Cannot install 11.3 from USB flash drive

[whych]

@pistazienfresser
I tried the straight 'create isohybrid dvd.iso and then dd to usb' method and it fails. It would probably work if you used the net.iso and did a hdd install, though.

I created a live gnome usb and it booted fine and created a persistemt install, but failed when I rebooted.

I have found the only reliable ways of installing are either by:

1. Extract the dvd.iso to a linux parttion and then either use the grub boot method (first install/upgrade on my netbook)

or

2. use the net.iso on usb (after running isohybrid) and use the hdd install method. (doing that now and at 44% of install) For this method, the dvd can be extracted to any partition flavour (ext3, vfat, etc.)

I did manage to install rc2 via a live image over the internet, but since I don't want to have to d/load all the files for every install, I wanted to install to everything via dvd.iso.

No, I haven't posted a bug report.

[hendersj]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:16:02 +0000, whych wrote:

> @hendersj
>>
>> Or use fdisk (as I did) and follow whych's suggestion. I did that
>> myself
>> and with the caveat that I had to disconnect the NIC so the installer
>> didn't try to install over the network, I was able to select "local
>> hard
>> drive installation" and install from my flash drive.
>>
> Does this mean that the live iso will also allow a hdd install if there
> is no network connected? ... Or did you use the net.iso? The net.iso
> boot menu should give an 'install from' option (F4 I think) where you
> should be able to choose the medium.

The live iso has a hdd install icon on the desktop - it'll install a copy
of the live system (GNOME or KDE), but nothing else.

Given the choice, the net install gave me the most flexibility in the
installation, but having the NIC plugged in I never was prompted for an
installation source. With the NIC unplugged, the net install detected my
wireless card and asked questions about authentication, but I was able to
back out of that to do a HDD install from the flash drive.

I didn't note an option to do the install from source, but let me boot it
up again and see - I might've missed that. :-)

> Another way that worked in the past for those dual booting from windows
> is to dd copy the dvd image to a usb drive and then run the
> openSUSE11.3-local.exe in windows. This add a suse hdd install option to
> the windows boot menu.

That's cool, though I am not running Windows on that test system. It
actually was running one of the 11.3 milestone builds, but I wanted to do
the install from the DVD. Downside was that it took longer to copy the
files from the DVD to the USB drive than it would have to burn the disc -
but I just used cp, rsync might've been quicker.

Jim

--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator

[hendersj]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:16:02 +0000, whych wrote:

> The net.iso boot menu should give an 'install from' option (F4 I think)
> where you should be able to choose the medium.

Yep, it does, I missed that first time around. That's handy. :-)

Jim

--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator

[ZStefan]

3) already filed a bug report to bugzilla?

But I think this is a very severe issue:

a) according to Product highlights of open SUSE 11.3

aa) the Netbook Support is the first listed (first and foremost?) of the "Top Features" of openSUSE 11.3
and that netbook support
includes the 2 new graphical environments/special interfaces (Plasma Netbook Workspace from the KDE team and MeeGo on openSUSE - Code named Smeegol - from the openSUSE Goblin team ) especially for netbooks

A bugzilla report has been submitted, bug # 623226:

While the installation DVD image does not need to be modified as it is already out, preparing an iso image for installation from USB memory sticks should not be difficult.

Hopefully they do this and distribute it in parallel to the DVD io image, or supply us with instructions.

In the world full of small laptops and netbooks, the lack of installation USB stick is a serious blow to popularity of opensuse.

[ZStefan]

I am thinking: what about putting the full ISO image files on another partition of the installation USB flash drive? Will it be useful?

Namely, begin with a 16 GB memory stick. Prepare it for installation. About 11 GB will be left free.

Create a partition, say ext3, in that 11 GB space. Copy a mounted iso image's files onto the partition.

But how to use it?

