I want to install opensuse on my old mini sony vaio P (specs: cpu Intel ATOM 1.8, 2gb ram, 64 SSD, Intel GMA 500).
The problem is that when I boot with the ubs stick to install opensuse… it runs ok… select language, keyboard… and then there is an error that source medium is not available, it asks me to select but the usb stick is not present… I can only see the hard drive partitions… not the usb stick and so I cannot continue with the install because the is no source medium. This is very strange because the source medium is the usb stick just used to boot the installation…
please give me some advice on this.
Thanks.
Btw, I created the usb stick as I normally do, burn iso to usb stick with SUSE Studio Image Writer.
On 2014-12-01, ru1marante <ru1marante@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I want to install opensuse on my old mini sony vaio P (specs: cpu Intel
> ATOM 1.8, 2gb ram, 64 SSD, Intel GMA 500).
>
> The problem is that when I boot with the ubs stick to install opensuse…
> it runs ok… select language, keyboard… and then there is an error that
> source medium is not available, it asks me to select but the usb stick
> is not present… I can only see the hard drive partitions… not the usb
> stick and so I cannot continue with the install because the is no source
> medium. This is very strange because the source medium is the usb stick
> just used to boot the installation…
I have installed openSUSE on over a dozen of VAIO laptops but I have always done so using DVD media rather than USB
sticks - even using a USB-connected DVD drive when the laptop did not have an internal DVD drive. If you do really wish
to use a USB stick to install I suspect you might have more luck booting up and installing with the live KDE or GNOME
images.
I also have a Vaio PRO 13 and I did the installation with the usb stick without any problems… so I think it is a hardware related problem… some how, after the initial boot of the installation of opensuse, the ubs stick in use to boot is no longer detected… something like this… I think.
I don’t have an external dvd… so I really need to do it using the usb stick… or… I may try to install via network… not a perfect solution because for sure it will take much more time… but maybe it will work… I’ll try this tonight.
On 2014-12-01, ru1marante <ru1marante@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> I also have a Vaio PRO 13 and I did the installation with the usb stick
> without any problems… so I think it is a hardware related problem…
> some how, after the initial boot of the installation of opensuse, the
> ubs stick in use to boot is no longer detected… something like this… I
> think.
Interesting. I have a VIAO Pro 13 too and have to say it installed and runs openSUSE beautifully. I think you are right
in that it might be a BIOS/hardware issue, if the same USB pen does different things on different computers. IIRC the
Atom 1.8 (on your P11) does support x86_64 OSs. Does the USB pen still reach the same stage on your Pro 13 (obviously
don’t install!)? If not, then it might be worth running a media check.
> I don’t have an external dvd… so I really need to do it using the usb
> stick… or… I may try to install via network… not a perfect solution
> because for sure it will take much more time… but maybe it will work…
> I’ll try this tonight.
You could try that but I suspect there will might be more mileage in a USB Live Install. The Live install ISO is smaller
than the DVD because it contains only one Desktop Environment (although you can add more to your hard drive install
later). You can use the Live install media to boot to a desktop environment, from where you can connect to the internet
and install openSUSE 13.2 to your hard drive.
An existence proof to the contrary:
I used dd(1) to write the 13.2-i586 .iso to a cheap 8GB USB stick purchased at Microcenter (thus, overwriting the FAT32 formatting). It never (so far) fails the media check.
Ok maybe I was too strong with “always”. The problem is that sometimes small differences happen like an extra sector or some blank bytes added to the end to fill the last sector. This messes up the check sum. You just lucked out that the sectors matched up. But if you should run one of the desktop versions the image actually changes due to persistence. The point being you can not rely on a media check on a USB to be correct. It can give false negatives. Checking the iso check sum at down load is enough since the copy to a USB is very very reliable but a burn to a DVD/CD is not because of physical differences on how the data is actually stored. You can have a bad DVD. You can have a bad burn but having a bad copy to USB is very very unlikely, approaching zero.
well… I tried to do a network install but that also didn’t work… at the stage of setting up the network, I put in all the necessary parameters (SSID, encryption type, pass…) but then it fails to connect and retrieve an IP address from the router… and looking at the router log and DHCP leases I can see that it did not reach the router.
