Can't install/boot a liveCD

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello, I’ve just downloaded the ( openSUSE-11.1-KDE4-LiveCD-i686.iso ) and burnt it … booted just fine
now there is no installation choice.
there is:

openSuSE 11.1 (KDE)
Fail Safe
Boot from Hard Disk
Memory Test

or something similar.

Anyway when i choose the first one it loads then i enter a linux shell asking for a login and password - the “linux” username seemed to login without a pass but i absolutely have no idea how to install linux from a shell.
Where is the GUI installation.

and Boot from Hard Disk … boots my WinXp.

I have:
Celeron 1.7GHz
512MB of ram
Geforce FX 5500 card
MSI-645(MS-6737) mobo
40GB hdd (IDE) … (a free 3GB partition waiting to have openSuSE on it)

Help!

2

I am little confused from this post, but when you want install liveCD you must boot it and on desktop is icon Live Install which start installation. So please specify what step fail.

3

ya i was hopping i could get to the desktop to probably install it … but after the loading of the kernel, I’m in a linux shell … not the Desktop.

So i guess the step that fails is the loading of the desktop :\

4

when you have got to prompt by login as root
try
/sbin/yast2 live-installer

5

So it dropped you to a command line? Strange.
Did you burn the iso at a fast or slow speed? Slow is better.

What happens when you type “startx” at the command prompt?

6

@ramaswamyps: Thanks, i logged in as root then typed “yast” managed to get to the installer but i got another error.

@plasmonics: Actually when i typed “startx” as root the Desktop loaded out (Yay :)) Thanks alot.

But now i got another issue (please bare withe me :|)
where you configure which partition is main and which is swap.

i already partitioned a 3GB for main and a 700MB for swap
the 3GB is (sda3) and the 700MB is (sda4)
so i choose to “Create Partition Setup …” in the installation and
“Edit” the sda3 to be formated as Ext3 and Mount Point as “/” and
“Edit” the sda4 to be formated as Swap and Mount Point as “swap”

Then when finishing the installation i get an error:
"Failure occurred during following action:
setting type of partition /dev/sda4 to 82

System error code was: -1012"

what did i do wrong in the previous steps !

Thanks alot guys for helping.

7

How did you create those two partitions? I would try booting Gparted CD and delete those two partitions. Then recreate them using Gparted. This program also has error checking mechanisms.

Also, I would suggest using “Custom Partitioning” in the SUSE installer and not use their automatic mode.

You can always install SUSE without swap and once it is up and running you can easily add swap. For a desktop with a lot of RAM you don’t really need swap. But for a laptop you need swap for suspend/hibernate.

8

I created them with “Paragon Partition Manager” under windows.
and ya i did use custom partitioning these steps was in it.

also I’ve read that if my system runs out of memory (with no swap) it can get pretty messy … and i have a 512MB of ram … you can never be too careful :slight_smile:

Anyway i guess I’m gonna go with that Gparted CD.
Thanks plasmonics.

9

Problem Solved:
The main partition needed to be a (Primary) one,
The swap partition needed to be an extended (Logical) one.

Incase anyone was having the same problem as i did :wink:

10

Are you sure this is the underlying cause? I have openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE-64 bit, and Slackware all on logical. My swap happens to be on primary. But on my other machine swap is on logical also. Linux/Grub doesn’t care where it is installed. It might have more to do with the Vista partition tool incorrectly forming type 83 and 82 partitions.

11

Well when both partitions were Primary … yast gave an error about the swap partition.

When i made both Logical … yast gave an error about the ext3 partition.

When i made the swap (Logical) and ext3 (Primary) , yast installed suse to hdd just fine.

so whatever the problem is … i think it has something to do with yast :\

12

in yast2 live-installer select custom partition
when your partitions show up select the partition for swap and edit it. select format and mount it as swap finish
then select another partition edit format ext3 mount as /
then look at what it is going to do marked red.
if you are happy start install.
edit the partitions untill you get what selections you want. only commit install when you are sure.
best luck:)

13

Keep in mind that when you shrink a partition in windows, you can leave the free space as “unallocated”. You don’t have to try to make 83 and 82 type partitions from the windows software. There are problems with this approach. The SUSE installer can do all of that and more. It can also shrink your windows partition.