A Question For The Linux Geeks

[rcecale]

I'm trying to install SuSE Linux 9.1 onto a laptop I have laying around, just to mess around with it. I was able to download the ISO from SuSE.com and have burned it to CD-ROM.

Can someone get me going in the right direction for doing the install? It looks as though I need a boot disk, but all I can find are directions for making one. Actually, SuSE says it takes 3 floppies plus one more to be a RAMDisk...something like that.

Apparently there are ISO's you can download to make the boot disks, but I've also read that these things have to be configured for your particular machine.

I'M SO CONFUSED!!!!!!

Advice, anyone?

Randy

[rcecale]

OOOPS! Sorry! Posted this to the wrong forum. Moderators, please move this to OT.

Thanks!

Randy

[Joeaksa]

Have not worked with it but like you have a copy of it lying around that I need to experiment with. Was told that there are loads of users groups out there who can help with installation and debugging questions.

When I get time will try it!

JoeA

[masraum]

I'd be kind of surprised if the CD wasn't bootable. Have you checked the SUSE website? Usually there are installation instructions there.

Maybe check here.
http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/index.html

[billwagnon]

I installed SUSE off a CD a while back. This maybe too simple - but have you set the BIOS to boot from the CD drive?

[svandamme]

suse 9x cd's should be bootable... cd1 .. boot.. . yast takes over... next next next .. you're done...

don't ask anything more ... i'm more into netware and related products
linux just makes my bloodpressure go up, but i don't have a choice...

[rcecale]

I, too, thought it should be as simple as putting the CD in the drive and booting up the machine. Unfortunately this hasn't been the case.

I have set the computer to boot from the CD drive first. Seems to be one of the most common issues. I'm thinking that perhaps the CD itself could be the problem.

I'll try burning another one from the ISO tonight and see if that helps. It's NOT a new laptop so I thought that maybe the CD-ROM drive was having trouble reading the burned CD. I inserted a few other CD disks and booted with a W98 floppy and was able to read from other CD's I've burned.

Thanks for the quick replies, guys. And again, sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

Randy

[Kemo]

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/isofaq.html#badburn
http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/isofaq.html

check this site...specifically the first link.

[Halm]

It is that simple IF you buy the CD's from Novell / SuSE. As a matter of fact, you can use standard CD's or a single DVD if you have a DVD drive. That is what I did with v.8 of SuSE. Think it was $35.00. You get all the CD's / DVD and manual. Worth it to me.

Also, I think Nero recording software has the option to create bootable CD from an ISO. Not sure about Roxio software.

[djmcmath]

Most linuxes come with a few dos-readable directories. One of those usually has a name like "dostools." Inside that directory, you're liable to find disk images for a floppy and a tool for putting those images onto said floppy. If you can't manage to boot from the CD, you might try making a bootable floppy that will point to the CD.

Next thought, back to booting from the CD -- does it give any error message when it's booting? You said other CDs boot fine? Weird -- I don't usually have problems d/l'ing ISOs for installation.

Dan

[dd74]

Randy - weird timimg, man. I just finished installing SUSE 9.1 last night. Yes, reset your bios so that the machine boots off the CD drive. Thing is, I bought a retail copy of SUSE - yes, I wimped out and spent $$. It came with a live CD and install CD. I haven't worked with the SUSE downloadable. I haven't fully read the other posts to this thread, but I assume you've already burned the download into an ISO image. If not, this link: http://www.cdburnerxp.se/error.htm will get you what you need onto a CD. After that, it should be executable as both a live disk and installer. Everyone other Linux distributor is downloading their wares that way - I would assume SUSE/Novell would do the same.

[rcecale]

Well, thanks for all the replies, guys. And all the advice. Here's the latest.
I had downloaded the Suse 9.1 ISO and, using Roxio, burned it right to a CD-R. This is the disk that was giving me grief a couple of nights ago. Tried several times with this older laptop I have and it just would not boot to the CD-ROM. I have CD's I've made from other ISO's, such as W2k Pro, W2K Pro Adv. Server, WXP Pro, and 2003 Server. All of these CD's would boot up and beging their install routine. Okay, must be a bad burn...no prob, only a few pennies lost. I'll just add this one to my stack of coasters.
Since I had determined to re-burn the CD, I figured I would go ahead and download the ISO again, just to make sure it wasn't damaged. 700 Mb is a pretty good sized download.
While at the download site, I saw they had an MD5 checker for verifying the MD5 checksum. Okay, let's try this. Downloaded their little windows applet and ran my ISO download through it. Compared the check sum with what the site said it should be and it matched. Yes, folks, we have a winner! Hold of on adding to that coaster stack.
Brought the CD I burned the other night into work today and tried it in a computer I have here...another laptop. TA-DAHHH!!!!! Just like Stijn said, pop in the CD...turn the computer on...next, next, next....it's 40% installed as I'm typing right now. Looking at the screen shots it displays during the install process, it looks like a pretty straight-forward system. Looking forward to taking it for a test drive.
Thanks again for all the advice and help. As has been said before by many people, on many occasions, PELICANS ROCK!!! dd74, after I get it installed, I'll let you know whether or not you wasted your $$$.

Moderators, please move this thread over to OT where it belongs?

Randy

[widebody911]

I've had a lot of problems myself trying to get SuSE ISO's to install, don't know why, because other distros weren't nearly as much hassle.

You want hassle? Try installing on an IA64 (ie Itanic rx2600 ) box with an EFI shell, where the default console changes automagically 1/2-way through the boot process. I end up having to have two dumb terminals and a standard monitor attached so I can see what the hell is going on.

[rcecale]

Well, isn't this special. This went a lot easier than I thought. I am posting from my SuSE Linux laptop. Piece of cake!!!

Pretty much went through without any problems. At one point I was notified that a few things failed to load. I should have written the actual message, but the items that failed were lsof, lukemftp, lirc,libxslt, lilo, linc and mailx. They don't seem to be causing any problems, so let's see how she does.

I was pleased to see that Linux, or should I say YaST, even picked up the Dell TrueMobile Wireless Internal NIC. Heck, Win2K wouldn't even do that!

Thom, I'm glad you joined this thread. I may have some questions for you later on down the road, if you don't mind. I'm looking to start learning some Perl, which is the reason for the interest in Linux. Would you mind if I sent some questions your way?

I know very little when it comes to Perl and Unix and the like. I can vi and grep. I know how to tail logs and stuff, but I'd really like to see about getting further into it.

Randy

[dd74]

The latest problem I've had with SUSE is XP wouldn't load when I set up the machine as a dual boot. When I selected "WINDOWS" in the opening splash screen, I received "Could not find NTLDR" which means it can't load XP. This is on a FAT32 formatted drive, which I set up so I can write files to the XP partition from SUSE.

Eventually I had to reformat in NTFS to get XP to load with SUSE, though of course I now can't write to XP from SUSE.

Sigh! The testing continues

Any thoughts on this problem?