How SuSE works and why I do not support it currently
====================================================

The main problem with SuSE is that they changed the way the filesystem
had to be laid out too many times. SLES8 had its own way of doing things,
the different other SuSE releases did it slightly different and now
SLES9 has its own way of working.

Let me explain how it should look like with SLES9 and SP1:

        SUSE-CORE-Version-9/
                CD1/
        SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/
                CD1/
                CD2/
                CD3/
        SUSE-SLES-Version-9/
                CD1/
                CD2/
                CD3/
                CD4/
                CD5/
        boot -> SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1/boot
        content -> SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1/content
        control.xml -> SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1/control.xml
        driverupdate -> SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/CD1/driverupdate
        linux -> SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/CD1/linux
        media.1 -> SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1/media.1
        yast/
                instorder
                order

The main problem is that the ISO itself does not provide the location
where it is expected to be mounted. So this has to be hard-coded and
one has to map these hardcoded paths with something that uniquely
defines the ISO file.

Then you also need to provide symlinks to certain files on different CDs.
And you have to create the yast/instorder and yast/order files with the
following content:

        yast/instorder:
                /SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/CD1
                /SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1
                /SUSE-CORE-Version-9/CD1

        yast/order:
                /SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/CD1 /SUSE-SLES-9-Service-Pack-Version-1/CD1
                /SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1        /SUSE-SLES-Version-9/CD1
                /SUSE-CORE-Version-9/CD1        /SUSE-CORE-Version-9/CD1

The yast/instorder and yast/order files are leftovers from the
UnitedLinux era.

Since this was unknown when SP1 was not released, it is uncertain what
is required when SP2 will be released. Additionally, with the 6 base
CDs and the 3 SP1 CDs, you already need 9 CDs. When SP2 comes out, this
might be 12 CDs, so we can expect SuSE to revise and redo the filesystem
layout and creation of CDs at least once more. We can only hope they get
it right the next time.

Yast2 has its own logic to create these directories and if you have to
install SLES8 or SLES9, it's better to make use of the Yast2 functionality.
(Yes, this means you're once again locked into something SuSE specific)

mrepo will not support SLES until they clean up their act or someone sends me
an acceptable patch for mrepo. The current SLES support stays unfinished like
it is.

Based on the above information, you are of course free to perform the
necessary tasks manually.

More information about the SuSE Installation Server and Autoyast can be found
at:

	http://yast.suse.com/autoinstall/docs.html

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Please send me improvements to this document.