openSUSE 10.3 beta3 is here, actually it arrived yesterday. For a detailed announcement please read: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-anno ... 00000.html

The reason for delaying the announcement here was that I could not install it on Pegasos or EFIKA. Installation still fails on the Pegasos, but for EFIKA there is a workaround. I tested installation with 'textonly=1' boot parameter, as this is the fastest interface for installation. But there is a bug in it and fails around time zone selection. A graphical install is too much RAM hungry, there is still an alternative: vnc based installation. One needs to add just two extra boot parameters: vnc=1 vncpassword=mysecretpass 'mysecretpass' can be replaced with anything, as long as at least 8 characters long.

As for the Pegasos, I was told, that DVD based installation works, but I could not verify it, as my Pegasos can't read the DVDs written by my brand new USB DVD writer (anything else can...).

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

How is it coming? Did your effort over the last couple of days show any improvement?

R&B :)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

All of the problems I reported are being worked on by openSUSE developers. The EFIKA problem is identified, so that will be hopefully fixed soon. My two Pegasos related problems are a bit trickier, but the kernel team is checking, what might cause it. A file system, working perfectly under openSUSE 10.2 and not showing any problems when tested with fsck, hangs the installer badly under 10.3 beta3.
Anyway, even if they were fixed by now, I did not know it, except for bugzilla comments (if they don't forget it...), as after a beta release factory is frozen for a while (at least, the publicly available version), so that a known state can be more thoroughly tested.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

OK, yet another workaround for anybody who knows 'parted' & 'mkfs', or not afraid to read some documentation:

One of blocking bugs on Pegasos were, that right after formatting a partition, something goes wrong, and the partition can't be tuned or mounted. I tested many different filesystems, but the problem is the same.

Workaround: use the 'rescue' system, and partition and format your HDD from the command line. Use 'parted' for partitioning, and 'mke2fs' with '-j' option for formatting.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

Ooops. Very strange. All those always reproducible show stopper bugs were caused by an additional RAM module. Once I took it out, installation on Pegasos goes almost flawlessly.

There is one trouble left: mkinitrd seems to be broken (again), so the system can be only started with 'inst32', the installer. It's not so convenient, but works.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

OK, a fix for the text mode install is already checked into openSUSE SVN repo, so should be in factory in a few days.

I traced the initrd problem, so the openSUSE guys now have all info to fix it, and even until that here is a workaround:

In the package manager, choose the detailed package management. Use the search function to find all packages where the name contains '64'. Click over the first column, so packages will be sorted according to their installation status. All of the 64 bit packages to be installed will be listed at the top. Deselect 'automatic checking' at the bottom of the screen, then click on each of the check marks in front of the packages to deselect them. A red sign will appear. Now click on the check button at the bottom. A dialog will appear in a few seconds:
Use the last one, as ConsoleKit-64bit does not have any use on a 32bit system, but brings in many 64bit packages, which in turn break mkinitrd.

Now you can go on installing openSUSE on your Pegasos or EFIKA.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

There was a new 'factory' release today. The textonly=1 boot parameter works again.

The mkinitrd situation is getting worst: even more 64bit packages are installed as requirement. Here is a bit more easy workaround, no need for messing around in the package manager, just a few simple commands as root: Where X refers to the / partition. Now you can start your EFIKA with Where Y=X-1 :)

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

OK, with today's factory problem is worked around. 64bit packages are still installed, but mkinitrd does not fail from this any more. If you are concerned about those few extra megabytes, you can safely delete those packages. But all you need to do to create a bootable kernel is: as root. For the explanation of X and the rest, please see the previous post.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

The current 'factory' release has a severely broken kernel. It hangs the machine. Install factory only if you are prepared to use the installer (inst32) for booting...

Another note: there is an endiannes bug in current factory (fixed for next beta), which makes the installer complain, that there is a checksum error in the repository. You can safely ignore it...

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/