Does it work without giving the device? Say, booting with
'install=hd:/opensuse'?

If not, please boot with 'linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo' and attach
the log. (Or watch console 3 for hints what's going wrong.)

Created attachment 243212 [details]
log file linuxrc as foo

I have started the opensuse setup with boot command line:
install=hd:/opensuse linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

But linuxrc still reports the same red error message on screen.

According to the log file linuxrc can not mount directory /opensuse on the NTFS partition /dev/sdb1.

linuxrc log file 'foo':
"[...]
url mount: hd:/opensuse?device=sdb1 failed
[...]
repository: not found
no openSUSE repository found
Automatic setup not possible.
"

I have the same problem with openSUSE 11.1 Beta 2.

Here's the relevant log part:

> url = file:/var/adm/mount/boot/i386/cracklib-dict-full.rpm
> loading file:/var/adm/mount/boot/i386/cracklib-dict-full.rpm -> /download/file_0002
> sha1 da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709
> sha1 check failed

That's the sha1 sum of an empty file which very likely means that the
cracklib rpm link points to nothing.

.

similar to bug 431861

It looks like kiwi still has some problems with iso creation. The x86 iso
is indeed broken: it has a /boot/i386 tree (like a bi-arch iso but
without i386 packages). If you boot from dvd you wouldn't normally notice
but after your copy-to-disk operation you for some reason booted in i386
mode (see your logs above).

Things to fix:

a) kiwi should stop with an error if links are missing (Jan)
b) /boot/i386 must not be on x86_64-only isos (probably Christoph)

CCing Adrian, as he has to adress issue b) in comment #6.

b) is adressed in #432480

b is fixed

I have tested the harddisk installation mode with the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3:

I copied the contents of the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3 DVD to a directory /opensuse on the ntfs partition of /dev/sda2.

I selected the harddisk installation mode from the boot menu.

I left the device option blank and set the directory to /opensuse.

After linux boot Linuxrc V3.3.11 started up. But there is a red box with a
error message:
"Could not find the openSUSE Repository
Activating manual setup program.

Then I tried to use the setup program to activated the harddisk installation
mode. But the setup program shows a similar error message.

I started the harddisk installation mode with the boot command line
hd:/opensuse
This time the harddisk installation mode worked without a problem.
(YAST2 started, I made my setup selections, package installation, hardware configuration, etc.)

I created Linucxrc log files for both installation situations with boot command line options:
linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

foo_boot_menu --> harddisk installation mode with
                  boot menu option
foo_cmd_line  --> harddisk installation mode with 
                  boot command line hd:/opensuse
                  saved after the start of YAST2

Created attachment 247624 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo_boot_menu

Log file of linuxrc with activation of harddisk installation mode with boot menu option.

Created attachment 247625 [details]
Log file linuxrc as foo_cmd_line

Log file linuxrc for activation of harddisk installation mode with boot command line hd:/opensuse

Created attachment 249801 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I have tested the harddisk installation mode with the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4:

I copied the contents of the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4 DVD to a directory /opensuse
on the ntfs partition of /dev/sda2.

I have started the installation with boot command line
install=hd:/opensuse linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

After linux boot Linuxrc V3.3.12 started up. But there is a red box with a
error message:
"Could not find the openSUSE Repository
Activating manual setup program.

This issue with missing packages from /boot/<arch> is fixed in kiwi-instsource now, but unfortunately not soon enough for beta4.

I'll close this for now. If the same thing happens again on beta4plus, please reopen.

Created attachment 252451 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I have tested the harddisk installation mode with the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5:

I copied the contents of the openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5 DVD to a directory /opensuse
on the ntfs partition of /dev/sda2.

I have started the installation with boot command line
install=hd:/opensuse linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

After linux boot Linuxrc V3.3.15 started up. 

First there is a gray messagebox with
"file:/var/adm/mount/boot/i386/branding: SHA1 sum wrong
If you really trust your repository, you may continueing in a insecure mode."

I hit OK and then there is a red box with a error message:
"Could not find the openSUSE Repository
Activating manual setup program.

I forgot to reopen bug.

Created attachment 256742 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I have tested the harddisk installation mode with openSUSE-11.1-RC1-DVD-i586.iso.

I have still the same problem.

I had the same issue.
To continue testing, I tried following workaround after looking to the online repository :
created the symbolic link "branding" to the file "openSUSE" in the same directory.
There is an other missing symbolic link: named initrd-xenpae and pointing to initrd-xen

After that, welcome page opens

Sorry for not replying for such a long time.
The issue with the missing links under /boot/<arch> is finally fixed with kiwi-3.09 which was submitted yesterday.

