being an absolute newcomer to the world of Linux I am having some problems with the installation of SUSE alongside Vista.
I have downloaded the ISO DVD version of 11.1 and have burned the DVD as an ISO using Active@ISO Burner at 2X speed.
I have rebooted my system with the DVD in the drive and it fails to recognise the DVD. I have tried on three occasions with different DVD’s but it won’t have it. It does look for the DVD and tries to boot from it, so the settings are correct in the BIOS.
I then read something about Checksums and Md5 (whatever that is) and I am now completely lost. Do Checksums apply to me? If so what are they and how do I use them/check them?
I know, I know, you have no doubt read this sort of request many a time but please humour me… I am VERY new to Linux!
MD5 is a checksum. It is normally available in a text file alongside the ISO.
Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with Windows software which might check it. In Linux the burner normally displays its own MD5 checksum before beginning the burning so that you can check it against the figure in the text file to make sure nothing has changed during the download.
So first download the MD5 checksum - make sure it is the one that corresponds to the ISO you downloaded. Then find whether your burner (or some other) software will check it for you against the ISO on your hard drive. You should be able to do this with actually burning a DVD.
Hi Dan.
Here are two simple tests for the integrity of the DVD copy.
If it’s a good burn, you should be able to put it in the DVD drive of a running windows computer and the autoplay function will prompt you for a language to install the openSUSE installer into windows. Look in My Computer in windows find the DVD and select autoplay. If that doesn’t happen, it’s probably a bad DVD. I am not urging you to install Suse that way because I think it’s better to install it by booting off the DVD. But whether autoplay works should be a simple test of the integrity of the DVD.
Another test is to boot the DVD on another computer. If it won’t boot it’s most likely a bad burn or a bad download because it failed on two different machines.