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SuSE 9.1 Available for Download

Aiua writes "Novell and SuSE AG have made the Live Evaluation CD of SuSE Linux 9.1 available for download. A list of mirrors carrying the 680MB ISO image is available on the SuSE Website. The Live CD allows you to test some of the new features of 9.1 without installation, and is a SuSE recommended download to test your computer for distribution compatability. The full Personal and Professional Editions are now shipping and available for purchase in the SuSE Store or your local reseller." Reader Sweetshark points out that the first release of the Live CD has problems, so make sure you get the most recent one: "SUSE Security Announcement: Live CD 9.1 (SuSE-SA:2004:011) describes a big security hole in the SuSE 9.1 Personal Edition Live CD: 'Upon boot, the Live CD will automatically configure a network card if one has been detected. [...] A configuration error on the Live CD allows for a passwordless, remote root login to the system via ssh, if the computer has booted from the Live CD and if it is connected to a network.' A fixed iso is available."

60 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Still no full install ISOs.... by gumpish · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always been annoyed by the fact that SuSE has never made regular full-install ISOs available.

    Blah blah ftp install blah blah... I've heard it before.

    1. Re:Still no full install ISOs.... by gonza · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well just because SuSE doesn't make their ISOs available doesn't stop anyone else from ripping the distro to iso and hosting it. I emailed their info site and asked about the legality, and they said that as long as you're noot seeking monetary gain from providing the isos then you can host them.

      So if you have a few Gigs of free space why not get a copy off ebay for $5 and host them for the rest of us.

  2. Can it fill the gap Mandrake 10 can't? by eyeye · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was going to install mandrake 10 today but it doesnt appear to support my on board ethernet (nforce2), will suse support it by default?

    Oh hold on this a bloody "live cd" again isnt it - I thought SuSE had stopped being difficult about allowing their distro to be downloaded as CD images.

    --
    Bush and Blair ate my sig!
    1. Re:Can it fill the gap Mandrake 10 can't? by eljasbo · · Score: 3, Informative

      i installed 9.1 last night and the nforce2 net drivers work great. I was also amazed that it picked up my usb flash disk reader without any extra configuration at all. It works like a champ from i can tell so far

    2. Re:Can it fill the gap Mandrake 10 can't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mandrake 10.0 kernels (2.6 or 2.4) support nForce ethernet without problems, the driver is called forcedeth. And, oh, it is present in vanilla kernels too.

    3. Re:Can it fill the gap Mandrake 10 can't? by pjkundert · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Just a note of caution if you are using the nForce2 motherboards with a 2.6 kernel. I just built up a new webserver/fileserver/wireless access point, using an ASUS A7N8X motherboard and Athlon 2600+, and wanted to run 2.6, reiser4 and software RAID. As soon as I did any disk I/O, it would hang solid.

      Apparently, the 2.6.5 (and perhaps other) kernels trigger a bit of an nForce2 chipset problem; I needed to need to turn of APIC and Local APIC for them to work reliably at their rated speed. Here's how I did it using GRUB (my root partition is a mirrored RAID device). Note the "noapic nolapic" in the kernel specification. Using lilo, you would add an append="noapic nolapic" to your image=... stanza...
      title GNU/Linux 2.6.5 MD+Reiser4+hostap (hd1,0) /dev/hdb
      root (hd1,0)
      kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5 ro root=/dev/md0 noapic nolapic
      initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.5

      title GNU/Linux 2.6.5 MD+Reiser4+hostap (hd2,0) /dev/hdd
      root (hd2,0)
      kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5 ro root=/dev/md0 noapic nolapic
      initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.5

      After this change, it's been running rock solid under heavy use for over a week. I am running Debian; perhaps the SUSE or other distributions have already patched their 2.6.X kernels for this problem, but I doubt it.
      --
      -- -pjk Perry Kundert perry@kundert.ca http://kundert.2y.net
  3. OpenSSH by uebermts · · Score: 5, Funny

    congratulations to SuSE!
    A whole new meaning of *Open*SSH

  4. Re:I'll wait a week. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll wait a week too. Nothing to do with SUSE or downloading, I'm just installing Gentoo.

  5. Re:FTP Install by thryllkill · · Score: 3, Informative

    no the live CD has been available for days now... the FTP install has not been updated yet...

    I've been waiting... can ya tell?

