Installing Win XP after Open SUSE 11.1

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello,

I installed Open SUSE Linux 11.1 on my notebook as first operating system installing boot loader GRUB without any pre-installed MS operating system on it.
Now I would like to install Win XP Pro a second OS on my computer without harming SUSE 11.1
However, it is not possible to boot from the optical device (though I set it so in BIOS) as the system always displays the boot loader after a few seconds.

Is there any way to install Win XP the way I described it?

Thanks in advance and best regards,

Roland

2

Just some suggestions:

Double-check your bios settings. Since you originally booted from the optical drive, it must be possible to boot from it now :wink: Every mobo is different.

You may have to change the boot order - I’ve had some boot orders get messed up in my bios, before.

Try booting the suse live CD - my original winxp discs are so scratched that they won’t boot, anymore. This may be your case.

Last resort may be a floppy.

3

When the notebook first starts to power up, there is often a short message on the screen about alternate boot devices. On some computers it is F12, that will interrupt the boot process and provide the option of selecting another device.

My best luck with installing Windows and Linux, has been to install Windows XP first. The Linux installs are much more forgiving about respecting other OS installations on a computer. Windows tends to break the Linux installation. I just went through process 3 days ago. I used OpenSUSE 11.0 to partition the disk in the manner that I wanted with LVM. The latest expert option in OS 11.1 did not have the flexibility of the older version.

4

With some bios’s you need to press a key or the spacebar for the optical drive to boot. There is nothing in the OS that changes the system’s ability to boot from the optical drive - exclusively controlled in the bios.

5

I agree about having windows loaded first, Suse handles this well.
However, depending upon your hardware i would load virtualbox and load XP in a virtual machine it works well on mine.

6

YOu can try vmwire like virtual box.

7

Ok, listen. The guy didn’t ask about vmware or virtual kiddie box. He asked about an authentic dual boot.

Frankly, VMware does not work well with graphic intensive games once you get into a heavy fire situation. An example is the old AOE 3. It runs fine until then. If it is a sea battle it completely locks up. This is with all graphic and ui settings at absolute minimum. So vmware is not the answer for everyone wanting to run a parallel Windows.

Hmm… installing WinXP after you have SuSE 11.1 already installed… you should back up the Grub first. HERE is a tut on the whole process.

VMware is fine if you’re wordprocessing or surfing in Windows, but then who wants to use Windows when you’re just doing those small tasks?