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Whew! What a long weekend I had trying to install my newest Suse, the 10.1 from http://en.OpenSuse.org! I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but Saturday through yesterday were quite an experience for me.

I’ve already written up a sketch of what happened for my inspirational RoseBouquet blog yesterday. (find it at http://blogs.ruthes-secretroses.com), so I thought here I might try to sort out some of the more technical questions that came up in the hopes of helping someone else going through these issues.

Preparation:
From my experiences last year I was sure I knew how to do the partitioning stage. Some hard lessons learned then stood me in good stead this time. But I also knew that I needed to make a very thorough backup of all my own files. I had just got some new blank DVDs, and I was proud to be able to get all my files onto the one disc. (One thing I should have checked was the file format. This time it saved it all as binary files which were useless to me when restoring them).

Something else I did was read up on the installation process in some e-books I had received. But that looked old hat to me. I had found some special instructions online for what to do to make sure the Zenworks updater would really work. I had printed those out, and a few other tips.

Just because I often over-prepare (you should see how I pack for a car trip!) I had also downloaded and burned a mini-iso CD and a full set of 6 CDs for the same Suse 10.1 I had on the DVD I had ordered. I was truly ready to do this install three different ways, should one fail.

I had may faithful clipboard and some paper ready so I could make a journal/outline for my niece who wanted me to send her a copy of my discs. Ready, set, go.

Start Installation:
I put the DVD in to the drive, and rebooted, using the Delete key to pause and enter CMOS and change the boot media to the CD drive before the hard drive, then saved and exited out of there.

But my computer did not find the Suse 10.1 DVD bootable!

No? Nope. So I switched to plan B. I put in the first CD of the Suse 10.1 set and started over. That went quite well and after I had carefully done my Partitions the way I had planned them, (that’s another saga), it went ahead, and did the Basic Installation.

Second Stage Installation:
Here’s where things got tricky. I WISH those smart developers would insert instructions for the exact moment when to switch to CD2. By past experience I’ve learned, and it happened again, that at the end of CD1 it announces it is going to reboot. If you leave in CD1, you will end up going through all those steps over again. If you put in CD2 too fast, CMOS will complain that you have a non-system disk in place and to remove it. From many tries over last year, and again this time, I have learned that as soon as YaST (the installer program) announces it is going to reboot, I take out that CD1 and place CD2 in the tray, but I keep it open until the reboot process is past the point of the black screen with the white text - but before the full reboot is done, I quickly close the drive bay, and the system seems to tell after a couple of minutes to go directly back to the YaST screen and let the installation continue with CD2.

However! In this case, YaST kept insisting that I should put CD2 in and I could not persuade it that it was there already. No way would it recognize that CD2 was in the drive! I tried the DVD and for a few minutes it looked like it would use it, but no.

(Big Sigh!) I tried the DVD again on it’s own. No boot.

I tried the mini-ISO CD, which looked like it was working fine until I was stumped when it asked for the IP address of the ftp site I wanted to use. Eventually I gave up and re-installed my Suse 9.3 I spent Saturday night online looking for helps, and found some ftp sites, and their IP addresses, which I wrote on the envelope of the mini-ISO.

Online FTP Installation:
Sunday morning I decided to try again with the online ftp install. Only one of the IP addresses worked, but it got started, and off I went to church. When I got back it was waiting for me to do the next step. I was able to continue, so I was in high spirits. But later in the afternoon I discovered that it had been stalled for 3 and half hours, and wasn’t going anywhere. My ftp connection had broken. I couldn’t find any way to reconnect.

In hindsight, I think if I had backed up enough steps, I could have put the ftp/IP info in again, and who knows, maybe it would have picked up where it left off. I didn’t think of that option then.

I tried my Suse 9.3 again, feeling quite discouraged, only to discover that I had no KDE Desktop! Just a very basic x-terminal - and with my limited abilities at commandline work, it was a deadend. After trying this and that, I ended up installing Suse 9.3 all over again - another 3 hour job that took me to after 11 pm.

