ok im new here and i have been trying to break free from Microsoft’s grasp and so i have been looking at opensuse and i would say that i love it. i have an old computer (1999 XD)and so my parents were going to throw it away and i asked if i could have it so now i have it and am trying to install but its at a friends house.
ok but back on task, so i was wondering how and if it is possible to have opensuse and windows vista installed on the “family” computer? what i would like is it to be installed with vista and when it turns on that the default be on vista but then i could pick to go to opensuse. my computer specs are http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/ab114/peterpain0/Capture-1.jpg
sorry i couldnt get it to post the picture up here
ok but i was wondering if i would be able to format one of my harddrives and install suse on it? it has 10 gigs.
openSUSE will automatically set up a “dual boot” scheme. When you boot the machine, after the BIOS screen, you will get a slick list (called a “GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) menu”) that will let you choose between openSUSE and Windows (as well as any vendor installed utlity or recovery partitions you may have).
By default, openSUSE sets itself as the default system to boot (it waits a few seconds for you to choose, then boot openSUSE automatically). Once you have the system installed, go to Yast - > Bootloader. Don’t mess with anything here (you could make your system unbootable), just select the Windows entry in the list a click the “Set as Default” button in the lower right corner. Now the system will load Vista unless you select openSUSE when you boot up.
If you have multiple hardrives, you can select which ever one you want to install openSUSE, but you might need to change your bootloader installation when you first install (if not, someone please correct me). If this is what you want, could you give some more details about your disk setup?
Your system (Dell Inspiron 531) should be very Linux friendy; I’m running the 530 right now. Most of Dell’s components are supported right out of the box. What video card do you have?
Be aware though that dual-booting with Vista, at least when Vista is installed first (which it tends to be), will prevent Vista Service Packs from installing. Don’t know if that applies to W7 too.
I’ve not had any problems with Vista service packs installing, or various updates from MS now I’m running Windows 7 with Open Suse 11.2. Is this a problem with allowing auto updates for windows? (Something I don’t do, like to see what they want to install!)
Be aware though that dual-booting with Vista, at least when Vista is installed first (which it tends to be), will prevent Vista Service Packs from installing. Don’t know if that applies to W7 too.
Really? I never heard of that problem. I’m dual booting Vista myself. I’ll have to look into that.
Is this a problem with allowing auto updates for windows?
I don’t think it will effect normal updates; at least, Windows automatic updates still work on my Vista install (dual booting with openSUSE 11.2). Should be fine. I’m guessing the service packs do more low level work, and other OS installations mess it up somehow (again, I never heard of the problem before).
I think you’re alright as long as GRUB is in your boot partition, not in the MBR. My experience is this:
Bought a new laptop last week, with Vista preinstalled. Kept it for the time being and installed openSUSE alongside, letting the installer put GRUB in the MBR, chainloading Vista. Everythings works well. There were, of course, dozens of updates for Vista which downloaded and installed ok (and no, I do not have automatic updates enabled). Then came the big one: Service Pack. Took ages to download and install, with the usual reboots, and finally informed me that it could not install and was reverting back (more time wasted). Only possible reason for this is the dualboot with Linux, and I’m sure I’ve read about others encountering the same issue.
I also dualboot Vista and Linux on my main desktop computer, without any such problems, but there I have two separate hard disks for each OS and EasyBCD controls the boot process.