This is a weird problem I'm having trying to install Suse 9.1 on an older PC. I'm doing an FTP install and I had to activate some swap space on the computer because it's not got a lot of RAM.

So anyhow, things start smoothly enough, and I get as far as a screen reading "Loading data into ramdisk (53300 kB)" with a progress indicator. The download starts fine, but when it gets to about 4/5's finished, it just stops. The modem's activity lights stop flashing, and nothing seems to be happening at all with the installer.

I've tried this 3 times as of now, from 3 different servers, and it always stops at the _exact_ same point (within the accuracy of the progress meter, anyhow).

Any suggestions, apart from downloading the whole install install tree? My DSL connection isn't terribly fast (20 k/sec), could the download simply be timing out?

When you say "not a lot of RAM", how much exactly? As you can see, the file that is being downloaded is about 53Mg, so if you only have, say, 48Mg of RAM, I don't think it would work. (Similarly I suppose that even 64Mg would exhibit the same issues, because your PC will be using some RAM on other background processes.) Would it be possible to temporarily add some more RAM to the system, at least to perform the install? Also, are you sure you have sufficient disk space on your drive as well?

Apart from that, I'd suggest trying a different mirror site, but it looks like you've already done that.

FYI - I did an install via Network, using FTP, and the process took much longer than I expected. I'm on DSL, and given that you will need to download approx 3G of data, you should expect that the download will take quite a bit of time. In my case, there were times when it appeared that the process had stalled, but by coming back an hour later I saw that it had continued. Clearly, there were times where the server was either too busy or did not respond promptly. You might want to try what I did, which was to also open up a terminal session that pings the mirror site you're using. That should prevent the connection from being dropped due to inactivity, and at least in my case it seemed to speed things up a little bit. -- J.W.

64 megs of RAM. When I try to run the installer, it alerts me I don't have enough memory to continue without activating some swap space. However, I do that, 128 megs worth, and then things seem to go ok, at least to start. The problem is definately not disk space because the HD has been wiped.

Perhaps it's worthwhile to add more RAM anyhow.. even if it doesn't solve the problem, it's always good to have. (I've actually got a 128MB chip just sitting in a storage locker right now, but it's not nearby - it would cost more to go and get the thing than to just buy a new one :P )

How would I go about pinging the server from the computer that's doing the install? I know how to do that when at a terminal, but all the Alt-F1 to Alt-F6 keys seem to be occupied with various status messages while the Suse installer is running.

I did manage, on another computer, to download the "root" file in the install tree with Mozilla, which is the file that's being downloaded in the installer (I think - same filesize, anyhow). This was done from one of the sites I tried unsuccessfully with the installer.

Thanks for your help.

+-, Doh! I should have mentioned that I was installing Suse on my secondary machine, and I was running the ping from my primary machine (I'm sharing my single DSL line between 2 PC's). You're right - if you've got a single machine, I doubt you'd be able to open a separate session simultaneously while installing.

It sounds like you pretty much know what you're doing and are on the right track, it's just that you're being limited by your hardware. I'd definitely bump the RAM to at least 128Mg, if not 256Mg if your machine can support it. It's definitely worth it in the long run.

Lastly, assuming that you are still working on getting Suse installed, you might want to consider going ahead with downloading the tree. The rationale here is that regardless of whether you do a network install, or d/l the tree and then do an install from the Harddrive, you still need to download the 3G of data at least once. The advantage of downloading the tree is simply that if you run into trouble and need to do it again, you won't have to spend the time all over again doing the data transfer. It'll already be here locally, whereas if you do a Network install and it dies when it's only 93% complete, you may need to start all the back at square one.

In any event, good luck with the project. I'm pretty much comitted to Slack but I've been playing with Suse and it has definitely become my favorite second choice. Once you pay your dues, it's a very cool distro. (Of course you could always just spend the $30 for the disks, but where's the adventure in that?) -- J.W.

I'm pretty happy with Slack too, I'm trying to get Linux running on my sister's older machine though, and from what I've used of Suse before it looks like it would suit her, assuming I can set most things up for her beforehand. I've not got a problem with paying for it either, but if it's not going to work I don't want to spend the money..

Anyhow, for now I'm trying debian on this computer. It's working alright so far, the software that comes with it is all so old though.. which is sort of good because it'll be less cpu intensive, probably...