Installation Problems!

[Symphonyx87]

Alright, this is my first dive into Linux, and I could really use some help. I downloaded and burned the .iso images onto cds (SuSe 10.2) and started installing.

The installation loads some screens, says it loaded linux kernel and then an error pops up. "Your computer does not have enough memory to run YaST. To continue, activate some swap space." and then it gives me a box where I can enter a directory and says "Enter the swap partition (e.g., /dev/sda2)"

First of all, how much memory does YaST need? How do I activate more swap space is that's what's needed?

any help is MUCH appreciated

[devils casper]

Hi Symphonyx87,

Welcome to LinuxForums.

512MB RAM is recommended for SuSe 10.2. How much RAM do you have.

How do I activate more swap space is that's what's needed?

you have to create SWAP partition first. you can use GParted LiveCD to create SWAP partition. size of SWAP partition should be around 2x of RAM. if you have 128 or 256MB of RAM, Create 512MB partition and format it as SWAP.

[Symphonyx87]

The machine is actually a POS Dell that was given to me, I put XP Pro on, then decided linux was gunna be my new friend.

It has:

80g HD
1.9GHz Pentium somethin' or other
256mb SDRAD

P.S. I'm downloading the Gparted Live CD right now and I'm going to give that a shot.

Makes me wonder why it'll run XP Pro ok, and Linux needs a swapfile... I always thought that linux ran on WAY less memory.

[devils casper]

there are a lot of Linux Distributions that needs very less memory. Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux runs file on 64MB RAM. SuSe 10.2 is a bit heavy distro and it requires 256-512MB RAM. are you sharing RAM with Graphics Card?

[techieMoe]

size of SWAP partition should be around 2x of RAM. if you have 128 or 256MB of RAM, Create 512MB partition and format it as SWAP.

This really depends on your computer. For a system with at least 512MB of RAM, no more than 512MB of swap is needed. You only use swap space when your machine runs out of physical RAM, so the more RAM you have, the less swap you need.

However in the case of a machine with less than 512MB of RAM, twice your RAM in swap can be useful. Just FYI for anyone else who stumbles across this thread.

[devils casper]

This really depends on your computer. For a system with at least 512MB of RAM, no more than 512MB of swap is needed.

thats why i suggested 512MB SWAP space if one has 128 or 256 RAM.
if you have 512MB or more RAM, 512MB swap is more than enough unless you are running server.

[Symphonyx87]

alright, I have downloaded GParted and booted with it, and it booted Gentoo or whatever. I loaded GParted, and it has two partitions, /dev/hda1 which is ntfs then I have a second partition which I made linux-swap and it's only 31.38 MBs. Every time I try to resize the first partition so I can make the 2nd one bigger, there is an error. Do I need to change the file system on the main partition before I do a resize or what? That partition has windows on it.

[devils casper]

didn't you create free space before SuSe installation? where were you planning to install SuSe?

[Symphonyx87]

I am used to a windows installation that lets you format/partition during the installation. But anyways, I got SuSe 10.2 on my system, but was slow (8+ min to boot up) so I found DLS (mentioned earlier) and put that on the box instead.

I'm still using the LiveCD of it though, and I was wondering if you could help me get it installed in replacement of SuSe 10.2

Thanx

[devils casper]

its easy to install DSL over SuSe partitions. select SuSe partitions in Partition Section during installation.