    --

    Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

  6. Obscure version numbering? by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My initial, kneejerk reaction on reading the headline was that this story was way, way out of date. Then I realized I was thinking of Mandrake. Does anyone else think Linux vendors could maybe come up with more informative ways of naming their releases? Just a month/year might be more appropriate. If someone blurts out that they're running SuSE 9.1, and I'm not familiar with the whole history of SuSE, I have no way of even guessing whether there's a 2.6 kernel in there, let alone all the other software with version numbers that are a whole lot more relevant than the version number of the distro itself.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
    1. Re:Obscure version numbering? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I wish they had Linux 2000 Professional and Linux XP.

    2. Re:Obscure version numbering? by Beren · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How would that fix things? I could tell you I'm running "Debian 05/2004" and you still wouldn't know whether I was running a 2.6 or 2.2 kernel.

      Especially with Debian! :)

      I mean, really. There is no good way to do what you are asking, short of having something like the Geek Code for Distros... :)

    3. Re:Obscure version numbering? by be-fan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It depends on the branch of Debian you are using. A lot of desktop users use sid, which tends to be very up-to-date. Right now, I'm using kernel 2.6.5, glibc 2.3.2, and kde 3.2.2, all of which are in the repository.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    4. Re:Obscure version numbering? by PCM2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, but there you're talking about what's basically your own homebrewed, apt-assembled Linux box. When I used to administer Linux boxes for a living, they seldom resembled what came off the install CD, either. But these days, that seems to be changing. A lot of people will install Mandrake 10, or SuSE 9.1 or whatever, and barring a few patches here and there they might not do any kind of serious update (new kernel etc.) until the next major, packaged release comes out. Or the next set of downloaded ISOs, whatever.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  7. Update From 9.0 by swtaarrs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it possible now or in the near future to do an update from 9.0 to 9.1 using just YaST, without downloading new CD images?

    1. Re:Update From 9.0 by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is it possible now or in the near future to do an update from 9.0 to 9.1 using just YaST, without downloading new CD images?

      Not anytime soon. I've been watching for the RPMS for 9.1 to appear on their server ever since 9.1 was released... First they had a note that said they would be available in a few days (posted April 22), and a few days ago they changed that to say that it would not be available until June.

      This is driving me nuts. There are some major bugs in 9.0 that they didn't fix... YaST segfaults whenever I change the install source directory. I'm gonna wind up switching distros... I'm not gonna wait 1.5+ months for bug fixes.

      Ohwell, I guess I can't complain... I didn't pay for 9.0 to begin with, and the source code for 9.1 has been available.

  8. Re:Remote hole!? by molarmass192 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this were a Microsoft or Apple product ...

    The exploit would be a code defect instead of a configuration screw up. Also, it would be in the production product rather than the no-install, evalutation only version.

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  9. Re:Remote hole!? by anpe · · Score: 2, Informative

    As the article points out, it's already fixed A fixed iso is available.
    Microsoft and Apple are mostly blamed for their "Keep silent and don't fix" policy.

  10. There *were* .bin/.cue files on USENET of the CDs by Delta-9 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I managed to download the 4.1gb DVD version, but I don't have a DVD writer, nor do I have a DVD-ROM on my existing linux server.

    I then realized that the CD version was also on usenet, as you can see HERE. Unfortunately, those files are no longer on my news provider (easynews).

    I am hoping someone will post a .torrent with the CD version

  11. Re:FTP Install by King_of_Crunk · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well you going to have to wait a bit longer...
    From the readme.txt on the suse ftp site:

    Wed May 5 12:50:00 MEST 2004 - draht@

    This tree contains the source RPM packages for the SUSE LINUX 9.1
    distribution. The SUSE LINUX 9.1 ftp version will be published on June 4th
    in this directory.

    Thanks,
    Roman Drahtmüller,
    Sebastian Nagel,
    ftpadmin@suse.com

  12. Re:Remote hole!? by happyfrogcow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If this were a Microsoft or Apple product...

    neither would we have been told about it, nor would it be fixed for 23 more days?

  13. Cool by MrRuslan · · Score: 5, Funny

    I tought I would never see pirated Linux distros but i just looked on xMule and i saw cds and dvds of this...this means Linux is gaining ground LoL.

  14. Re:Dear SUSE by aacool · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If Microsoft did that, Slashdotters would be all over them. funny how things change based on which side of the fence one is.

    This is not a troll- just an opinion. It is definitely a big gap, and good that it was identified early - possibly earlier than it might have been were it in the closed-source world?

  15. YaST? by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They said they were going to GPL YaST. Have they done so for this release?

  16. Re: [ISOs here!] by bach37 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can get Suse isos here for $10.

    Scott
    G-Vegas, NC

  17. Small correction... by gmuslera · · Score: 3, Informative
    as far I understand, what is available for download is the Live CD, not the full product, not even the ftp version of 9.1.

