-
SuSE’s installer recommends deleting the original /dev/sda1. But this is a 200MB FAT32 UEFI boot partition. The installer’s partition editor does not offer an alternative.
-
I managed to use a 32-bit Partition Magic prior to using the SuSE installer to leave that /dev/sda1 partition alone. /dev/sda2 (only 128 MB) is supposed to be MS files. I also left it alone.
-
/dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4 are ntfs partitions labelled OS and Data. I managed to shrink these and created a 5 GB Linux swap partition.
-
Then I managed to create dev/sda7 for / and /dev/sda8 for /home.
-
After partitioning, I let the SuSE installer install the 64-bit 12.2 system. Most files went in smoothly until boot loader installation and configuration., which became slow but went through.
-
The installer wanted a reboot before continuing.
-
This is where the problem arose. My laptop is a recently manufactured Asus unit that, in the BIOS setup, allows disabling UEFI. But it has its own boot loader/manager. The SuSE installer reboot never went beyond the Asus boot management.
-
In the Asus boot management setup, I was able to “add a boot option”. I could easily add a name, but pointing to where?
Its Windows 7 boot points to a part of the HD called “PO:…”. But I could not add such a pointer to the new option; I never was allowed to reach the partition number where Grub2 is supposed to reside. -
The Asus’s boot manager does not seem to follow any boot order. Window 7 does not automatically get booted. The user has to press ESC while powering up and allowed to choose Window 7 or the CD/DVD ROM.
-
In any case, my installation of SuSE 12.2 is incomplete, even if I manage to let the Asus boot manager go to /dev/sd7; something I failed to do.
-
So, even though UEFI has been disabled, there is an extra boot manager to go through. Alternatively, if the SuSE installer installs in one go without needing a reboot, the situation might be easier.
On Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:46:01 GMT
rstse <rstse@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> 11. So, even though UEFI has been disabled, there is an extra boot
> manager to go through. Alternatively, if the SuSE installer installs
> in one go without needing a reboot, the situation might be easier.
I assume from your message that your subject line should be 12.2, not
12.1?
I’ve installed 12.2 on a machine with UEFI from a USB stick with little
hassle and without disabling UEFI. I don’t think my partitioning is too
different to yours. Boot manager GRUB2 installed without trouble and
boots both Windows7 and SUSE. Installing from DVD is a bit more
problematic as it has to be booted as a legacy and not EFI CD/DVD-drive.
–
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 12.2 (64-bit); KDE 4.9.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
What do you mean? I installed 12.2 in VM that booted from CD in UEFI mode just fine (it did not even support booting in legacy BIOS mode). Or do you mean that your specific system has problems booting from DVD?
Did you tell the OpenSUSE installer where to install Grub2? Does your Windows7 install still boot ok?
On my installs uefi the Grub2 boot loader was installed to default location and took over the dual booting of windows. BTW, If I am remembering correctly I did all my partitioning from withing the installer, no need for other tools.
Edit, I forgot I have two hdd’s one with windows and one with linux. I am sure this makes a difference.
On Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:16:01 GMT
arvidjaar <arvidjaar@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Cloddy;2504949 Wrote:
> > Installing from DVD is a bit more
> > problematic as it has to be booted as a legacy and not EFI
> > CD/DVD-drive.
> >
>
> What do you mean? I installed 12.2 in VM that booted from CD in UEFI
> mode just fine (it did not even support booting in legacy BIOS mode).
> Or do you mean that your specific system has problems booting from
> DVD?
>
It has problems booting both CDs and DVDs. It apparently only sees the
EFI image of the DVD and boots it using ELILO. It skips the first few
pages of the DVD - no Welcome, choice as to boot or install etc. - and
goes straight into the installation menu. Partitioning suggestion
involves deletion of all Windows partitions. Only boot option is ELILO.
Perhaps the differences we have is just be down to our BIOSes behaving
differently. The only consistency I’ve noticed with numerous BIOSes
over a couple of decades is that they’ve almost all been extremely
reluctant to allow me into SETUP.
