Error message in Terminal after fresh installation of OpenSuse Leap

[Mamunson]

Hello,

I just installed OpenSuse Leap on my laptop and I get this message every time I try to refresh the respos and update:

sudo zypper refresh
Repository 'Packman Repository' is up to date.                                                                
Problem retrieving files from 'openSUSE-Leap-15.5-1'.
Empty destination in URI: hd:/?device=/dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-ventoy
Please see the above error message for a hint.
Skipping repository 'openSUSE-Leap-15.5-1' because of the above error.

[hui]

This is your installation media. Simply remove it via YaST → Software-repositories

Btw, it is not recommended to use Ventoy as it alters the installation media…
https://en.opensuse.org/Create_installation_USB_stick#Ventoy

[Mamunson]

Awesome, many thanks indeed.

[Mamunson]

Question, should I reinstall OpenSuse leap without using Ventoy now that the issue has been resolved?

[mrmazda]

Whatever it is hui and that link are referring to hasn’t affected any installation I used it for. IIRC, the “alteration” can affect whether or not the openSUSE .iso on the Ventoy stick can successfully boot on any particular hardware. My only failure to boot an openSUSE .iso on my Ventoy was on an old iMac.

[hui]

Please don‘t promote Ventoy. openSUSE does not support it. Ventoy alters boot parameters and other stuff in unknown ways. ALL openSUSE bugreports get immediately closed as invalid as soon as it gets known that Ventoy was used for installation. There are several actual cases where Ventoy broke the system.

openSUSE devs do not want to waste time on unsupported crappy third party tools

[suseevoke]

The boot parameter injected by Ventoy got solved in one of their latest releases. The documentation still doesn’t recommend it but if the problem doesn’t come back for a while, it may be changed, although it should still mention a warning about past issues.

[hui]

It is not solved at all. Ventoy adds with each minor version another funky parameter. openSUSE devs are not responsibly and willing to debug the problems created by incompetent 3rd party developers.

Search forum and bugzilla for actual broken installations because of Ventoy.

[suseevoke]

That doesn’t explain why many users have been able to install openSUSE using the latest version of Ventoy without any issue. Yes, Ventoy has caused many issues in the past, but if they solve it, no need to keep being harsh on them. This has been discussed in the Telegram group chat recently, and both admins of the group and a member of the board agreed to the particular issue caused before (rdinit=/vtoy/vtoy) was solved but we should wait longer before changing the docs, in case something else comes up.

If people don’t upgrade their version of Ventoy, nothing can be done.

[malcolmlewis]

@suseevoke Unfortunately, as with all third party repositories and tools, there is no vetting from the openSUSE side, look at the recent xz exploit, how do YOU know all is good with that software

[suseevoke]

I know and I understand there’s no full trust in every third party software. Bugs or unwanted behaviour is always present, but I believe you can’t take that way of thinking into everything.

What if the Universal USB Installer (for windows) releases a version causing issues with openSUSE? You will be glad when they fix it… Well, same thing applies for Ventoy. We better be happy when an issue is solved.

If for now Ventoy is working as expected and doesn’t interfere with normal operation, there’s no point in no longer recommend it. This is what I said in the Telegram group chat, a warning about past issues being caused by Ventoy and to proceed under your own risk should be (for now) enough. I’d list it as the least recommended method for a while, but not recommend it even when it works? I don’t think that’s the right move