    The article title seems to say that the full SuSE 9.1 is available for download, when is a bit far from it. As far I remember, SuSE always had a "live" demo to test it released around the same time as the full product and available for free download, but that don't mean that can be installed in hard disk or from it install the full 9.1 ftp version from their servers.

  18. Nothing new about this by StarTux · · Score: 4, Informative

    SuSE have been releasing Live CD ISO's since at least 2000, actually before Knoppix came to the scene.

    Really nothing new here, apart from maybe more people paying attention.

    StarTux

  19. LINs (like VINs?) by vxvxvxvx · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a great idea! We could have Linux Identification Numbers (like VIN) and they would be able to tell you everything you need to know. So, a sample LIN number could be

    WSPKY474X4F000001

    Where W means it's made in germany, KY means it runs 2.6 kernel, and so forth and so on. Then all you gotta do is ask the person for their LIN number and you know everything about their distribution and release! Genius!

    1. Re:LINs (like VINs?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      > KY means it runs 2.6 kernel

      Yeah, cause we all know that you'll need some KY to run a 2.6 kernel!

  20. Re:FTP Install by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The GPL ensures Open Source not FREE source. If they distribute GPL programs they must provide scource code to those they have DISTRIBUTED to not anyone. If you have not bought the retail 9.1 you are not entitled to their scource code as they haven't distributed anything to you. I don't think they technically every have to provide a free download. Why complain that they give paying customers a month head start?

  21. Re:on the contrary, by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 5, Informative
    the more people "torrenting" the faster torrents are

    Not neccessarily. When there are few people with the whole file, the torrents will be fairly slow, even if there are lots of peers. On the other hand, if you wait a few days, there will be lots of people with the full file, and not many people downloading it.

    Typically, for a new torrent with lots of people downloading at once, my download speed will stay around the 30-70 kB/s range. For a somewhat older torrent with sufficient numbers of people seeding the file, I'll often get 200-300 kB/s or better. Of course, YMMV, but the general trends seem to be pretty consistent.
    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  22. Re:on the contrary, by Celandro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apparently noones sarcasm detector is working properly today.

    *knock knock* is this thing on?

  23. Re:FTP Install by ocelotbob · · Score: 3, Informative
    They just have to provide the source to the people who get the binaries. Legally, they don't have to give a copy of the source to anyone else, not even the developers. I've bought GPLed software before; a tweaked version of GCC from Cygnus back when nicities such as the EGCS branch and the graphical debugger weren't in regular gcc, and I only got the source on the CD, it wasn't on their website at all.

    Someone should link the gpl here; I'm too lazy and need to take a shower and head out for debauchery and stuff. But the relevant verbage is in there. The only reasons Linux companies provide the source to the General Public is because it's good Karma.

    --

    Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

  24. Mine's already waiting for me by Helmholtz+Coil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Decided this time around I'd do the responsible thing and actually *gasp!* pre-order a copy of 9.1 to support a Linux company. Comes with the install CDs and the live CD to boot. Already got delivered and sitting at home-this clock at work really needs to hurry the hell up.

    I think I'll count my donation to SuSE as my charitable donation for the year.
  25. Re:Remote hole!? by ocelotbob · · Score: 2, Funny

    The difference is that SuSE already provided a full refund of the .iso's purchase price for all those affected by this security hole ;3

    --

    Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

  26. Weeee! by divine_13 · · Score: 2, Funny

    *Runs away to the local store...* *Stops outside of it...* *Thinks...* *Turns back, and downloads it at home* There yah go! X)

    1. Re:Weeee! by Sweetshark · · Score: 2, Insightful

      *realizes that SuSE offers no complete isos...*
      *realizes the ftp-install option for 9.1 isnt out yet...*
      *Thinks...*
      *Runs away to the local store...*

  27. Re:I'll wait a week. by Requiem · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, that should take about a week.

  28. Best linux desktop so far! by novakane007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've tried a ton of desktops. Mandrake 10, Fedora, Knoppix, etc. All of them were functional, but lacking in certain areas. They just didn't seem ready for an end user. I booted up the Suse 9.1 because I'm intereted in the Novell Linux play. I was instantly blown away. This is the most well designed, streamlined and functional Linux desktop I've used. Finally something tha can be installed and run by an end user without hand holding from a geek.

    --

    WURD!!
    1. Re:Best linux desktop so far! by Mateito · · Score: 5, Funny
      Finally something tha can be installed and run by an end user without hand holding from a geek.

      Bugger. There goes my last chance of meeting a girl.

