Dear forum members!
I’d like to install OpenSUSE 42.1 on my notebook with Windows 7 SP1 64-bit. I’d like to use them both and I have 250 GB SSD drive. I’ve read http://opensuse-guide.org/installation.php and https://tweakhound.com/2013/03/18/dual-boot-opensuse-12-3-and-windows/ already, but I still have some questions.
When I launch OpenSUSE installer I have these three partitions:
- /dev/sda1/ 100 MiB EFI Boot
- /dev/sda2/ 128 MiB Microsoft Reserved
- /dev/sda3/ 172,66 GiB HPFS/NTFS
I tried to set two EXT4 partitions like:
/dev/sda4/ 20,00 GiB EXT4 /
/dev/sda5/ 40,00 GiB EXT4 /home
When I click OK then the installer warns me that my BIOS_GRUB partition is missing. I also get warning that SWAP partition is missing, but I decided not to create it because I have 8 GB of RAM.
- Can I remove EFI Boot and Microsoft Reserved partition without consequences?
- I read I can create up to 4 standard Linux partitions. Could you tell me why I have five of them?
- Should I keep BIOS_GRUB partition in order to install correctly OpenSUSE and keep Windows 7?
- Should I set fstab option for EXT4 SSD partitions to no access time
and arbitrary option value to discard? 1. Should I leave some unmounted space in order to boost Crucial MX200 SSD drive in Linux?
I will appreciate your every answer.
Best regards,
jaramrk
Your computer supports UEFI, which is why there is an EFI partition.
You should be able to boot the installer in either UEFI mode or legacy MBR boot mode. You apparently booted in legacy mode. And that’s why you are seeing these issues.
Try to boot the installer in UEFI mode. If you do that, it should want to mount that EFI partition as “/boot/efi”, and it should not require a BIOS_GRUB partition.
Windows is almost certainly booting in UEFI mode.
If you install linux in legacy MBR mode, you won’t be able to boot Windows from the grub menu. If you can install in UEFI mode, then booting Windows should not be a problem.
Your partitioning should be fine. The complaint about BIOS_GRUB is only because you booted the wrong way.
Yes, you can manage without swap. But you won’t be able to hibernate. The warning about swap is only a warning. You can ignore it, if that’s what you want to do.
Thank you for your advices. You was right!
When I booted the OpenSUSE installer in the UEFI mode there were no GRUB partition. Next I installed it correctly, but I have still one issue.
I always thought that there is only one boot manager for each drive for all operating system. I was surprised when I saw Windows Boot Manager and OpenSUSE Secureboot while I was pressing ESC key. If I set priority to Windows Boot Manager, nothing happens and Windows starts normally. But when I change it to OpenSUSE Secureboot, Linux asks me to choose the system which I want to boot.
I also have tried to force GRUB to choose Windows as a default using YAST, because of my home users, but there were no options to set priorities. I want to get rid of OpenSUSE invitation screen in order not to distract my home users. How should I do it correctly?
I’m on tenterhooks about the question concerning maximum number of Linux partitions. Where are no extended partitions in this case.
Best regards,
jaramrk
EFI is not the same as MBR in EFI there is a special FAT formatted EFI boot partition that holds the boot code for all installed OS . In addition there is flash memory in the UEFI BIOS that holds boot information and that is what you see when changing in the EFI menu. So when you select Windows from the EFI boot menu it goes direct to the Windows boot code in the EFI boot partition. When you select openSUSE then it goes to the openSUSE boot code which then starts grub and you can then select to chain to any other installed OS. Each drive can have it’s own EFI boot since the location is coded into the UEFI flash memory
This is a changed due to UEFI. The boot entries are no longer tied to particular disks.
I also have tried to force GRUB to choose Windows as a default using YAST, because of my home users, but there were no options to set priorities.
I don’t think there’s a Yast setting for that with grub2. But you can set it in “/etc/default/grub”.
There’s probably a line there:
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
You can change “saved” to the entry that you want. Possibly
GRUB_DEFAULT=2
will do what you want. The boot choices (lines on the menu) are numbered starting at zero. After changing that, run:
# grub2_mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Another alternative would be to leave the BIOS setting to Windows as default. And then use the special key during boot when you want opensuse. On my systems, hitting F12 during boot brings up a BIOS boot menu. Maybe it’s something different for you, bu F12 seems to be common.
I’m on tenterhooks about the question concerning maximum number of Linux partitions. Where are no extended partitions in this case.
With the change to UEFI, there is also a change to using a GPT partition table. There isn’t any extended partition, and there are many more partitions allowed (I think the limit is 128 partitions). So no need to worry about maximum number of partitions.
Thank you for your answers. I’ve done what you wrote and Windows Boot Manager is a default boot entry now.
I have a problem with GRUB screen resolution because it launches in 800x600 mode. I’d like to change it to 1366x766 in order to fit GRUB to my whole screen. I tried to type GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768x32 and set option by entering grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg but it doesn’t work for me. The file /etc/default/grub didn’t changed, so I changed it manually and set GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768x32. After rebooting GRUB still doesn’t fit the screen well. As I wrote /etc/default/grub contains GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768x32 option. What should I do?
I’d like also to change boot list order and names of the entries. How can I do it?
GRUB can use only those modes that are supported (announced) by your video card BIOS. Go to GRUB command line and use “videoinfo” command to list video modes detected by GRUB. You can select only between them.
I typed videoinfo command and get:
1024x768x32
800x600x32
preferred mode 1366x768
I think command printed 1366x768 because I set it manually. I have GT 740M and Intel HD Graphics 4000 so they both should support 1366x768 resolution.
The problem occured because I turned on command line mode and disabled graphic console. If I bring back the graphic console, the GRUB fits whole the screen.
What about boot list order?
As used by most distributions, menu is autogenerated by scripts in /etc/grub.d. So you can either adapt scripts or completely remove them and maintain grub.cfg manually. Unfortunately neither plays well with packaging as is currently implemented. Something for future work.