openSUSE desktop install help

C

chezler

New Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2017
Messages
21
Reaction score
18
Credits
0
Hi all
First off; Great forum people, I have read a lot of good info here. See lots of people-helping-people. Always great to find that. Makes the world turn much smoother.

I have been building and servicing computers since the late 1990's. Never learned code, shame on me, I was always building bigger, faster, better; tweaking, modding, refurb, de-bug. Mainly working for free or a good meal.
Last 9 years at my job as head quality tech, I taught employees how to use computers and do data entry in Office (and other proprietary programs. And assisted the IT guy in servicing and setting up computers. We had over 100 computers in our plant.

Getting a little long winded, hope you don't mind.

My system: ASUS mobo. Sabertooth 990FX rev.1 - 8 core AMD FX CPU - Radeon HD6850 GPU x2 in Cross Fire - 16GB Hynix Ram - 500GB Sammy 850 EVO SSD with Win 10 - 1TB platter with Win 7 - 1 TB platter plus 3 ea. 500GB platters for storage - 128 GB SSD (blank) for Linux.

I have just burned openSUSE Leap .iso to a 16GB thumb drive using "Rufus" 2.18
I was planning to run it off the thumb drive to see how I liked it.
Note: I have an old 32bit computer that I installed SUSE on years ago to try it out. It wouldn't support my hardware or software and I soon lost interest in it, then soon after built my current computer with Win 7.

ANYWAY;
When I boot to the USB, SUSE comes up, but it looks like it wants to install to a hard drive.
I booted to it two more times, thinking it should just "run", but it wants to install. So I just back out of it, and here I am.
Have I done something wrong, or am I missing a step or two?

If ALL I can do from here is to install it, I have a 128GB SSD for that.
I have read that trying to run SUSEfrom a thumb drive is way to slow, and that I should install it.

So that brings up the next question.
Can I install to my SSD that is plugged into a docking port, plugged into an external SATA. (I'm running out of ports on the motherboard) ;-)

Thanks, in advance, for your help
Charlie
 


chezler said:
Hi all
First off; Great forum people, I have read a lot of good info here. See lots of people-helping-people. Always great to find that. Makes the world turn much smoother.

I have been building and servicing computers since the late 1990's. Never learned code, shame on me, I was always building bigger, faster, better; tweaking, modding, refurb, de-bug. Mainly working for free or a good meal.
Last 9 years at my job as head quality tech, I taught employees how to use computers and do data entry in Office (and other proprietary programs. And assisted the IT guy in servicing and setting up computers. We had over 100 computers in our plant.

Getting a little long winded, hope you don't mind.

My system: ASUS mobo. Sabertooth 990FX rev.1 - 8 core AMD FX CPU - Radeon HD6850 GPU x2 in Cross Fire - 16GB Hynix Ram - 500GB Sammy 850 EVO SSD with Win 10 - 1TB platter with Win 7 - 1 TB platter plus 3 ea. 500GB platters for storage - 128 GB SSD (blank) for Linux.

I have just burned openSUSE Leap .iso to a 16GB thumb drive using "Rufus" 2.18
I was planning to run it off the thumb drive to see how I liked it.
Note: I have an old 32bit computer that I installed SUSE on years ago to try it out. It wouldn't support my hardware or software and I soon lost interest in it, then soon after built my current computer with Win 7.

ANYWAY;
When I boot to the USB, SUSE comes up, but it looks like it wants to install to a hard drive.
I booted to it two more times, thinking it should just "run", but it wants to install. So I just back out of it, and here I am.
Have I done something wrong, or am I missing a step or two?

If ALL I can do from here is to install it, I have a 128GB SSD for that.
I have read that trying to run SUSEfrom a thumb drive is way to slow, and that I should install it.

So that brings up the next question.
Can I install to my SSD that is plugged into a docking port, plugged into an external SATA. (I'm running out of ports on the motherboard) ;-)

Thanks, in advance, for your help
Charlie
Click to expand...

Hey, welcome again, Charlie! You've stumbled into a strange thing that's rather unique in the Linux world, but you are correct: The openSUSE distros that you download are install-only. What is unique is that they can provide you with a live DVD or USB.... but you have to create a (free) account on SUSE Studio and then you can "build" a custom live distro to suit your needs. No one else (to my knowledge) does things this way.

