How do you get a clean install along side Windows

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Just started trying Linux and it appears my first problem is getting a clean install. The install I have at the moment works and I can boot Windows or Suse BUT The hard drive that I have put the Suse partition on is unreadable with the exception of the Suse section.
What I did:
I used Partition magic to create a 29G linux partition and swap partition through Windows on a 75G Sata hard drive.
I then restarted with the Suse install disk and went through the install, what I thought was, smoothly.
let it do the reboots to complete setup and started looking around inside.

Suse sees all partitions but is unable to read the first part of the 75G drive it is installed on.
Windows cannot see the second hard drive at all.
Partition magic sees the second drive as bad and is unable to reclaim any of it.

Any ideas as to how to prevent Suse from taking over the whole drive?
Thank you kindly,

#2

Hello and welcome here.

There is a lot unclear from your description. But maybe you can start with posting some information from the system. PLease the output of

su -l -c 'fdisk -l'

As a newcomer here, you should know that we use CODE tags around computer text (like I did above). You get the CODE tags by clicking on the # button in the tool bar of the post editor.
And please copy/paste the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt in one sweep between the CODE tags. That will give others the maximum amount of information about what you did.

#3

On 2014-05-05 10:16, hcvv wrote:
>
> Hello and welcome here.
>
> There is a lot unclear from your description. But maybe you can start
> with posting some information from the system. PLease the output of
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> su -l -c ‘fdisk -l’
> --------------------

Also, add


lsblk --output NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,UUID,PARTLABEL,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE

please.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#4

Alright… where/how do I find this?
Thanks,

#5

OK.

First please tell us what version of openSUSE you use.
Then what desktop you use (KDE, Gnome, …)

What Carlos and I ask you to do is executing a command in a terminal window.
In KDE you start a terminal window from the Main menu > System > Terminal > Konsole (Terminal).
Then you copy paste thje statement fromm our post in that window after the prompt (you may also type it, but then typos are possible). Then hit the Return key. You will get then some output line and a new prompt.

In the answer post here, you first click on the # button in the tool bar of post editor. You get then the so called CODE tags. You then copy/paste from that terminal window the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt in between those CODE tags.

Did you realy never use a terminal window on a computer?

#6

Nevermind, figured it out.
This is what I get.

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectorsUnits = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc64ec64e


   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63   125194544    62597241    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       125194545   234436544    54621000    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       125194608   234436544    54620968+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT


Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes, 156301488 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 label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xd5f95a1a


   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1              63    94751369    47375653+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2        94752768   156296384    30771808+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5        94754816    97835007     1540096   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6        97837056   121579519    11871232   83  Linux
/dev/sdb7       121581568   156280831    17349632   83  Linux
#7

Also, add

lsblk --output NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,UUID,PARTLABEL,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE

please.

NAME   FSTYPE LABEL UUID PARTLABEL PARTUUID MOUNTPOINT   SIZE
sda                                                    111.8G
--sda1                                                  59.7G
--sda2                                                     1K
--sda5                                                  52.1G
sdb                                                     74.5G
--sdb1                                                  45.2G
--sdb2                                                     1K
--sdb5                                      [SWAP]       1.5G
--sdb6                                      /           11.3G
--sdb7                                      /home       16.6G
sr0                                                     1024M
sr1                                                     1024M

Did you realy never use a terminal window on a computer?

Not on windows, very little on Mac, would not know what to type and figure that I would do more damage than good.

#8

On 2014-05-05 16:46, Scorpa54 wrote:

> Code:
> --------------------
> NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID PARTLABEL PARTUUID MOUNTPOINT SIZE
> sda 111.8G
> --sda1 59.7G
> --sda2 1K
> --sda5 52.1G
> sdb 74.5G
> --sdb1 45.2G
> --sdb2 1K
> --sdb5 [SWAP] 1.5G
> --sdb6 / 11.3G
> --sdb7 /home 16.6G
> sr0 1024M
> sr1 1024M
> --------------------

Oh. I should have told you to use “su -” or “sudo”. Like:


su -
lsblk --output NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,UUID,PARTLABEL,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE

or

> sudo lsblk --output NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,UUID,PARTLABEL,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE

The filesystem type information is missing if you do it as plain user…

Anyway, looking at your fdisk output, it appears that you have two hard
disks. One is 120 GB, and has apparently 2 Windows partitions (sda1,
sda5). Another is 80GB, has one Windows partition (sdb1, 45GB), and
then 3 Linux partitions (sdb5, 6 and 7).

