Bootable USB stick creation issue

Hi,

I am new with OpenSuse, never used it. I want to install it from USB key.
I followed this Howto
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick#Using_commandline_tools
then with the script live-fat-stick
on 2 different 8 BG sticks

  • First question: Is it habitual that the key doesn’t mount on one Fedora 23 box?

When I try to install on another computer, I can boot then I get the menu: Boot…, Upgrade, Rescue…, Check installation Media.
When I choose Check installation Media, kernel is loading then I get a red image with “This is not a openSUSE media”. Then I click OK I get a menu language selection then Main Menu.
When I try to install I get a list of source medium but no USB key.

  • Question: What am I doing wrong?

Many thanks

Not sure what you mount which partition on the drive? Show command

Check installation media is only for DVD

Don’t under stand this at all

“When I try to install I get a list of source medium but no USB key.”

You cannot use “live-fat-stick” with the DVD installer. The “iso” file is larger than the largest allowed FAT file.

If you are creating the USB with linux, then you can use “dd”, as in:

# dd if=/path/to/iso-file of=/dev/sdX

where the “/dev/sdX” should be replaced by the correct device for your USB key, and the “/path/to/iso-file” should be replaced by the actual path on your system.

Thanks for you answers.

Another track. I did

$ gpg --recv-keys 9C800ACA
gpg: requesting key 9C800ACA from hkp server keys.gnupg.net
gpg: key 9C800ACA: "SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:              unchanged: 1

$ wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/iso/openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
--2016-06-26 13:31:30--  http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/iso/openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
Resolving download.opensuse.org (download.opensuse.org)... 195.135.221.134, 2001:67c:2178:8::13
Connecting to download.opensuse.org (download.opensuse.org)|195.135.221.134|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 481 [application/pgp-keys]
Saving to: ‘openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc’

openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live 100%===============================>]     481  --.-KB/s    in 0s      

2016-06-26 13:31:31 (60.8 MB/s) - ‘openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc’ saved [481/481]

$ gpg -a openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
Detached signature.
Please enter name of data file: openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso
gpg: Signature made Tue 04 Nov 2014 12:35:26 GMT using RSA key ID 3DBDC284
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found

Maybe I should fix this error first. How?

Some isos are signed with key 9C800ACA

% gpg --list-keys 9C800ACApub   1024D/9C800ACA 2000-10-19 [expires: 2018-03-17]
uid         full  ] SuSE Package Signing Key <build@suse.de>
sub   2048g/8495160C 2000-10-19 [expires: 2018-03-17]

and some isos are signed with key 3DBDC284

% gpg --list-keys 3DBDC284
pub   2048R/3DBDC284 2008-11-07 [expires: 2024-05-02]
uid         full  ] openSUSE Project Signing Key <opensuse@opensuse.org>

I have both keys on my keyring. You have only one of them. I guess you need

$ gpg --recv-keys 3DBDC284

I’m not quite sure how they handled this. I usually download the “iso” with “aria2c” and that often has a gpg signature in the meta-file for the download. Sometimes I download another way, and pick up the “.asc” signature from the download site. Those two methods use different signing keys.

More recently, as with Leap, there is a separate “.sha256” file with its own signature (signed with key 3DBDC284). So I verify the signature of the sha256 file, and then I separately verify the sha256 checksum. So, for the Leap 42.1 iso, I would have used:

gpg --verify openSUSE-Leap-42.1-NET-x86_64.iso.sha256
sha256sum -c openSUSE-Leap-42.1-NET-x86_64.iso.sha256

to check signatures.

I removed the file openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
then did

$ gpg --recv-keys 3DBDC284
gpg: requesting key 3DBDC284 from hkp server keys.gnupg.net
gpg: key 3DBDC284: "openSUSE Project Signing Key <opensuse@opensuse.org>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:              unchanged: 1

$ wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/iso/openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
--2016-06-26 14:35:41--  http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/iso/openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
Resolving download.opensuse.org (download.opensuse.org)... 195.135.221.134, 2001:67c:2178:8::13
Connecting to download.opensuse.org (download.opensuse.org)|195.135.221.134|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 481 [application/pgp-keys]
Saving to: ‘openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc’

openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live 100%===============================>]     481  --.-KB/s    in 0s      

2016-06-26 14:35:42 (40.3 MB/s) - ‘openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc’ saved [481/481]

$ gpg -a openSUSE-13.2-GNOME-Live-x86_64.iso.asc
Detached signature.
Please enter name of data file: openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso
gpg: Signature made Tue 04 Nov 2014 12:35:26 GMT using RSA key ID 3DBDC284
gpg: BAD signature from "openSUSE Project Signing Key <opensuse@opensuse.org>"

Still not good
So I did a sha256sum and compared with the .sha256 file > My downloaded file is good.

Next…

$ dd if=/Store2/ISO/openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=4M
dd: failed to open ‘/dev/sdf’: Permission denied
[jp@loja ISO]$ su -c 'dd if=/Store2/ISO/openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=4M'
Password: 
1108+1 records in
1108+1 records out
4648337408 bytes (4.6 GB) copied, 863.462 s, 5.4 MB/

Try to install, same error as above: This is not a openSUSE medium
Then Start installation: Choose the source medium > DVD/CD-ROM - Network - Hard disk
NO USB KEY !

