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Boot from Suse SP2 Installation DVD or Other Medium

1. Replace Dell installation CD with the Suse 10 SP 2 DVD and wait until the server boots (do not leave the console).
2. Immediately after the server boots select Installation from the console menu (otherwise it will boot from the hard drive on expiration of "pass-through" timer -- that means that you can leave DVD in the drive even if you boot order has DVD-ROM before hard drive: very handy for remote installations).
3. Select language, time zone, approve the license
4. You will get to the main screen that contains several  sections:
   1. Partitioning
   2. Software installation
   3. ...

sles_admin

IMPORTANT: Identical Hardware

This scenario assumes you are rolling out SUSE Linux Enterprise to a set of machines with exactly the same hardware configuration.

To prepare for an AutoYaST mass installation, proceed as follows:

1 Create an AutoYaST profile that contains the installation details needed for your deployment as described in Section 5.1.1, “Creating an AutoYaST Profile”

(page 86).

2 Determine the source of the AutoYaST profile and the parameter to pass to the installation routines as described in Section 5.1.2, “Distributing the Profile and

Determining the autoyast Parameter” (page 88).

3 Determine the source of the SUSE Linux Enterprise installation data as described

in Section 5.1.3, “Providing the Installation Data” (page 91).

Creating a bootable USB drive with installation media

It is first necessary to download CD1 or a mini.iso of SLES 10. The proceedure can then be completed in either Windows or Linux.

Creating a bootable USB device from Windows
 

1. Extract the contents of the .iso file to a temporary directory like C:\isotemp (A utility such as WinRAR can be used for this)
2. Assuming the USB device is E: copy the contents of C:\isotemp\boot\i386\loader\* to E:\
   Note: replace i386 with x86_64 if it is 64 bit
3. Delete E:\isolinux.bin
4. Rename E:\isolinux.cfg to E:\syslinux.cfg
5. Download syslinux and extract it to C:\syslinux (Note: this must be downloaded separately from the Internet)
6. Open a command prompt and change to C:\syslinux\syslinux\win32
7. Run syslinux E:

Creating a bootable USB device from Linux
This example will use /dev/sdb as the USB device. /dev/sdb1 must be a FAT16 partition with at least 20 megabytes of available space.

For i386:
umount /dev/sdb1
mount -o loop SLES-10-i386-GM-CD1.iso /mnt
/mnt/boot/i386/mkbootdisk --32 --partition /dev/sdb1 /mnt

For x86_64:
umount /dev/sdb1
mount -o loop SLES-10-x86_64-GM-CD1.iso /mnt
/mnt/boot/x86_64/mkbootdisk --64 --partition /dev/sdb1 /mnt
The USB device can then be booted from. For a network installation, select the default 'linux' option and enter options for a custom installation server:
install=ftp://ftpserver.yourhost/install/sles10/arch

Additional Information

Quite often it is required to set the boot device order each time the USB device is connected. It must be placed before the hard drives in the system.

This application can also be used for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (SLES 9), however, SLES 9 does not include the mkbootdisk utility so it must be downloaded separately or taken from SLES 10.

Installation from ISO image

Older servers do not have dvd drives but can boot from a usb drive. See Installation using images - openSUSE

Boot your PC using the boot-CD from OpenSuse. Mount the USB drive if it was not mount automatically. It is best to use USB drive with DVD images.

If you do not have an old version of the boot-CD, burn the boot-CD image on a CD.

When the screen appears enter on the command line:

install=hd:[location of the image]

In the example if you USB drive is visible as hda2

install=hd:/dev/hda2/home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

install=hd:////home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

In this case, the installer scans all of the devices looking for the specified file.

The install begins using the image(s).

If you don't know the device, you could type this:

install=hd:////home/myhome/downloads/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5-DVD-i386.iso

In this case, the installer scans all of the devices looking for the specified file.

1. Notes
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Old News

How to use a USB stick to install SLES 10 – No catalog found… TuxWire The Linux Blog

I’m trying to install SLES 10 from a 4Gb USB Stick. I have followed the instructions from Novell to create the bootable USB. I also used information from this openSUSE forum post. Here is the procedure that I have followed to date:

1. Mount the dvd iso image to drive I: using ” Virtual CloneDrive ”

2. Copy the entire ISO image I: to the USB stick J:

3. Move all files from J:/boot/i386/loader to J:/

4. Delete J:/isolinux.bin

5. Rename J:/isolinux.cfg to J:/syslinux.cfg

6. Run C:/syslinux/win32/syslinux -ma J:

7. From the J: root, I execute ls -A1 > directory.yast

I can now boot my server from this USB stick. When prompted for a boot option, I enter “linux” to start the install. When the install starts it asks “Make sure that CD number 1 is in your drive.” I select “Back” and accept defaults until the source medium comes up.

There I select “Hard Disk” and then choose “sdb1 : vfat”, and leave the “source directory” blank.

The installation then loads and runs just fine until I get to the Installation summary screen.

 Under the Software heading, YaST is reporting the following error: No catalog found at ‘hd:///?device=/dev/sdb1&filesystem=auto’. As always, the geek gods will reign favor upon all who answer! Thanks Mike

Original post:
How to use a USB stick to install SLES 10 – "No catalog found…"

Recommended Links

Cool Solutions- How to Create a Bootable USB Drive to Install SLES

install SLES 11 from USB - NOVELL FORUMS

Boot from SAN Installation for Novell SLES Linux Readme File

Installing the SLES 10 Operating System

linuxman - SLES 10 installation notes

Installation Guide for SLES10 and RHEL5