Hello,

I am totally new to Linux. I am also fairly new to computering (5 years), and haven't ventured into the technical side of it.

I have the discs for installing suse 9. In tried to install the discs onto my laptop...problems. My laptop is running windows xp.

The start panel did not show up. All that showed up was a list of the files in the suse cd. I wasn't able to open the files.

I tried installing the discs on a computer, running xp, that had a newer cd drive, but still couldn't open up to either the start panel or the boot screen.

I am sure I'm missing an obvious step....if I can't open the cds in xp, then how do I open them, since xp is the only os that's operating on my computer?

Thanks,
Laura

i think you should put the first cd to the cd drive,and change the BIOS boot options(in your comp,most probably,press DEL key while booting up) such that it boots from that particular drive.

Hello,

Thank you so much for replying to my question. I will try what you suggest. I tried to change the BIOS, but I think I used the wrong key, because it gave me the wrong screen.

Laura

okay,try this.
while you start the comp,in the screen that first shows up,the particular key that should be pressed to enter the bios setup will be shown(like F5 or DEL).press it,and you will get into the bios setup.now go to the BOOT options,change the first boot device to CD-ROM drive(or whatever),save and exit the settings,put the suse installation disk #1 to the particular cd drive(so that the comp boots from it).

Thanks, your suggestions worked. I hit f12, the boot setup number on my laptop, set it for cd rom and then proceeding to the suse boot screen and installed it.

Right now, I am trying to figure out how to switch my desktop from KDE to gnome, and I'll post a separate question on that.

Laura