From DistroWatch: “SuSE Linux 8.2 has now been spotted on several mirrors. While SuSE does not provide easily install-able ISO images for download, their 8.2 directory has been uploaded to provide a method to install SuSE’s Professional Edition directly from FTP servers. First, get the installation image: boot.iso (20MB), then boot from it and follow the instructions provided in this readme file.” German and international mirrors. Here is the OSNews review of the 8.2 version.
I’ve never been able to get this work, I don’t understand why they just can’t provide ISOs like everybody else. Obviously they really don’t want this to work…they want you to go and buy the box. I understand that they are a company that needs to make a profit, so quit wasting my time with bogus offers to install it for free and just tell everyone that you have to buy it if you want it.
Works just fine, I recently installed 8.1 this way. It is a throw back to the old days of ftp install. Just do your homework and make sure you have the mirror ip address and path before installing. I remember installing linux for the first time. It was Turbolinux 3.0
If you think this is bad, what about the old way of doing slakware with the floppies?
I had absoulutely no problems installing SuSE 8.1 this way either.
My question is, do you think it is worth it installing 8.2, if I have 8.1 and I’m pretty pleased with it, set up the way I want it and all?
I like the ftp-install better then downloading 5 iso’s…
I done it too. For 8.1.
I made a couple boot floppies and followed the instructions. I don’t know if I would bother with a dial up. The longer times involved may increase the probablility
of you getting a connection problem.
I’ve tried it several times. Friends tell me how to do it, people online give me advice, they ask if I’m doing this or that, and I seem to be doing it right. I really doubt if it’s my router…
I installed on my laptop via FTP with minimal problem, just get the IP address and FTP path correct.
The FTP install probably saves bandwidth which somebody somewhere actually pays for.
I’ve installed 8.1 this way a couple of times. Just make sure you pay attention to what is going on, and there won’t be a problem. Since the machine i’m installing it on is behind a NAT box, I have to manually enter my networking information, since SuSE gets a bogus DHCP lease. After I enter my network info in, I select to start the install, and it fires up the GUI and away I go. Works perfectly.
I like the idea of using FTP for install. Just get what you need. But my broadband connection by speedtouch USB ADSL modem is not recognized by the major distro’s so FTP install will not work. So not all people can install it. Give ISO to the people and all can install. Now I can’t just for the type of connection I have. It is not fair.
Does somebody has the CD’s they can send me :=)
Greetings,
Jeroen Roeterd
It says in the article that it is Suse 8.2 Professional Edition. How are they giving away the professional edition for free? Does it include the same applications included with the retail professional edition including commercial applications?
I am using a Verizon ADSL modem, and I have unsuccessfully attempted to install SuSE 8.0. I do not think it will work with 8.2, but I will give it a try anyway. The installer does not have PPPoE support as far as I can tell. Therefore, I tried connecting with a proxy server on another computer on my local network. Still fails :/ Oh well, maybe I’ll download the whole tree and install from SMB or hard disk.
Upon booting from the cd, you will be presented with 7 selections, choose “Manual Installation” and press Enter.
Next:
a. Choose language ->English ->Press Enter
b. Keyboard map ->English (US) ->Press Enter
c. Main menu ->Kernel modules ->Press Enter
d. Load network card modules ->Press Enter
e. Select your nic ->Press Enter
f. module “mii” loaded successfully ->Press Enter
g. Please enter parameters for “your nic” ->Press Enter
h. module “your nic” loaded successfully! ->Press Enter
i. Tab to “Back” ->Press Enter
j. Main menu ->Start installation / system ->Press Enter
k. Start installation/update ->Press Enter
l. Please choose the source medium ->Network->Press Enter
m. Please choose the network protocol ->FTP ->Press Enter
n. Automatic configuration via DHCP? ->Yes ->Press Enter
o. Please enter the IP address of the FTP server ->0.0.0.0*
*This is where you have to enter a “numerical” IP address of the FTP server. There are 6 Suse ftp-servers in the US. You have to choose the nearest server. I live near Chicago and as result choose: ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/ftp.suse.com/
The “numerical” IP address of the FTP server I am requested to enter corresponds to ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov, the question is how do I get this “numerical” IP address? By searching it at reverse-IP sites. Hence, my “numerical” IP address is 140.221.9.138
o. Please enter the IP address of the FTP server ->140.221.9.138
p. Specify username and password for FTP installation? ->No ->Press Enter
q. Do you want to use a HTTP proxy? ->No ->Press Enter
r. Please enter the directory on the server ->
/pub/ftp.suse.com/i386/8.2/ or
/pub/ftp.suse.com/i386/current/ ->Press Enter
Those of you using ADSL and pppoe to connect to the Internet – you are right, SuSE’s installation doesn’t support pppoe.
All you can do is to invest $50 into a broadband router with a built-in DHCP server and you are set. You configure it once and then forget about username, passwords and all that stuff, because you’ll never need it again, no matter how many new Linux distros you install each day. It’s one of those things which will make you wonder how you could ever live without one.
Hey bakari, I have a Lynksys LNE 100TX netcard and I don’t see that as an option and when I try any of the other cards it doesn’t work. Thanks for the step by step. I’ll look around for a fix
The install goes a lot easier if you mirror the tree locally first and run an NFS or hard disk install. DOwnload the tree overnight one night and then the install only takes minutes.
/g
Ok to all Linksys people.. use the (I think the 2nd option) that says “tulip” and it works yay!
