my experiences installing suse

English Install/Boot/Login
1

i will just post this, maybe it will help you develop the program better, i will tell what i did and what i expected to do. and maybe it will help you make it more smoother. my final stopper was getting the graphics drivers to work so move to “*problem now” if you want to help me with that…

*writing this message:
firstly i had to use IE and not firefox to make the account, (i got a 500 error from novell instead). but i can log in with FFX.
while making this post i got the “hidden” error of “tags must be 25 characters” - it only said 5 words, it didnt say 25chrs max when i wrote it. i have had many such problems like this with linux also.

*downloading:
went to openSUSE.org clicked “get it” and link didnt work. i thought server was overloaded or something so i deceded to look for torrents, (i thought this should be an option on the website too)

over 8 hours later, done, then next day:

i didnt want to burn a dvd so i copied data (not ISO) to a removable USB disk. i ran the installer in windows and it modified the windows boot data so i can reboot into the installer.

*installing first time:
it ran the installer - no cd, where is it, and i clicked cancel and i was allowed to choose where i could find the data. it detected the usb drive and i chose it and it asked where the data was. for simplicity i copied all the DVD data to the root of the drive. and by default the box was BLANK. so i tried all sorts of things, i thought i tried “/” but obviously not. gave up.

connected the drive to an EEE and shared it as a network drive.
tried again. it connected to the network and accessed the drive, all was going good so i thought. it was going down through the first list of tasks after entering the GUI and it stopped at “initializing package manager”. error said “unable to create repository from url smb://[ip]/[sharename]” “failed to mount //[ip]/[sharename] on /var/adm/mount/ap_0x00000001 unable to verify media was mounted” ok so bug or something there, so try again the other way

*try again and again:
during the network attempt it asked for the directory like it did with the drive attempt but with the network attempt it had “/” already written in. so i tried it and this time it worked.

ran the installer, customised everything, set up the Linux HDD (another USB device).
i couldnt select multiple items to check the boxes so one at a time… same when deleting HDD partitions…
i hadnt found the erase and use this disk option till i went through the install the last time (said later). so i had to define the partitions manually. it didnt detect all my windows partitions and intended to fill the “free space”

the packages were a bit hidden, i selected all (so i thought) on the “simple” list, then i found the button which showed the individual items and they werent all selected… so i went through chooseing the ones i liked.

ideally the packages should be aranged by function, (IRC client, calculator) they appeared to be scattered between categories and jumbled up, and the extra modules/extras (sounds) should be placed as a tree sort of thing under the parent program they belong to. most trivial at the bottom.

clicked to get it going, it formatted the disk then started copying files and got… File ‘./suse/i586/[item name].rpm’ not found on [somehting]=/dev/sdc1 (first item name was yast2-trans-en…) dev/sdc1 does not contain desired medium. and more messages followed when i clicked ignore.

okay… so looks like i have to burn a disk…

well after all that again. i finally got into the installed system.

*next:
im half new to linux (seen too many installers but after seeing how the OS was i dumped it, or the installer stuffed up some how). and had some lessons which i largely forgot.

my pc is set up with two graphics cards, one Nvidia 16x in a 16x slot and a ATI 16x in a 1x slot. and i have three monitors. this setup works well in win2000 with my custom refresh rates (47interlaced,75,67, all at 1280x1024).

my Ati is the primary booting device chosen by the bios and not me and it starts on that card. i finally found the display setup (expected to see it in yast control centre) but found it elsewhere (“configure desktop” in favorites). while in yast, i thought maybe enable “virtualization” (thinking it was like a virtual machine which i could run OSs in a virtual environment) as i hadnt installed it. and it installed it BUT it was taking it from the internet! i had the disk in the drive still and it wasnt using it.
if you want to lower your internet server load then you need to be able to choose a source.

once i found where to set the resolution, i changed it to 1280x1024 but was unable to choose “47hz”(interlaced), (also add 43hz interlaced, its useful too). and the multiple monitor thingy was grayed out, even though it has seen my two cards and i see them in the hardware list. so maybe installing the drivers from the vendors.

