While you raise a number of valid points, let’s deal with your specific assertions. It would be helpful if you could
specify which version of openSUSE you use.
On 2015-01-20, LMHmedchem <LMHmedchem@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> I swear, the longer I use linux the harder it is to do the simplest
> things.
That may be true for you, but not the general pattern. Installation of GNU/Linux in the late 1990s was nothing like as
straightforward as it is now. It’s true that UEFI introduced some hurdles for some distributions but otherwise the
simplest things in GNU/Linux are effortless even for non-experts, especially with the proliferation of GUI-based tools.
> All I need to do is to create the basic partitions for an
> install and two hours of messing around hasn’t go me any closer, or even
> to first base.
Ok. What you do mean by a basic partition'? Are using GPT or MBR? If you're using an MBR, are you wanting to create a Primary’ or `Extended’ partition. These are complications that are nothing to do with GNU/Linux, but hard drive
technology. Different partition arrangements and different partition types have different capabilities so if GNU/Linux
is about choice, those choices are for you to make. If you have spent two hours of messing around and haven’t reached
first place because of partitioning, you need to research why. Remember GNU/Linux isn’t free: you pay with time rather
than money.
I am installing on a drive that has a windows boot partition and a
windows file partition. There is 500GB of unallocated space in a single
block for my linux partitions. The “recommendations” of the opensuse
install are insane.
My experience of openSUSE’s installer’s recommendations are similar, and always go for a totally `manual’ control over
the partitioning. The installer cannot be everything to everyone because it doesn’t know the user’s level of experience,
what the intended use of the computer is, and the suggestions are easily over-ridden.
> The installer wants to perform about 15 operations
> to get the partitions set up. This includes moving and resizing the
> windows partitions. Why would an install tool ever even consider
> touching existing partitions with existing OSs installed when there is
> already tons of free space in a single block? When I go to custom
> partitions, I get an unintelligible screen with a list of what the
> partitions will look like after suse is done with them, not a list of
> what the partitions look like currently. Why all this obnoxious
> automation???
It is not automated. It is merely a partition proposal which can accept or refuse. But I entirely agree that the default
BTRFS-based proposal of openSUSE 13.2 is obnoxious for these reasons:
- BTRFS is still beta, and should therefore never be a default filing system for anything (SLES/SLED default to XFS).
- The user isn’t even given the option to avoid BTRFS before first seeing a proposal.
- The user isn’t even given the option to protect non-GNU/Linux partitions (e.g. NTFS) before first seeing a proposal.
> This is an extremely simple procedure. I have 0.5TB of unallocated drive
> space and I need to create a boot partition, a swap partition, and a
> home partition. Why do I not see the unallocated space on my drive so I
> can select it, select edit, and create the partitions I need?
If you want `simple’, just do this from command line! It’s a lot easier e.g. for a 6-partition arrangement (/boot/, /,
swap, /tmp/, /var/, /home/) on an MBR 256 GiB drive you do this with parted and mkfs:
\begin{verbatim}
sh-4.2# parted -a optimal /dev/sdX
(parted) print
(parted) mklabel msdos
(parted) mkpart primary 1MiB 1024MiB
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) unit MiB
(parted) mkpart primary 1024 98302
(parted) mkpart extended 98303 -1
(parted) mkpart logical 98304 131071
(parted) mkpart logical 131072 133119
(parted) mkpart logical 133120 163839
(parted) mkpart logical 163840 -1
(parted) unit GiB
(parted) print
(parted) quit
sh-4.2# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1
sh-4.2# mkfs.xfs /dev/sdX2
sh-4.2# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX6
sh-4.2# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX7
sh-4.2# mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdX8
sh-4.2# mkswap /dev/sdX5
sh-4.2# swapon /dev/sdX5
\end{verbatin}
… and it’s even simpler if you don’t want /tmp/ and /var/ to be separate partitions since MBR allows up to 4 primary
partitions.
I have
been installing linux for years and have set up hard drives and VMs for
Ubuntu, Cinnamon, CentOS, Scientific Linux, Poseidon, openSuse and a few
other defunct projects like mandrake. I have also set up numerous
multi-boot windows boxes and have no trouble with bootloaders and
partition managers. The fact that the suse development team has created
a partition manager that I can’t understand at all is an epic failure
and there’s just no other way to describe it.
These comments belong in Soapbox/Chit-chat rather than technical support. I wouldn’t call openSUSE 13.2’s partitioner `an
epic failure’ because it is very capable even if it’s default proposal at the time of installation is daft.
> Can someone help with this or should I just go back to so older version that I can actually install?
If you don’t like openSUSE’s partitioner, just use another one. If you don’t want to use command-line, try Gparted
(which essentially runs the same commands I’ve listed above). When it comes to installing openSUSE into those new
partitions, just select expert/custom partitioning' and the floor's entirely yours on how you want to go about performing your simplest things’.