I'll look into the problem anyway as soon as time permits. As a quick guess, I think the branding link is part of the installation-images package; maybe it was unpacked incorrectly.

Volker, it would be very interesting if this still happened with GM.

Cheers

Created attachment 268403 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I have tested the harddisk installation mode with
openSUSE-11.1-DVD-i586.iso (openSUSE 11.1 GM)

with boot command line
install=hd:/opensuse linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

DVD contents in directory /opensuse on ntfs partition of /dev/sda2

I have the same problem.

(If it can help...)

I'm also trying to update from 11.0 to 11.1 (harddisk installation).

I've copied the files from openSUSE-11.1-DVD-i586.iso to a 6Gb ext3 partition (disk 1, partition 3).  I boot that partition using Grub with the following settings in menu.lst :
[code]
title openSUSE 11.1 - Install disk
    kernel (hd0,2)/boot/i386/loader/linux splash=silent showopts
    initrd (hd0,2)/boot/i386/loader/initrd
[/code]

The installation process runs fine up to the point I select 'Update' from the Installation Mode.  Then I have an error saying that /var cannot be mounted.
(See bug #494240 for details.)

I confirm what was said by Michel Munnix <https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=428924#c18>.

In order to make my Unetbootin-started VNC-remoted SMB-networked OpenSUSE 11.1 (final release) installation succeed, I had to create the aforementioned symbolic links (to create a symbolic link on Windows, just copy the file which has to be pointed, and rename it with the name of the symbolic link): 
- "branding" -> "openSUSE",
- "initrd-xenpae" -> "initrd-xen".
In fact the "branding" and "initrd-xenpae" files already exist but are null-sized.
The difference can be seen by comparing the boot/i386 directory inside openSUSE 11.1 ISOs and the online directory <http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/boot/i386/>.

It will fix the following installation error message: "Starting hardware detection...modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-default/modules.dep: No such file or directory".

I tried to install openSUSE 11.2-Milestone1 32bit (openSUSE-DVD-Build0066-i586.iso) to my Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 using the harddisk installation mode.

It seems that this problem has been fixed, since the Yast2 installer start up without a problem. However there is an other error message from Yast2 later:

"Bug 402513 - yast2 installation fails using a external harddisk as installation source"
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=402513

I tested the harddisk install mode with openSUSE 11.2-Milestone3 32bit (openSUSE-DVD-Build0146-i586.iso) with my Toshiba Satellite Pro A300.

It seems that my reported problem has been fixed, since the Yast2 installer start up without a problem.

Mybe this report can be set to status 'resolved'-'fixed'?

Created attachment 309441 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I tested the harddisk install mode with openSUSE 11.2-Milestone4 32bit
(openSUSE-DVD-Build0180-i586.iso) with my Toshiba Satellite Pro A300.

I have copied the contents of the DVD to a directory /opensuse of hardisk /dev/sda2.

I started the openSUSE installer with boot command line
install=hd:/opensuse linuxrc.debug=1 linuxrc.log=/foo

After linux boot Linuxrc started up there is a red box with a
error message:
"Could not find the openSUSE Repository
Activating manual setup program.

Start output of fdisk -l ========================================
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe84d8247

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda2   *           1       19457   156288321    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77525 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf7f62e22

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       77525   156290368+   7  HPFS/NTFS
End output of fdisk -l ========================================

Setting Status to 'reopen'.

Uh, the topic seems to have migrated a lot here. Volker, please don't do that.
Rather, open a new bug instead.

Anyway, if this is now about ntfs not working, see bug 518724.

Created attachment 317719 [details]
linuxrc log file as foo

I have retried to use the harddisk installation mode with openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 7 32 bit (openSUSE-DVD-Build0268-i586.iso) and I get the same error message.

I switched from linuxrc to the console, created a temp directory and mounted /dev/sda2 to it. After switching to the temp directory the command 'ls' showed me the correct content of the windows drive, including the opensuse directory.

Apparently the /boot/i386/branding link points to nowhere. Please check
that you copied the repo correctly.

Well, I have extracted the dvd iso with the compression program 7z directly to the folder /opensuse on the ntfs partition on windows.

I mounted the ntfs partition and the OpenSUSE DVD directly to temporary mount points and i checked /boot/i386/branding with ls -l.

On the ntfs partition ls -l:
-rwxrwxrwx    1 0        0               0 Sep  9 03:18 branding

On the OpenSUSE DVD ls -l:
lrwxrwxrwx    1 98       98              8 Sep  9 09:07 branding -> openSUSE

It seems to me, that the symbolic links got lost during the extration process and Yast2 needs those symbolic links to find the proper files.

See my comment? <https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=428924#c24>

Not to mess things up further here I've created bug 538390 for the
link business.