Then I did:
Expert > Verify installation Medium > OK
Message: No error found

So my USB install key is good.

Then I do
Start Installation > Installation > Choose the source medium : Hard Disk > Choose the hard drive partition: sdd2 (4.3 GB, iso9660, openSUSE-Lea > OK > Enter the source directory

Cursor is waiting to enter. What is this source directory?

You used the signature for the live Gnome iso to check the DVD installer iso. That’s why it didn’t work.

So I did a sha256sum and compared with the .sha256 file > My downloaded file is good.

Good.

Next…

$ dd if=/Store2/ISO/openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=4M
dd: failed to open ‘/dev/sdf’: Permission denied
[jp@loja ISO]$ su -c 'dd if=/Store2/ISO/openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=4M'
Password: 
1108+1 records in
1108+1 records out
4648337408 bytes (4.6 GB) copied, 863.462 s, 5.4 MB/

That looks okay. But I’m not sure what you did next.

What I do, in that case, is set my BIOS to boot from a USB. In my case, that is fairly easy. I hit F12 during boot, and the BIOS gives me a menu to select the boot device for that one time.

Try to install, same error as above: This is not a openSUSE medium
Then Start installation: Choose the source medium > DVD/CD-ROM - Network - Hard disk
NO USB KEY !

Again, I’m not sure what you are doing to get to that point.

In my experience, if I get to the “Choose the source medium” prompt, then something has gone badly wrong, so I reboot and try again.

Then I did:
Expert > Verify installation Medium > OK
Message: No error found

That check never works for me, when using a USB.

USB is booting, no problem about that.
Then I get the openSUSE menu as describe in my first post
Boot from Hard disk, Installation, Upgrade, Rescue system, Check installation Media, Memory test.
I choose Installation > “Loading Linux kernel” after a while …

I am writing in the same time I boot the computer and now I have a menu I never got so far with mouse cursor (previously it was a menu keyboard only). It looks to be the install menu.

I don’t know why it’s working now, I did remove the USB key when I have shut down the computer last time and I started again now!!!

I’ll install and keep you informed.

I’m glad that it seems to be working this time.

It’s hard to guess what went wrong.

On the other hand – I remember an older computer. It came with USB1, and had a plugin USB2 card. If I put the install usb in one of the USB2 ports, I would have the kind of problem that you describe. I had to use the USB1 ports that the BIOS knew about.

Partitions:
/ = BtrFS
/home = xfs
First time I see that, do you keep it. Why?
Moreover I have 2 other data HD in ext4.

Edit:
Do you keep / at 40 GB, it looks big for me, I use to take 15 GB for /

I’m using “ext4”.

I’ve experimented with “btrfs”. It has a marvellous ability to do stuff that I don’t need.

Yes, with “btrfs”, you will need 40G. It has these things called “snapshots”. To a first approximation, a snapshot is what your file system looked like at the time the snapshot was taken. So you can roll back to an earlier snapshot for recovery.

As a result, the partition fills up with those snapshots. That’s why you need 40G.

If you don’t want BTRFS or XFS just select ext4. Those are just the current defaults. You do need 40GIG + for root if you use BTRFS because of snapshots. Since you have additional data partitions you should go to expert mode anyway and set things the way you want.

I want to use MATE as DE. I was hoping to find it in the install, no luck.

As they say: “The environment is pretty ugly. You can install MATE over ncurses YaST or terminal.”

Do you install another DE? What is the best ans easier way to do it, ncurses YaST or terminal?

Install “Minimal X” as desktop. Then install MATE later.

Or, during install, tell the installer to use online repos (and use both the main OSS and the update repo).

Then, during install, click on “Software”. The software selection screen will have patterns for MATE. But you have to use online repos to see that during install, since MATE is not on the installer iso.

If you instead select “Minimal X” without the online repos, then you get “Icewm” as desktop. You can use Yast after install to select the MATE pattern.

I did a new test install in the way you advised.
I selected MATE (2 ticks) in Software.
After reboot I get a blue screen with a bottom panel.
In this panel the main menu is xterm, Xchat, Gimp, SUZE, Windows, Help, Settings, Logout.

This is icewm. How to get MATE at boot? and better is it possible to set it up directly in the install process?

I forgot about that issue.

Two steps:

  1. Install “lightdm”
  2. Edit “/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager” and set
DISPLAYMANAGER="lightdm"

(It will be current set to “xdm”.

Then reboot, and you should get “lightdm” as a login screen. There you can select which desktop, and MATE should be one of the selections.

Thank you for your help.
I did a new install include MATE and now I have it working but with Suse look, ie: bottom menu,…

As I was using MATE with gnome look theme, I will have to setup a lot of options, ie: Top menu bar, colour, icons on the menu bar, etc.
I can do it manually but I think there are different themes installed and I just need to activate what I want to use.
I can’t find where they are and how to switch to.
Could you help for that?
Hopefully this will be my last question in this install thread.

Sorry. I’m not a MATE user (except for occasional testing). So I don’t know the ins and outs of configuring it the way that you want.

And it is better to start a new thread for your new question. And it should of course have words like MATE in it’s title, to draw the attention of other MATE users.