Hi,
It would be convenient if i could simply install 11.3 along side my Ubuntu distro.
I see yast enables me to reduce my sda1 and create a new partition, (sda3) However it offers to mount sda3 in /usr ? Could you offer me any advice please?
My objective is to be able to select which distro from the grub menu.
Thanks for your Time
Perhaps you should give us this from Ubuntu first:
sudo fdisk -l
Then we can advise better
Thanks for your interest.
Disk /dev/sda: 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: 0x000ea053
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 60239 483864576 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 60239 60802 4519937 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 60239 60802 4519936 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/sdb: 4043 MB, 4043309056 bytes
125 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7750 * 512 = 3968000 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c71f2
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1018 3944719 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
nnjond@nnjond-desktop:~$
Next time please between CODE tags, to keep it readable.
Now you were not happy with what the install offered you (I must say I never saw it offering a seperate partition for /usr) and i can understand. But I suppose that that was only part of the idea the installer has. What is the rest? And what did you think yourself about the places where you would like to have openSUSE? After all it is you who decides and you can make the installer in doing this for you.
Being more talkative/informative would help us.
I’m sorry i don’t know much about coding tags.
Ubuntu is on my sda1. I followed some simple options in yast to reduce it’s size, create a new partition, (10 GB), where i thought 11.3 would be installed.
There was a drop down menue, but my limited understanding leads me to assume the new partition offered, sda3, would by default be targeted at
/dev/, not /usr/.
-along with the other partitions; This seems most sensible to me. And i was hoping 11.3 would then magically appear as a choice on the grub menue at start up.
The only worry that complicates things for me is, should sda3 be mounted at:
/, -or /boot, or where?
Are things more complicated?
Thanks again.
The CODE tas are tags here in the forums. I am afraid that you can not create them from a “Quick reply”, but using “Go advanced” (lower right) will reveal a # amongst the buttons above the input field. Select a piece of computer text and then click that button. The result will be (ATTENTION, THIS IS MY fdisk, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OP’s PROBLEM):
boven:~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2874 15000 97410127+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 * 15001 38913 192081172+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 15001 17611 20972826 83 Linux
boven:~ #
You see what I mean? We have here the computer prompt (thus everybody can see I was root doing this), you can see the statement I used (so again no question about that) and the layout with all the white space in the output is kept.
Sorry, but your ideas about /usr and /dev are a bit embarrassing. Please try to undertand a few basic things in: SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE
What you have on sda (we leave sdb out, because that seems to be some Windows partition which you want to keep as it is) is:
sda1, apparently the partition you have all of Ubuntu on (it’ root partition /).
sda2, the extended partition that holds a rather small part of the disk with one logical partition:
sda5, which is for Swap.
What you need for openSUSE is:
sda5, the Swap can also be used by openSUSE without any problem;
at least one more partition for / and better one for /home, but you did not use a seperate /home for Ubuntu, thus may be you do not want one for openSUSE.
You say that you used YaST, but how did you do that, you do not have openSUSE installed yet?
In your first post you told that the installer offered you to shrink sda1 (the Ubuntu partition) and create sda3 for openSUSE (the root partition /). That would put the partitions out of sequence, but the system can live with that, thus can we.
Now this seems OK to me, except that you talk about /usr. Can you tell more about it, e.g. write down with more (precise) details what the installer says it is going to do. (you could even take a camera picture of thh screen and publish that here).
I can’t for the life of me see the attachment icon so cant show you my photos.
Thanks for all your help. I’ve absorbed some of the basics this afternoon. I hope to do an OU Linux course in Oct; in the absence of any further advice.
I think just adding one more partition is going to tax my competence and will be adequate for now. Allthough with more skills i might prefer one home dir for both distros.
I’m sorry i mentioned YasT, I meant the installer interface. You may know you can proceed to install through many stages and then abort safely when your not sure of how to go on.
The installer offers the user edit partion options, and create partition option. (see edit.jpg, usr.jpg and options.jpg) I chose to reduce my large sda1 by 10 Gb, freeing up space automatically available as sda3 (see partitioner.jpg) in the create partition panel. It is on this new partition i assumed 11.3 + it’s home dir would be installed and then either distro would have access to the swap file.
I’m content with my pc loading Ubuntu by default and therefore retaining the boot on sda1, but i want 11.3 as an option on a grub menue at start up.
YasT also interupts the process with arcane messages (see arcane.jpg)Which you might like to comment on.
The sdb and dc are just sticks i can remove.
Thanks again
OK, the pics can be uploaded to some image hosting site (there are many examples on the Forumshere).
But I see you do not talk about /usr and or /dev. That is an improvement ;).
Either host the pictures somewhere and let us comment on it, or just go for it. Most important is that the installes does nothing (particularly NOT FORMATTING) to sda5 (Ubuntu), else your Ubuntu is gone!
About the dual boot, you may spoil that, but with some help from here that can be rectfied afterwards.
Please look at the photos that accompany my last post as i think there are still some queries.
No /usr
Just create:
/
/home
you should already have a swap
You need to use Custom Partitioning
Here are some examples:
Picasa Web Albums - caf4926 - openSUSE 11.2…
I cannot create sda3 at /
I get the error mssge “This mount point is already in use Select a different one”
11.3 defaults to /usr.
Please see my photos;
I cannot create sda3 at /
I get the error mssge “This mount point is already in use Select a different one”
11.3 defaults to /usr.
All my sda partitions are at /dev/
Please see my photos;
Your partitions are not “at /dev/”. I gave you a link about the basics of partitions. As long as you do not understand the difference between mount points and device special files neither what caf4926 or what I try to tell you will be very fruitfull.
You do have a somewhat unusual situation to start from. It is quite possible that the installer is not quite up to it. But as long as you do not understand things about device special files (the /deb/sda. things) and the mount point (/ and /home and the not to be used /usr) and also not about promary, extended and logical partitions it is very difficult from here to try steep by step if the installer can be brough to a sensible solution. The more because you pictures are not ver sharp (I know you do what you can 
).
But when the installer can not do this (or it is to difficult to achieve this), you can still use a tool like Partmagic to:
@caf4926: In this case I would advise him to not have a separate /home. He doesn’t have one in his Unbuntu and is thus used to it. And the sutuation is allready complicated enough.
Could you help him with Partedmagic if he decides to prepare his disk with it?
@caf4926: In this case I would advise him to not have a separate /home. He doesn’t have one in his Unbuntu and is thus used to it. And the sutuation is allready complicated enough.
Could you help him with Partedmagic if he decides to prepare his disk with it?
Yes sure - I agree
Just get me a screen of the disk like this:
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9705/pic6.png
So I can see what you have better