  29. Re:I'll wait a week. by flatface · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nosir. You want a better seed to peer ratio. And a slashdotting won't do that.

  30. Personal vs. Professional by jonathanduty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What Kernel/KDE/Gnome versions does the Personal version come with? THey are very specific about the specs of the professional version (Kernel 2.6. etc), but they do not say anything about what is included in the personal version?

  31. WTF? Offtopic?!? by deadlinegrunt · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is no more offtopic than the original parent post, and it got +5 Intersting.

    Just because someone thinks ftp isn't convenient as an ISO download that gets an interesting modification? Someone tells them that GNU GPL doesn't mandate that it has to be an ISO in the same langauge they use it's off-topic?

    Somebody give me +Informative modpoints for informing moderators how to mod correctly.

    --
    BSD is designed. Linux is grown. C++ libs
  32. A Very Nice Distro by DeckerEgo · · Score: 5, Informative
    I just got my SuSE 9.1 Pro DVD/CD set in yesterday, and installed it on both my AthlonXP workstation and my Inspiron 8200 laptop. I've been waiting for a distro that has easy-to-manage Samba 3 & OOo 1.1 & KDE 3.2 & kernel 2.6 installations.

    Now that SuSE's using submounts, tho, things are kinda weird when trying to run installers that expect to be able to run the mount command (i.e. UT2004). Since it dynamically mounts the media, you can't run a mount command any more without changing fstab.

    SuSE's is my favorite installer so far (I like thinking of installation processes as checklists, which is how SuSE organizes them) and YaST2's integration into KDE's control panel is nice. Also it bears noting that this has both 32 and 64 bit installations - they aren't charging extra for 64 anymore.

    The only tweaks I've had to make so far are to KDE's look and feel. Such a nice time saver to have a works-out-of-the-box installation.

  33. Re:FTP Install by irix · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, they just have to make the source available to you if you ask them.

    No, they have to give you then source when they give you the binaries or make it available to any third party upon request, although they can change for media distribution.

    Plus, they can deliver it to you any way they want: teletype, microfiche, or Morse Code.

    Incorrect - it has to be on a "on a medium customarily used for software interchange" to comply with the GPL. I don't think any of those would qualify.

    --

    Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
  34. But... by SmileeTiger · · Score: 2, Funny

    I _JUST_ gave a co-worker a copy of my SuSE 9.0 live CD to try out at home!

    Seriously! I gave him a copy of the CD and then when I got back to my desk and took a look at /. this story was at the top!

    Oh well. I guess that was a waste of a CD. Time to get him a copy of 9.1.

  35. ftp install out in a month by parmenio · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is only the live-eval CD... Install and poke around... The FTP install won't be available for another month per notice in the ftp folder for 9.1: This tree contains the source RPM packages for the SUSE LINUX 9.1 distribution. The SUSE LINUX 9.1 ftp version will be published on June 4th in this directory.

  36. Re:I'll wait a week. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just dug around the mirrors list, FTP from the Indiana state site are giving me about 1.15M/s on my work link.

    Wait 20 minutes and check it again, you just told all of /. about it.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  37. Re:I wonder... by theendlessnow · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've always been annoyed by the fact that SuSE has never made regular full-install ISOs available.


    Blah blah ftp install blah blah... I've heard it before.



    You must be very, very young my friend. SUSE stopped making ISOs with version 7 which dates WAY back to Q3 of the year 2000!! Since any "friend" will gladly make you a copy, what's the big deal? In fact, it saves you the download time and everything!!


    Hmmm... I guess there is the requirement that you have to have at least one friend though... may be tougher than I thought.


    Oh... I guess this went in one ear and out the other... let me rephrase so you can understand:


    Blah blah friend blah burn me a copy blah blah

  38. Yes. by FreeLinux · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes. Yast was GPLed some weeks ago and the source has been available on their site for eons.

  39. Re:No Inkscape?!!! by FreeLinux · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It comes with 5 CDs and a single DVD version. In other words it comes with ~3Gigs of software but, not your favorite app. Come on man. Be reasonable.

    Try as they have, it is still not possible for them to include every program that is out there. You can still install you favorite program, it just doesn't ship with 9.1

    Of course there is also the possibility that SuSE or its customers think that Inkscape sucks and is not worthy of inclusion. I can't answer that as I have never heard of Inkscape, prior to your post.

  40. Re:Sprock by dentar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So, if everyone downloaded instead of buying then I guess they'll eventually do what RedHat did and just pull everything and only offer their outrageously priced stuff.

