I just got a new laptop, and as far as the hardware goes I’m happy with it. Of course, I won’t be using Windows for work, and only for games.
So far I have figured how to boot to the Live USB DVD installer. By default, openSUSE wants to use the pre-existing EFI boot partition. I have read elsewhere this is not advisable since Windows will overwrite it making it impossible to boot back into openSUSE. I have disabled Secure Boot, with no problems.
Ideally I’d like to use GRUB to boot to Windows and openSUSE. However, I’m amenable to using Windows own Boot Manager (I saw something about it allowing other operating systems) or even other options. I just want it to work, and don’t want the drama of fighting with the last three machines I had.
Hi
Just set it to not format the efi partition and install. This is assuming you have dealt with the windows side?? If it’s windows 8, then you need to ensure you create a full shutdown before installing!
For UEFI you need to use the dvd for the install, not the live cd.
I suggest that you go ahead and use the existing EFI partition.
You may indeed run into problems. If you do, post about them and we will try to help.
In my experience the main problem is not Windows. It is a poor implementation of the UEFI specification. And there are different ways of implementing it poorly, so we cannot predict what problems you will have.
As far as I can tell, the Windows boot manager cannot boot opensuse (or any linux) on a UEFI system. Using grub2-efi works well, once you get around any difficulties caused by a poor UEFI implementation.
It is best to install using the DVD, or the DVD image written to disk. The installer on the live images (KDE or Gnome) doesn’t quite get UEFI right.
Let me comment on this. My box has a Dell BIOS/UEFI firmware, and it has the kind of behavior that you describe. The real cause is that the BIOS deletes the Windows boot entry. When you boot to Windows with grub, Windows notices that its boot entry is missing and puts it back as the first one. One the next boot, the BIOS deletes the grub boot entry. And that’s when you are stuck.
Using a second EFI partition does prevent this with the Dell BIOS. However, there are other implementations of UEFI that are confused by a second EFI partition. My blog post Notes on UEFI, Windows and linux describes the workaround for the Dell BIOS, though it would be a bit different for you since you are not using secure boot.
For my own selfish reasons, I hope the OP keeps the EFI partition and Secure boot (with Windows8) and installs openSUSE in a separate partition.
I have a colleague at work with whom I hope to help install openSUSE on their Sony Vaio Ultrabook (a different model from the OP’s Sony). We would have tried to install openSUSE by now, except that testing with a liveUSB stick (with the liveDVD on the USB stick) indicated that the wireless did not function with the kernel in openSUSE-12.3. We believe the newer 3.11 kernel planned in 13.1 should provide the wireless functionality, and once that is confirmed then we will be trying to install 13.1 on my colleagues Sony Vaio. I note openSUSE-13.1 beta1 is due toward the end of the week, and the plan is to test that beta on my colleagues Sony Vaio Ultrabook, initially with a USB stick live boot, and possibly later with a USB stick install (using the larger DVD version for the install from the USB stick).
But I suspect anything the OP does wrt installing openSUSE on a Sony Vaio could be relevant, so I’m watching carefully and taking notes
