Hi there
I’m very new to all this. I was trying to install Leap via usb. Following the prompts lead me to a blue screen (well alot of blue screens) but I can’t progress past this last one titled >>>linuxrc 5.0.61 (kernel 4.1.12-1-default)<<< it wants me to tpye something in a field with the heading “Enter the source directory”.
Any sugestions?
How much trouble have I managd to get myself in?:embarrassed:
Yep you messed up. LOL
First off how did you create the USB install?
Did you follow instruction here
https://en.opensuse.org/Live_USB_stick
or did you get some random advise from the Web??
Hi mate!
Yes I was afraid I’d screwed up… lol
Thanks for such a quick response, the computer I’ve borrowed to see me through has been playing up (its almost as old as me!) so sorry for the gap in me replying…
Originally I did try the path from the website you put a link to, but as I’m a dinosaur I couldn’t get the image to write onto the usb in the correct way.
I then tried to use “universal usb installer” (I used the download from the site you sent me) and it went perfectly. Once I rebooted the computer I followed the promts on the screen. Initially the gecko light bulb turned up, and as it was running loops the help that was suggested was to choose “No ACPI”. I did this and it happily stopped looping and then led me down the hole that I am now in 
These are the pages after the No ACPI choice that lead up the the page I can’t get past: the heading for all of them is >>>linuxrc 5.0.61 (kernal 4.1.12-1-default)<<<
1st:
You can leave linuxrc only via
“Start Istallation or System”
You may need to load some drivers (modules) to support your hardware.
I chose OK (the only option)
2nd:
Main Menu
Start Installation
Settings
Experts
Exits or Reboot
I chose Start Installation
3rd:
Installation
Upgrade
Rescue System
Boot Installed System
Network Setup
I chose Installation
4th:
Choose the source medium
DVD/CD-ROM
Network
Hard Disk
I chose Hard Disk
5th:
Choose the hard disk partition
nvme0n1p1 (500MB, vfat, ESP)
nvme0n1p3 (227GB, ntfs, OS)
nvme0n1p4 (852MB, ntfs, WINRETOOLS
nvme0n1p5(10GB, ntfs, Image)
sdal (15GB, vfat, UUI)
I chose sdal (15GB, vfat, UUI)
6th: Enter the source directory
No choices only typing and I don’t have a clue!!!
Does any of that help you/me?
I’ll be around for a few hours before bed, so as long as the computer doesnt kark it again we should be alright…hopfully 
Thank you!!
How old is the hardware and how much memory/CPU/Video card
Looks like you are trying to put the install on the USB that you are installing from?
Have you provided space to install too on the hard drive?. Are you dual booting? If so What Windows version?
Is the machine set up as a RAID disk array?
Is this an UEFI or legacy BIOS machine
15 GIG is too small space to run in If that is all the space you have it need to use EXT4 NOT BTRFS
Default install legacy partitioning these days is swap about same as memory+ root 40 gig using BTRFS 20 using EXT4 then as much for home as you plan to use (that is were your personal stuff goes) For EFI the same but add a small FAT format partition mounted as /boot/efi
I’m afraid I don’t really understand what to do with this sentence… sorry to frustrate. Steep learning curve at my end, which is good, but, well, steep!
You don’t install into a single partition and in any case 15 gig is too small. The default on your hardware assuming you booted the installer in EFI mode and not legacy mode would be
A small (100-150 meg or less) fat partition mounted as /boot/efi
a 8+ gig partition mounted as swap
a 40 gig partition formatted with BTRFS and mounted as / ie root
a home partition usually the rest of the drive formatted as XFS mounted as /home
the boot code should be grub2-efi
If you don’t see that you possible booted in legacy mode
Still don’t understand the single 15 gig partition on a new machine assuming which has Windows on it.
Also be aware that you have complete control if you chose to take it by going to expert mode. You should look and poke a bit it may show you things that you would not see in the automated install…
Also nothing happens until you accept the finally partition scheme screen. Until then you an stop and restart or change things until they are right.
In regards to the 15GB, I thought it was refering to the 16GB usb that I had put the copy of Leap onto as it had UUI (Universal USB Installer) in the title. Wrong end of the stick I suppose?
