Simplest way to install 11.2 from USB-stick??

OK, so here we go again, a netbook have no DVD-drive so there is need for usb-stick if U dont have a working network and other connected machine with the iso-file for 11.2, or a quick reliable internetconnection and lot of time.

So, I found the new article about live-usb here:
Live USB stick - openSUSE
Seems like a lot of difficult things are taken away wich is good for us non Linux-gurus.
Have been running SUSE now since 11.0 and anyway I find these instructions quite complicated, Im sorry.

My first question is:
I have a well working stationry computer right now running SUSE 11.2, and I am thinkin of using a USB-stick together with these instructions in order to install 11.2 on my netbook (currently running a problematic 11.0 version):

Linux Instructions

  1. Learn how your USB stick is recognized by the system:

linux-vgqb:~ # ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb

It will print out something like:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 13. Aug 10:04 /dev/disk/by-id/usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_II+_5B751D8C1994-0:0 -> …/…/sdx

Here /dev/sdx is used in the commands to shorten it, normally /dev/disk/by-id/… is used directly to avoid overwriting of the hard disk.

  1. Use this command to write (as root) the LiveCD iso to your USB stick. Be careful to replace /dev/sdx with the actual hard disk device learned from command above, and replace the name of the iso (if=openSUSE-11.2-KDE4-LiveCD-i686.iso) with the actual name of the iso image you downloaded:

dd if=openSUSE-11.2-KDE4-LiveCD-i686.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=4M

And???
The live ISO is relying of a working network or internet connection I think, how can I as easy use the full DVD.iso that I already have?
Is there not a way to put also the DVD.iso on the USB, why use the live-option?
Im sorry , once long time ago I succeded the long way, described under section 2:
Live USB stick - openSUSE
, I think…
And I really would prefer not to have to go through that again.

Im sorry, but again I see gurus writning help articles not really usable for us non-gurus.
As I said, I manged to install a fully working 11.2 on a nother computer, even if I first tried to upgrade from 11.1 (which kept a frezing mouse problem I had got recently), and on second try with re-installation instead, had the runlevel3 activated giving me only a black screen first, which I solved by writing a simple 5 on boot options (also something that really could be put out more obvious for us non-gurus out here).
Whith this I want to say that I really think Im not a total beginner.
Despite my “competence”, I see big problems in this matter on such a particulary simple task as a installing SUSE from an USBstick on such a usual device as a netbook (Acer Aspire One) today.
I mean SUSE is supposed to be the easiest for us non-gurus, isnt it?

Thanks for all ideas in this matter. Comments on support pages as well as proposals for solving my particular problem.

Nobody want to spend some time here?:frowning:

You could just use the Live CD image - which should dd OK, and I think can also be installed with unetbootin. (which may be what the link you gave is suggesting. I don’t know - sorry. I’m very hung over :(]

If you still can’t get online with that, you can download the required packages or updates on another system, and install them offline.

;)No problem, SUSE 11.2 is worth a hang over or two!

But I must admit that I dont understand much of Ur post, U mean that I should rely on a network to my stationary, or to the internet?
Well, network is not working between the computers or to internetrouter for some reason, this is one of the reasons that I want to update the netbook.

I want to install all offline, just as If I had a working DVD drive in the netbook.
Is it really not possible to create a “flash”.iso, that people can dowwnload, format their USBstick to FAT16, and “burn” to the flashmemory, and then boot with?

Alternatively, is it possible to start to run the DVD.iso file from inside SUSE?
(I can easily copy the .iso file to the netbook linux installation, or have it on the USB stick)
It would not help a beginner with Windows, but at least linux users who want to upgrade their netbooks.

Ah - I think I get you.

The reason I was suggesting using the Live CD iso is because it’s easier, and if you can install it, then get the network working, you can install everything else and effectively have the same system as you would have had with the DVD.

If you prefer to go straight for the DVD, you can make it work by 'dd’ing the ISO to a large USB stick, then copying the ISO file itself to the stick (or to another partition that will be visible to the installer, and not formatted during the install).

When you run the stick it will complain that it can’t find the repository - select hard drive install, and tell it where you’ve put the iso. I just put it in the root of the stick as /dvd.iso so it’s easy to find.

Good luck… Post back if you get stuck!

**

Well, I know that there is a way with LiveCD to install over network, but it needs a reliable network with other linux computer (which I have in this case, but not all have), or a fast, reliable internet connection (which makes the use of the torrent impossible) meaning a very quick one, that most people dont have.

All needed in cases like this would be to be able to use the downloaded DVD.iso in some way.
And I understand that if U extract from the DVD.iso some scripts, make them executable and manage to run them first in order to prepare the USB-stick to be bootable and to get the installer to call the DVD.iso file, wherever its is located, all will work as if there was a DVD drive running.
I remember now (can probably find my thread about it in this forum under 11.0 discussions) that (but not how) I did this long time ago.

What is disturbing me is why there (still) is no little extra download for us non-gurus, that we could put on the USBstick (possibly together with the DVD.iso) which can do all this quite difficult “preparation” of the stick in order to make it work the next time U put it in during boot. One version for windows is needed as well as one version for Linux.

Would that not be possible to create?
If so, I think many windows people would not be hindered in their first contact with SUSE.
Today, it is simply too high mountain to climb for 80% of W-users, it is my strong belief.