But openSUSE makes a fine distro, so I don't mean to knock them at all. I ran Leap for a brief while and I believe that it was UEFI-friendly and Secure Boot ready too. If you go for a live version, a thumb drive is faster than using DVD, but it won't compare to the SSD that you plan to use. Leap should do well with modern hardware (wireless, sound, etc) but it is always possible that there will be problems too. Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros are usually the best for hardware compatibility out of the box, but you just never know until you start trying... and that's one of the great things about using a live USB or DVD to dip your toes into the water and find out if a distro looks like it will be compatible.

The big thing I'd worry about is all the hard drives you have connected.... and your described method of connecting the SSD for Linux.... until you learn a bit more about the differences between Linux and Windows (where your background is exceptionally strong). These differences are very confusing at first, but I know from your skills that you will pick it up quickly.... but early confusion might cause you to install Linux to the wrong drive or partition with so many drives in use.

So, a couple of thoughts. You seem like you might be the kind of guy to have spare computers laying around, or the parts to build one.... or at least the knowledge to browse around some yard sales, or eBay, or local computer shops.... where you can pick up a used working system for cheap. Really cheap. Even older laptops can be had for pretty good deals. Doing a full install of Linux to a computer by itself will prevent any mishaps and provide a great training ground as you learn the ropes about filesystems and drive/partition designations. You can install and replace Linux distros many times to search for the one that suits you best.

Or, on your existing system, what may be more of a hassle but will help for safety, is to disconnect all hard drives except the SSD that you will install Linux on. This will ensure that the Linux bootloader is installed only on that SSD and it won't need to be concerned with the configuring the bootloader for Windows. (Let Windows find it's own bootloader! LOL) After installing this way, you would need to use the computer UEFI boot menu when you start the computer to choose which drive to boot.... you might need to do this every time because I don't know how the system would respond by finding multiple bootloaders available (I assume you've already worked this out to dual boot between Win 7 and Win 10). Since your arrangement calls for the SSD to be an external device, it would also be an easy choice to leave it unplugged except when you want to boot Linux, and only then use the UEFI boot menu to select it.

Just a quick intro to drives/partitions. Of course, you're well familiar with Windows designations.... a drive (or partition) is assigned a drive letter, such as C: or D: etc. In Linux, drives are usually referenced such as /dev/sda or /dev/sdb (the /dev is where "device" info is kept, and "a" and "b" represent different physical drives). Partitions in Linux are usually referenced by a number along with the drive it is on.... so /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 are two partitions on the same hard drive, "sda". I won't drag this on any further, and I apologize if you're already aware of these differences. But if you aren't, then maybe you realize how it can be tricky to be sure that you install Linux into the correct location when you have so many locations available.

OK, fingers are tired! :D Maybe your eyes are too!?!? :eek::D But I hope I've given you a little to think about. We'll be glad to help you along as best as we can, but you do have a complex setup to consider. @wizardfromoz will be jumping in soon, I'm sure.... he is an expert on stuffing 10-lbs of Linux into a 5-lb box! :cool::D:D

Cheers
 
Thank you, atanere, great info there.

One thing I always do is disconnect all but my target drive. Not that I can't tell the difference, but to prevent any accidental ooops. :oops: I do appreciate the drive designation tutor, I remember a little about it, but you explained it very well. Much needed info.

I won't be doing the "SUSE Studio" thing since I have a few 500GB laptop drives that will plug into my docking port. Might try it down the road when familiarity drops down on me.
One thought, I could use one drive for my desktop with SUSE, and one for my laptop with Mint. Get to learn both.

For dual (or triple) boot; I have my Win 7 drive as first boot since I don't care for Win 10, but all I have to do is "F8" during boot to bring up the options. Wonder if the laptop will do that. Probably. It is an Intel I-7 with Win 10. That's where one of my hard drives came from. I replaced the original with a SSD about a year ago.
I like to run it through the TV while I sit back on the sofa. Nothing like a 50 inch monitor.:D

And yes, I do have spare computers that are working. 4 of them, but all with win XP and all 32 bit. 3 of them are fast enough. Custom builds I did between 6 and 10 years ago.
The slowest one I acquired from a friend so I installed SUSE on it. That was several years ago and I just didn't have the time or patience to get into it. It has sat idle for probably 5 years or more.
Retired now, but the kids and grand kids keep me jumping. BUT never stop learning. I may take a break from it, but never stop.
That's where Linux comes in. I use to subscribe to a couple linux magazines and love reading ( if the reading is for learning something). Now comes the doing, and the learning starts again.

