That’s a good decision in my view!
openSUSE will not complain about your drives if you do - but remember: ALL your drives should be repartitioned/reformatted from MBR to GPT - not just your boot drive. Doing so also means that ALL YOUR DATA (!!!) on that computer will be wiped out. So you better backup whatever you want to keep - and store it externally to the computer somewhere. If you don’t, you may run into conflicts between MBR/GPT partitioned disks residing on the same system.
Also, in good dual/multiboot tradition, there are good reasons to preallocate a larger ESP (EFI) partition for W8 than W8 will allocate for itself. Below is a suggested layout. I limit it to the W8 parts, as the rest will be normal Linux installation procedures, and probably better handled in a new thread if you have questions (a new set of questions = a new topic = new thread = the right set of readers which will offer more and better opinions). Also, you should be in position to directly use the procedures/how-to I’ve already pointed you to.
I assume for the rest of my description that you have UEFI selected - and I suggest you enable SecureBoot too.
SecureBoot:
Remember - SecureBoot does offer extra security, and you can always disable it if you get problems with it. I always have it enabled, but have needed to temporarily disable during certain openSUSE upgrades. You may or may not have to do the same, that depends on your UEFI implementation. Time will show. If you do, ask back in the forums here, and we will assist you as well as we can. At a minimum, W8 should install flawlessly with SecureBoot enabled.
Here’s what to do:
- Boot up openSUSE live DVD, and fire up a terminal window.
- Enter superuser mode (become “root”-user), then detect which disk is your boot disk. The remaining parts all require root access.
- Start gdisk, pointing it to your boot disk
- Wipe out the existing MBR partition table completely (from this point on, your boot disk is EMPTY!)
- Establish GPT on the boot disk using gdisk
- Create an ESP/EFI partition of 300MB
- Create an MSR partition of 128MB (W8 require this for GPT disks - openSUSE ignores it)
- Create a partition for W8 to use - with the size as you see fit. Half of your SSD is fine, if you want to keep it like that.
The remaining parts of the disk I assume you want for openSUSE. If you go for default openSUSE suggestions, you will have 2GB SWAP, 20GB “/” (root partition) and the rest for /home (where your user data will reside). That is fine for a start, and will allow you to install almost everything available from the install repositories simultaneously. But I do recommend to create a separate /home partition (as is suggested by default). That will come in handy when you want to upgrade to the next openSUSE version. When you get used to it, you may want to change that, but let that be until you know what and why you want to change it for yourself. There is no one solution being correct at that. Your need is always the correct solution.
Here’s the commands to use when you are in the terminal window and to prepare the partitions for W8:
For step 2 above:
linux@linux:~> su -
linux:~ # parted -l
A single disk example from a W8.1 system using MBR disks:
linux@linux:~> su -
linux:~ # parted -l
Model: VMware, VMware Virtual S (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 42.9GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 368MB 367MB primary ntfs boot, type=07
2 368MB 21.5GB 21.1GB primary ntfs type=07
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!
Model: NECVMWar VMware SATA CD01 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 988MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: unknown
linux:~ #
Similarly, you should look for the disk where a partition marked “boot” resides. Note its “/dev/sd”-value. If you have more than one disk with partitions carrying boot-flags, you should be careful and make sure you pick the right one! If necessary, ask back here, providing a dump of your full “parted -l” output. Maybe we can help you decide. Most probably, you have only one boot-flagged partition, and that will be the disk where you will reinstall W8 and also install openSUSE. That should also be your SSD disk.
For step 3 and 4 above:
su -
gdisk /dev/sdb
z
w
I don’t have a dump to show an example for this at this time - sorry.
For steps 5 through 8 above:
linux:~ # gdisk /dev/sdb # Assuming your boot disk is 'sdb' - You use "sd<x>" as fit for you!
n # create new partition
1 # partition number
<enter> # Start sector - select default value
+300M # Last sector - make the size 300MB
ef00 # make the partition an EFI System partition
p # Display what has been established so far
n # create new partition
2 # partition number
<enter> # Start sector - select default value
+128M # Last sector - make the size 128MB - THIS IS A FIXED VALUE! DON'T CHANGE IT!