*problem now:
i got to firefox and got the drivers. these were RUN files. so i clicked on the NVidia. and i got the message “there are several alternatives” so i thought there are many packages in this? the description of any of the options didnt remotely sound like “graphics drivers”. i clicked the ATI one and got the same thing… so i chose “emacs” which after more downloading from the internet, i found out that it was just a text editor of some kind (possibly from microsoft).

the instructions on the website says to do SH [filename].run well i opened the command prompt typed in “dir” (DOS knowledge) but i forgot how to change the directory, went to HELP and there was nothing on the commands, only things like type help… well help said to use “cd” and it says “no such file or directory” even though “downloads” exists in this directory. well i typed in SH then dragged the file from the window that shows the files in “downloads” and… it opens EMACS… so… there is nothing to do now as it officially does not work.

thanks for the help if you want to offer any. and i wish you good luck in improving this and making it more user friendly!

Charlie.

2

So, the first thing I would like to say is that I am sorry you had such a problem with your openSUSE installation. Do consider that doing an install from a CD (as in a Live CD) or the DVD, if your want the full gambit of applications to select from, is your best bet. So, in my opinion, always install from a disk, CD or DVD, that gives the best and most reliable installation possible and one most people can figure out.

Next, openSUSE offers Live CD’s that can run openSUSE from a disk, without being installed on your PC. I always suggest you try out openSUSE using it this way. If it does not work or you don’t like the software, you just lost a little time and the disk your burnt.

Finally, you have a very hard video setup to deal with, at least for openSUSE. Using three monitors may be a problem and I have never tied to load both the ATI and nVidia drivers into the very same copy of openSUSE.

I do not wish to discourage you, but the video setup you have may not work very well under the present openSUSE 11.3 setup, so I would reconsider how you want to use those video cards and monitors in openSUSE. You can get two monitors and say the nVidia video card setup with no problem.

Good luck in what ever you decide to do.

Thank You,

3

i decided to go for a fuller install than a liveCD so i have programs to use on it otherwise its quite blank!
my first method was installing from a disk and i did get some troubles…
there are two monitors on the Nvidia card… so maybe if i get that one setup it will work with three monitors without the Ati drivers installed (as it boots up with the ati).

4

Download a liveCD image, check the md5sum, burn it to disk, check the md5sum, boot from it, and let us know what happened.

5

heres another experience i just had,
either grub wasnt put on right in the first place or it was removed from the MBR when i messed around with the 4th primary partition, removing the partition putting it back, because the linux installer made a funny fat32 partition (perhaps too big, being 67gig). so now it dont boot. so, more messing time.
i tried to recovery consol and typed grub, but grub dont list the disks or partitions so “install” or “setup” dont work because i dont know what to type. Sdc2 is the drive partiton but that didnt work.
i found a help on the net on how to bring it back but the suse people removed the userfriendliness described. (choose new installation, update, repair installed system) the last being removed. so… after choosing update i rearanged the packages: i removed the grub replacing with lilo and told it to ignore dependencies. when installing the boot manager it says “sh:/usr/sbin/grub no such file or directory” the next dialog says “an error occured during boot loader installation. retry boot loader configuration?”. i then this time tell it to be put on root partition rather than MBR where MS can touch it. i tell it that i want LILO as boot loader (on “boot loader settings”, on the “boot loader installation” tab) but it gives message “the lilo is not supported now”, then asks if i want to convert… so i didnt bother and clicked cancel, going back to grub which is not installed… i tell install to continue and get the “an error occured…” msg again this time i select no cause its set now. let install finish. run install again, remove lilo and put grub on. and it works. (what i didnt say was this was my second attempt - my error was that i managed to click cancel on the boot loader config thinking i could go back to my original settings before the changes i made but it decided to think that i was done and continued installing and it didnt work when i removed lilo to go to grub because it was still set to the MBR)

honestly im sure there is an easier way to do it than the above - especailly for newbies so they dont have to learn everything!!!

another thing, the first time i went through the update, it also did other things to the installed stuff and i wanted to see the log ( i couldnt read it during the install/update because the installer GUI is very slow and irrestponsive despite my fast pc), but it said “system will reboot now” (with a countdown) and i was able to stop it, but message box stayed up and i couldnt read the things because i couldnt move the scroll bar!).