I'm ready
Charlie
 
Linux Mint (and others) still offer 32-bit versions, at least for now, but more and more are ending 32-bit support. If you have 1GB or 2GB of RAM on any of the old computers, they will likely run Linux quite nicely.

But unplugging all the extra drives takes the worry out of you using the primary computer too. You can install the Leap you have onto the SSD, or anything else that you like. Or run one for awhile, and switch later. The SSD will certainly help to boot and run faster than platters.

If, ultimately, you want to install Linux onto the same hard drive as your Windows systems... it will need a partition (either empty and unformatted, or let Linux installer create the partition). This process "should" add the GRUB bootloader to your hard drive in one of two ways... to the MBR if it's an older BIOS based motherboard, or more likely you have a UEFI based motherboard and GRUB will install to the ESP (EFI System Partition) on the hard drive. This can be done, but it is often the cause of many of the troubles that we deal with here on the forums.... it is easily done incorrectly. Oh well... we are all learning this UEFI stuff, and it is still changing and evolving. If you want to go this route, it is REALLY a good idea to back up anything on Windows that you care about.

Windows 10 is a funny beast, and your Windows 10 laptop may or may not show you boot menu options. I had a laptop that upgraded to 10.... and after the upgrade it hid the boot menu where before the upgrade it was available. Another thing Win 10 often does, especially on laptops, is when you choose "Shutdown".... it doesn't really shut down. It goes into "hibernation" instead.... that makes it boot faster and makes Windows look good. (Well, not to me, but to other folks.) Going into hibernation can hinder you from installing Linux.... because Linux recognizes that Windows is running and it tries to protect you and will not install in this state. There are 2 or 3 options you can do to get around this issue, but I just wanted to you have a heads-up about it if you decide to try Linux on that machine. If so, we'll fill you in more fully.

It sounds like you're ready to take the plunge. Good luck! And let us know if you run into any trouble. I'm not very familiar with Leap these days, but I can install it to a spare computer if needed to help figure out any issues.

Cheers
 
Thanks, you've thrown a lot of good stuff my way. I may have to resurrect one of my XP boxes. Both were state-of-the-art when built, but we know how long that lasts in computer years. Plus I knew how to tweak XP to make it lean and mean. Hopefully I can get up to date on Linux and learn how to do it again.

I always make sure "Hibernate" and "Sleep" modes are disabled. I believe it is turned off on the laptop, but I'll check to be sure.

I miss the old BIOS. I knew how to work in there to get some extra features and speed. Seems like UEFI takes away some of the fun. But it does make things easier, especially BIOS updates. That's nearly idiot-proof now. Being able to update or go into UEFI settings without having to reboot to get there is nice.

Think I'll plug in my SSD and check to make sure it's clear, and try some stuff.

Thanks for all the help and the vote of confidence.
Charlie
 
chezler said:
Being able to update or go into UEFI settings without having to reboot to get there is nice.
Click to expand...

You lost me there. How do you access UEFI settings without reboot?

I miss the old BIOS/MBR settings too though, mostly because Linux was easier to install. But it was 1980's tech so it desperately needed to be updated. And its nice now with UEFI/GPT that you can have more than 4 primary partitions. The biggest trouble (for me) has been that different companies produce UEFI differently, and use different terminology... it drives me up a wall.

With Windows 8, Microsoft required OEM's to turn on Secure Boot, but they also required an option to disable it (although I hear of some systems that do not allow it). With Windows 10, Microsoft no longer requires OEM's to provide the option to disable Secure Boot. I'm still waiting to see if that grows into a big deal, and it might. But more Linux distros can support Secure Boot now too, but it may limit some folks from using the distro that they want.

