On 30/12/2021 14.42, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Wed, 29 Dec 2021 23:18:28 +0100 "Carlos E. R." <> wrote:
On 29/12/2021 21.29, Dave Howorth wrote:
On Wed, 29 Dec 2021 20:13:40 +0100 "Carlos E. R." <> wrote:
On 29/12/2021 19.12, Dave Howorth wrote:
I'd like to [finally] install 15.3. I want to install it separate to my existing system so I can revert to my existing system in the event of problems. I'm having trouble finding a clear set of instructions.
I've found
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/startup/html/book-startup/art-op...
and
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/startup/html/book-startup/cha-in...
but they both start with the assumption that I've already got an installation image. I don't! So searching elsewhere I've found
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Download_help
and that suggests (among many other suggestions just to confuse me!)
https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.3/iso/
but that seems to have an enormous number of possibilities. I can figure out some of it: DVD vs NET and x86_64 vs other architectures and .iso vs .iso.sha256 but I'm lost about other aspects.
What's Media vs Current all about? And what's 15.3 vs 15.3-2? And what's Build24.5?
Is there a single place that actually documents how to install 15.3 from start to end?
Haven't you installed it before? :-?
Afraid not
Oh. But you do have a Linux system? Or are you using Windows to do the download?
No, it's linux.
Ok.
click on "15.3".
--> https://get.opensuse.org/leap/
Click on the "download" tab. Select the first one, "Intel or AMD 64-bit desktops, laptops, and servers (x86_64)". I reccomend the large offline image, 4.3 GiB. On the download button, click on the down arrow and choose "metalink".
That leads to an apparently infinite regression of Firefox windows file:~/.mozilla/tmp/openSUSE-Leap-15.3-2-DVD-x86_64-Build24.5-Media.iso.meta... and popups asking what to do with it. :(
Ah, because you need to install a plugin so that Firefox knows how to handle a metalink, or forget all that, and download from Linux using the aria2c command I wrote.
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Download_help
There is a section on "Downloading via Metalinks".
You have to install "DownThemAll" on FF. But there are other options you can see in that section.
Best way, is to forget firefox and use the aria2c command as I wrote later. The command is the faster possible: it uses several servers and methods at the same time to guarantee the fastest and guaranteed download. And it verifies that download is correct, so you can forget
Yes, I'll use that, thanks.
Ok. Comment: aria2c is a metalink downloader. When you tell it to download the iso, what it does in fact is download first the .meta4 file, an information file of about 1 Megabyte. It is a text file, you can inspect it. XML, in fact. The first thing it contains, for example, is a long list of "hashes", or checksums for download chunks of the DVD. The program divides the DVD file in many chunks, and calculates the checksums of each chunk, and compares the actual downloaded chunk checksum with that list, and knows if that chunk (size 262144) has been downloaded correctly or not. If not, it downloads only that chunk again. Thus, the program has the ability to repair a DVD that has been incorrectly downloaded without downloading it whole. It also contains a long list of mirrors (calculated dinamically) from where to download the DVD. It can also contain download information for several protocols, even torrent. Example, from an old version: <url type="bittorrent" preference="100">http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.4/iso/openSUSE-11.4-DVD-x86_64....</url> Once it downloads the .meta4 file, it turns to the actual business of downloading the DVD. Ah, it can be interrupted, it will recover when you restart it.
go to iso
The correct one is
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/iso/openSUSE-Leap...
This appears to be the same as the page I originally went to. So I still have the same questions - what do the names mean? How do I know which is the right one (to decide for myself rather than trusting you :-P :)
Oh, because I have spent hundreds of hours reading mail lists and other documentations for over two decades, so I know :-D
See my answer to Felix :)
Done :-)
Ok, I know I want the DVD, because it is the complete version, and the best one for doing installs. Alternatively, there is the NET version which some people prefer, but it means downloading everything at installation time, every time. And the lives I do not recommend for installation, just for testing.
Yup I agree with your logic.
Also, I know I want the x86_64 version because I have a PC, and so do you. If you don't, then that is another can of worms.
Then I know I want the build number with the higher value because it is more recent.
See my question in my reply to Felix?
Done, answered there, I think. Ignore dates, I forgot to say.
And of course, I need the .iso file.
Quick and best download CLI method, if you have a running Linux:
(one line)
aria2c --check-integrity=true "http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/iso/openSUSE-Leap..."
if aria2c is not installed yet, install it. No buts accepted :-p
I already have it :)
Good. It may be installed by default, now.
Now, instructions to install a second openSUSE are not trivial, lots of decisions. I don't know if there is a docu. We can guide you (as many methods as writers here), if you give details of what you want and what you have.
First important question: is your system BIOS or UEFI?
UEFI
Second: is the disk traditionally partitioned, or GPT?
GPT for both disks. The old and the new.
Ah, two disks. Then you have to explain more.
Not much to explain. I have my existing system on my existing disk. I want to install 15.3 on a newer (SSD) disk. There's a bit of swap and a bit of a data partition on there and a bunch of unallocated space.
Yeah, but to give advice we need to know what exactly you want to do. Like, what disks are you using, which are temporary and which are final, where do you want to install, etc. As you want to install on the second disk, there is a somewhat hidden menu in the partition proposal of the installer where you can tell what disk to use for the proposal, and then it will calculate a new proposal using that disk only. I can not tell you exactly the name of the menu(s) because I don't remember the details: I have to be doing it this instant, then I can find it easily.
PS I ask again. Is this all documented anywhere? Why do the online instructions not state these things? Or have I simply not found the correct place?
Maybe because you have not hit on them, or maybe because I have not written this tidbit. And if I did, nobody would find it.
The need for this tidbit has been mentioned on the mail lists more than once.
I'll report it to the doc team.
Or maybe you are not asking for this tidbit in particular.
There is a _Book_ on installing openSUSE (the startup guide). In PDF, HTML and epub. Read it. And then there is a "reference guide", also very good.
Yes, the page that I started at was part of the startup guide. The first URL I posted was a clue!!!!!
Yep.
The reference guide doesn't cover system installation at all, AFAICT.
Yes and no. 5 Expert Partitioner 6 Installing multiple kernel versions Those are installation details. There are more chapters.
If the answer is UEFI and GPT, then the first move - a crucial move:
edit "/etc/default/grub".
On the line that starts "GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=..." write a name that is not opensuse, and that your UEFI likes. avoid spaces, underscores. For example, I have:
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="main-os"
It presently says
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=""
Is that OK? If not how do I know what characters my UEFI likes? In particular, does it like a dot '.'?
That's the default, and you have to change it.
Nobody knows what your own computer firmware will like. Mine did not like what I wrote and I had to change it. I think it did not like dots or underscores, one of the two and I do not remember which.
How do you know it doesn't like it? Because the machine will not boot Grub. The entry for your system disappears from the _firmware_ menu.
Hmm, not something I want to experiment with.
Nobody wants! :-D We simply find ourselves that something failed, our system can not be booted, and then we find that the trouble was "wrong character" in the system name. Or any other bug in the firmware. For example, I have a laptop that an installation done to an external disk will not boot on its own. The external disk has to be listed in the internal disk EFI partition instead. This is a firmware bug (lenovo in this case). But another lenovo computer I used doesn't have this problem. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)