OpenSUSE 10.3 Install

I installed OpenSUSE 10.3 on my work laptop today. I had borrowed a few DVDs from a coworker to do the install, and I figured that it should be pretty easy. Unfortunately, I ran into a few problems along the way.

I had a lot of trouble getting the operating system to install on disk. The DVDs looked like they were working. However, when it went to do the first boot, it would present an error stating that “no operating system is present.” I ended up fiddling with the partitioning setup manually to get it to work.

Not all the drivers were available for my laptop on the two install DVDs. I figured out that you really, really, really need an internet connection to do a proper install.

I had issues backing up my data before I did the install. This was purely my mistake. Luckily, I did not lose that much data, since my previous incremental backup was a few weeks ago. Also, all the work for my current project is in a central SVN repository.

The next week or so will be filled with annoying tasks. I love the new graphics and icons on 10.3 though. And the ATI one-click install worked for the graphics driver. So far, so good!