Does SuSE depend on Microsoft ?

English Open Chat
#1

Hi, I just downloaded the last tumbleweed from 21.11.2015 and leap 42.1 from 18.11.2015 and have some problems to install them on my home PC with Pentium Core ASUS board computer. The installation procedure showed some 30 checksum errors, ask me if I agree to install and advising not to do so. The obvious step is to look at sha1256 checksum given on https://software.opensuse.org/421/en with IP (195.135.221.134) it is given to:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

8576e84822cdbe566bf551e28a169fc028229831eba9f07a4c1f84302c5ddb09 openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso

and it agrees. As the system still refused to install properly I looked at the DVD:

ls -l

razem 4540448
-rw-r–r-- 1 zbyszek users 4648337408 11-22 09:37 openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso
-rw-r–r-- 1 zbyszek users 1077213 11-21 21:17 openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso.meta4
-rw-r–r-- 1 zbyszek users 631 11-20 21:20 openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso.sha256

and:

fdisk -l openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso

Dysk openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso: 4,3 GiB, bajtów: 4648337408, sektorów: 9078784
Jednostki: sektorów, czyli 1 * 512 = 512 bajtów
Rozmiar sektora (logiczny/fizyczny) w bajtach: 512 / 512
Rozmiar we/wy (minimalny/optymalny) w bajtach: 512 / 512
Typ etykiety dysku: dos
Identyfikator dysku: 0x20ca2c8b

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso1 3780 11339 7560 3,7M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso2 * 11340 9078783 9067444 4,3G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS

I hope the output in polish language will not disturb you. Obviously the iso image, which I burned the DVD from
has two partitions: one NTFS-like and some hidden one FAT-like with 3,7 MB. What’s on the second one:

let s=“11340 * 512”; echo $s

5806080

mount -o loop,offset=$s openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso /tmp/m2

mount: /dev/loop1 jest zabezpieczone przed zapisem, montowanie tylko do odczytu

Which means in english read-only mouting

#ls -l /tmp/m1
razem 37947
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 9679745 10-30 00:28 ARCHIVES.gz
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 79 09-11 12:28 autorun.inf
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 10-30 00:29 boot
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 27573480 10-30 00:26 ChangeLog
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 12621 10-30 00:29 content
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 481 10-30 00:29 content.asc
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 988 10-30 00:29 content.key
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 50056 10-27 11:18 control.xml
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 299 10-30 00:29 directory.yast
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 10-30 00:21 docu
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 10-30 00:21 EFI
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 673 10-25 15:42 gpg-pubkey-307e3d54-4be01a65.asc
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 1059 10-25 15:42 gpg-pubkey-3dbdc284-53674dd4.asc
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 18092 10-25 15:42 GPLv2.txt
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 35147 10-25 15:42 GPLv3.txt
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 10-30 00:29 images
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 67232 10-30 00:28 INDEX.gz
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 42143 10-25 15:42 license.tar.gz
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 104162 10-30 00:28 ls-lR.gz
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 10-30 00:29 media.1
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 616666 09-11 12:28 openSUSE42_1_LOCAL.exe
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 631783 09-11 12:28 openSUSE42_1_NET.exe
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 1177 10-25 15:42 README
dr-xr-xr-x 5 root root 2048 10-30 00:21 suse
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 2238 10-25 15:42 SuSEgo.ico

Two given exe files are not just from the former DOS but as one could expect:

strings /tmp/m2/openSUSE42_1_LOCAL.exe | grep microsoft

an so on …

I got known that an exe starter is given intentionally since 2012 to allow Linux installation from Windows.
It is surely a special comfort to start the installation procedure without rebooting. I also don’t suspect
anything directly bad, but obviously placing Windows executables in a Linux DVD provokes a situation
in which one day starting Linux with allowance of microsoft will appear technically satisfactory.

And why a SuSE DVD hat two partitions ?
This is not quite true ! Two partitions appear only with an old fdisk, which nobody uses. A standard fdisk
from DOS does not exist any more. It has been incorporated into chkdsk, but chkdisk refuses to touch
read only devices. The two partitions are in reality a sort of mixture violencing a tradition partition table.

Could somebody explain what I see in the newest SUSE distro in more details ?

Best
Zbigniew Lisiecki ( http://zbyszek.evot.org )

#2

Oh, sorry, I gave the output of

ls /tmp/m1

with

mount -o loop openSUSE-Leap-42.1-DVD-x86_64.iso /tmp/m1

which is more or less the same as m2

#3

I cannot explain the checksum errors. That might indicate a bad burn to DVD.

The “*.exe” files seem to be for install from Windows. As far as I know, all that they do is add a boot entry to the Windows boot manager, to boot the DVD. You still need the DVD to install. They don’t actually do the install from Windows. I’ve never tried using those. I alway install with a direct boot of the install medium.

On the two partitions (the “fdisk” output) – the install image (the “*.iso” file) is a hybrid. It is designed so that you can write to a DVD (as you did), but you can also write to a USB (typically a raw copy as with the “dd” command). When written to USB, the USB will show as having two partitions. One of those is a small EFI partition, needed for booting on the newer UEFI hardware. The other partition is the main install image with an iso9660 file system, which will show as read-only (because iso9660 is designed for CD and DVD read-only devices).

The only Microsoft dependency that I am aware of, is that the file “shim.efi” has a Microsoft signature so that it can be used with secure-boot enabled in the newer UEFI hardware. If secure-boot is disabled in the firmware, then that signature doesn’t matter. Redhat, Fedora, Ubuntu all depend on “shim.efi” being signed by Microsoft if you want to use them with secure-boot enabled.

I hope I answered all of your outstanding questions.