Feature changed by: Karl Cheng (qantas94heavy) Feature #316744, revision 6 Title: Network installtion openSUSE Distribution: Done Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Hylton Conacher (notlyh) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: There is no ability to begin an installation of any openSuSe distribution without the need for external media ie CD/DVD, Flash drive, PXR server. I believe the future of new hardware will move to devices without optical drives that may or may not have USB ports. The hardware will however have a network card and either an RJ-45 or wireless connection. I have personally seen Netbooks released in 2012 that had no optical drive, 1/2 USB ports, a RJ45 port and had wireless. Giving these to people who have not experienced computing or possibly do not have the funds for a 5Gb flash-disk, one has to ask how they are going to embrace openSuSe when they get tired of Windows Starter. How can a person with such hardware install opensuse when they visit the opensuse website, WITHOUT the use of CLI or other GUI software to make a boot medium? I believe there should be a Java file, as most systems understand Java that a new user could click on. Once this had been clicked the opensuse servers would download a start install script that, when the machine was rebooted would prompt the user, before the existing OS starts, about the ability to begin installing opensuse over a network connection. The first few initial downloads need to be small in size and be used to create a 'virtual machine' of the install that despite many Internet connection disconnects, still manages to resume its download. The user must not need to install VM software first. Once the user has completed the establishment of the 'VM version' of opensuse, the user is requested to agree to add the opensuse VM machine as their new host OS. If the user agrees the machine is rebooted and the user is asked to specify the location of the new install, just in case he might want to dual boot or has just added another partition/disk. The installation goes ahead, downloading from the Internet whatever software it needs, despite possible interruptions in network connectivity. The machine powers itself off and on its next power on the user is greeted by GRUB indicating that he may either boot into opensuse, or if they elected to during the install, boot into their old OS. + Relations: + - Remove Windows Local Installer (feature/id: 311047) Discussion: #1: Greg Freemyer (gregfreemyer) (2013-11-27 16:45:48) I'm still not sure of the target device: Laptop, tablet, smartphone? And with a NET installable ISO why is the requirement of a 512MB or larger thumb drive not appropriate. A low performance small thumb can be purchased at very low cost. Maybe the marketing team should be handing out 512MB thumbs with the NET ISO on them instead of DVDs? Also, if you think these devices will be laptops, will they have UEFI Secure Boot enabled? (Do smartphones/tablets have UEFI secure boot functionality?) If UEFI Secure Boot is a concern and the project as described goes forward, particular care will be required to ensure an appropriate mechanism is developed to address the issues related to UEFI Secure Boot. It still seems to me a 512 MB thumb drive is a workable solution for the described problem. #2: akash vishwakarma (vish_99) (2015-05-18 10:32:13) Hylton Conacher can you be a little more specific about what you want? Please edit description and make it short. #3: Karl Cheng (qantas94heavy) (2016-11-17 12:07:07) This was actually completed before this feature request was created (as Instlux (https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Instlux) ). In fact, there is also a "feature" request to remove this "Windows Local Installer" ( 311047 (/311047) ), as it is apparently buggy (have never tried it myself). -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/316744