0c01 # make the partition a Microsoft Reserved Partition
p # Display what has been established so far
n # create new partition - This is for W8 normal storage + W8 system files
3 # partition number
<enter> # Start sector - select default value
+126G # Last sector - make the size 126GB - you enter what you think is fit for you
0700 # make the partition a Microsoft Basic Data partition
p # Display what has been established so far
w # If you think it looks OK, write all your modifications
# if not, type "q" to quit without writing to your disk
parted -l # (That is a lower case "L") confirm that you have written the new partition table
Here is an example of the procedure above (/dev/sda is the disk used here):
linux:~ # gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.7
Partition table scan:
MBR: not present
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present
Creating new GPT entries.
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): 1
First sector (34-41943006, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (2048-41943006, default = 41943006) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +300M
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): l
0700 Microsoft basic data 0c01 Microsoft reserved 2700 Windows RE
4200 Windows LDM data 4201 Windows LDM metadata 7501 IBM GPFS
7f00 ChromeOS kernel 7f01 ChromeOS root 7f02 ChromeOS reserved
8200 Linux swap 8300 Linux filesystem 8301 Linux reserved
8400 Intel Rapid Start 8e00 Linux LVM a500 FreeBSD disklabel
a501 FreeBSD boot a502 FreeBSD swap a503 FreeBSD UFS
a504 FreeBSD ZFS a505 FreeBSD Vinum/RAID a580 Midnight BSD data
a581 Midnight BSD boot a582 Midnight BSD swap a583 Midnight BSD UFS
a584 Midnight BSD ZFS a585 Midnight BSD Vinum a800 Apple UFS
a901 NetBSD swap a902 NetBSD FFS a903 NetBSD LFS
a904 NetBSD concatenated a905 NetBSD encrypted a906 NetBSD RAID
ab00 Apple boot af00 Apple HFS/HFS+ af01 Apple RAID
af02 Apple RAID offline af03 Apple label af04 AppleTV recovery
af05 Apple Core Storage be00 Solaris boot bf00 Solaris root
bf01 Solaris /usr & Mac Z bf02 Solaris swap bf03 Solaris backup
bf04 Solaris /var bf05 Solaris /home bf06 Solaris alternate se
bf07 Solaris Reserved 1 bf08 Solaris Reserved 2 bf09 Solaris Reserved 3
bf0a Solaris Reserved 4 bf0b Solaris Reserved 5 c001 HP-UX data
c002 HP-UX service ea00 Freedesktop $BOOT eb00 Haiku BFS
ed00 Sony system partitio ef00 EFI System ef01 MBR partition scheme
ef02 BIOS boot partition fb00 VMWare VMFS fb01 VMWare reserved
fc00 VMWare kcore crash p fd00 Linux RAID
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): ef00
Changed type of partition to 'EFI System'
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 41943040 sectors, 20.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 80511636-26F3-4C65-9232-9D4AE6B96529
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 41943006
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 41328573 sectors (19.7 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 616447 300.0 MiB EF00 EFI System
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 2): 2
First sector (34-41943006, default = 616448) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (616448-41943006, default = 41943006) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +128M
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 0c01
Changed type of partition to 'Microsoft reserved'
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 41943040 sectors, 20.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 80511636-26F3-4C65-9232-9D4AE6B96529
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 41943006
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 41066429 sectors (19.6 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 616447 300.0 MiB EF00 EFI System
2 616448 878591 128.0 MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (3-128, default 3): 3
First sector (34-41943006, default = 878592) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (878592-41943006, default = 41943006) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +15G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 0700
Changed type of partition to 'Microsoft basic data'
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 41943040 sectors, 20.0 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 80511636-26F3-4C65-9232-9D4AE6B96529
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 41943006
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 9609149 sectors (4.6 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 616447 300.0 MiB EF00 EFI System
2 616448 878591 128.0 MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved
3 878592 32335871 15.0 GiB 0700 Microsoft basic data
Command (? for help): w
Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): Y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda.
The operation has completed successfully.
linux:~ # parted -l
Model: VMware, VMware Virtual S (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 21.5GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 316MB 315MB EFI System boot
2 316MB 450MB 134MB Microsoft reserved msftres
3 450MB 16.6GB 16.1GB Microsoft basic data
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!
Model: NECVMWar VMware SATA CD01 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 988MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: unknown
linux:~ #
Now, exit the openSUSE live DVD and boot using W8 install DVD and select custom install. Select the large partition (125GB?) for W8 to install in, and there you go. Once finished installing W8, access the other disks you want to access from W8 and reformat them if W8 ask you to (they are MBR formatted, so I think W8 will want to converted them to GPT - please inform us of what happens - that’s learning for me/us too ).
When finished with all that (including installing the programs you want to install under W8), you can start installing openSUSE.
Good luck!
dayfinger