6

after downloading it form bittorrent i copied the data out of the ISO image and put the DVD files on the USB drive. if the image i recieved was corrupt it would never have installed, but it did but only after i put it on dvd which is what it appears to be designed to do, rather than from the network or another disk source (which it should do but obviously not).

charlie.

7

honestly im sure there is an easier way to do it than the above - especailly for newbies so they dont have to learn everything!!!

When using Linux you will have to research and learn. Period. You seem to mess around a lot in case something does not work - ignoring dependencies for example is a good way to trash your system. So instead of guessing I’d suggest to start learning how things work with Linux. Or just leave it.

Edit:

after downloading it form bittorrent i copied the data out of the ISO image …]

You mean you “unpacked” it? Again: research and learn. If you are not willing to do so, Linux is not for you.

8

my pc is set up with two graphics cards, one Nvidia 16x in a 16x slot and a ATI 16x in a 1x slot. and i have three monitors. this setup works well in win2000 with my custom refresh rates (47interlaced,75,67, all at 1280x1024).

my Ati is the primary booting device chosen by the bios and not me and it starts on that card. i finally found the display setup (expected to see it in yast control centre) but found it elsewhere (“configure desktop” in favorites). while in yast, i thought maybe enable “virtualization” (thinking it was like a virtual machine which i could run OSs in a virtual environment) as i hadnt installed it. and it installed it BUT it was taking it from the internet! i had the disk in the drive still and it wasnt using

and

i wanted to see the log ( i couldnt read it during the install/update because the installer GUI is very slow and irrestponsive despite my fast pc), but it said “system will reboot now” (with a countdown) and i was able to stop it, but message box stayed up and i couldnt read the things because i couldnt move the scroll bar!).

Although I am sure there are better ways, My first attempt at fixing this would be to disable one video card in the BIOS, boot from liveCD , get it working and take note of the config, Then do the same with the other card.

9

i will just post this, maybe it will help you develop the program better, i will tell what i did and what i expected to do. and maybe it will help you make it more smoother.

You will only find those who use openSUSE and intend to help out other users here, we are not the developers. On that you need to talk to Novell.

10

Hello charlieb000,

Sad to hear you had so much trouble installing openSUSE.

Just wanted to say that if openSUSE installs ‘correctly’ then it doesn’t mean the iso wasn’t corrupted.
There are a lot of threads around here on the forums about people who have problems after a ‘correct’ install.
But in the end it was a corrupted iso.

So always check if the iso isn’t corrupted!

Good luck!:wink:

11

ok, you are being a bit negative. and i dont know why because it solved it. i didnt know how to fix it and i knew it wouldnt fix it so i had to make it fix itself.

as for the last bit i only learnt later that it would read the ISO. but im used to windows and thats what you do for a program to access stuff.

12

i thought why boot from livecd when the live cd settings is only stored in memory, but that is what you intended. the last step you forgot was combine both settings in my setup. problem is: to take note of what config? and is it easy to change?

*A step forward
i made effort to get the drivers working, found the command prompt is needlessly casesensitive (for my situation here at home anyway) and am able to run the nvidia setup. i have added more modules like “kernel-sources” and “gcc” and “make” as per instructions on Installing NVIDIA 3D Drivers Linux article otherwise the setup complains… however i have hit another burg and it wants “version.h” whichis related to “kernel-sources”…

this thing i downloaded from Nvidia must be actual code becase “gcc” is related to compiling. and if you want to change anything in the OS it must be recompiled rather than windows where you just add stuff.

it appears to me that this Suse (so far) is not designed for adding Nvidia drivers and things otherwise it would have these things as default and made it easy for anybody to recompile it, just like a simple reboot in windows… (that satement may cause some negative comments like the already seen “linux is not for you” but it is for me because they are making it better, and sooner or later they will tackle this too just as they have made it simpler to install)

i have the feeling im near the end with this version.h thing and there is instructions on Linux - Dual Headed Graphic Computer Monitors but i am starting to give up.
Charlie.

13

Also check SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE
And openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users, And don’t give up too easily, The more you understand how linux works the more you will get out of it.

