You can do an ftp installation by downloading the bootdisk (and modules disk if you you need it).
I can certify that this will work (at least to the extent that it completes :->), having completed an FTP install from ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/ a few minutes ago. The thing to watch out for is FTP server timeouts. Once past that, all is smooth.
Daniel Bischof and I have migrated the ftp.suse.com ftp server from proftpd to good-old wuftpd along with xinetd. During the migration we had to boot one time because the socket wasn't released, and the whole thing might have been a bit bumpy at times. However, we believe that most of the problems that people reported (and that we couldn't reproduce) will vanish.
The one remaining problem that I fear will creep up as soon as I try to boot into the system: I suspect that yast (text) allowed me to get away with installing *NO* kernel at all - it got an error downloading the 2.4 kernel - and yast still proceeded to the end, with lilo complaining <g>. IOW, recovery from that error seems to have been somewhat ... sub-optimal.
Boot using the bootfloppy, run the installed system, Get ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/7.1/suse/images/k_deflt.rpm install the rpm, execute "mk_initrd" and run lilo afterwards. You may have to go through configuring lilo again, though.
Let's see whether I can complete the installation by other means.
May have been the bumpy ftp server operation today.
Are there plans to release a smallish "eval" ISO download for a tiny base system?
Negative, this is not planned for the nearest future.
Regards,
Roman.
--
- -
| Roman Drahtmüller