clarification on booting 11.0 Install from a hard disk

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

My DVD won’t boot from the DVD Drive. It times out and boots from the HD instead. So I need to boot the Install DVD from the hard drive, but need some clarifications to the instructions found on the DVD.

For a hard disk installation it says to copy the files “linux” (the kernel) and “initrd” (the installation system) to the hard disk. So my first question is can they be copied anywhere on the hard disk, or do they have to go into a specific folder?

It then goes onto say to add the appropriate entry of the existing boot loader. So my next question is what is the filename and location of my existing boot loader? And what is the appropriate entry I’m supposed to add there?

I’m currently using 10.3 and I don’t want that being destroyed by this new installation. I’m planning to install 11.0 into a partition with and older version of openSUSE installed on it.

Any advice is appreciated.

#2

What do you mean by it won’t boot? Have you set your BIOS to boot from the CD (DVD) drive? Does it load the DVD boot but then continues on to boot from the hard drive? If the latter, then you need to select the Installation option, as by default, the install DVD boots the hard drive after it begins.

#3

Yes I’ve set the bios to boot from the DVD drive. It reads the drive but still continues to boot off the hard drive. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the DVD. I can read it perfectly after I’ve booted. It looks like there just isn’t enough time in the boot process to begin the boot off the DVD. Anyhow, this is not the issue. The issue is how to boot the installation DVD off the hard drive

#4

Anybody? Surely this isn’t a difficult question to answer?

#5

I’m still looking for an answer to this question.

#6

Tell us more precisely what do you want to do.

How did you get the DVD?

It seems that the first sentence of post #1 and the last sentence of post #3 are either wrong or not understandable - clarify please.

#7

I don’t see any conflict between the first sentence in post #1 and the last sentence in post #3.

I want to boot the DVD from the hard disk drive, as per the instructions on the DVD documentation.

I got the DVD from my friend who downloaded it for me. Which is probably the reason why it won’t boot directly to the DVD because it wasn’t burnt on my computer.

I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about what I want to do.

#8

Perhaps if you burn the DVD/CD with the slowest possible burn speed. There is a good explanation of this in the first post under install/boot/login.

#9

This question is not about the DVD or my DVD Drive. It’s about transferring the required files to the hard drive, so I can boot the DVD from the hard drive.

#10

You need to add the kernel and initrd files to /boot and then to add a new entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst boot using this kernel and initrd. The entry will be similar to the existing entries (which you should not disturb) in particular in the device names. Also you don’t need all those options, I think it’s sufficient to name the kernel and the initrd. I think there is a tute somewhere on the opensuse.org site about this method of booting the installer, but since I haven’t had to do this recently, I can’t give you the exact URL.

#11

Thank you. this is the information I’ve been asking for.