Right back at the begining after restarting the computer I hit f12 and then chose legacy mode as I thought that under EFI mode it wouldn’t boot from the USB?
Should I try Grub2-efi where it askes me to enter the source directory? just incase i’m in efi?
Should I poke about in expert mode and see what other rabbit holes there are to be found?
And/Or should I force it to turn off, reboot and try things in efi mode? Or do something completely different and more sensible?
It’s reassuring to know that I haven’t done any permanent damage just yet!
Thanks for the help and patience so far, much appreciated. 
You have to know not guess. The Machine is new so it is an EFI BIOS. it is more then just the boot code it is the partitioning and it has to be added to the EFI flash memory
You can install in legacy mode but you can not mix modes if you multi boot. In legacy boot there is no efi boot partition there is an MBR where boot code goes and you use grub2 not grub2-efi and if not multi booting it can put the grub boot into the MBR.
The USB image is set to boot either EFI or legacy either should work I have no idea why an EFI boot of the install media would not work
It looks like the nvme0n1p disk is the hard disk but it normally does not show up like that. It is usually in a sdX# format for the partitions. I assume Windows is on there and I wonder if it is some odd RAID format. May be why things are not wanting to auto install. In any case there is something odd there the makers have done something funcky
If me I’d wipe the disk and start fresh assuming you are going with Linux only. If dual booting you need to go into Windows and resize the partitions to give space for Linux
Hey there Gogalthorp, hope all’s well in your timezone
I apologise in advance if all of this is a waste of your time…
I had a poke about in expert as I re-read you suggested. There was a lot of info, probably a lot of it was useful too, but whether I’ve chosen the right stuff is dubious…
I’ve picked out what seemed to link back to what I had encountered in some way.
1st: under System Information:- Hard Disks or CD-ROMs. There were two listed. The first one was the USB; 15GB. The second I assume is the laptop itself; 238GB. Under Geometry they both say “Logical, BOIS EDD, BIOS Legacy”. The Driver under USB says “USB Storage” and under the laptop say “nvme”… Helpful?..
2nd: Both give me an address:- The usb is: /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-20001020000060804 The Laptop is: /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-200253841591c94cb …?Helpful?..
Next: under Show Configuration:- openSUSE (right down the bottom of the page there is this info that stood out becuase it mentioned the nvme choices I had earlier)…
default repo location: cd:/, hd:/, http:// download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/42.1/repo/oss/
disks: nvme0n1, sda
partition: nvme0n1p1, nvme0n1p2, nvme0n1p3, nvme0n1p4, nvme0n1p5, sda1 …helpful?.. Or am I just typing radom letters that are of no use to you at all…
Actually now I’ve typed all this out, I have no idea how this could be useful to you…
Lastly: under Verify Installation Medium it gave three choices:- 1st. sda: USB, Verbatim Store N Go, 2nd. nvme0n1: Disk Samsung Electronics PM951 NVM SAMSU, 3rd. other device
I didn’t verify anything, but I would imagine; sda: USB… is the correct choice… It is asking what to install FROM, right?
Very lastly I have the option to “Start Shell”, which I imagine could be really helpful in someone elses hands!
Sorry, didn’t see your post as I was exploring expert and typing.
I’d be happy to have a single boot machine but I’m not confident on how to wipe the disk and then install the copy of Leap. Is this something you would be able to lead me through via this chat?
Ok if you want multi boot then go into Windows and resize the partitions to allow space to install Linux.
Also be sure that the Windows feature “Fast boot” is turned off, It may be possible that Fast boot may stop the installer from resizing the partitions to allow space to put the Partitions
For Linux only boot just tell the Installer to remove the existing partitions and replace them with the EFI boot/swap/root/home partitions used by openSUSE. Or you can use any good partitioning software, such as gparted, to clean it all out and start from square one.
If you use Universal USB Installer, it can only work on a MBR disk but not GPT.
My understanding is that UEFI requires GPT?
I am also having problem creating a usb installation media since my created usb fails “installation media check”, which gives “checksum mismatches the DVD installation media is broken” however I used imageusb many times to create it, and imageusb also verified the image writing fine after each creation.
