Hi, yesterday I tried to install openSUSE on my sisters computer as she was getting sick of Windows. I tried twice and each time the same thing happened. After the OS installed and rebooted for the first time I would get an error saying “Failed to load OS”. I had to reinstall Windows for her but would like to try figuring out why it wouldn’t work.
Any ideas?
More info about the said computer would be helpful. ie; is it new, as in windows 8 and EFI etc…
You can see a sample install in this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10573557/13.1_install/13.1_install.pdf
On 2013-12-18, Astralogic <Astralogic@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hi, yesterday I tried to install openSUSE on my sisters computer as she
> was getting sick of Windows. I tried twice and each time the same thing
> happened. After the OS installed and rebooted for the first time I would
> get an error saying “Failed to load OS”. I had to reinstall Windows for
> her but would like to try figuring out why it wouldn’t work.
>
> Any ideas?
In addition to what caf has said, the cause may one of several and it would be helpful to have more information about he
computer before it can be identified. In particular, it would be helpful to know if it’s a Windows 8 machine with UEFI?
If not, my wild guess of the cause is that there’s no bootloader component (GRUB2 Stage 1) written onto the Master Boot
Record (MBR) of the hard drive. When you reach the final installation-settings screen of openSUSE, you can change the
bootloader settings to enable MBR booting by clicking on a checkbox IIRC.
Is there a screenshot of that somewhere? I think that’s the problem, it’s a very old computer, about six or seven years old.
On 2013-12-18, Astralogic <Astralogic@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Is there a screenshot of that somewhere? I think that’s the problem,
> it’s a very old computer, about six or seven years old.
http://opensuse-guide.org/images/installation/dvd/inst-overview.png
… I’m not sure that screenshot is taken from Version 13.1, but it should similar.
Take special note of this setting I illustrated
OK so am I right in assuming that I click “enable” next to MBR boot, and it will disable the boot option below it?
On 2013-12-18, Astralogic <Astralogic@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> OK so am I right in assuming that I click “enable” next to MBR boot, and
> it will disable the boot option below it?
To be honest I don’t know. I imagine that if a pre-existing Windows installation is detected by the openSUSE installer,
it (perhaps strangely?) defaults to disabling MBR booting. Enable it.
Bear in mind we haven’t in way established for sure that this is the cause. I’ve just taken a stab in dark, because more
information is required to be certain, in particular the partition organisation and the BIOS settings.
How do I get to that screen during the installation?
Edit: I also download all repositories (although I don’t really know what they are), is that recommended?
On 2013-12-18, Astralogic <Astralogic@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> caf4926;2609470 Wrote:
>> Take special note of this setting I illustrated
>> 821
>
> How do I get to that screen during the installation?
You click of the underlined header (I think `Booting’) on the Installation Settings screen shown in:
http://opensuse-guide.org/images/installation/dvd/inst-overview.png
Edit: I also download all repositories (although I don’t really know
what they are), is that recommended?
No. Repositories are storage locations online that contain software/code that you may choose or not choose to install on
your local computer. There is no point downloading their entire contents. Actually it’s a bad idea because that way you
do not benefit from any updates/patches to software contained in the online repositories.
You use your CD/DVD media to install the base system and default applications. If you wish to install additional
software (such as Skype), you simply do so by going to openSUSE’s control panel (called YaST), and search for the
software you wish to install in the software manager. The software manager then looks in the repositories to search for
you software `binaries’, which are then downloaded and installed onto your computer. When you perform a system-wide
update, the online repositories are queiried for new versions, and if new versions are found, the relevant packages are
updated. So as you can see there is no point in downloading the instantaneous content of a specific repository.
You click the title Booting, on the install summary screen. It the last step before you would click install. All the sections there can be accessed by clicking the relevant title.
Thanks guys it works perfectly now. I wonder how many people like me tried to install Suse and just thought it didn’t work, why aren’t those boot options enabled by default?
On 2013-12-19, Astralogic <Astralogic@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Thanks guys it works perfectly now. I wonder how many people like me
> tried to install Suse and just thought it didn’t work, why aren’t those
> boot options enabled by default?
Glad it worked! Your question is an excellent one and I’m sure one that won’t be answered.
Good
Don’t know
But the way the bootloader writes is different in 13.1 than in 12.3
Doing it the way I show is belt and braces