Hi there, Im just finding out about linux and am thrilled and eager to start using it. Ive downloaded the ISO cd image and burned a cd copy and have tried booting it but Im having problems due mainly, I believe to my cd-rom. Im using a Dell inspiron 4100 its got a 80 Gb hardrive and presently Ive installed win 2000 and had the drive partitioned in two (also just learning how to do these things) hoping to save the other partition for Opensuse. My main question is if ther are any other methods to boot up the ISO file without using the cd-rom. Like say perhaps using a USB flash pen drive or a usb external cdr drive? The boot up withthe CD is fairly successful up until the I click on “Live intall” on the GNOME desktop. then the disk keeps churning away to infinity. a couple of times It got as far as the licence agreement page but then does the same thing or goes blank alltogether. The CD-rom drive is definatelly on its way out but can still function to some extent. I cant afford a new one now and Id really love to partake in this new system. Any Ideas or Advice would be sincerely appreciated.
Michael
azitizz wrote:
> Hi there, Im just finding out about linux and am thrilled and eager to
> start using it. Ive downloaded the ISO cd image and burned a cd copy
> and have tried booting it but Im having problems due mainly, I believe
> to my cd-rom. Im using a Dell inspiron 4100 its got a 80 Gb hardrive
> and presently Ive installed win 2000 and had the drive partitioned in
> two (also just learning how to do these things) hoping to save the
> other partition for Opensuse. My main question is if ther are any other
> methods to boot up the ISO file without using the cd-rom. Like say
> perhaps using a USB flash pen drive or a usb external cdr drive? The
> boot up withthe CD is fairly successful up until the I click on “Live
> intall” on the GNOME desktop. then the disk keeps churning away to
> infinity. a couple of times It got as far as the licence agreement page
> but then does the same thing or goes blank alltogether. The CD-rom drive
> is definatelly on its way out but can still function to some extent. I
> cant afford a new one now and Id really love to partake in this new
> system. Any Ideas or Advice would be sincerely appreciated.
> Michael
>
>
I not convinced the live CD is the way to go. I used it to install 11.0,
but it was unable to find the separate partitions to mount (/home etc)
when booting the installed system - I think it used a different order
for the HDDs as I boot from the SATA drive not PATA (which is mostly MS
Win XP). I then used the network install version and it worked first
time. Perhaps if the live CD provided an install option at boot instead
of using the “live” system as the template, it would have worked.
–
PeeGee
“Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be able
to be removed from a computer easily.”
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)
if you have a usb hard drive, or anything with just over 4GB free, i would download the dvd for starters. using smart boot manager (which you can download to either cd to boot from or usb) it will allow you to boot from usb, providing you put the dvd .iso in the root folder (the upper most level) of the drive. the cd install in my opinion is not the way forward, it misses a lot and makes set up a bit tricky.
Yes… after a late night of looking for alternatives and trying to tutor myself on all the new tech terms and jargon for me I realised I cant use my usb to boot up as its not recognised as a boot option in the BIOS. My only hope I feel now is perhaps an online install using floppy disks. However I dont even know where to type the commands for making the boot-disks. Would that be in “command prompt” in Windows? or do I have to reboot the computer. and type commands in the BIOS somewhere. also can I simply copy and paste the commands from the instruction for online booting into the command prompt (If thats where I type commands)? I do have a good internet connection. But many parts of the instructions are over and above what Im familiar with, however Id like to learn. Thanks for the help so far. This is a great forum and I still have hope.
Michael
azitizz wrote:
> Yes… after a late night of looking for alternatives and trying to tutor
> myself on all the new tech terms and jargon for me I realised I cant use
> my usb to boot up as its not recognised as a boot option in the BIOS. My
> only hope I feel now is perhaps an online install using floppy disks.
> However I dont even know where to type the commands for making the
> boot-disks. Would that be in “command prompt” in Windows? or do I have
> to reboot the computer. and type commands in the BIOS somewhere. also
> can I simply copy and paste the commands from the instruction for
> online booting into the command prompt (If thats where I type
> commands)? I do have a good internet connection. But many parts of the
> instructions are over and above what Im familiar with, however Id like
> to learn. Thanks for the help so far. This is a great forum and I still
> have hope.
> Michael
>
>
On the openSuSE download page, select Network instead of liveCD,
download the 71MB iso and burn to a CD.
Boot from the CD - the selections are reasonably straightforward and the
packages will then be downloaded and installed. Don’t forget, on the
boot screen, to use the function keys (menu at bottom of screen) to
select your language and screen resolution, as it makes things easier later.
It also helps if your computer is automatically given an IP address at
start-up - MS Windows defaults to that option - and you have router
access to the internet, not a USB modem <spit>.
–
PeeGee
Asus M2V-MX SE, AMD 64X2 3800+, openSuSE 10.3 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Asus M2NPV-VM, AMD LE1640, openSuSE 11.0 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Thats good news, thanks, but I seem to be getting the same error message "421 There are too many connected users, please try later"
Is this simply as it says? just too many users at one time? or could it be something with my connection? Even though its a MiniCD can I still boot the same file from a burned regular CD?
Thanks for the tips so far.
Michael
azitizz wrote:
> Thats good news, thanks, but I seem to be getting the same error message
> "-421 There are too many connected users, please try later"-
> Is this simply as it says? just too many users at one time? or could it
> be something with my connection? Even though its a MiniCD can I still
> boot the same file from a burned regular CD?
> Thanks for the tips so far.
> Michael
>
>
It’s an ISO so it will burn to a normal CD ok - that’s what I did.
Don’t know about the error message - probably is what it says. As I’m in
UK, I was probably directed to a local mirror and didn’t have that
problem. It is possible to specify a specific repository for the
download, but I didn’t see where when I installed the system.
–
PeeGee
Asus M2V-MX SE, AMD 64X2 3800+, openSuSE 10.3 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Asus M2NPV-VM, AMD LE1640, openSuSE 11.0 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Yes, error 421 is a server error for too many users.
The following:
seems to indicate that the mini-CD installation allows you to specify a repository url. If so (note: the regular install DVD also permits this under the media tab on the installation menu), find the mirror closest to you and its url. See here:
The server is always the domain name. For example, for a mirror that I often use, the server is:
For this particular mirror, it uses ftp. It can be important to specify that as opposed to http.
The directory is the (folder) structure to find the index file for that repository. So for the above server and using a network install, it is:
pub/opensuse/distribution/11.0/iso/cd/openSUSE-11.0-NET-i386.iso
I haven’t see the current dialog box for entering this data. If it is two fields, it would be entered like above. If only one field, then a / would need to come before "pub/opensuse . . . "
(In this example, the network install is pulling directly from an iso file on the server. In other cases, the repository made be extracted into its folders/files structure, and so the end of the directory name would just be a folder rather than a file name.)
SUCCESS!! Thank you all It worked finally. Its so great to have such software and these forums. I would never have been able to figure it out on my own.
Namaste
Michael
for the record, even though your BIOS is outdated you could still boot from usb… there are 2 ways…
- update BIOS
- download and burn to disk smart boot manager. boot from it, select usb drive, reboot after SBM loads itself to RAM, then boot from usb. that easy. then you have a full dvd install.