Installing openSUSE from the Internet

[Solomon]

Internet installation only works for the Release Distribution and for the latest Factory tree.
Fixed FTP trees for development releases (alpha, beta, RC) do not exist.

• First find your local mirror service at openSUSE Mirrors for Released Version
• For versions 10.3 to 11.1 see here Official And Proprietary Packages
• Click on the Start-CD-Image link to download the install iso, and then burn it to a CD.

Note: The following description uses 10.3 as an example but works with openSUSE 11.1 as well.

The 11.1 network install iso is openSUSE-11.1-NET-i586.iso If you’re on PPC, it is openSUSE-11.1-NET-ppc.iso and on 64-bit systems it is openSUSE-11.1-NET-x86_64.iso Downloads can be done via FTP or Bittorrent and the latest version can be gotten from http://software.opensuse.org/

• Before you continue, make a note of the Installation Repository directory on the server – hover over the link and it will show in the status bar of your browser or as a tool tip on the page http://software.opensuse.org/. Do this before you do anything else Also note that the download directories may not be the same between versions. You can’t just change 10.2 to 10.3 or 10.3 to 11.1.
• Boot from the CD, and you will get a nice green graphic menu (blue for older versions).
• Press F2 to choose your language.
• Press F3 to choose your screen resolution.
• Press F4 and select HTTP or FTP depending on which mirror you are using, as some don't support both.
• Enter the server name you noted before. The openSUSE server is http://download.opensuse.org download.opensuse.org which will point you to a mirror. You can also have a look at Mirrors Released Version for mirrors.
• Enter the directory for the installation source you noted before – e.g. /distribution/11.1/repo/oss/ on the openSUSE server. This differs between mirrors, though this is now being standardized, so future versions will have the same format.
• Select Installation from the main boot menu and press enter to continue.
• A kernel will load and boot to an installation screen.

NOTE: If you have made a mistake, or your system doesn’t support the graphical version of the installer, you will go back to a text menu to start again. Check for spelling mistakes!
If you get everything correct the openSUSE Installation System will download. This is about 70 MB so give it some time. There should be a progress bar visible.

[Solomon]

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR INTERNET UPGRADE

1. Once the installer is loaded, you will be asked to confirm the partition with the system to be upgraded.
   
2. You will then be shown the list of your current repositories. Make sure they are all disabled, as they will only be valid for your current version. If you are feeling brave you could edit the settings to match the repos for 11.1 at this stage.
   
3. The installer will set up repos for OSS (Open Source Software) & non-OSS, and offer you the choice as to whether to disable them. You can also enable a debug repo. It is safe to take the default setting here.
   
4. The Installation Settings page will show you list of Update Options & Packages. You may also get a red warning message:
   
   

   Cannot solve all conflicts. Manual intervention is required.

   If you click on the Packages headline you will get a list of problem packages, and the YaST dependency checker will give you options to deal with the problems. Be patient here, as this is the most time consuming bit of the process. However if you can sort the problems here it will ensure a clean and tidy update. Some of the dependancy problems will be because you have installed applications from non SUSE repos, so it is safe to select "generally ignore..". Once the dependency error warning stops appearing, you can click the Accept button (at bottom right)to continue. You may have to accept licenses for things like Adobe Acrobat Reader or Flash, but if you get back to the Installation Settings page with no error messages, You can click Accept again.
   
5. You will be shown a Confirm Update message, with Back and Start Update buttons. This is your last chance to pull out. If you click Start Update, the process follows the same procedure as the standard CD/DVD install.
   
6. NOTE After installation and the first reboot, you may get errors about not being able to find the drive. This is because the new kernel treats all hard drives as SCSI and will be looking for sda or sdb instead of hda or hdb. You will get a message on screen saying something like:

Can't find hdb1, try sdb1? (Y/N)

Just type Y and hit enter, to continue. You may need to manually edit your /etc/fstab file once the install is complete.

Good Luck!!