[whych]

@hedersj
If you want to save the dvd.iso as a single file, you can't do it on vfat - the file is too big, so you need ext3 or ntfs. Extracting it is fine, of cours, no matter what the file system.
But ... if you want to add a menu item to boot from grub to from the disk, you need to use ext3.
Also:

The live iso has a hdd install icon on the desktop - it'll install a copy
of the live system (GNOME or KDE), but nothing else.

OK, I thought perhaps that I was missing something here - the way you missed the installation source.
But this is good because if you unplug/disable the network and install from the live image, you can add the dvd iso image directly as the installation source in your yast software repos (yast2>software>s/ware repos)
@ZStefan - this should answer your question of what to do with the isos.
I do this with mine - it saves connecting to the internet when you want to install something new.

[ash25]

@ZStefan
I know, I only just discovered this when I tried just now.
It works with most other distros but not the latest 11.3. (I know, I have used it to install SLES to a server without dvd drive that won't boot from usb, as well as some other distros.)
I haven't tried, but I suspect a modification something like the article mentions for fedora is needed for 11.3 too.

Easiest for me was:
Extract the dvd.iso to hdd or ext3 formatted usb.
Add an install option to the grub menu'lst using the image locations on the ext3 usb stick like so:

title Boot openSUSE 11.3 install
root (hdx,y)
kernel /boot/i386/loader/linux
initrd /boot/i386/loader/initrd

It will give a few errors on boot, but go back from the error till you get the text based gtk menu options and choose to install from hdd.
When it asks for the repo add a / to the box.
The rest of the install will go fine.

You need not even extract the ISO image file - just copying it some location on an ext3/4 artition and specifying the absolute path for the .ISO file does the trick (I have faced some strange errors if the partition were NTFS).... This is the most reliable method I always use for openSUSE (since 10.x) and FC....

[vael]

A bugzilla report has been submitted, bug # 623226:

While the installation DVD image does not need to be modified as it is already out, preparing an iso image for installation from USB memory sticks should not be difficult.

Hopefully they do this and distribute it in parallel to the DVD io image, or supply us with instructions.

In the world full of small laptops and netbooks, the lack of installation USB stick is a serious blow to popularity of opensuse.

I Agree!!
USB install should be as easy as CD or DVD.
I have been working to install opensuse 11.3 on my minilap for about 24 hrs and guess what. NOTHING WORKS !
:@

[whych]

@vael
Use one of the live images. You can use either dd to copy it to usb stick or the rawrite tools (in the download.opensuse.org dvd repo under dostools if you use windows.)
If you are using linux and dd, first do an fdisk -l as (root) without the usb plugged in and then again with it plugged in and note the device name (/dev/sdx).

Now unmount the usb and in a root terminal cd to the directory where you stored the live iso and type the command:
dd if=openSUSE<imagename>.iso of-/dev/sdx.

You can now boot and install from this image.

If you get lost, there is plenty of help already in the forum posts and on the download page on how to create the live usb.

Having thought a bit about the dvd problems, I think perhaps opensuse is wanting to go the same way as other distros where you install from a live.iso image rather than dvd.

[ZStefan]

Thanks to your ideas, I finally found a long way to create an installation USB memory stick for opensuse 11.3. Haven't tested yet, since the computer to install is not with me now. Here are the steps.

Use an 8 GB memory stick. Don't use the Live CD image.

Download and process the net installation's iso image with isohybrid as described earlier. Use the latest version of the package syslinux which contains the isohybrid executable.

Transfer the processed net iso image onto memory stick with dd. This will create a bootable partition on the stick.

With fdisk, create another partition on the memory stick. Do not use the full available space; leave 1 - 2 GB unused. The new partition will be a primary partition, number 2. Do not use Yast for this.

Format the partition with ext2 in Yast or with mkfs.

Mount the main installation DVD image and the newly created partition.

Copy files from the DVD image to the new partition with

time cp -r /mnt_iso/* /mnt_ext2/; sync

Do not copy the iso image itself. The copying takes a long time.

Boot from the memory stick. At the first screen, with F4 select /dev/sdX2 as installation source.

The installer will later complain that the source is no good. Enter the same source manually:
Disk = /dev/sdX2
Directory = /