Update from Suse 11.0 to 11.1

[pink-banana-fish]

Well, not entirely :[
This is my problem

[gohanray]

Frns i am a newbie to OpenSUSE Linux..I have Vista installed (DELL OEM) already..
To install Linux i followed the steps as told by my frns.
1) I booted Vista,inserted the OpenSUSE dvd and did the Local Installation so as to create a boot entry for Local installation.
2) When i rebooted , it directly booted into Local Installation entry in boot entry and did not give me an option to choose Vista.or never showed that screen.
3) Then i installed OpenSUSE with no other choice.Now i have the Linux GRUB Loader with four entries..-->OpenSUSE,OpenSUSE XEN,OpenSUSE Failsafe and Windows..
4) The first 3 options are working fine.When i click Windows it directly enters Local Installation again.

What can i do now? Please help me out frns..

[pink-banana-fish]

gohanray:
go to YAST>System>Boot Loader. What does it say nect to windows? the type should be Other and there should be a long string, what is the string? Also, how are your partitions set up?(e.g sda1=windows sda2=swap....) you can find this in YAST>System>Partitioning.

[mingus725]

@gohanray -

We have seen this problem several times before. Please read this entire message carefully, along with the attached links, before doing anything - you will save yourself (and probably others) a lot of time and frustration (or worse) if you do.

The problem is that the Vista boot manager's database now has a boot entry for the openSUSE installation (that is what you are seeing) and it has a higher priority than the Vista entry. Grub successfully calls the Vista boot loader but it is looping through this other entry and never gets to the entry needed to start Vista.

The solution is to remove the added entry and to restore the original Vista entry. This is done with the Vista RE (Recovery Environment). The Vista RE is on the retail Vista DVD, but you probably do not have that so you will need to download/burn the RE to CD. Here are the instructions including the link to how to download the RE Recovering the Vista Bootloader - NeoSmart Technologies.

You will see an "Automated Repair" - hopefully, that will work. If it does not, you will need to do the repair manually from the Vista command line using the bcdedit program. In the link above, it includes commands to rebuild your MBR and the Vista partition boot sector - almost for sure you do not need to do that. Very probably the only problem is in the bcd database. So the only instruction under "Step 3" that you need is the second, the "bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd" command which "rebuilds your BCD data from scratch."

The instructions above are based on instructions from Microsoft here The Windows Boot Configuration Data file is missing required information. (Method 1 is the automatic, method 2 is a little bit longer version of the above from Neosmart.)

After this repair, your computer will boot into Vista only - you will not see the openSUSE boot loader menu. We can help you re-install the openSUSE loader and have it boot Vista, but the easiest and safest thing to do is to let Vista boot openSUSE. At the same Neosmart Technologies website above they offer a fantastic free tool called EasyBCD. There is a nice tutorial. I strongly suggest you download and install it on Vista.

Before you use EasyBCD to set up your dual-boot, you will have to do one setup step on openSUSE (installing grub to the openSUSE partition boot sector) with the LiveCD: So when you are ready, boot from the LiveCD, open a terminal window, and do the following:

su
fdisk -lu

(That is an "l" as in "lamp", not the numeral one.) And then post the output back here. Then we can give you the grub setup instructions to do in the LiveCD. After that is done, you do the (very easy) setup in EasyBCD, and then Vista will dual-boot itself plus openSUSE.

[gohanray]

@mingus725
Sorry for the very very late reply.There was a problem in my internet connection.So i cudnt reply you.

And Thanks a lot for ur kind help.The RebuildBCD worked great..I was very much worried tat i had to reinstall Vista.Your tutorial and links were really helpful and it saved my data as well as time a lot..Yu saved me at the right time.Thanks a lot.I'm happy with OpenSUSE & Windows Dual boot..

[gohanray]

@mingus725
Sorry for the very very late reply.There was a problem in my internet connection.So i cudnt reply you.

And Thanks a lot for ur kind help.The RebuildBCD worked great..I was very much worried tat i had to reinstall Vista.Your tutorial and links were really helpful and it saved my data as well as time a lot..Yu saved me at the right time.Thanks a lot.I'm happy with OpenSUSE & Windows Dual boot..

[mingus725]

Glad that everything working out for you!

[achu_182]

i read the link, and luckily i have a windows vista dvd. but even when i command it to boot from the dvd, it takes me to GRUB, and doesnt show anything about installing vista. in the GRUB menu, I have windows which takes me to vista bootloader and from there the problem repeats. what should i do now?

[mingus725]

Originally Posted by achu_182

i read the link, and luckily i have a windows vista dvd. but even when i command it to boot from the dvd, it takes me to GRUB, and doesnt show anything about installing vista. in the GRUB menu, I have windows which takes me to vista bootloader and from there the problem repeats. what should i do now?

Exactly what particular Vista DVD do you have?

[achu_182]

It says Reinstallation DVD Windows Vista Home Premium 32BIT SP1. It is to be used only to reinstall the OS on a Dell PC.