I installed 11.2 on my netbook using the network install cd copied with dd to a usb stick.
The net boot disk allows you to install over either the network or from hard disk.
One thing to remember when you use dd to copy the iso to the usb stick is that you must first unmount it.
If you dual boot windows on the netbook, there is an exe file that will install it to hard disk and make the install opensuse a windows boot menu option.
With regards the full dvd iso:
Either extract the contents to a usb stick or hard drive and then point the install to the correct location - for a usb stick the install is located at /
If you have a working network, you can set up the dvd on the network using a web, ftp or nfs server and do a network install or you can just pont it to the opensuse download repo on the internet.

The other way is to use the live gnome or kde cd and install it. I found that ldap login services don’t install correctly though.
Hope this helps.

I think we’re still talking past each other; what makes you think you need a network connection to install with the Live CD?

Certainly, having a network connection once you’re installed is very useful - but that’s not significantly more likely to work with the DVD than with the Live CD.

Your options, as I see it:

  1. Use dd to install Live CD ISO onto a USB stick.

  2. Boot stick, install to netbook.

  3. Fix network, if necessary downloading required packages on another computer, and transferring them across with a USB stick.

–OR–

  1. Use dd to install Network CD or DVD ISO onto a USB stick.

  2. Use cp to put DVD ISO somewhere the installer will be able to find it.

  3. Boot stick, select ‘install from hard drive’, tell installer where the ISO is.

  4. Fix network - again, possibly using another computer.

Neither of these schemes require the network to work during installation at all.

Ok, thanks for clarifications but I think we still are talking past each other.
I know the basics of what U both are describing, but it is simply too difficult, even to me.
This I think would be the best option in my case:

  1. Use dd to install Network CD or DVD ISO onto a USB stick.
  1. Use cp to put DVD ISO somewhere the installer will be able to find it.
  1. Boot stick, select ‘install from hard drive’, tell installer where the ISO is.
  1. Fix network - again, possibly using another computer.

Neither of these schemes require the network to work during installation at all.

But, why is there no simple file that I can put together with the DVD.iso on the stick so the installer would find it by himself?
U know sdb1, sdb2 etc is really on the limit for many, many out there!

Simplest for new users would be:
1:
to to format their stick to FAT16 (if it now really is needed), with any availible program in windows or Linux
2.
Make this stick bootable with same formatting program
3.
Download and copy the DVD.iso to the stick (or somewhere on the computers harddrive, but this is over manys limit)
4.
Download and copy a special “SUSE-USB-stick”-file to the stick, that makes the necessary extra things U described in Ur posts such as extracting installer etc
5.
Make the intended computer able to boot from a USB-stick
6.
Put the USB-stick in the intended computer and reboot so the prepartion with DD etc is made, possible make the computer reboot again, and finally make the installation to start.

These 6 steps would be easy enough to follow for a newbie, as well as for me.
And it would work regardless of network or internetconnection for the computer.
It would also take full advantage of the torrent technology since all can be downloaded the quickest way via torrent.

Im sorry. I dont want to be difficult and I appreciate Ur intentions vey much, but please understand that all this extra commands etc for being able to install SUSE on a netbook is blocking even people like me, who have years of experience from Linux by now.
Maybe there would be very little spread of most Linux distributions of there where no simple .iso-way of creating a bootable DVD-disc that most people are used to install windows from?
I for sure would not have started to play with linux if this way was nonexisting.

To start with,
Would U agree to my 6 steps?

By the way, here is a well read thread showing a similar problem
Copy DVD iso to bootable USB stick - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums
And here I found the thread where I searched help first time for my netbook problems:
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/399109-installing-opensuse-11-0-acer-aspire-one.html
It is among top 50 most read thread by now…
Im not alone thinking something needs to be improved here.

But maybe I should raise these concerns in some developers forum instead?

openFATE is the place to raise the developers; there’s only an outside chance they’ll find anything here. https://features.opensuse.org/

I sympathise with your concerns - it is difficult. I got stuck for about a week trying to install when I first got my netbook, having no linux experience, and finding much contradictory information.

Unetbootin does make things much easier, but it may well not work for the DVD.

Personally, I think the ideal solution would be that if you 'dd’ed the DVD ISO (or used unetbootin), it would see the repository it itself contains, rather than having to be pointed to the ISO file. Why this has to be done makes no sense to me - I’m sure it’s technical, but these things certainly are slowly improving.

In the interim, most people are probably happy using the Live CD image, but that doesn’t stop you suggesting that the DVD image be made more USB compatible on openFATE, or voting for such suggestions as may already exist.

Good luck.

Thanks for Ur support, Confuseling!
I have made a request for the matter now in openFATE:
https://features.opensuse.org/308385
Users who agree to these opinions, please go to OpenFATE and vote up my request!
Thanks for all help so far!

I would suggest burning the LiveCD iso image to a usb stick, and then setting the computer to boot from the usb stick. Then, when the stick boots into the cute “live opensuse, install, and memory test” screen, move the arrow keys so that “install” is highlighted. Then, press enter, and your on your way to the installer (Yast2). Have fun!:slight_smile:

I tried installing with unetbootin BUT … md5 chech fails.
I have 8GB USB-stick. Using unetbootin I transfered 11.2 version to stick. Everyting was OK untill installation step. Every file failed md5 check. Pop-up window appeared with info familiar to : “Blah blah package. Expected md5 value : e76ej383(etc). md5 is we87ef534(etc). It looks that file was changed after it was signed by author. It’s dangerous to install this file … BLAH BLAH (some additional info)”.
Problems were with every file to be installed.

Any ideas why.

P.S. I installed 11.2 version using interner option , but I’m still curious why USB installation failed.