I just ordered 11. I used to run 9 so I’m a little familiar with it. I want to load it beside the two MS OSs. Will this be easy enough to do? Is there a tutorial anywhere that can walk me through the steps needed? Thanx for any help.
When you say ‘beside’ windows, is that on the same hard drive? Separate? SATA drives? Tell us a little bit about your hardware setup. Generally speaking if you are simply installing Linux on the same drive, you will have the option of resizing the existing XP installation to make room for Linux. If you are installing onto unallocated space, it’s really simple. Just follow the prompts and Linux will install the GRUB bootloader as part of the installation, from which you can boot into your windows.
I have never tried installing opensuse with two Windows OSs installed, usually just one. I don’t think you will have any problems as the opensuse installer should see both windows partitions and add mount/boot options. If you do have issues like not seeing one of your Windows OSs, you can manually edit the bootloader in Yast and specify the partitions ARC path. Unless the location gets changed in 11, Yast>System>Boot Loader.
Thanx Harry and Josh. I have two drives but the OSs will all be on one drive, V, XP, and Suse 11. I have the other two loaded so if Suse picks them up with Grub oughta be a piece of cake unless I misunderstood??!!
Should I do the resize of the partition during the install of Suse? No unallocated space yet.
if possible, shrink the xp partition, not the vista partition. since it is an updated version of ntfs suse can’t shrink it without ‘issues’ shall i say. but if all does go wrong, it’s really not hard to recover with help of super grub disc.
Ross.
Thanx stig, the XP partition is the bigger of the two existing so it’ll be the one I resize for Suse
To answer your question directly, yes the installer has ntfsresize built in, so you can resize during the openSUSE installation routine.
As another suggestion I’d download EasyBCD from Neosmart Technologies. I use it on my Vista/ SUSE 10.3 system.
It has at least two advantages. Firstly it gives you the option to install GRUB (the linux loader) on the Linux partition without overwriting the Master Boot Record. Secondly it allows you to back up and restore the Vista Bootloader if things don’t work out.
I’ve found that it works very well. When you boot your laptop you will get a choice of the 3 OS’s.
I am wondering if it might be useful to add a short one-post summary of the helpful information in this thread to our NEWBIES Installation Guide for 11.0?
NEWBIES - Suse-11.0 Pre-installation – PLEASE READ - openSUSE Forums
… the thing is, I don’t feel qualified to write it (and I’m lazy. :rolleyes: ). … My Windows experience mostly stopped after win95, and I’ve never looked at a Vista session, much less know any quirks/tricks about installing openSUSE on top of a Vista session.
Are there any suggestions for a one post summary (ie can someone write such a summary) that we can then tag on to the end of the ‘locked’ Stickie?
Hey Tony Thanx, I got EasyBCD and it looks easy as chit ;o) Thanx for the tip
oldcpu, I think you have a good idea. All this stuff sure has helped me out in a great way. I’m not the one to write it though so don’t get excited!!
Just FYI:
Not relevant in THIS thread, but to whoever plans
to document, be aware that Vista now (finally!)
supports its own ‘shrink’ function, which is
the recommended way to start (to get free space
to partition for Linux). Details at:
Dual-boot Vista with Linux, or adding Linux on Vista machine - VISTA.BLORGE.com
My 2-cents…
Dave
Sorry for jumping in here… but do you install EasyBCD on top of VISTA before trying the Suse’ install?
I’d love to dual-boot with the home desktop and learn/play with Linux, however I’m hesitant as the wife and I have gigs of movies, musics, pictures, iTunes, etc… on there…
Thanks
Jeff