As I also pointed out, just having a DVD drive doesn't mean you can even burn the DVD Isos. I'm looking at 4 computers and only 1 has a DVDRW drive. 2 have DVD-CDRWs and the other has only a CD drive. If I didn't have the DVDRW here, I'd be unable to burn the medium to begin with.
You don't ned a dvd burner to install from the dvd image. You can download it and loopback mount it and either rsync the contents to a usb drive or access the mount point via http/ftp/nfs http is the simplest to set up and use both on the server and client side imo. server: rcapache2 start cd /srv/www/htdocs wget dvdimage.iso mkdir suse mount -o loop dvdimage.iso suse client: boot the mini iso Use http://server/suse as the install source. "server" can be any machine with internet access and which can run apache, meaning windows or linux or macos or anything. Another approach that doesn't require a second machine: Boot the live cd. Use it to format the hard drive and download a copy of the dvd. choose a or b: a) loopback mount the dvd iso rsync the contents out to a directory that the installer will not try to create or overwrite umount and delete the dvd iso boot the mini iso and install from local directory b) if space it too tight to have both the 4.2g iso and the whatever gigs of it's unpacked contents just leave the dvd iso there boot the mini iso flip to screen 2 or 4 or 9 etc, any one with a shell loopback mount the dvd iso flip back to screen 1 and proceed to istall from local directory (use the iso mount point of course) Could do something similar with a usb hd or even a large usb stick but above doesn't assume you have usb ports. The advantage to the usb way of course is that you only have to dounload the dvd image once from the internet and you can install many machines from the same usb drive. The laptop http server way has that advantage too. Could also buy the retail dvd and wait for the mail if your internet is not up to downloading a full dvd even once, and then do variations of above as long as you have access to one dvd reader somewhere on any machine just to read it into a file once that can then be networked around at will or copied to usb. I get it finally that you are speaking hypothetically and not actually complaining for yourself as I thought before. Sorry about the immediately previous post which mistakenly assumed that. So from here I also and merely arguing the topic abstractly not personally just for the record. For newbies I suggest the best way to support them is just to write up clear newbie-compatible instructions for the 10 different possible arguably newbie-unfriendly approaches in the wiki. That really helps everyone not just newbies. A good solid tested and proven reference is priceless to everyone whatever the skill level. I can figure anything out and I always start by looking for any existing reference first and often refer back to it many times along the way. If none exists I write my own and then refer to it later even though I wrote it in the first place. For hassle-free, buy new hardware or use old software. Neither is unreasonable, especially considering "new" could still be very old and cheap if all that's needed is a dvd reader, and considering that "old" is still very new when it's only 10.3. I have production machines on 9.1 and every version since, and I don't have any difficultis with any of them. 10.1 and later even still have live repos and update repos on all the public mirrors so there is really no great hardship installing 10.1, .2, or .3. They are all perfectly functional and useable and modern. -- Brian K. White brian@aljex.com http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org