Install SUSE Linux on netbooks

Installing SUSE Linux on netbooks is hard because

• netbooks tend to have the 32bit instruction set
• netbooks tend to have less RAM
• netbooks tend to not have a DVD drive

Approaches

• using unetbootin to install SUSE Linux onto a USB drive does not work
• creating a USB disk from a SUSE Linux installation is tedious
• dumping the install media to a USB stick works and is described below

Steps

• download the 32bit install DVD from http://software.opensuse.org
• the media size will be about 4.7 GB
• use a 8 GB USB stick or bigger, attach it to your computer
• using the command hwinfo find out how its device is called:

# hwinfo --block --short
disk:                                                           
 [...]
 /dev/sdx             Hama FlashPen

• in this example we assume it is attached as /dev/sdx
• dump the install media to the USB stick

dd if=suse12.1-32bit.iso of=/dev/sdx

• boot your netbook from the USB stick and you will find an installation routine just as if you had booted from DVD