How to Install openSUSE Leap 16 (Step by Step for Beginners)

This tutorial takes about 11 minutes to complete.

This guide shows how to install openSUSE Leap 16 on your PC, from downloading the ISO to your first login, and which installer options to pick as a beginner and why. It follows the video, with the exact keys, button names and options from the recording.

New to Ventoy? The Ventoy page explains what it is, and the Windows 11 Ventoy walkthrough shows the Windows steps in more detail. If you are already running openSUSE, there is also a guide to installing Ventoy on openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Warning: this is a fresh install. It formats everything on the drive you select, and there is no disk partitioning or dual boot. Back up anything important first.

Before you start

You need a PC, a USB stick or an external drive larger than 8 GB, and at least 25 GB of free disk space. You will also need a second computer, or the same PC while it still runs its current system, to download the ISO and prepare the USB drive. The video does this part on Windows 11, because many people switching to Linux are coming from Windows.

A wired internet connection is the easiest and most reliable way to connect.

Jump to a chapter in the video: Intro · Get the ISO · Ventoy USB · Copy ISO · Boot menu · Secure Boot fix · Install Leap 16 · First boot

Step 1: Download the openSUSE Leap 16 ISO

Open your browser and go to the official openSUSE download page for the Leap 16 version, get.opensuse.org/leap/16.0. Click Download and scroll down a little bit. If you have an AMD or Intel CPU, look for the Intel or AMD 64-bit desktops, laptops and servers section, and make sure it is the x86_64 version.

You want the offline image. It is a pretty large file. Click Download, and your download should begin. The video skips through the wait. When it is done, go to your Downloads folder, and you should see the openSUSE Leap 16 ISO.

The video also puts the ISO in its own folder, which is optional but keeps it easy to find. Right-click the ISO and click Cut. Go to This PC and the C drive, right-click, choose New, then Folder, and name it ISO. Open the folder and paste the ISO there.

Step 2: Download Ventoy

To make a bootable ISO drive, the video uses Ventoy. It turns your USB stick or external drive into a multi-boot ISO drive, so you can store multiple ISOs on it and boot from them.

Open the browser and go to ventoy.net. Click Downloads, scroll down, find the Ventoy Windows zip file and click it. Scroll down and find the Windows zip file again, then click it. Your download should start shortly.

Step 3: Extract Ventoy and open Ventoy2Disk

Once the download is finished, go to your Downloads folder and close the browser. Now you need to extract the zip file: right-click it, click Extract All, and then click Extract. The new folder should open.

Go inside the Ventoy folder and look for the Ventoy2Disk application. Double-click it, and click Yes to give administrator access. Now the Ventoy application is open.

Step 4: Select your USB drive

Connect your external USB drive. If you do not see your USB stick or external storage device, click the green refresh button. If you still do not see it, open the Options menu and click Show All Devices. This shows all the drives on your PC.

Warning: make sure not to install Ventoy on your main drive. Make sure you install it on your external drive. Also back up any important files you have, because this will format and erase everything on the disk.

Step 5: Turn on Secure Boot Support

Open the Options menu again and make sure Secure Boot Support is checked. In case you have any problems with Secure Boot errors, this should help fix it. Step 9 shows how to fix the Secure Boot errors if you still get one.

Step 6: Install Ventoy on the USB drive

Make sure you have everything backed up from your drive, and then click Install. A warning says the device will be formatted and all the data will be lost. Click Yes to continue.

A second window double-checks that you want to format the device and lose all the data. You can click Yes.

When it is finished you will see Congratulations: Ventoy has been successfully installed to the device. Click OK, and then close the Ventoy application.

Step 7: Copy the openSUSE Leap 16 ISO to your Ventoy drive

Open the file manager. If you look on the side, you can see your Ventoy drive. Go to This PC and the C drive, find the ISO folder, right-click the ISO file and copy it. Go back to This PC, double-click the Ventoy drive, then right-click and paste the ISO file. When the ISO file has finished copying to the Ventoy drive, close the window.

Tip: for blazing fast speeds and more storage space, use an external NVMe drive. The NVMe enclosure tutorial shows how to build your own NVMe drive with an NVMe enclosure, and the Orico M.2 NVMe enclosure page has the product details.

Step 8: Boot from the USB with the boot menu key

Shut down your computer and reboot into the BIOS or boot menu. Plug the USB into the PC you are installing on, then restart and tap the boot menu key right as it powers on. The key depends on the brand. Here are some common ones.

You could also check your motherboard's documentation. Keys vary by model. If yours does not work, check the manual of your computer or motherboard.

Tap the key, do not hold it. Tap it repeatedly right after you press the power button, with the USB already plugged in. The boot menu lets you pick the USB drive once, and the BIOS setup key opens the firmware settings, where you can change the boot order.