Creative Work-Arounds:
Monday morning I woke with new ideas. I recalled that the mini-ISO had shown an option of another CD/DVD as a source disc besides the ftp and http addresses. So I’d start with the mini-ISO and instead of giving an ftp IP address, I’d indicate I had another source CD, and I’d put in the DVD I bought. I’d also be bold enough to wipe both hard drives clean, before I did the partitioning. (The warnings YaST gives to not do that unless you know what you’re doing are quite scary).

My plan worked quite well, and I cheered up. However, this Suse 10.1 wouldn’t connect to my high speed internet connection when it got to the Update stage. The info I’d found online indicated that if you didn’t do it there, you would have trouble connecting later, and would have to take special steps to overcome that. But this system was not so intuitive here at this point as the Suse 9.3 is; that one never has trouble going online. I decided to skip that Update, and take those recommended steps later, once inside the operating system.

Managing Your Suse Castle:
I’ve sometimes compared installing a new Linux system on the computer to suddenly finding yourself the owner of a castle and you wander around looking at all the grand stuff you’ve got, but if you don’t know how to manage it, and where the master key ring is, you can get a bit lost in there.

Well, I spent the afternoon exploring and fine-tuning my settings in my new SUSE 10.1. I struggled to get connected to my high speed internet, and even called Sasktel, but the techie I got was clueless, and simply told me they don’t support Linux. (I know that, but sometimes I’ve been lucky and got a techie who uses Linux at home, and has some useful suggestions). Mainly I wanted to know what to put down for my Sasktel IP address. He didn’t know. By the evening every click slowed down so that it took 2-3, even 5 minutes for a program or window to open. Exasperating!

Finally I figured I’d reboot, and then all would be well. My settings for networking would take hold. No-way. I couldn’t get back in!

So, for the 12th time, (by my journal notes) I did an install - this time my Suse 9.3 again. YaST, the intuitive installer program, suggested an install on the 12 GB unused from the 10.1 install. I decided to go with that for now. Who knows, maybe I could find some info to solve my problems and end up with both Suse 9.3 and 10.1 on the computer. I know the 12 GB isn’t big enough for all the work I do, so this has to be temporary.

About 12:20 am. I was done, and rejoiced to see a familiar KDE desktop, but knew I had a lot of fine tuning to do on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning I discovered that my fine, complete, all-on-one-DVD backup was messed up. All the files were saved as binary files. None of them would open up without a warning, and then displaying only long lines of dots. That means I’ve lost all of last week’s files and emails because I had to go to loading my backups on CDs from 8/26/06.

Do you wonder at the fact that I got upset? I am normally a woman of positive outlook, and a dogged perserverance, but the tension of the long weekend overwhelmed me - I’ve had to cry, with tears, out to God for grace!

Prepare and TRY Again!
I would still like to install 10.1 but I’m going to put it off a few weeks, so I can be fully prepared for all the issues I’ve encountered, and I’ve written the man from whom I bought the DVD to send me another that actually boots. If not, I’d like a refund please, so I can order one from another site.

I certainly don’t want to discourage you from trying to install a Linux operating system, but many little things can go wrong, and a lack of knowledge can mess things up too. Take it easy, remember that you can always go hunt down the information you need, and then try again, and it is in learning from these mistakes that we become wise, and extra helpful to others.

It’s Worth it!
My past year in Suse 9.3 has proved that it is worth it all. I have stopped worrying about viruses and such like, and I focus on my work projects, and am more productive than ever before. I much prefer my Kate, Firefox, Quanta Plus, Gimp, and Konqueror - the programs I use the most. OpenOffice.org allows me to create books and documents and export them with a click as PDFs. (I no longer have $250 software on my wish list).

I do look forward to the Suse 10.1, especially now that I’ve had a peek around in there. It is even more secure, and whereas Suse 9.3 has about 700 programs, Suse 10.1 has over 1000! So taking time to gather information on how to get a good internet connection, and so forth, and waiting a few weeks, - oh yes, it will be worth it!

P.S. Meantime, since my Suse 9.3 is now thoroughly updated, I seem to have features right now that I wasn’t aware were possible. I have gained from that rough long weekend in more ways than one.