14

charlieb000 wrote:
> but i am starting to give up.

i am not surprised.

you wrote: “i will tell what i did and what i expected to do” and “im
used to windows and thats what you do for a program to access stuff”

the thing you do not seem to understand is Linux is not Windows!
almost everything about Linux is different in some way…major
ways…from the ground up Linux was designed for stability, security,
usability, and reliability…

if you only use Windows experience/knowledge to set your expectation
of how Linux “should” react to your inputs and decisions like Windows
might, you will be forever unhappy and unsuccessful…

you MUST care and feed Linux correctly or your “starting to give up”
is certain to end in you doing exactly that…

let me say that a different way: if i were to buy an empty computer
and a retail box of Win7 off the shelf,and read nothing about that
system, and tried to install it based only on my knowledge of Linux, i
would also give up, because Windows is not Linux and what i know
about Linux is totallyuseless* in installing Windows…

only you can decide if you are willing to learn how to do Linux
correctly and follow good advice and turorials…if you not will to do
that, then you might as well quit now…

if, on the other hand you really want to give openSUSE Linux a fair
shot at showing you how really great it is, then begin reading here:

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/information-new-users/new-user-how-faq-read-only/

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/information-new-users/advanced-how-faq-read-only/

and, for example do NOT go all over the web seeking answers and jump
on the first thing that pops up, like you used http://tinyurl.com/n3ebbr
when you should have used our info, like:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_graphics_cards

openSUSE is neither Windows nor is it Ubuntu…and, how-tos made for
Ubuntu (Red Hat, Centos, Mint, etc etc etc) will probably confuse you,
not work, and make you give up…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

15

problem is: to take note of what config? and is it easy to change?

This is answered better than I can in this link I gave. openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users

16

im beginning to suspect that you are right…
and this is not just for suse its any linux,
if someone added a program that installed Nvidia for you then there wouldnt be hasles, like a techy doing the work for you (so many people have trod this path im surprised there is no automation available). And if the programmers, whoever they are for whatever linux, made a Gui interface (even if it was just basic - do a task at a click) for everything rather than command line then linux would be head and shoulders above windows, just like Win95 was head and shoulders above 3.1 because they got rid of the need of command line (exception of trouble shooting of course). it could be that Novell was “moved” to remove the repair installation stuff, like other companies pursuade others on whom their income depends (oil and cars as an example) there have been some great mods for years but they dont put them on the car (this forum is not about cars here so i will list Aerocivic - Honda Civic modifications for maximum gas mileage - aerocivic.com and aptera as an example). and Suse hasnt changed that much since last time, i only wanted to try it again because it has a collection of progs aready installed.

numer one thing i dislike about suse is the fact you need to contact the web to install modules rather than use the disk. wouldnt be good on a remote computer unless set up right first time. so i might ditch it because of that (and it wont read my 3g Ntfs partitions despite the plugin is installed).

charlie.

17

i used the google search engine to find the info and im sure i added “suse” in there.
i’ll give your SDB:NVIDIA drivers - openSUSE a shot.

i was going to write: if someone added a program that installed Nvidia for you then there wouldnt be hasles, like a techy doing the work for you (so many people have trod this path im surprised there is no automation available).

18

charlieb000 wrote:
> i used the google search engine to find the info and im sure i added
> “suse” in there.

just adding suse to the search string still allows you to find answers
all over the web…now maybe all of those are correct, but for WHICH
“suse”? maybe for 9.1 or 11 sp2 or maybe even for YOURs…

but, adding the site specifier like this:

site:opensuse.org

will only search in this site…and if you are running 11.3 you can
do it like this:

site:opensuse.org “11.3” [then the other parts of your search]

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

19

MD5 of downloaded iso is correct to what i saw on the suse site. 1a1da28c…
i used md5sums.exe …

I used IMGBURN to burn it and was verified ok. it reports a Md5 different so it calculated it different, it probably wasnt showing the Md5 of the ISO file but of the data burnt to disk.

as i said, CD worked, but network and local disk didnt. network and local disk sources were the CD files placed in the root dir of a USB drive.

20

MD5 is MD5. There should be no differences. Have you run the media check on the install disk.