DenverD >
This laptop is used mainly to watch movies and fetch email, not as my main development pc…
Up until this morning it ran win2k. It ran slow, true, but it did run. I chose to install openSuse on it as a test (which so far hasn’t been coming together too well…). A test that might convince me to change os on my main computer. I do not expect openSuse to make its old hardware more than what it is, but I was pretty much under the impression it can outperform windows for these simple tasks I need it do.
Since 2001 I’ve also upgraded its RAM and HD. 256mb and 40HD. It’s hardly much, I know, but it was enough to perform the simple functions I needed it do.
I don’t want to try out “linux”; I want to try this specific dist to see if I’m comfortable with it. Hope that makes sense.
Having all that said, I hardly think it’s the hardware configuration that’s preventing me from running it.
So sure, disrespect away, but also help me solve my problem 
Anyhow, I’m pretty convinced this is a grub error - I’ve noticed after a couple of reinstalls that grub fails with
/usr/sbin/grub-install: line 15: /etc/grub.conf: No such file or directory
before claiming the install was successfully completed.
I ran windows’ fixmbr and now the error message is “No Operating System Found”.
I tried to install grub manually with
grub-install /dev/sda
but it fails with “Because of the partioning, the boot loader cannot be installed properly”
Now, the partitions are as the openSuse installation suggested:
/dev/sda1 for swap
/dev/sda2 for root
/dev/sda3 for /home
So what am I missing?