I have a viewpad 1000. I installed SUSE 9 because I was able to create boot floppys (the Viewpad does not support boot from USB) I wanted to update SUSE 9, but since it’s soooo old YOU can’t connect to any of the update sites. So, I have created an install DVD with openSUSE 11, the trouble I have is there doesn’t appear to be a way to create the floppy diks I’d need to get the install going. the BIOS won’t recongize USB drive (aside from a USB Floppy drive) so bootloaders I have tried won’t recognize the USB DVD drive I have attached. So I need the installer that the floppy disks provide to get it to read from the DVD drive.
I am a big time nooooob when it comes to Linux, so I was hoping someone on the forum here would have some pointers on creating the necessary boot floppies to get the system updated.
I haven’t seen a method provided for creating an installation boot floppy since 9.x (but you should google thoroughly, maybe I missed something).
I’ve heard of a tool named UNetbootin, I think developed by the *buntu crowd. It is designed to support network installation without a CD. The web site is UNetbootin - The Universal Netboot Installer . Note: Support for the released 11.0 is not indicated, only the earlier “Factory” pre-release, and I’ve seen indication that 11.0 may not work as yet. But 10.3 does. You could go for the 10.3 install, and if you want 11.0, upgrade to that as a second step or sometime later.
You don’t mention if you have Windows installed on the same machine. If you do, you can download the 11.0 .iso and extract it into a folder. There is a Windows executable in the SuSE install designed to run the installer from within Windows. I’ve not used it, but this may be an option.
Finally, there are several methods to install from a network, which requires having another machine on which the boot image resides that you can network to, and which can run a tftp server. One method involves using a custom grub on a boot floppy, the others require the ability to do a PXE boot. These methods are typically used in commercial or university environments to, for example, do remote hands-free installs and upgrades. Frankly speaking, the work is definitely not trivial and may be well beyond the preference of a self-described “noob.” But fwiw, I’ll include the links:
Ok, I tried to install WIN XP, but this lovely tablet has no USB Support, so when I try to install XP from the floppys, I cannot press enter, etc to continue with the install.
Is there a way to install openSUSE from SUSE 9? I couldn;t seem to find a way, short of finding a WINE installation (the one that installed is an alpha version) and running the exe and pray it works.
>
>Ok, I tried to install WIN XP, but this lovely tablet has no USB
>Support, so when I try to install XP from the floppys, I cannot press
>enter, etc to continue with the install.
>
>Is there a way to install openSUSE from SUSE 9? I couldn;t seem to find
>a way, short of finding a WINE installation (the one that installed is
>an alpha version) and running the exe and pray it works.
>
>There has to be a way to do this
>
Yes, there is. You install a bootable update kernel in your current
system and do the install from there. That’s how I have to do it at
work since I have no floppy or CD/DVD drives in my development machine.