    --
    -- I am. Therefore, I think!
  41. Re:I'll wait a week. by crawling_chaos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Optimist.

    --
    You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
    -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
  42. Re:Professional vs. Personal by (H)elix1 · · Score: 2

    What is the difference between SuSE Professional and Personal, besides US$60?

    For the pro version on 9.0, the crossover plugin (win32 apps on Linux) was in there. I'm sure there might be a couple others along that line of thought, but that was the killer add-on for me!

  43. http://mirrors.kernel.org/suse/i386/live-cd-9.1/ by diz · · Score: 2
    Hello from kernel.org...

    I'm in the processing of mirroring the updated iso now, but I've made the first livecd iso available at http://mirrors.kernel.org/suse/i386/live-cd-9.1/

    You can get it via ftp, http, or rsync. The -01 cd will take about an hour from the time this message is posted to appear.

    Enjoy! Note that we don't currently actively mirror SuSE so there's a large chance that this area will bitrot later since I'm manually making this available.

    -- Nathan Laredo

  44. Re:There *were* .bin/.cue files on USENET of the C by iantri · · Score: 2, Informative
    I would like to echo the Anonymous Coward's statement of Suprnova.. it is there (at least the first 4 CDs).

    Don't know why the mods gave it -1 Redundant. Mods on crack?

  45. Re:Is it Legal?? by zurab · · Score: 2, Informative

    IANAL, but one reason that I can think of why it would not be OK is that SUSE CDs/DVDs that you pay for usually include quite a bit of commercial software that otherwise costs money and is not under GPL, BSD, or other open source license. So, if you did share ISOs you may be violating some of those copyrights. But again, SUSE may be keeping the "commercial" software on a separate CD - in that case, as long as you don't share that ISO, this won't be a problem.

    If you feel so inclined and have some time to waste, I believe you can even roll your own SUSE distro with the packages that you choose and make them available in ISOs or from FTP, or whatever. And since YaST is (should be) now GPL, you can even charge money for it.

    Again, IANAL, ask SUSE/Novell and/or a laywer.

  46. I'm posting this from 9.1 LiveCD running instance by Nick+Driver · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... right now. Boot and autodiscovery of hardware was very nice, and finely polished, BUT a few things that the Knoppix v3.4-2004-05-04 iso that I downloaded and played with last night, beats SuSE 9.1 LiveCD. Knoppix found my Logitech MX-500 optical wheel mouse and activated the wheel in all apps that can use one automatically. It just worked, and the wheel was there in the first web browser I ran. Knoppix also automatically detected and setup my integrated mobo AC-97 soundcard and sound was there right away ready for me when I played the demo song in the audio player app. SuSE 9.1 detected my mouse as a plain USB mouse and I cannot get the wheel to work. I also had to manually configure my soundcard with YaST, and haven't found any demo tunes included to check out the music player :-/. SuSE is much prettier to look at... lots of glassy shiney eye candy which does beat Knoppix in the first-impression looks department. YaST was easier for me to use to set up my network card too, than Knoppix's tool... probably because I'm already familiar with YaST and I had to go prowling around Knoppix's menus and buttons to hunt for where to config the nic, it wasn't brain-dead obvious to someone who's never seen Knoppix before. Another plus for Knoppix is that Mozilla was already right there on the desktop ready to use.

    I'm a die-hard SuSE fan and will probably buy the 9.1 box set, since I've not paid for a box set since 8.0, and freeloaded 8.1, 8.2 and 9.0, but I have to admit that for a ready-to-run and truly useable "live cdrom" version, I think Knoppix is the winner in the useability contest for these two CD-run distros. Armed with a USB memory stick, and a Knoppix 3.4 CDROM, and just about any pile of hardware with an Internet connection and you're good to go! The SuSE 9.1 Live CD, however is a great "wow-em" showcase for SuSE's product, but is not as ready for quick-n-dirty real live workstation productive use on a harddrive-less pile of hardware like Knoppix is.

    These are just my humble opinions here, after spending only about an hour fooling around on each one of these run-from-cd distros, having never played with either before, and rather well-versed in Linux in general and especially SuSE.

  47. Re:Is it Legal?? by ahillen · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you want to do that I suggest write an email to SuSE suppot and ask them. I did that ~6 months ago, and after 2 weeks got a reply stating that it is legal under some conditions, e.g. free download with no strings attached, it has to be made clear that it is not officially from SuSE and comes with no support etc. (They didn't mention stripping of any commercial packages, though)

  48. Here by krygny · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.suse.com/en/private/products/suse_linux /prof/pers_prof.html

    --
    Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.