Acer: on some models the F12 boot menu must first be enabled in the BIOS. Press F2, go to Main, set F12 Boot Menu to Enabled, then save and restart. Lenovo: many models also have a small Novo button that opens a boot menu.

If the key does nothing: fast boot can use up your keystrokes. On a Windows PC, hold Shift and click Restart, then choose Use a device and pick your USB drive. To open the BIOS setup that way, go to Troubleshoot, Advanced options, then UEFI Firmware Settings.

The boot menu keys for Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, MSI and Gigabyte are the ones said in the video. The BIOS setup keys, the Novo button and the Acer setting come from the manufacturers' support pages and other published lists: Dell, HP, MSI, Acer and the Gigabyte BIOS manual.

In your boot menu, locate your Ventoy drive. In the video, the first device shown is the Ventoy drive. Select it and press Enter.

Step 9: If you get the Secure Boot failure

If you see the error Verification failed: (0x1A) Security Violation, the video calls it the infamous secure boot failure. This is one of the Secure Boot errors, and the fix only takes a minute. Press Enter for OK. When it asks you to press any key to perform MOK management, press Enter.

Go down to Enroll key from disk and press Enter. The selected key will be enrolled into the MOK database. Make sure you select VTOYEFI and press Enter. Then scroll down until you see ENROLL_THIS_KEY_IN_MOKMANAGER.cer and press Enter.

Go down to Continue and press Enter. Choose to enroll the keys, scroll down to Yes and press Enter. Then press Enter again to reboot the PC.

Step 10: Boot the Ventoy drive and start the installer

After the reboot you have successfully booted the Ventoy drive. To install openSUSE Leap 16, press Enter on the ISO, boot into normal mode, and then select Install Leap 16.

Step 11: Choose your installer options

When the installer has started up, these are the choices from the video, one screen at a time. The installer is a web page with a sidebar (Overview, Hostname, Localization, Network, Storage, Software, Authentication) and an Install button at the top. Its browser tab is named Agama.

Select the product

Select Leap 16, then click Select. The installer shows an overview of the installation process.

Host name, language, keyboard and time zone

Go to host name. You can assign a static host name, which does not change with network updates. Type the one you want and click Accept.

Go to localization. Check your language, which the video keeps at English. You can also change your keyboard selection, which the video also keeps as English. For the time zone, change it and find the city you are closest to, select your time zone, and click Select.

Network

Go to network. The video recommends a wired internet connection because it is the easiest and most reliable. If your Wi-Fi network is not showing up here, you will need to download the drivers after the installation. The video shows its wired connection.

Storage

Now go to storage. It is very important: make sure the correct drive is selected for installation. If you need to change it, go to the Change button, select a disk to install the system, and confirm. The video's system only sees its 50 GB hard drive, so it clicks Confirm.

The Result section shows how your hard drive will be partitioned. On screen it lists an EFI System Partition of 512 MiB, a Btrfs partition for / and a 2 GiB swap partition. This is going to be a fresh install, and the video is not doing a dual boot system, so this formats everything on the drive and erases everything. Make sure to have a backup. For advanced users, you can go to Edit.

If you need encryption, you can select it. The video does not select encryption.

Software and desktop

Go to software and then to change selection. The video sets up a GNOME desktop environment, because it finds that the GNOME desktop environment plays better with local AI setups. On screen the list of graphical environments also offers KDE and XFCE. Close the window when you are done.

Authentication and install

Go to authentication and add a user: enter the name, the username and a password, and click Accept. After that you are ready to click Install. A confirm installation message reminds you that your hard disk will be formatted and everything will be erased, so you can click Continue.

Step 12: Finish the install and set up GNOME

The installer now installs the system, and the video skips ahead through this part. When you see Congratulations, the installation is complete, so reboot your system, log into your account and enter your password. You will see the openSUSE Leap 16 welcome window, which you can close.

Fix the display

First change the display resolution: right-click, click Display Settings and go to Resolution. The video changes it to 4K, 3840 by 2160, and changes the scale to 200 so it is easier to see, clicks Apply and keeps the changes.

Appearance

The video likes dark mode, so it opens Appearance and clicks Dark, and sets the accent colour to purple. It also picks a background it likes, and then closes the window.

Update the system

Next, open the applications menu, click Show apps and scroll down. Find Software and click on Updates. This updates your system and packages. Click Restart and Update, and then log back into your account when it comes back.

You have now downloaded the openSUSE Leap 16 ISO, made a Ventoy USB, booted it with your boot menu key, installed openSUSE Leap 16 with GNOME and finished the first-boot setup. In the next video you will see how to run local AI on openSUSE using Ollama.

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