Dual-Booting openSuse 11.3 64bit with Windows 7 (7 installed first)

[LinuxNoob10]

I am currently running windows 7, i would like to be able to dual-boot with openSuse 11.3 64-bit, at the moment I have two seperate partitions each 111gb in size and i wish to install suse onto the D: partition without effecting my windows installation or any data on the c drive.

When i got to the "Discs" stage of the installation i was very confused by this as i am completely new to Linux and dual-booting, i thought it would be a simple case of selecting my d: drive and installing straight to that but i cannot work out how to do this, much appreciated if someone could explain the step-by-step procedures in jargon that i can understand, thanks guys.

Ryan

[jdmcdaniel3]

Hello LinuxNoob10 and welcome to the openSUSE forum. I am not sure I would have put Noob in your name, as surely this will not be true forever. You did right in asking questions before you did the installation. I am going to make suggestions and you may wish to once again start the installation, but abort before the final go ahead unless it is more clear to you.

When you install openSUSE, there must be room for openSUSE to create at minimum, two partitions (in addition to any existing ones). One will be for something called SWAP, a disk based memory swap area anytime an application needs more real memory than you have installed and the main or root partition, where all or most of the openSUSE files are installed. The default partition types used for these two directories are called SWAP & EXT4. These differ from the standard NTFS partitions that are created by Windows. One more factoid, you can only have four primary partitions per hard disk AND, you can only boot from a Primary partition unless you have loaded the Grub menu Operating System Selector into the MBR or Master Boot Record. It is possible to have more than four partitions, but one of them must be a logical partition, which can contain more than one Logical drive, but which can not be directly booted from (except when grub is loaded into the MBR and loads the rest of itself from a openSUSE logical partition).

OK, after all of that baloney you say, what does that mean to you? Well the number one thing is to consider reducing the size of your D partition (at least 40 GB in size) before you start the openSUSE installation. This give openSUSE some where to load into and while openSUSE will attempt to reduce a partition size, it may be unable to do so, for various reasons. Anytime you decide to reduce a partition size, make a full backup of all data before you start. Don't forget to locate your original Windows boot disk before you start, just in case. You might want to consider adding in a new hard drive, and moving all data on drive D: to the new hard drive, thus allowing more space for openSUSE to use on the boot disk.

Now I can't see your Windows setup, but you want to make sure of the total number of partitions present, by running the Windows 7 disk manager, before you start to load openSUSE. For instance, the last Windows 7 PC I looked at had one small restore partition and a Windows 7 partition, even though there was only the C: drive. You don't want any surprises here due to an unknown partition on the Windows hard drive.

Finally, what would be the perfect Partition setup for a dual boot Windows 7 and openSUSE 11.3 setup? Keep in mind this is just my opinion, but this is what I would do If I could get rid of the D: drive and have only the Windows 7 C: drive and no hidden partition was present.

1. Master Boot Record to be Generic booting only, no grub installed in the MBR
2. C: Partition (H0,0 or /dev/sda1) for Windows 7 as Primary Partition
3. SWAP Partition (H0,1 or /dev/sda2), also a Primary Partition Type
4. / openSUSE root (H0,2 or /dev/sda3) or main partition, Primary Type Marked Active - for booting and loaded with Grub Boot Loader.
5. /home partition (H0,3 or /dev/sda4), Primary Partition for all personnel files.

Now you can add a second hard drive and place all or part of openSUSE on that second hard drive, but you must be able to boot from the openSUSE partition, where ever it is located. You want to leave the MBR as generic as it makes it easier to return booting control to Windows 7 if you decide you do not want to use openSUSE. I suggest you download and make a bootable openSUSE LiveDISK for KDE which you try out before you decide to install openSUSE. I suggest doing the openSUSE install from the 4.7 GB DVD as it contains a lot more software installation choice up front.

OK, got any more questions? Then Fire away....

Thank You,

[please_try_again]

C: D: E:, etc is a DOS/Windows specific notation.
Under Linux, the first primary partition (of the first HD) is called sda1, the second partition sda2 ...
sda4 is often the extended partition if you did create one.You never use this partition, it is just a container for the logical ones if you have some. The logical partitions are sda5, sda6, sda7, etc ...
If you have Windows 7 preinstalled, you might also have a hidden partition, which doesn't appear in Windows. So at least 3 partitions might show up in Linux setup. The one you need for Linux is more likely the last one (but double check!). You should delete/resize this partition an split it into (at least) 3 partitions for Linux : /, /home and swap.

[dvhenry]

Save any data on your D: partition to somewhere else, then use the windows partitioner to delete the D: partition (It knows what it calls "D:" we don't without more info).
Now install linux, when it comes to the partitioning section all you need to do is ensure it uses the free space, this is the default but check, as long as it is using the free space alow it to setup the 3 partitions it wants.

[dvhenry]

Save any data on your D: partition to somewhere else, then use the windows partitioner to delete the D: partition

Another option (and i think a better one) is to first defrag D: and then use the windows partitioner to resize D: and create the free space needed in this way.

[LinuxNoob10]

ok thanks everyone, with your help i have now got a working installation of opensuse , another quick question, it doesnt seem to of detected my built-in wireless, its stange because when i was using the live cd (i installed from the full dvd) it detected my routers signal straight away but now i cant even find the wireless utility, i.e. no icon at bottom right corner.

[jdmcdaniel3]

Happy to hear you got openSUSE installed and running. I don't use wireless on my desktop but I am told that you need to start the application kWalletManager (to keep your wireless codes) so do KDE Menu / System / Desktop Applet / KWalletManager. In addition, you need to turn on NetworkManager which is in YaST / Network Devcies / Network Settings. If NetworkManager is already running you get a warning you must press OK to get by. No warning, then it is not running. To Start go to the General Options Tab / Network Setup Method and set the bullet that says "User Controlled with NetworkManager". Good Luck.

Thank You,

[dvhenry]

it doesnt seem to of detected my built-in wireless, its stange because when i was using the live cd (i installed from the full dvd) it detected my routers signal straight away but now i cant even find the wireless utility, i.e. no icon at bottom right corner.

If you read the stickies on this forum, Wireless then search on that forum for other threads where people have had similar problems I think you will find the best replies, this is where the experts on wireless will find any questions you have.
.