Off to the beer fridge.... I may drown! :eek::D

Cheers
 
Well, not entirely true. You do have to reboot. But you get advanced settings.
  1. Click the Start menu and select Settings.
  2. Select Update and Security.
  3. Click Recovery.
  4. Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. ...
  5. Select Troubleshoot.
  6. Choose Advanced options.
  7. Select UEFI Firmware Settings.
  8. Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).
This is where my mobo is odd. I don't have the "Select UEFI firmware settings" option when I get that far. That is why I can't disable Secure Boot, or legacy , change strings.
It was an oversight on ASUS's part when the y developed that BIOS chip. One of the problems with buying one of the first UEFI mobo's. More of that "Latest and greatest" thing.


Having trouble with the install. Don't know if it is a format thing, corrupt download, or my motherboard.

1. All other drives disconnected.
2. Computer would not show the SSD when hooked up in docking station. (Probably an invalid string thing since it still had "system volume information" from the old Win7 install. So I hoohed up to internal sata.
3. Hooked up New Win7 hdd to format the SSD. Only option was NTFS.
4. Tried again. Install started but would not complete. Got error code: -3008 VOLUME_FORMAT_FAILED Cannot open /dev/sdb1: Device or rcsource busy. SSD still empty.
5.Hooked up Win7 again and went to disk management. Deleted partition on SSD and formated as exFAT. (only option other than NTFS)
6.Tried again and got further. After install (I thought) More errors.
ERROR: Execution of Command "[[" /usr/bin/grub2-editenv" ,"list" ]]" failed
Exit code:1
Error output: (same as above)
Cannot find a device for /boot/grub2 (is .dev mounted?)
7.Got back on Win7 and SSD is still empty.

I'm Baaaaack!
 
I just realized what time it is. 9:30 P.M. here. I have to get up at 6:00 A.M to go help a friend. So this is going to have to wait til tomorrow evening.

Good night.
 
chezler said:
Well, not entirely true. You do have to reboot. But you get advanced settings.
  1. Click the Start menu and select Settings.
  2. Select Update and Security.
  3. Click Recovery.
  4. Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. ...
  5. Select Troubleshoot.
  6. Choose Advanced options.
  7. Select UEFI Firmware Settings.
  8. Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).
This is where my mobo is odd. I don't have the "Select UEFI firmware settings" option when I get that far. That is why I can't disable Secure Boot, or legacy , change strings.
It was an oversight on ASUS's part when the y developed that BIOS chip. One of the problems with buying one of the first UEFI mobo's. More of that "Latest and greatest" thing.
Click to expand...

I just (re)installed Win 10 tonight for other reasons, but I followed along with the 8-step instructions just for fun. For all that effort from Windows, it only takes me to a reboot and accesses the Startup Menu, then I hit F10, and I'm in the BIOS/UEFI setup. I can access the same Startup Menu by holding the ESC key when booting instead of all the Windows steps.

But, those Windows steps are what's needed when Boot Menu and Settings is "masked" as I mentioned in post #4 above. I had one laptop with that behavior, but I've seldom heard of other folks with this issue. Since you can access your Boot Menu, I wonder if you can't access the Setup too? This page seems to indicate that you need only tap the DEL key a few times as it's booting, just like in the old days, to get into your Setup. Let me know if that works.... maybe you can get out of UEFI-only mode (and choose Legacy) after all, although you may not need or want to. It would just be nice to know that you aren't locked out of the Settings.

BIOS and UEFI are basically the same thing.... motherboard firmware. Technically, UEFI has replaced BIOS, but far and wide people and companies too still describe the Settings as "BIOS Settings". (I'll bet you remember back when we called it "CMOS Settings" instead!) Within UEFI, there usually remains the ability for backward compatibility... that setting of many names: Legacy Mode, BIOS mode, CSM (Compatibility Support Module), and maybe more. (This is why it drives me up a wall. :confused::D)

If you can get into the Settings, you'll have to look around for the Boot Options. There is where all the fun stuff is... the choice between UEFI-mode and Legacy-mode, the Secure Boot toggle, sometimes another option called Fast Boot. And boot order may can be manipulated there.

Okay, enuff of that. I'll make a separate comment about your install problems, but I'm afraid that will be very short because I'm not sure what's going on there. I'll give it a re-read first too.

Cheers
 
chezler said:
Having trouble with the install. Don't know if it is a format thing, corrupt download, or my motherboard.

