I’m fairly new to linux and trying to dualboot my netbook running Windows 7. Before installing OpenSUSE I shrunk my Win 7 partition down in half, then created 3 partitions out of the new free space for /root, /home and /swap. I installed opensuse and when it got to the bootloader section I kept getting Grub error 17 - cannot mount selected partition, and so on. I made sure it was writing to the MBR and also into /boot if that makes a difference, but I did get a prompt that said YaST couldn’t make changes to /dev/sda (I’m paraphrasing and can’t remember the exact error message).
At the moment I have suse installed and my windows partition intact, but no bootloader (not even windows one) so all I can do is boot to Live CD.
Below is the output of fdisk -l. There’s quite a few more partitions than it’s showing, sda3, sda4 and sda5 are my /home, /root, /swap and the other ones are windows partitions, like the system recovery along with the win7 install. During the suse install I formatted the home and root partitions with ext4 filesystem.
linux:/home/linux # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdc1f6e3d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 2047 992+ 42 SFS
/dev/sda2 2048 616447 307200 42 SFS
/dev/sda3 616448 288901119 144142336 42 SFS
/dev/sda4 * 288901120 488395119 99747000 42 SFS
BTW it is not “/root, /home and /swap” what you probably mean but “/, /home and swap”
/root is also on the system, but is another directory then what you mean.
Swap is for swapping. You could have a directory /swap and mount a partition there, but apart from the word it would not have to do anything with swapping by default.
This is the same on Ubuntu (or any other Unix/Linux).
So I believe I figured out the overall problem. I booted to ubuntu live and used GParted to take another look. I had the 4 primary partitions, but my linux partition was set as a primary with no logical partitions anywhere. I deleted it and made the unallocated space a new extended partition, created a few logical ones inside it, formatted them and it installed fine. On restart it loaded GRUB and I could go into ubuntu and had the options for Win7, of course windows 7 was boned and errored immediately so I will have to figure out what’s wrong with that.
So now it brings me to this question, with all the repartitioning I did (which I’m assuming was the whole reason it didn’t work) am I safe to wipe lame Ubuntu and install SUSE? Do you think grub 2 made a difference, or was it probably because I set it up wrong that SuSE didn’t work.
This is why I told the OP in the other post to try to change the partition ID of the last partition to 0x0F (which means the extended partition). But then I got confused with the GPT partition scheme (as it doesn’t use primary and logical partitions AFAIK.)
I would recommend you figure out that first if you intend to use Windows.
Yes, Grub2 makes a difference when it gets to read a GPT partition table. One possible trick would be to install Ubuntu in a single small partition. You don’t need to install a desktop, just the very minimal system with Grub2. Once you’ve done that, you can install openSUSE in other partitions. You’ll have to explicitely tell openSUSE setup to NOT write a generic bootcode into MBR - I wish they would stop to do that some day.
I deleted it and made the unallocated space a new extended partition, created a few logical ones inside it, formatted them and it installed fine. On restart it loaded GRUB and I could go into ubuntu and had the options for Win7, of course windows 7 was boned and errored immediately so I will have to figure out what’s wrong with that.
I’m thinking it may have been helpful to first convert these partitions to basic as done here dual boot with windows 7perhaps it could still help to get win7 working? You would in this case choose the “[EFI GPT] EFI GPT partition map” option (not shown on the version of testdisk used in the link given) instead of the “[INTEL]” option.
For example, **fdisk -l ** output in this thread is lacking this expected line, ( if GPT is used ).
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on ‘/dev/sda’! The util fdisk doesn’t support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Running gparted from partedmagic on a virtual hard disk in vbox, and setting up 6 partitions on a GPT disk.
If I run **fdisk -l **and parted -l, ( noting that parted handles GPT and fdisk doesn’t ) I get,
root@PartedMagic:~# fdisk -l
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sda: 22.1 GB, 22141730816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2691 cylinders, total 43245568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 43245567 21622783+ ee GPT
root@PartedMagic:~# parted -l
Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 22.1GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 1286MB 1285MB ntfs
2 1286MB 5332MB 4046MB ntfs
3 5332MB 6004MB 672MB ntfs
4 6004MB 11.7GB 5745MB ext4
5 11.7GB 21.1GB 9332MB ext4
6 21.1GB 22.1GB 1059MB linux-swap(v1)
There are many tools that can be used to create these partition tables, they don’t all have to work the same way.
So, how do I compare this output to the OP’s output?
Perhaps I should ask the OP to give me** parted -l** along with** fdisk -l** when looking at this type of question?
I think you should write a howto, as I’m afraid we’re going to encounter this situation more and more often on Windows laptops.
I also think these problems will occur more often in the near future, does the upcoming 12.1 have an option to install GRUB2?
There are some areas where I can offer some input, perhaps helping someone else writing that howto?
I think you hit the nail on the head! They are dynamic disks and I don’t think they’re being recognized, not even being recognized when I try to reinstall Windows either.
Here are the new logs from fdisk -l and parted -l:
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MK2556GS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 1049kB 1016kB primary
2 1049kB 316MB 315MB primary ntfs
3 316MB 148GB 148GB primary ntfs boot
4 148GB 250GB 102GB extended
5 148GB 150GB 2097MB logical linux-swap(v1)
6 150GB 152GB 2201MB logical ext4
7 152GB 173GB 21.1GB logical ext4
8 173GB 250GB 76.7GB logical ext4
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 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: 0xdc1f6e3d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1 39 307200 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 * 39 17984 144142336 42 SFS
/dev/sda4 17984 30402 99746817 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 17984 18239 2048000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 18239 18507 2149376 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 18507 21076 20638720 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 21076 30402 74907648 83 Linux
Mind you this is after I repartitioned everything but I didn’t touch the 3 windows ones (sda 1, 2, 3). I will try out TestDisk!
I don’t have anything on windows that I need so I was planning to wipe it and start over. After changing the partition table to the one you suggested, it won’t load GRUB anymore so I’m booting back into a live cd. Going to go back into testdisk and try to paste a log if I can figure out how to.
Run testdisk with the [INTEL] option, NOT the previously mentioned [EFI GPT] option, more has been discovered about this problem since that post. Take your time with Testdisk, you can rerun it until you are comfortable with the changes before you make them.
Unfortunately I think I fail as a test subject. I think I’ve already accepted the changes to it and now I’m left with:
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MK2556GS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 316MB 315MB ntfs
2 316MB 148GB 148GB ntfs
3 148GB 250GB 102GB ext4
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label
I will try the Intel option now though. Thanks again for helping me with this!
It seems I was too late with the last reply, Test disk can fix this (with some luck, and take caution this time, again, no need to save changes if you are not certain!).
No problem! I think my problem now (unrelated) is having issues running or installing testdisk from the Live CD, I haven’t tried it from SUSE since I ran into the initial problems (ultimately I want this computer running SUSE/win7), so maybe I can access it easier than in ubuntu.
I kept my whits, but I may be ultimately defeated. I set the TestDisk table to INTEL and I have the same problem, however the disks show up in Win7 repair except they are read only. I think I’m going to blow it all away and reformat correctly from the ground up :). I’ll partition everything, install Windows, then OpenSuSE 11.4.