Imageusb is recommended by opensuse guide. I don’t understand though because in the readme file of imageusb, it says "Note: imageUSB is currently only able to handle images (.bin) files that were created by imageUSB. " The opensuse installation DVD is .iso format not bin.
I’m not sure that’s relevant. The installer can partition the disk. My install USB is MBR partitioned, and works fine.
My understanding is that UEFI requires GPT?
Not quite right. For sure GPT is preferred. But, as indicated above, my install USB is MBR partitioned (because the opensuse image came that way), yet I have used it to install with UEFI. There are tricks to get MBR partitioning to work with UEFI, and the iso is generated using those tricks.
I am also having problem creating a usb installation media since my created usb fails “installation media check”, …
As far as I know, the installation media check doesn’t work with a USB. It always gives a fail, even when it is good. If the software that wrote the USB says it is good, then it is probably good. You might be able to do a file compare, provided that you limit the length of the compare to the size of the iso. The problem with a USB is that, as a file, it is longer than the iso. When you write a DVD, the file size of the DVD is the same as the iso size.
Imageusb is recommended by opensuse guide. I don’t understand though because in the readme file of imageusb, it says "Note: imageUSB is currently only able to handle images (.bin) files that were created by imageUSB. " The opensuse installation DVD is .iso format not bin.
It just writes an image file directly to the raw device. The iso is an image file, intended to be directly written to the raw device. The README file is warning you to not use that software for the ordinary writing of ordinary files to ordinary data usb devices.
Thank you for the clarification ! Especially this:* “As far as I know, the installation media check doesn’t work with a USB.”*
Need to check before burning to USB… The USB image by nature of the USB device is changed so the check will not get the correct check sum except by accident. Were as burning to a DVD/CD can be error prone copying an image to USB will not have errors.
Right.
Tried to re-boot the computer without the usb, to get into Windows and turn off fast boot, have a look at partition size…etc. Not possible, Windows will no longer boot at all. Looks like I managed to break it anyway It runs a hardware test and tells me that the hardware is fine, so thats something i guess. So I’m left with trying to get Leap working from where I CAN get into…
If I put the usb back in, go into f12 choose UEFI and the USB I have Leap on, I get to the install page which if I sit at and do nothing eventually tells me that the boot has failed. However if I try the istallation It just loops back around to the light globe and the install page again. If I try any of the options they suggest under help (f1) ie. (f5) ACPI disabled, or Safe Settings, then I end up back at the blue screen and needing to enter a source directory.
If I choose the disable local APIC option I get to a black screen where it tells me “we need a loop device 63.788221] random: nonblocking pool is initiated” and I need to enter something?
These appear to be my choices…
Any ideas?
Ok If me I’d nuke the drive and start again
You should be able to do it from the installer but maybe you need a little simpler way
http://gparted.org/download.php
download the live version and use that to wipe the partitions and start fresh
I’m guessing you have no backup right??
Quite happy to nuke drive.
You’re right I don’t know how to use the installer ,however when you say download gparted, do you mean onto a usb using the machine I’m talking to you on, then transfer it over to the problem comp? Because I don’t have access to the net on the other one…
I have access to Bios with f12 is there a way of doing things through that?
I have a back up of all my important stuff but no back up of Windows itself.
Whatthe…! I was going through the usual loop seeing if something different might happen and it went from the opensuse intall page to windows!! I’m back in Windows??
Right now I seen to have access again what can I do from here?
gparted? or something else?
gparted is a live ISO to be put on a USB
In Window turn off fast boot. Sorry got no idea how I don’t do Windows
In Windows change the size of the partitions to allow space for Linux. It should be continues section of the disk since partitions must be continues. I’d say 50 gig minimum unless you chose to format as EXT4 and not the default BTRFS in which case 30 is OK. On the other hand you may want to leave space for movies and other media. It is really all about your choice
There is something odd about the partitioning since the Installer should offer to resize but it may be that could be due to fast boot
Also best to turn off secure boot in the BIOS since it can interfere on some machines. Be sure to check the secure boot box in the installer and that will allow you to turn it back on after the install is done.