Making a USB bootable stick is so darn easy with SUSE
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Sep 11, 2019 8:20 PM EDT |
I have always hesitated and stopped over the procedure of making a bootable/installable usb stick because every time I looked at the tutorials, they always seemed so complex. Okay, call me Mr Luddite if you like, but I'm at that point in life and Linux where I like things to be as simple as possible. My daughter asked me to reinstall an old version of SUSE on her antique laptop. She values the device because it allows her to play videos at home while crocheting etc......So, I gave it a go. Right....keyboard faulty, so usb keyboard was attached. OpenSUSE 13.1 iso on dvd was available to hand and away we went. All went smoothly until the reboot process when the dvd player seemed to go "hysterical"......Okay, try another copy of the dvd. Nope....same thing. And it dawned on me (and later confirmed by daughter) that the dvd drive was also faulty on this laptop. Hmmmm.......There are plenty of usb sockets, could I possibly do this via the usb input.....but this means making a usb installation stick and I've never done this.....Needless to say, when a daughter needs something, one "pushes the envelope" and has to take up learning again. First of all I searched to find how to make an installation usb stick with SUSE in the vague hope that I might find something....and I did. The software is called: SUSE Studio Imagewriter, and I have version 3.1 I think. It's also held in the SUSE repository so you can easily get it and you won't have any problems with the situation of "missing support libraries". Even better is that the software operates in the usual GUI window and you don't go near command line. It installed immediately and then I began. To start it up, you must enter the Admin password and then you get a very simple little screen. Make sure you have a suitable usb stick in place and as I recall, it must be unmounted since SUSE automatically mounts and searches an inserted usb stick. If the stick has anything on it, it will all be deleted during the process of making the installation files, and of course, make sure you have plenty of room to accept the incoming files. The next step is to drag and drop or select the relevant iso file of the system you wish to make into a usb installation device and tell it to start. It takes about 10 minutes or a little longer and that's that. I didn't get one extra grey/white hair (LOL). When complete, remove the stick and away you go with a usb installation and that in turn is dead easy. I'm a little ashamed of myself for never exploring this style of installation more thoroughly, but then I never knew this nice little piece of software was around. I suppose everyone else already knows all about what I've described, but just in case there are other "reluctant usb drivers" around, you now have my experiences and they are all great. Have fun. Ridcully. |
| gus3 Sep 12, 2019 11:08 AM EDT |
Ah, don't be too rough on yourself. This isn't a paying job, after all. And assuming you were working on the system at her place, it gave you a pleasant afternoon with her. Of course, if this were a paying job, disaster recovery plans should already be in place, written down somewhere, and you'd practice them every six months or so as a drill. My last IT job didn't have any such, until I suggested it to the CEO. |
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