So, I guess that opensuse 13.2 is not compatible with this little machine’s hardware. The hardware is 4 years old and it has some “particular” specs… so, maybe that is it.
But, as suggested in many web pages, I tried Linux Mint and it installed without any problems. I have to say that I’m very impressed by this Linux Mint… it runs very fast, the install process is very very simple and it went without any trouble what so ever!
So, for now, I’ll have to do with the Mint
Obviously this is not a machine for heavy work… it’s just for net, emails, skype, some videos during flights… stuff like that. So, maybe this Mint is the way to go! I had never tried before but I have to say that I’m very impressed with the performance on a ATOM cpu.
btw, I have installed Mint using the exactly same usb stick.
Check again that the downloaded image is correct, with the checksum of your choice.
Also, check that a problem did not take place in writing the ISO to the stick. Or, if you have successfully installed from this stick as it currently is in the past, perhaps something has failed or corrupted since.
You could try rewriting to the stick, if your downloaded image checks out.
You could dd to the device (sdX, not sdX1, where X is the correct device designation for the stick on your system) and that gives the most reliable result.
If as you say a media check cannot reliably be performed on a USB stick, then as an OS installation medium it is not fit for purpose. I would only rely on a MD5/sha512 checksum alone from a download if and only if it was installed directly from hard drive (e.g. Gentoo’s bunzipped stage 3 tarball). While I agree an image written to USB stick is unlikely to be corrupt, I am not as confident as you that the same image will be absolutely fine a few months later, especially after going through a number of airport scanners that emit goodness knows what kind of radiation! Perhaps all the OP needed to do is rewrite the ISO image onto the USB drive…
I’m almost sure the problem is the hardware… and when I say hardware, I’m not talking about the usb stick.
But today I’m going to download it again, check the checksum, “burn” it into another usb stick and try again.
I’m used to use opensuse, so I would prefer to have opensuse rather than Mint… but if opensuse doesn’t work, I think I’ll be ok with Mint. (now that I know it works fine)
On 2014-12-02, ru1marante <ru1marante@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> I’m used to use opensuse, so I would prefer to have opensuse rather than
> Mint… but if opensuse doesn’t work, I think I’ll be ok with Mint. (now
> that I know it works fine)
>
> Thanks for your replies.
>
> Rui
Nothing wrong with Mint. Glad you have it up and running. Use what works!
Mint installs via Live boot to desktop. Therefore if Mint worked, I’m pretty sure the Live openSUSE will also work. You
can access the Live install ISOs from the http://sofware.opensuse.org/132/en by clicking on the link under the Network' box which says Click here to display these alternative versions’ (rubbish webpage design I agree). This is now the
third time I’ve recommended this as your best solution, so please feel free to ignore this advice yet again.
On 2014-12-02, ru1marante <ru1marante@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> I’m used to use opensuse, so I would prefer to have opensuse rather than
> Mint… but if opensuse doesn’t work, I think I’ll be ok with Mint. (now
> that I know it works fine)
>
> Thanks for your replies.
>
> Rui
Nothing wrong with Mint. Glad you have it up and running. Use what works!
Mint installs via Live boot to desktop. Therefore if Mint worked, I’m pretty sure the Live openSUSE will also work. You
can access the Live install ISOs from the http://software.opensuse.org/132/en by clicking on the link under the Network' box which says Click here to display these alternative versions’ (rubbish webpage design I agree). This is
now the third time I’ve recommended this as your best solution, so please feel free to ignore this advice yet again.
I have tried to install using a different usb stick… same problem.
I have tried to install using the live version… the live runs out of the usb fine (slow, but fine) but then when I tried to install it I got some errors (file name too long… something like this…) and then I was unable to create the necessary root partition… the system complains that it cannot mount root (/) because / is already mounted to the usb stick! LOL
in fact it is… but if I remove the mount / from the usb stick, then the installation medium is gone
confusing… any way… opensuse 13.2 is running very very well on my vaio pro 13… on this little vaio P I can live very well with Mint (after I set up the proper graphical driver).
How odd! If you feel the urge to pursue the USB Live problem, please feel free to post back the details here, but at least you have Mint running - which is also a very distribution in my opinion!