1. All other drives disconnected.
2. Computer would not show the SSD when hooked up in docking station. (Probably an invalid string thing since it still had "system volume information" from the old Win7 install. So I hoohed up to internal sata.
3. Hooked up New Win7 hdd to format the SSD. Only option was NTFS.
4. Tried again. Install started but would not complete. Got error code: -3008 VOLUME_FORMAT_FAILED Cannot open /dev/sdb1: Device or rcsource busy. SSD still empty.
5.Hooked up Win7 again and went to disk management. Deleted partition on SSD and formated as exFAT. (only option other than NTFS)
6.Tried again and got further. After install (I thought) More errors.
ERROR: Execution of Command "[[" /usr/bin/grub2-editenv" ,"list" ]]" failed
Exit code:1
Error output: (same as above)
Cannot find a device for /boot/grub2 (is .dev mounted?)
7.Got back on Win7 and SSD is still empty.
Click to expand...

Whew! Nice start! :eek::D

Linux really won't care about System Volume Information, I don't think. And I don't really think it cares what filesystem you have formatted on the drive.... but if you want to do anything different, then delete any/all partitions and have no formatted partitions before beginning.

One thing we always try to ask or get new users to do is "verify" that your download of the Linux .iso file was received without any corruption. That verification process is comparing a MD5 or SHA256 checksum between your download and the source. A bad download can cause all kinds of problems, but honestly it is also very seldom that a download is incomplete or corrupted.

Literally, it may be easier here at the beginning of things.... that you download another distro (Ubuntu or Linux Mint because they are also UEFI friendly) and burn the image to DVD or USB and try with that. If that should install without all those strange errors, then we can look more closely at your Leap download to verify the checksum, or try to see what the trouble is with that one. If the strange errors continue.... we'll need to see what is peculiar with your system. The docking station, for example, could have been a good suspect.... but you've already bypassed that. Maybe it isn't your system, but the SSD itself. Weird stuff happens sometimes, and the errors you're getting are indeed weird.

OK, I'm off to bed also... an early day for me tomorrow too.

Cheers
 
Wizard appears in a puff of smoke ... curses ... OP is asleep :mad:

Double curses, man in Dark Glasses with challenged hairline also going to sleep :mad::mad:

Doesn't matter, catch you both tomorrow, and welcome Charlie ... another 60+er Stan, we'll take over the (Linux) world.

Cheers

Wizard
 
I just installed ubuntu 17.x onto that SSD. went without a hitch. Currently using it with Firefox.
Haven't figured how to get in to adjust display settings. I found "Display Settings", but no option to adjust the size. My picture is running past all four sides of the screen. I found a couple options in the search app on the desktop to download a couple display settings apps, but one is for Debian and the other is for Mint. The one that is installed has very limited functionality.

BUT,... I did get an install, the SSD is working. The openSUSE download might be hosed. Could download it again and try it on another hdd.

WooHoo

One more thing: I went to the ubuntu page to download "ubuntu gnome". The desktop is blank like I would have expected Unity to be. According to ubuntu's site, the next release is going to do away with Unity and use only gnome.
Do I have to download gnome separately, or is gnome just a blank desktop until you search for something?
 
I installed xrandr. It says "It uses XRANDR on-the-fly as well as GNOME Resolution Preferences".
It won't launch. Shows that it is installed.
I'm still searching.
 
Hi Charlie, I'll play "catchup" with the rest of the Posts a little later, but meantime while you are online:

  1. Do you get a Grub Menu when you boot up the computer?
  2. And while you are in session on the Ubuntu:
  3. Ctrl-Alt-t will give you Terminal, can you give me the outputs of
  4. Code: 
    echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
    AND
  5. Code: 
    inxi -Fxs
Cheers

Wizard
 
Been fooling in the terminal. Playing with the resolution. Started at 0.95x0.95 and went all the way down to 0.6x0.6
Each step down put more of the screen in view, but still couldn't see it all, and print just got too big.
Set it back to 1x1.

Still searching.
 
Hey Wiz, good to hear from you.
charlie@charlie-desktop:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
ubuntu
charlie@charlie-desktop:~$ inxi -Fxs
The program 'inxi' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install inxi
charlie@charlie-desktop:~$
 
Hey Wizard,
I got it figured.
I had to go into the TV settings and switch it from VIDEO to GRAPHICS.
Got a full screen now.
 
And,... I have icons on the desktop. And a clock. And an OFF button.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 640 (members: 8, guests: 632)

Latest posts

Top