Trying out openSUSE 10.2

I have been using Feisty for about two to three months now and hoped to try out SUSE on a collegues suggestion. I still have Ubuntu on my home machine. And hope to try out openSUSE at office.


Got my hands on the DVD of LFY (Linux for you) Jan 2007 edition. They have provided a DVD of openSUSE. I tried it quite a few times on Saturday (25 Aug) but failed to load because of a problem with the package check. It said that the integrity check on some files on the DVD failed. On Monday(27 Aug) I got my hands on another copy of the DVD, which unfortunately is giving similar errors. So I copied the DVD into an iso and wrote it onto a blank DVD. Surprisingly, this DVD carried on with the installation without much of a problem. In fact right now, the base installation is done and I am on the "Online Update" section of configuration.

An advice to anyone who is trying to install openSUSE. There is an option to skip the section "Online Update". Please use it. I finished all the other steps in about 45 mins to 1 hr. But the online update is taking a huge amount of time. And to make things worse, there is no way of aborting the update once it is started.

One advantage that SUSE's installation has over Ubuntu is that it allows the features to be selected, while Ubuntu installs the default without allowing any initial customization. Customizations are possible only after the installation is done and you login. For novice users, this is great. But for slightly experienced users, some amount of control is good.

I am now in the middle of installing the system and since it is taking some time, I thought I will write this blog. Using another system to write this blog. With an Ubuntu installation, I could have been doing this from the installing system itself. Ubuntu is quite cool in that way. The Live CD really rocks!

OK back to installation of SUSE....

Well I am now stuck on a screen which asks "Run Online Update now?" and gives the options, "Run Update" and "Skip Update". Any selection and clicking on next does not do any good. Seems like it is stuck on this screen. :(
I just hit the re-boot button. Cold boot, keeping my fingers crossed.
It detected that the previous installation failed. Asking me to continue ? Yes.. No.. but the keyboard or mouse does not respond... Cold boot again...
Great!!! This time there is a response and the installation is back.. but the work done for configuration seems to be lost. I am back to the pre-configuration steps. So in total I am back four steps and lost about an hour and a half of my time.
One new problem this time. A step that says "synchronizing with ZENWorks" did not go through. Skipped that..

And this time I really did skip the "Online Support" section..

OK all other steps were done.. Able to boot into the OS. Lets see how SUSE handles novice users :)

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