i am a newbie with linux, first time use opensuse, i have 2 hard disc, one with windows xp installed, the other with one xp NTFS partition.and ubuntu installed. now i want to install opensuse, the default partition guide in opensuse want me to build raid on my two hard disc. this is obviously unacceptable, now i have 30G empty space on the second hard disc, how can i partition it with opensuse install cd, plz give me detail guide!!
Thanks ~!!!
At the installer screen you can select to create your own partition layout.
Choose for custom/expert options and you specifically tell the installer what to partition, format and what to mount.
Double check the summary after applying your set partition layout, and if satisfied go for it!
Cheers,
Wj
The point is i don;t know how to partition with that tool, it looks more difficult than the ubuntu one, also don’t know how big to sign each partition, how big for root ?swap ? what filesystem recommanded? how many partition need? how to set those values to determine a partition start point and size?
plz give some details.
Thanks,
Best thing would be to have those 30GB unallocated in the disk, that is, no parition there.
Then, if the installer doesn’t propose you something you like you can do it manually.
Click on Partition, select the drive and it’ll show you the partitions existing in the drive.
You’ll see those/that partition/s end in a block 30GB before the end of the drive.
Click on Create partition (or was it Add?), select extended and use defaults so it uses the whole free space.
Then create a new partition as big as your RAM memory with, say, a minimum of 1.5GB. For filesystem use swap.
Create another partition for root. The size of this one would depend on how much space you’d want for your files.
Starting with 30GB I’d make it 10GB big (You just have to type +10000MB in the size section. (Round figures)). Select ext3 as filesystem. For mount point: /
Create the last partition and use maximum allowed size. That’d make it around 18.5-19GB. For filesystem use ext3 as well and for mountpoint /home.
That should be it.
Always triple check you have correctly created the partitions and, of course, that you are using the right drive. 
I second JopSway’s advice. One thing to add is that you can only have 4 primary partitions on a disk. It looks like you are going to need more than 4 on your second disk (NTFS & Ubuntu is already on there).
Using the (live)CD or Ubuntu, could you post the output of ’ fdisk -l '.
With this we have a list of your current partition and disk layout and can help with more detail.
Cheers,
Wj
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000001
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5099 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5100 19456 115322602+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 5100 12748 61440561 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 12749 19456 53881978+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbf83d98a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 12748 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 12749 13745 8008402+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 13746 19457 45881640 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 13746 14961 9767488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 14962 15204 1951866 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 15205 19276 32708308+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 19277 19457 1453851 82 Linux swap / Solaris
it’s a mess on disc 2, any recommand for organizing it better?there is no drive option in edit partition or create partiotion.but there is create , and in it i can see cllinder size:7.84, start cyclinder, end cylinder,etc. i guess i should use this to partition that 30 G ,but how can i get the cylinder info when i was in that installation process , i can see it under ubuntu by fdisk -1.
It is a bit much on partition 2…
What exactly are all the Linux partitions? There is one Linux primary and three within the extended + a swap.
You should be able to bring this down to two Linux partitions (root and home) along with a shared swap (shared between ubuntu and suse)
For openSUSE’es partitioner: You have to go for ’ custom partiton’ and expert options, I don’t have the eaxct names in my head, but that will give you much more control.
To see start and end cylinders you can select to show details or just edit a partition and you will see the cylinder values in the top right.
How much value do you hold to your Ubuntu setup? I’m asking this to get an idea of how we can remodel the layout of your disk…
Cheers,
Wj
Justfofo@
You have apparently created 4 Linux partitions already. (Also, seeing that partition 8 is for swap, there is a good chance that Ubuntu is not seeing the correct swap partition, so you will need to fix that later.)
Since you have not installed anything yet, do this in the YaST installation partition step:
Enter the “for experts” mode where you can control everything in detail. Click on each of the Linux partitions (5-8) one by one and mark them for delete. Then create 3 new partitions. For the first, check Format, choose ext3 under File system; in the Mount Point box enter only / (forward slash); leave Start Cylinder blank and in End type 10GB. The click OK. The second, do the same except in Mount Point, type /home, and in End Cylinder type 18GB, then click OK. For the third, Format as swap, and click OK (the cylinder boxes will be filled in with the remaining space, so enter nothing there this time). Then click OK to return to the main installation program, and check that what is displayed agrees with what you entered. That should do it.
Two more important steps: You need to decide in advance how you want to manage the booting, since you will have 3 OS’s. If you are using Ubuntu’s grub boot loader and want to continue doing so, that is one setup. If you want openSUSE to control grub and use its grub to boot to Ubuntu, that is a different setup. If you are controlling all the booting from Windows, yet a different setup. The openSUSE installation will by default choose to install its own grub and control all the booting. I suggest you decide what you want and post that back for advice on how exactly to set that up (it’s not difficult).
Second, you will need to go into Ubuntu and change the /etc/fstab file to point the swap to the partition that you created above (it will be /dev/sdb7). There is already a line there for swap, but it is pointing to an invalid partition.
Good detailed post Mingus as also the advice 
Just one thing, when did we get into deleting partitions? Is there no data to keep… did I miss something here? (not unusual as my wife likes to tell me).
Cheers,
Wj
The space was not yet used. The question originally asked how to set up the 30GB of free space allocated for openSUSE. Apparently the partitions were created without the user’s knowledge. And, there was one more than necessary for a simple setup. It was easiest just to delete the partitions and start fresh.
I can relate to that… I just don’t like assuming there is no data on there. It would be safer to check whats being mounted where in the current Ubuntu setup.
In the sense of ‘better safe than sorry’
@justfofo: is that enough info for you to proceed?
Cheers,
Wj