I' ve downloaded free personal Suse 9.1 and cannot install it.
The cd boots up ok and Suse starts installing using YAST. It then displays
the configuration screen which is all ok apart from the Software section
which displays "cannot read package data from installation media. Media
error ?"
I cannot amend the list of packages to install as none are available and I
cannot continue as no packages have been selected.
What's wrong ?

apffal

This could be one of two things. The CD may be broken (a scratch on the CD could be damaging the package list), or the CD drive may not be directly supported by the installer program.

Try cleaning the CD and copying the contents onto another computer and see if there are any errors. If there are, your CD's broken.

Otherwise, you can get more information during the install by switching between the virtual consoles. Run the install until it stops working and press Ctrl+Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+F2, Ctrl+Alt+F3, etc. until you see a screen showing an error message.

If the error is "driver not found" then you may need to load an additional driver disk to get the CD drive to be recognised properly. If you see anything resembling "missed IRQ" or an error message about "DMA" then you might just need to pass the "nodma" option when you boot the installer program.

An alternative method is to install over a network (if you have a networked computer); you will find instructions on the CD. This usually makes copying the files faster in any case.

— Robert J. Lee