Suse 11.3 instalation hell.

[drworm]

First of all I am new to all of this, and some of the language is making my brain 'urt, but I have been really impressed by the linux community so far. I decided to try out a linux distribution for the first time after reading about some of the myths and facts, and went hunting for a distribution. After much reading and web searching I narrowed my sights down to two: openSUSE 11.3 (64), and Mandriva 2010. I started my torrent downloads, and waited patiently.

At this point I should let you know computer specs:
HP thinkpad business class - Probably about 3-4 years old
Processor: Intel core 2 (duo) 200Ghz
Ram: 3gb
OS: Windows 7
HDD: Fujitsu MHW2080BH PL ATA Device 75gb
Partitions: (3)- C:53gb (this is the one set for use with Windows), D: 7gb HP recovery, G: 15gb (this is the one I want to install openSUSE on to)
External HD: Maxtor 500gb (147gb free)

You will notice that what is missing are cd/dvd drive and floppy drive. I assume this is because it is a business class laptop. This can be a pain in the keester at times, but so far I have worked around it.

So this morning my downloaded .iso's were done downloading, so I decided to jump right in with openSUSE. I has read a ton of forum posts and advice on installing SUSE without a CD drive, and most recomended using a usb thumb drive as a boot device. Makes sense, but I could not find a working flash drive in the house (I think my son has them all at school), so I read up on installing from external HD, got started.

I set up a virtual drive (F) using Magic iso and mounted the .iso on to F. Then I double clicked on "openSUSE11_3_local" and a install wizard opened. I clicked through the options keeping everything standard. The wizard got to the end and told me to reboot.

I rebooted and the boot stopped and offered me a choice between Windows 7 and openSUSE installation, I choose openSUSE and it kicked me to a ascii screen (not the graphical install page I have seen screen shots of) that told me to make sure the disk was loaded in to drive. There is no drive or disk, so I went "back" and clicked on english, then Install, then when it asked for the source I chose Hard Drive. At this point it asked for a location or root or something. I had no idea so I exited out of install and opened Win7 and serched the web for what I should put there. I got a few different answers but it seemed like it was looking for the location of the extracted files, so I tried all sorts of permutations of the location to no avail. I went back in to win7 and tried extracting the files to a simpler root, and tried to use that location, but it would not work. Tried to extract them to the external HD, and that did not work.

At this point I was quite frustrated, so I decided to try installing Mandriva. I extracted this to F and started it's installer- this gave me a native install window with 4 options, one of which was install Mandriva. I clicked on this, it told me I had to reboot, I rebooted and...

Got the same two options of OS to load in: Windows 7, and openSUSE. No option for Mandriva. I opened Windows 7 thinking that it may load through Windows, but nothing- it just loaded Win7 normally.

grrrrrr...at this point I had a cheeseburger, and went back to messing with openSUSE. Now, however, it gets a "Error 17: File not Found" and the best I can do is open GRUB4DOS, but I have no idea what to do in this program, so I jsut exit out and try booting again. No change. Only two choices for OS on boot (Mandriva never showed), and openSUSE will not work. Now I can't even Uninstall openSUSE to get it off the list, because it really is not installed.

I need help!!!!!!

Thanks in advance.

[yancek]

I've never used Magic ISO or installed from an iso image on a drive but the standard installation for Opensuse 11.3 when using a CD/DVD or USB is that after the installation completes and you are told to re-boot, Opensuse starts up one re-boot and you get the green opensuse screen with a message "Preparing First Ssytem Configuration. It will detect your Printer, download packages from repositories, buildi repos and then get User login screen. Doesn't sound like you got these steps unless you neglected to mention it. If you didn't get this last part, the installation was not finished.

[drworm]

No I did not get that last part. I am not sure what I did wrong, but now I can't get any OS to install and cannot get rid of what ever little bit of openSUSE I do have.

[Lostfarmer]

It hard to determine just what steps you took to try to load Suse, with out that can not say how to correct.
Try using this guide. Tapas Linux Blog: Install Linux without using CD or DVD

I did get it to work on a year ago but do not remember if it was with SuSe or SimplyMepis, one worked the other did not. If you use that guide, I might remember enough to help out.

[velocity]

drworm , Lostfarmer is referring to this link

mightydreams (dot) blogspot (dot) com/2007/09/i-am-describing-here-method-to-install.html

I am not allowed to post URL before I finish 15 posts so can not give link
so replace the word (dot ) by an actual dot above.