/6/SuSE-Linux/i386/8.2/

SEE THE DIRECTORY PATH CHANGED....... the differences between entering the ftp NAME or ftp IP address.... you have to use the IP address path or it doesn't resolve correctly when installing.

That /6/ in there makes all the difference in the world !! Very Happy

mr_ed · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 5:24 pm Post subject:

Excellent... there's a complete mirror in Ottawa.

Not so excellent: choosing my network card as a module. My network card is a no-name. I did a search-by-MAC address, and it came up that the manufacturer is Soho.

It autodetects every time, but every autodetector that has run it never says what type of card it is. :(

Reading the actual install guide, it says type

mmmna · . . . . Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 7089

Unless Suse is a particular hog, I have used 25 megs for other distro boot partitions, which later showed df (for boot) at 30%.

"search by mac address" is new to me, can you expand on that at some point in time?

BTW, I think that the install guide wanted to say

mr_ed · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 6:57 pm Post subject:

Every HW vendor is assigned a block of MAC addresses. I don't know where it was that I looked. I think it was Google-related.

When trying to make a kernel, I had to pick which model of network card, but my explicit type wasn't there. Even after finding out it was a soho card.

So... I included every network option. Smile

mr_ed · Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2003 2:35 pm Post subject:

Ok. This is strange.

I went to the site in Ottawa (ftp.nrc.ca -- 132.246.2.21) and I got the "Loading data into ramdisk (45800 kB)" when I picked the directory, but I couldn't get any packages at all! Weird.

Then I tried using the mirror in Boston: 194.199.20.114, which worked... up to a point.

That point was probably 2am or so, where it lost the connection. I still can't connect to 194.199.20.114. Sad

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 11799 Location: Iowa

Have you tried any others??

mmmna · . . . . Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 7089

2 am is a common time for mirrors to update, maybe the FTP site went offline for that reason?
If so, maybe try connecting earlier in the day?

_________________
-Ubuntu Desktop 64 Bit 9.10 on Celeron D Desktop,
-Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 on EeePC 900A with Atom n270.

mr_ed · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 3:29 pm Post subject:

I got it to install fine after trying the mirror in Chicago.

Well... sort of. It detected that I had a Radeon video card, but I had to manually enter that my monitor was an LG 915FT Plus. And the XF86Config file that it set up was b0rked.
I had to boot into Knoppix, mount the drive as writeable, and take selected parts of the Knoppix XF86Config-4 file.

(sigh) Why can't things just work?

crouse · Site Admin Joined: 17 Apr 2003 Posts: 11799 Location: Iowa

Hmmmm worked / setup as easy as Mandrake, must have been your monitor.....

Glad you got it working though !! Smile

mr_ed · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 3:42 pm Post subject:

Yeah. It's nice to have the CDs, though. I think I prefer Mandrake over SuSE, so far, though, even though it looks like I can burn CDs with SuSE right away (although it doesn't detect DVD either. Sad

)

mmmna · . . . . Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 7089

mr_ed · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2003 3:46 pm Post subject:

It makes me want to make my own distribution (not that I have time or the skillz or anything)

This new fancy distribution would autodetect your devices like they do on the LiveCDs, and then build you a kernel, sticking in only the devices into the kernel (and loading the correct modules) that the particular system needs.

I would, of course, need something to detect for change of hardware... or make it a user option.

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