How to install Tumbleweed WITHOUT an internet connection

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I was wondering if it might be possible to install openSUSE Tumbleweed without a network connection. Now naturally I would have thought all I would have to do in order to achieve this is get the DVD ISO image of openSUSE Tumbleweed, dd it onto a USB (with

dd bs=4M if="openSUSE-Tumbleweed-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso" of=/dev/sdc status=progress && sync

) and use YaST2 to install openSUSE Tumbleweed according to my own personal preferences. The problem is that without a network connection the YaST2 installation wizard (e.g., what is shown at 0:44 in this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDpuhTrQCno) fails. It’s difficult to describe exactly what I mean but YaST2 manages to get past the system probing stage without an issue. But then when it tries to install software repositories (like non-oss) it fails (due to there being no network connection; with a network it manages to get past this stage too) and YaST2 exits. Is there a way around this?

Thanks for your time,
Brenton

2

Oops I made an error in my original comment. The YouTube vid at 0:44 shows the probing I was talking about. I should have placed it after the mention of the probing.

3

You’re describing <options> that aren’t necessary that would require an Internet connection.
Leave those boxes unchecked and you’ll be able to continue installing without an Internet connection.

Even if you’re not connected to the Internet, I’d still highly recommend you have a working <network> connection so that your network card would be set up whenever you do want to connect to any network or Internet. If you don’t have a working network connection, then the network card won’t be set up and I’ve found it’s a bother to have to do it later (it’s much more difficult later).

Have fun,
TSU

4

But why is it doing that?

Did you actually check the boxes to add online repos, and expect that to work without a network?

I’ve done installs without network. I never ran into a problem. But then I never tried checking the boxes to add online repos, when I don’t have a network connection.

5

I didn’t check any boxes… I was waiting for it to reach a stage where I enter in my options and it failed complaining about it can’t connect to the online repositories.

6

Were your installs of Leap or Tumbleweed? My guess is that Tumbleweed’s installation assumes you have a network as it’s a bleeding-edge rolling release model system so to keep it bleeding-edge you’re gonna need a network. Leap on the other hand may not make that same assumption.

7

I decided to test this. I have just finished a Tumbleweed install.

I downloaded Tumbleweed 20160813 (the latest snapshot)
I wrote that image to a USB flash drive.

I decided to install on my laptop (to replace an existing Tumbleweed that I have not kept up to date).

Here’s what I did:

  1. I unplugged the ethernet cable (so that I would not have a network.
  2. I booted the installer.
  3. I accepted the license agreement
  4. A screen came up for network configuration. I clicked “Next” without configuring the network.
  5. I was prompted for encryption keys (I already have encrypted partitions on that system). I provided them.
  6. I was prompted on whether to add online repos. I just clicked “Next” without checking any boxes.
  7. The partitioner came up. I selected “Create partitioning”. Then, on the next screen, I selected “Custom partitioning”. Then on the next screen, I selected “Import mount points”. That’s the easy way to reuse partitioning from a prior install.
  8. I set the time zone (that may have come earlier – I don’t remember the exact timing sequence).
  9. I provided user/password information.
  10. On the summary screen, I clicked “booting”. I set it to boot from the root partition, to not install generic boot code, and to not boot from extended partition. I ignored the warning.
  11. I clicked “Install”. The install proceeded.
  12. It rebooted. My boot menu for Leap came up, but I have a menu entry there to chain-load “/dev/sda8”. I used that to boot the newly installed Tumbleweed.

So, no problem at all installing without a network. That system is running right now. I have since configured WiFi, so it does have a network connection. I’ll eventually plug in the ethernet cable, to give it a wired connection.

8

Ah, thanks for your efforts. I eventually choose to just deal with the inconvenience of getting an ethernet cable and installed openSUSE Tumbleweed with it plugged in.