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I downloaded the 32-bit KDE iso for openSUSE 13.1 from software.opensuse.org/131/en. I am attempting to install, from USB, to a computer currently running Debian/Fedora. After downloading the openSUSE iso, I made an openSUSE live USB using the following command:

sudo dd if=/home/mike/downloads/openSUSE-13.1-KDE-Live-i686.iso of=/dev/sdb
  • After restarting the computer, the openSUSE installer page appears, and seems to be operating fine. However after selecting either i) installation, or ii) openSUSE KDE live, a terminal screen appears with a lot of code, none of which looked familiar (nor could I copy it), and at the end it said: reboot in 120 seconds
  • After this, the screen automatically returned to the Grub menu.
  • I restarted the computer and attempted to try again, however this time it just went straight to Grub.
  • I deleted the USB drive, reinstalled the same .iso image via the same command as above, and again the same thing happened.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any suggestions? I suppose my next attempt will be to download the GNOME version, and see if this works, but I really don't want GNOME. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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The dd command is rocket science compared to using a graphical application like UNetbootin from the Debian and Fedora repos to make your openSUSE live USB. I have used the dd command successfully to prepare a Linux live USB in this answer. My dd command is a little bit different from yours, however I suggest using UNetbootin instead of dd to make the live USB whenever it is possible.

In order to make an openSUSE live USB using UNetbootin you need a USB flash drive at least 8GB in size formatted to FAT32. The reason why your flash drive has to be so large is that your openSUSE iso file is 4.1GB and you need to have some extra space on the flash drive when making the live USB in UNetbootin. UNetbootin will make your flash drive bootable if it is not bootable already. If your dd command has deleted the filesystem on your flash drive, then you will have to find a way to reformat the flash drive or else use another flash drive that has not had the filesystem overwritten by dd.

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  • ok, that i forgot to mention. i have used unetbootin on several occasions to install ubuntu, fedora, debian, et al. however unetbootin does not seem to like to work with openSUSE. i did try it first, before using the dd command. with little research online, i found numerous accounts of others stating that unetbootin just doesnt work for openSUSE Dec 14, 2013 at 5:56
  • The other thing is that you're working with a 4.1GB iso file, so your USB flash drive has to be larger than 4.1GB. The next bump up is 8GB. I think, I'm going to edit out the UNetbootin stuff, but I'm going to leave it in for a while until you get things sorted out. The bs switch in dd is used for setting the block size.
    – karel
    Dec 14, 2013 at 5:59
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    ok, i think i may have been downloading the wrong .iso file then; mine was only 903 MB. i have since writing this downloaded the 4.78 Gb DVD, and am attempting to use netbootin to create my live usb (my thumbdrive is 8GB)... and of course, thank you for your replies. if this doesnt work i will post what happens, but im sure now i must have downloaded the wrong .iso file(live KDE?) Dec 14, 2013 at 6:09
  • Visit the Default cluster size for NTFS, FAT, and exFAT website and you will see that the default block size for FAT32 256MB-8GB is 4KB. Also the block size for 8GB NTFS is 4KB. That's the reason why I used the bs=4096 option for dd on my USB flash drive, which was an 8GB flash drive.
    – karel
    Dec 14, 2013 at 6:13
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    openSUSE installed fine using netbootin after i finished downloading the dvd Dec 14, 2013 at 18:11

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