Hello all,
I have successfully installed openSUSE11.3 on an internal hard drive and all seems to work fairly well. My only problem seems to be the fact that I want to install it on an eternal usb drive and have had no success. Although, I like openSUSE11…3’s graphical representation of the partitioning and install process, I am very confused on how to configure it so that I can have the option to boot from an external usb hard drive and leave an internal Windows XP and Ubuntu install untouched. In typical Linux installs like Ubuntu and Debian, I just specified /dev/sdb as the drive that I want GRUB to be installed on and that was it. So, then, with my external usb hard drive installed I simply went into the bios and chose the external usb hard drive that has Ubuntu or Debian installed on it, and GRUB loads and the external harddrive boots with the external hard drive boots. This is all that I want to do, so in openSUSE11.3, I need to know which options to enable/disable, do I specify that /dev/sdb is hd(0,0), or is it (1,0), or hd(0,1).?? Also is the MBR enabled or disabled, do I boot from /boot partition or / partition. These are the things that are confusing me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
freesparks
The second drive would be hd(1,x) BIOS nomenclature starts at 0. The second number represents the partition number again starting at 0. THe problem is that if you change things in the BIOS you may change the order of the disk numbering.
Boot to Ubuntu and show us sudo fdisk -l (note that is a lower case L not a one)
Hello gogalthorp,
Thank you so much for the quick reply. Currently I don’t want to mess up the system i have with XP Professional installed on the internal drive /dev/sda. So I’m on the other laptop that has openSUSE installed on its internal hard drive as seen below. I am currently booted in livecd mode at the final part of the installation.: This is the output of fdisk -l:
linux:~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc63be949
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2103296 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 262 2873 20972544 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2873 19458 133213184 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000da647
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 6527 52426752 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 * 6527 12401 47182848 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 12401 32636 162530304 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 32636 33157 4192256 82 Linux swap / Solaris
linux:~ #
So my questions are: Do i leave this portion of the install as follows:
• Boot Loader Type: GRUB
• Status Location: /dev/sdb1 (“/boot”)
• Change Location:
• Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
• Boot from /boot partition is enabled (disable)
• Sections:
- openSUSE 11.3 (default)
- Desktop – openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34.7-0.4 (/dev/sda2)
- Failsafe – openSUSE 11.3
• Order of Hard Disks: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb
Also, do I go into Booting and change other options. I really appreciate your help, I know its just a matter of making sure i understand the concept and select the correct options!!
Best Regards,
freesparks
Not sure why you created a separate /boot partition??? The order of the drives may be changed in the BIOS so sda may become sdb Or if as in your case you may have other USB devices plugged. So thing may not always be what you think they are. Also your boot flag is set to sdb2 which is not /boot but I guess is root. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a separate /boot. I’d just install grub to the MBR of the sdb drive (hd1). And make sure that you set the BIOS to first try to boot to the USB.
Please don’t confuse drives with partitions. This is confusion that MS introduced by naming partitions as drive letters.
The boot flag is not on a boot partition it is on the root partition and the root partition has the /boot directory. Unix like file systems can mount any partition at any point (directory name) in the file system. Though you can do similar things in Windows/DOS it is seldom done.
There is no reason to put a separate partition for /boot in your case since it just complicates things. The important thing is where grub goes. You do not want grub to be installed on the internal hard drive since you want to boot directly into Windows if the external drive is not attached. All options are available in the installer if you look close enough. Do not accept a partitioning scheme until you are very sure it is the way you want it. And of course any important data should be backed up any time you play with any kind of partitioning changes or OS installs.