Copying SUSE Linux Installation CDs to the Hard Drive

When using Yast2 to install or modify my SUSE Linux server, it will prompt me to insert the original installation CDs. This is bothersome if my SUSE Linux server is not easy to access physically. To avoid having to deal with CDs, we can copy the contents of the installation CDs to the hard drive.

Copy the contents of the installation CDs to the hard drive:

1. Create a mount point “/dvd” on your hard drive and a directory to place the CDs (example: “/opt/suse10sp1”).
   mkdir /dvd
   mkdir /opt/suse10sp1
2. Insert each CD and run the following commands to mount the CD, copy the CD contents to “/opt/suse10sp1”, and eject the CD:
   mount /dev/dvd /dvd
   cp -r /dvd /opt/suse10sp1
   mv /opt/suse10sp1/dvd /opt/suse10sp1/cd1
   umount /dvd
   eject /dev/dvd

   For each CD, you can increment “/opt/suse10sp1/cd1” (example: /cd2, /cd3, and /cd4). If “mount /dev/dvd /dvd” does not work, try “mount /dev/hda /dvd” (“/dev/dvd” is just a soft link to “/dev/hda”).

Configure Yast2 to look for installation files on the hard drive:

1. Run Yast2
2. Go to Software -> Installation Source
3. You should see a source entry for the CD drive that looks like “cd:///?devices=/dev/hda”. Select it and hit the Delete button.
4. Click on the Add button, select Local Directory, and browse to the path “/opt/suse10sp1/cd1”. (Once you give Yast2 the first CD location, it will figure out the other CDs’ locations based upon the first.)
5. The local path should show up as a source entry that looks like “dir:///opt/suse10sp1/cd1”.
6. Select our new source entry and unselect the “Synchronize Changes with ZENworks” (per source stting) as it is no longer applicable.

And we are done. Yast2 should no longer prompt you to insert the installation CDs.