I would like to install Opensuse 11.3 to upgrade/substitute my present version (11.0). I work on a 64bit machine on which also Windows Vista is installed. In the following you can see how my hard disk was partitioned during the installation of Opensuse 11.0 some 2 years ago.
fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbbc58b91
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1020 8192000 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 1020 16221 122098688 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 16221 30402 113906688 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 16221 22047 46796796 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 22048 22309 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 22310 24920 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 24921 30400 44018068+ 83 Linux
In order not to loose all my data and programs (my /home directory should be in sda8) what do you suggest me to do?
First off, using your old openSUSE, I would download and run the Findgrub script shown in message #59. This program should confirm where is grub loaded and which Windows drive is your boot drive.
Once you know what you have, you must duplicate the same thing by selecting custom partitioning. I would install openSUSE as NEW, no upgrade. I would setup your old / root partition as new and to be formatted. I would setup the old /home folder for the new version, but you DO NOT FORMAT it. You must elect to put grub back in the same place (either in the MBR or in the / root partition, which only works when in /sda1, 2, 3, or 4.). You would expect to Have The Same Exact Partition Setup before elect to start the install as you had before the install. You might save your old Windows entry in your grub menu.lst file to make sure you know what works. By doing a new install, openSUSE 11.3 will work the best. By keeping the same /home partition and NOT formatting it, your many personnel settings should be maintained.
When I upgraded, I went into the partition options. There was a selection to use the partitioning from my previous version. That pretty much copied over the “/etc/fstab” info. Then I set it to format the root partition, but to not format the “/home” partition.
When I was later asked about setting up users, there was an option to copy the users from the previous version. That worked out well, too. And, without any prompting, it actually copied over the ssh host key from the previous version.
I am using just over 10G on my root partition. But I have kdm, gnome and xfce all installed, and I have tex/latex installed. If you use only one of those desktops and/or don’t install tex/latex, you should have sufficient space in your current root partition. I think my laptop is using around 7G, with kde as the only installed desktop (but tex/latex still installed).
Generally, it’s been written to delete and format the / (root) partition and of course leave /home untouched. However, if you’re running servers Apache, MySQL, News, etc. you should make backups of /var, /srv wherever the server keeps data. Like /var/lib/MySQL ? I also like to backup configuration files, hosts*, sudoers, found in /etc it helps me quickly restore some of my original settings.
Also, whether installing or upgrading you should use the manually assign partitions, and don’t forget to label, ie, /home, /swap.
I hope everything will work fine, despite the errors displayed…Now, when starting my pc, I can correctly choose to load windows or opensuse 11.0 (or even opensuse failsafe): I hope it will be the same also with opensuse 11.3…I am not so expert with MBR, GRUB and things like that, but the outcome I got launching ‘findgrub’ doesn’t sound very good to me…
It looks like you are using one of the diagnostic modes of Findgrub. When I run Findgrub with no options, here is the print out on my PC:
Find Grub Version 2.2b - Written for openSUSE Forums
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sdb ...
- skiping partition /dev/sdb1 (swap)
- reading bootsector /dev/sdb2 (LINUX) ... --> Grub found in /dev/sdb2
- reading bootsector /dev/sdb3 (LINUX) ...
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sda ...
- searching partition /dev/sda1 (NTFS) ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sda1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sda1
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- reading MBR on disk /dev/sdc ...
- searching partition /dev/sdc1 (NTFS) ...
I must say that I have not see that output before. We could ask the author of Findgrub for their advice if you like.