> By searching it at reverse-IP sites. Hence, my “numerical” IP address is 140.221.9.138
Maybe I got it wrong :
$ ping mirror.mcs.anl.gov
Pinging alpaca.mcs.anl.gov [140.221.9.138] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 140.221.9.138: bytes=32 time=751ms TTL=237
Reply from 140.221.9.138: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=237
Ping statistics for 140.221.9.138:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 180ms, Maximum = 751ms, Average = 232ms
You don’t have to search for a IP-reverse website.
___________________________________________
I installed 7.3 from ftp long time ago. It works fine.
Torrey, glad you made it.
Anyone has this error on Software selection: “Cannot read package data from installation media. Media error?”
Could it be the servers are too busy?
doesn’t an ftp intallation take longer since you have to download it as you install it ( if you are installing it is waiting for the next package to finish downloading before it installs)
Anyone has this error on Software selection: “Cannot read package data from installation media. Media error?”
Could it be the servers are too busy?
No, it means that the mirror is not fully synched and some files and/or directories are still missing.
I don’t have a network…just a single desktop puter with an 80 gig drive.
Can I download the whole tree and make it work? AFAIK, you could never do this….but it would make life much easier…
there is nothing yet but a note that the ftp version will be in place on may 12th — where there is no original I don’t really trust the mirrors of what isn’t even there in the first place… righties..?
For people who want to try out 8.2pro, or cant get it to work from the mirror, it is posted here http://www.suprnova.org/ Just use bittorrent. HTH
I downloaded 8.1 and installed it off of my hard drive with no problems. I plan to do the same with 8.2. Never had to try the FTP install.
I installed last night and it was quite easy.
I used my XP command prompt to do an nslookup to get the ftp numeric IP.
The install took about 3 hours for a basic install, but I went to sleep with 2 hours left and when I woke up I just put in my passwords and it logged me in and I was ready to go
You can search http://www.filemirros.com/ for suse or suse. (with a dot).
I downloaded these about a week ago. I don’t know how legal these are though.
I tried several mirrors and get the “cannot get package data” or I get a very messed up package list (kde_desktop etc missing).
Torrey: what mirror are you using?
Z-God: thanx but they all seem down/busy right now :
On most mirrors the 8.2 directory isn’t available yet
they expect it to be their on monday the 12th…
On most mirrors the 8.2 directory isn’t available yet
they expect it to be their on monday the 12th…
I doubt it; the 8.2 directory on the Chicago mirror is available. Torrey also must have downloaded from a different mirror.
>> The install goes a lot easier if you mirror the tree locally first and run an NFS or hard disk install. DOwnload the tree overnight one night and then the install only takes minutes.
This is a good idea if you have the disk space (most people do), and it will work fine for those use PPPoE (or any other net connection which won’t work with the boot image).
>>>> By searching it at reverse-IP sites. Hence, my “numerical” IP address is 140.221.9.138
>> $ ping mirror.mcs.anl.gov
>> You don’t have to search for a IP-reverse website.
You don’t have to use ping, ‘host’ or ‘nslookup’ more suitable.
>> doesn’t an ftp intallation take longer since you have to download it as you install it ( if you are installing it is waiting for the next package to finish downloading before it installs)
Depends how you look at it (and on you bandwith). The actual installation part takes longer (than downloading ISO, like you might for some other distro). However, because you can be installing and downloading simultaneously (I imagine, though), therefore total install time is only a little bit longer than the download (i.e. the install and download times overlap, making the total shorter). When you subtract the download time from total install time, the install time you are left with is very small. Also, because you only download the files which you install the download (and total install) time is as short as possible.
It took a while, but I have SuSE 8.2. Vastly nicer to use than 8.1 mainly because the fonts are gorgeous! I can’t get over how nice everthing looks.
Also, there’s lots of little improvements. It’s better than 8.1 and if you can be bothered to upgrade then I’d suggest you do. Just create the floppys or iso images and follow the short and simple instructions on the site.
I’m best pleased, but I’m only comparing to 8.1.
It’s more and more like OSX or winXP easy to use interface with better directories and applications layout. e.g. the /home/user/Documents now contains sub-dir: Pictures, Presentations and Textdocuments.
Also the / (root) directory contains the /windows (C, D, E, etc.) and /media (cdrecorder, dvd, floppy, etc.). Definitely more welcome for windows user.
I’ve been using it (8.2) for a couple of months or so and overall very satisfied with it.
My previous FTP installations (8.0 and 8.1) are flawless. An FTP installation is a little bit daunting for newbies though 😉
I doubt it; the 8.2 directory on the Chicago mirror is available. Torrey also must have downloaded from a different mirror.
You shouldn’t. On saturday two out of three european mirrors weren’t uptodate.
I installed SuSE via FTP, while installing there were no problems, but on boot, I get a message saying “cannot connect to X server, and a crash”. The problem is that I do not know what to do! Can anyone help?
Cb..
Hi guys! I downloaded the whole directory from a greek mirror (ftp.ntua.gr) , I burned the image onto a cd, booted, started the installation from hard disk. It took about 2-3 hours, and half of the packages were reported missing !!!
I checked the ftp again, i’ve downloaded all the files. The ones that are being asked from the installer are indeed missing !! I ve even tried minimum installation (200mb?) and files are still missing !! Any ideas? Oh, and after that, when I try to install Grub, it freezes at 75% and I have to press accept (and then it freezes, and both capslock and scroll lock flash!)
Any ideas?
thanks!
Sfranky
I have been trying to get suse via ftp since I purchased 7.1 back in 2001 and thanks to the details from this thread of how-to install I am proceeding….it certainly is a little slow but I am just happy to be able do it.
FM
I had a little trouble once the system finished downloading, on the reboot I didn’t know what to do so I started the whole process over again….then I find out(I used the iso image to get started)you have to go to installation to continue the install configuration so it continues….