Chapter 3. Boot and Installation Media

Contents

3.1. Boot Media
3.2. Installation Media

Abstract

When installing the system, the media for booting and for installing the system may be different. All combinations of supported media for booting and installing may be used.

3.1. Boot Media

Booting a computer depends on the capabilities of the hardware used and the availability of media for the respective boot option.

Booting from CD or DVD

This is the most common possibility of booting a system. It is straightforward for most computer users, but requires a lot of interaction for every installation process.

Booting from a USB Hard Drive or Floppy Disk

Depending on the hardware used, it is possible to boot from a USB hard drive or a floppy disk. The respective media must be created with the utility mkbootdisk, which can be found together with its documentation on the first CD or DVD in the directory /boot/<architecture>.

Booting from the Network

You can only boot a computer directly from the network if this is supported by the computer's firmware or BIOS. This booting method requires a boot server that provides the needed boot images over the network. The exact protocol depends on your hardware. Commonly you need several services, such as tftp and dhcp or pxeboot. If you need a boot server, also read Section “Remote Installation via VNC—PXE Boot and Wake on LAN” (Chapter 4, Remote Installation, ↑Installation and Administration).

3.2. Installation Media

The installation media contain all the necessary packages and meta information that is necessary to install a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. These must be available to the installation system after booting for installation. Several possibilities to provide the installation media to the system are available with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Installation CD or DVD

All necessary data is delivered on the boot media. Depending on the selected installation, if you install a CD version, several disk changes may be necessary.

Networked Installation

If you plan to install several systems, providing the installation media over the network makes things a lot easier. It is possible to install from many common protocols, such as NFS, HTTP, FTP, or SMB. For more information about how to run such an installation, refer to Chapter Remote Installation (↑Installation and Administration).