–
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 12.2 (64-bit); KDE 4.9.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
On 2012-11-19 21:47, Graham P Davis wrote:
> It has problems booting both CDs and DVDs. It apparently only sees the
> EFI image of the DVD and boots it using ELILO. It skips the first few
> pages of the DVD - no Welcome, choice as to boot or install etc. - and
> goes straight into the installation menu. Partitioning suggestion
> involves deletion of all Windows partitions. Only boot option is ELILO.
Is that as a guest inside vmware? If it is, you have to disable
autoinstall in vmw.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On an UEFI system you just can not do that.
Because the software you installed did depend on the (UEFI) boot mode.
You will probably have to re-install everything (i.e. all OS’s probably including windows) again,
after booting in non-UEFI mode (using your BIOS to select this non-UEFI boot mode).
That’s my personal prediction.
Good luck
Mike
Besides, this is not a fault of Linux.
This is a consequence of the design of UEFI boot.
By default openSUSE 12.2 will create second ESP. Apparently it makes Windows rather unhappy. It should be fixed in Factory. In the meantime strong advice to anyone installing on UEFI and dual booting Windows - do not accept default, remove proposed ESP, select existing ESP as /boot/efi and do not format it.
Does your Windows7 install still boot ok?
There was a very long thread not long ago about why installing openSUSE 12.2 in UEFI mode will make Windows unbootable. It is easy to fix, but please show your current partition table. Do not use parted for it; use fdisk and gdisk.
Are you referring to Windows or Linux?
On Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:58:09 GMT
“Carlos E. R.” <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> On 2012-11-19 21:47, Graham P Davis wrote:
> > It has problems booting both CDs and DVDs. It apparently only sees
> > the EFI image of the DVD and boots it using ELILO. It skips the
> > first few pages of the DVD - no Welcome, choice as to boot or
> > install etc. - and goes straight into the installation menu.
> > Partitioning suggestion involves deletion of all Windows
> > partitions. Only boot option is ELILO.
>
> Is that as a guest inside vmware? If it is, you have to disable
> autoinstall in vmw.
>
I don’t use vmware. This is just booting the machine with a DVD or CD
in the drive. Boot menu has a UEFI section ahead of a legacy section.
The DVD-drive appears in both. If I can persuade the BIOS let me into
the boot menu on start-up, I can move a pointer to the legacy drive, hit
F10 and enter. Boot of the DVD then proceeds correctly.
I’ve tried permanently disabling the EFI DVD-drive reference in the
boot order but that makes no difference. More experimentation is
required. 
–
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 12.2 (64-bit); KDE 4.9.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
Yes. That is the whole point of UEFI boot. It needs UEFI binaries and can only boot UEFI binaries.
and boots it using ELILO. It skips the first few
pages of the DVD - no Welcome, choice as to boot or install etc. - and
goes straight into the installation menu.
That’s normal. Nothing is broken here. SLES behaves the same.
Partitioning suggestion
involves deletion of all Windows partitions.
I do not know how 12.1 behaved, sorry. Any reason to use 12.1 in the first place? I installed 12.2 several times and it supports manual partitioning that you can customize as you wish.
Only boot option is ELILO.
Well, there is not many options here. 12.1 is too old to have GRUB2 and I am not aware of anything else to support UEFI. Actually I find elilo not so bad.
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:56:01 GMT
arvidjaar <arvidjaar@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Cloddy;2504985 Wrote:
> >
> > It has problems booting both CDs and DVDs. It apparently only sees
> > the EFI image of the DVD
> Yes. That is the whole point of UEFI boot. It needs UEFI binaries and
> can only boot UEFI binaries.
> > and boots it using ELILO. It skips the first few
> > pages of the DVD - no Welcome, choice as to boot or install etc. -
> > and goes straight into the installation menu.
> That’s normal. Nothing is broken here. SLES behaves the same.
Messy though, isn’t it? So, in order to access the earlier parts of the
menu, you still have to avoid UEFI boot and use legacy instead. May not
be broken but it looks seriously bent.
