I recently installed SUSE Linux 10.1 on my workstation. While installing, I saved screenshot for each step and decided to prepare this howto document. This document describes the procedure for quick and default installation of SUSE Linux, and is geared towards users new to Linux.
PreparationDownload the installation CDs from SUSE download page. You need to download total 6 CDs (including the addon cd) for complete install. Or you may instead choose to perform internet installation, in which case only one CD (the internet installation image) needs to be downloaded. While internet installation saves 5 CDs, it can be a bit complex for new users, and requires internet connectivity during the installation. After writing the CDs, boot your computer using CD1 [image 1]. If you are performing normal installation with CDs, you can skip the next section on network source selection.
Network Source SelectionBefore starting internet installation, write down the name, ip and directory of installation source. Find out a mirror from the list of mirrors. Click on the internet installation repository link and note the URL in the address bar of your browser. Also write down the url for addon repository. To find out the IP, you can either use the host command or use some web form. For example, if the chosen URL is http://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/, then the host name is mirrors.kernel.org and directory name is /opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/. Also the IP address of mirrors.kernel.org is 204.152.191.39.
When the installation media is not found, the installer will resort to manual mode. Choose your preferred language and select start installation using network as source medium and HTTP protocol [image 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Network settings can either be configured using DHCP (if available) or manually by specifying the IP address, gateway, dns and subnet mask [image 9]. Enter the host name (eg., mirrors.kernel.org), select if http proxy needs to be used (which generally should not be the case unless you are behind a corporate firewall), and specify directory (/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/) [image 10, 11, 12, 13]. If you don't have a DNS setup, you may need to enter the IP (204.152.191.39) in place of hostname.
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Once the installation begins, select your preferred language, accept the license and add the addon media source (HTTP server mirrors.kernel.org with directory /opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source/) [image 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22]. Addon media contains some useful but non-Open Source applications like flash player, Adobe acrobat reader etc.. Select the preferred desktop, KDE or GNOME [image 23]. Note that, you can run GNOME applications when using KDE and vice versa. Also, both the desktops can be installed using YaST (YaST is the control panel of SUSE Linux) once the initial installation is complete, and the choice of desktop to use can be made at the time of login.
Now comes the most difficult part, which is to partition harddisk. You need to have one swap partition, roughly twice the size of RAM on your machine, and one root (/) partition for Linux. Usually SUSE installer is able to suggest a good partitioning scheme [image 24], otherwise read more about partitioning on internet. At this stage you could also select or deselect software to be installed, but it is usually a good idea to leave it as it is until the installation finishes.
After accepting the licenses, the installation will begin which will take around an hour to finish [image 25, 26, 27].
ConfigurationOnce the package installation is finished, you will need to enter a name for your computer [image 28]. Leave the domain name field unchanged if you don't know about it. Next, installer will prompt to enter the root (administrator) password [image 29]. Select a strong password and NEVER forget it, it is important.
SUSE installer will then try to detect all network interfaces and configure them. By default firewall is turned on with ssh access blocked [image 30]. SSH is a way to connect from a remote machine to your machine, which is a very useful tool for operating your machine remotely. Turning on ssh however can be insecure as it will provide access to everyone who knows (or can guess) your password. If you select to test network connectivity, installer will start online update after downloading the release notes [image 31, 32, 33, 34, 35]. Online update will install some updates (mostly security fixes), so just accept whatever the installer suggests.
Most personal computers will choose local authentication method [image 36, 37]. Create a username and password your daily computer usages. Never use the root (administrator) account, unless required. This will be followed by configuration of various other hardware on your system and finishing off the installation [image 38, 39, 40].
Congrats! You now have a working SUSE Linux system [image 41].
Now you need to install some other things, like codecs for playing videos and MP3, flash player, acrobat reader. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, installation of video drivers is important for a good desktop experience, while with ATI graphics card, this step can be skipped if you are not very interested in playing games. NOTE: Since many proprietary video codecs, flash player etc.. are not available for 64-bit platforms, it is difficult to configure 64-bit machines for a complete multimedia experience. Hence it is advised that users new to linux use the 32-bit version of SUSE (32-bit SUSE works fine on 64-bit AMD machines).
Hacking SUSE 10.1 provides a nice post-install guide. As described here, add the following four installation sources, for packages not officially supported by SUSE:
HTTP Server: packman.unixheads.com Directory: /suse/10.1 HTTP Server: download.opensuse.org Directory: /distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source/ HTTP Server: download.opensuse.org Directory: /distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source/ HTTP Server: ftp.gwdg.de Directory: /pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1
You may remove CDs as source after you add the above mentioned 4 repositories. While there are many more repositories, with a lot more packages, it is recommended that users new to linux don't use them as more repositories will create dependency problems. Install following extra packages using YaST Software Management for Flash, Acrobat, Windows Media, MP3, and RealMedia support: w32codec-all, acroread, flash, realplayer, mplayer, and libxine1 (uninstall xine-lib). Also install the video drivers if you need them.
Read More ScreenshotsClick on image to enlarge.
