Hi all, old laptop crashed, had to get a new one fast under constrained budget. It hasn’t gone so well.
Set BiOS to support legacy, reformatted drive and installed Win7 (instead of 8.1). Then on to linux.
32bit livecd yields blank screen after kernel loads. 64bit works fine, so I got the 64bit dvd for install. It can’t partition the drive, but it can format it. So, in windows, I created a 200MB partition, a 16GB partition, and a 120GB partition. (Existing partitions are the 100MB system reserve and the NTFS partition for windows).
Ran install DVD, told it to format the 200MB FAT and mount as /boot/efi, format the 16GB as swap and mount as swap, format the 120GB as Ext4 and mount as /. I did not create a separate partition for /home (because I am the only one who’ll ever use this laptop, and because I intend to symlink all the user folders like Documents to their counterparts on the NTFS partition).
Everything proceeded fine, installing packages and bootloader…until the reboot. At that point, I get a message telling me to install my Windows disk and repair my installation. Which I have done, so that I can use the laptop to access this forum. So, openSUSE 13.1 is ready for first boot, if I can only get in there. Can anyone tell me how?
But did you boot the installer in legacy or in EFI mode? Just because legacy is activated does not mean it will boot stuff in legacy without intervention. If the installer is booted in EFI mode then it will want to install EFI stuff. In any case you should be able to override any assumptions the install makes in expert mode. But better not to confuse things and boot to the mode you want to install to.
Some EFI BIOS support a mixed mode so you can in theory boot both legacy and EFI . Personally I have not heard of that working too well. :’(
I had the BiOS set to enable legacy when I first ran installer, so I assumed cd drive was booting thus as well. However, after reading your post, I tried disabling legacy support and booting installer disk. It behaved the same. Yes I did set up my partitions manually, but when I tried it WITHOUT a /boot/efi partition, the o continue. That’s a sign dvd booted in efi mode, isn’t it?
So, my next tep is to figure out how to force the installer to boot in legacy mode. Either that, or reinstall Win7 in EFI mode, which might be better, but I’ve got an old copy (before service pack 1), so that might be a greater challenge. Not sure where to begin the research, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I’ll report back when/if I succeed.
Sure thought I was on the right track, here. Found out, even with legacy support enabled, laptop boots from DVD in EFI by default, but pressing Esc during boot gives option for legacy. So that’s what I did, to be rewarded by a different welcome screen. Performed install, and still found that system couldn’t change the partitions, but it could format them and didn’t insist on /boot/efi. Proceeded just fine up to reboot, then rebooted into Win7. No bootloader asked me which OS I prefer. So again, I have openSUSE installed but can’t get into it.
What should happen after the reboot? Should a bootloader come up, or should the computer boot again from the dvd to finish install? Should the drive eject? It doesn’t. By default, it boots EFI mode, and if I intercept that and direct legacy mode, I get the welcome screen options. One is rescue; I booted into that, cd’d to /, ls’d to see the usual entries, cd’d to boot, ls’d to see grub files.
Installing mixed mode is theoretically possible for SOME EFI BIOS but for some it simply will not work and even those that may have the option it never seems to work out. Better not to mix modes. If the BIOS supports it it would show up in the options. If you don’t see anything that indicates mixed mode the BIOS probably would not work with one OS MBER and the other EFI
Way do you need Windows? If for production type software it is better to run it in a VM if games you do need to install on the bare metal for the graphics
Thanks for the info, but that’s not what I’m trying to do. Have legacy mode for Win7, perfectly happy to have linux in legacy mode as well.
>Way do you need Windows?
Because it’s what I use when linux quits working.
>Where did you end up installing grub? you should no longer have a efi boot partition… You need to mention details since all the crystal balls are in the shop
Wish I knew what details would be helpful. Current partitions are Windows system reserve, NTFS for Win7, ext4 for openSUSE, and swap - no efi boot partition. Theres a 1kB partition before the swap partition that seems to be an artifact of the Windows partitioning tool. Bootloader is wherever installer puts it; how would I find out?
It tells you on the install at the partition scheme screen at watch time you can still change it.
The installer may still think it is dealing with a EFI boot so always double check and don’t assume the installer is alwyas right it is just a suggestion and you may change it
Some say leave a generic/WIndoows MBR and install grub to the partition that contains /boot. Usually root (/) and it does cause less problems with Windows messing with stuff. You will need the boot flag set on the boot partition. Does the installer suggest an extended partition to contain some of the new partitions??
Thanks G for staying up late to help me with this. I’ll run the installer again and watch for the bootloader. Unfortunately, the installer doesn’t suggest extended partitions - it CAN’T suggest anything, can’t create partions, only format them, and even then it directs me to manually select format and mount point. I’ll be back in 20min or so with results.
Wonderful wife gave up her laptop so I can describe what I see:
Bootloader proposal is GRUB2, placed in /. “Write generic Boot Code to MBR” isn’t checked, should it be? Should GRUB be set to boot from MBR instead of root?
“Set active Flag in Partition Table for Boot Partition” is checked. So is “Probe Foreign OS”.
There’s naught to indicate a preference for EFI or legacy. EDIT: “GRUB2-EFI” isn’t selected.
Some research tells me I need a special 1MB partition for bios boot, with a flag, “bios_grub”. I suspect that the installer tries to do this automatically, but linux dvd can’t partition this drive for some reason. I can do it in windows but I don’t know how to set a flag.
Short version: Installing Win7 (pre-SP1) screwed things up, set up a legacy-style Master Boot Record but didn’t deal properly with the existing EFI-style partition table, creating a conflict that the installer wouldn’t touch. The solution is to blow out the boot sector with “sgdisk --zap /dev/sda” (from a bootable cd) which will let opensuse rebuild it during install.
*Thank you srs5694, wherever you are.
*And thanks gogalthorpe, for putting my on the right track.