The sizes you described in your post do not match reality, probably
because the “29GB” partition was divided in two or three by the
installer. It is easier not to create partitions for Linux, just free space.

As you say that both Windows and Linux boot, the problem in Linux is
simply adding entries in fstab for the Windows partitions to be accessible.

Windows will, of course, be unable to read the Linux partitions. It may
even ask you to format them, which would destroy Linux.

If Windows can not read sdb1, then that’s peculiar.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#9

I agree with Carlos. You must describe your problem a bit more specific.

That Windows can not do things with the Linux partitions is obvious to me. But as I do know next to nothing about Windows (and this is the openSUSE forums, not Windows), I feel not qualified to go into that.

As you see, Linux sees all of those partitions. It probably uses those that you installed the system on. We can check that with

cat /etc/fstab

and

mount

When you want to make openSUSE able to use the Windows partitions, you must of course mount them (which will only succeed if there is a file system on them, unused partitions can of course not be mounted). When you want them to be mounted on every boot, you have to create entries for them in /etc/fstba. YaST > System > partitioner can do this for you. But be carefull, when you use that partitioner, **do not create new file systems on the partitions **you want to mount, only provide the mount points!

When the above is partly not understood ny you, maybe this can help: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3ABasics_of_partitions,_filesystems,_mount_points

BTW. like Carlos I have the idea that you thought that you would make installation easier by pre-creating oen or more partitions for openSUSE. This is not the case. openSUSE will try to find free space and partitioned space is not free. That does not mean that you can not use pre-created partitions, but then you must specify that during installation. I am afraid that you pre-created partition sdb1 for use (which use?) by openSUSE, and gave it type 07 (HPFS/NTFS/exFAT) so it is sure that the installer will skip it for use! Then the openSUSE installer used the free space to create the three partitions (sdb5, sdb6 and sdb7) it uses by default (the three you see).

All this was told you by the installer when it showed you what it was going to do. And you accepted that instead of seeing that it was not what you intended.

#10

Yes there are 2 hard drives.

When I first installed Suse took its free space at the end of sda and was unable to boot as it apparently walked on the mount point for Windows causing an operating system not found error, I’m assuming through Grub2.

The 29GB partition I created because I noticed that the installer looked for linux partitions and I was attempting to keep it away from the Windows install (third install attempt). I realized that Suse was going to do its own thing to the partition but am still at a loss as to why I am unable to read sdb1 with Windows. It seems like Suse is walking on the mount point for that drive, or that’s all I can figure.

And here I thought humans weren’t allowed to have this much fun.

#11

On 2014-05-06 02:46, Scorpa54 wrote:

> When I first installed Suse took its free space at the end of sda1 and
> was unable to boot as it apparently walked on the mount point for
> Windows causing an operating system not found error, I’m assuming
> through Grub2.

At this point, it is difficult to figure.

>
> The 29GB partition I created because I noticed that the installer looked
> for linux partitions and I was attempting to keep it away from the
> Windows install (third install attempt). I realized that Suse was going
> to do its own thing to the partition but am still at a loss as to why I
> am unable to read sdb1 with Windows. It seems like Suse is walking on
> the mount point for that drive, or that’s all I can figure.
>
> And here I thought humans weren’t allowed to have this much fun.

:slight_smile:

You can try this:


su -
mkdir testpoint
touch testpoint/not_mounted
file -s /dev/sdb1
mount -v /dev/sdb1 testpoint
df -h testpoint
ls testpoint
umount -v testpoint

And paste all that back here.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#12

You might also run diagnostics on sdb in case something has gone wrong with the drive in the meantime.

#13

I do not know why you talk about “walking on the mount point”. That is a way of expressing that no meaning to me.

As I said earlier, Windows is not able to “see” anything on sdb1, because most propably there isn’t anything. What do you think there is?
And please, let us try to keep things simple. You are now throwing in tales about earlier installations and that you think they failed. But as you did not come here in that situation and asked, we can not say anything usefull about that.

And the installation does NOT look for Linux partitions in the way you think. It does look for Linux partitions that may contain an openSUSE system so that it can preserve some information and probablt re-use the existing root and swap partitions for the new installation. This is to help in installations that are done as upgrades. But when there is no existing openSUSE system (as in your case), it will look for free space. And partitioes are NOT free space. Thus when you create an sdb1, it will NOT use that sdb1 for installation (the more so because it’s type is NOT a Linux type).

#14

I think there is Windows folders there and that is exactly what I see there looking through Suse’s file manager.

#15

Thanks all. I’m going to reclaim that hard drive and try another install keeping a closer eye on what it is trying to take over.