> > Partitioning suggestion
> > involves deletion of all Windows partitions.
> I do not know how 12.1 behaved, sorry. Any reason to use 12.1 in the
> first place? I installed 12.2 several times and it supports manual
> partitioning that you can customize as you wish.
The 12.1 reference in the header is, I suspect, an error by the OP as
all subsequent references in his message are to 12.2. However, if
you’re interested, the only way I managed to install 12.1 without
scrubbing Windows was to install openSUSE on an external drive and
was able then to boot all OSes via GRUB.
> > Only boot option is ELILO.
> Well, there is not many options here. 12.1 is too old to have GRUB2
> and I am not aware of anything else to support UEFI. Actually I find
> elilo not so bad.
I tried ELILO with 12.1 but failed to get it to work. That’s why I went
down the external-drive route. Mind you, that’s OK with a desktop like
mine but a tad impractical for a notebook. 
–
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 12.2 (64-bit); KDE 4.9.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
This menu is presented by loader, and until recently the only practical choice in case of UEFI was elilo which did not support all those graphical bells and whistles. Now there is GRUB2, so you are welcome to open feature request and help in creating GRUB2 theme 
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:26:01 GMT
arvidjaar <arvidjaar@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Cloddy;2505191 Wrote:
> >
> > Messy though, isn’t it? So, in order to access the earlier parts of
> > the menu, you still have to avoid UEFI boot and use legacy instead.
> > May not be broken but it looks seriously bent.
> This menu is presented by loader, and until recently the only
> practical choice in case of UEFI was elilo which did not support all
> those graphical bells and whistles. Now there is GRUB2, so you are
> welcome to open feature request and help in creating GRUB2 theme 
>
>
Sorry, but your comment has nothing to do with what I was complaining
about. My problem was with the non-appearance of the first few pages
of the DVD boot menu when booting as EFI DVD-drive instead of legacy.
It means that options such as skipping installation and booting from
the hard drive, updating existing installation, etc., are not
available.
By the way, I’m quite happy with GRUB2’s GUI apart from the unreadable
blue-grey text in the message window. However, even that seems a little
clearer in 12.3 M1, being somewhat lighter in tone through losing the
blue tint.
–
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 12.2 (64-bit); KDE 4.9.3; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
[quote="“arvidjaar,post:10,topic:84867”]
Are you referring to Windows or Linux?[/QUOTE]
I was referring to both, or to a dual boot system, or to a PC with none of them.
I was referring to a real PC, not a vm (virtual machine).
I can tell from my real world (not vm) experience, that if one wants to get back from UEFI booting
to conventional booting, a re-format of the hard disk is necessary, along with a few more efforts,
when the motherboard permanently stores the UEFI boot entries that point to partitions that
are already gone.
Hey rstse - I mean the starter of the thread that only wrote the 1st post -
are you still reading?
Yes, I understood what you mean. This menu is shown by bootloader on DVD which in case of legacy boot is syslinux and in case of UEFI boot is elilo. Replacing elilo with grub2 would allow to use fancy boot theme with UEFI as well.
There is nothing in Linux that depends on UEFI vs. legacy boot. You can switch between them as often as you wish without changing a single bit in installed system. The only difference is bootloader that is used.
I can tell from my real world (not vm) experience, that if one wants to get back from UEFI booting
to conventional booting, a re-format of the hard disk is necessary, along with a few more efforts,
I certainly believe your experience but without more details it is hard to guess what went broken. I suspect that what you actually mean is rather: existing system management GUIs do not offer possibility to switch between UEFI and legacy boot without performing full reinstall.
If I recall correctly, you tried to install openSUSE together with Windows in UEFI mode on the same hard disk and did not succeed. You were not the only one. In the meantime, we - actually @arvidjaar - found out that openSUSE setup will create a hybrid MBR because Windows protective MBR doesn’t totally comply with UEFI standards. There is a quite long thread in the forum which describes the issue as well as the solution.