I would like to start off by saying that I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to computers, but I have been running Windows all of my life. The closest I’ve come to doing anything with Linux is downloading a terminal emulator on my Android and running a few commands through that. I recently switched my phone to Cyanogenmod, and decided to begin to fully transition myself over to the Linux experience. A discloser before I go into any more details is that I did download the latest version of OpenSUSE, but I was unable to burn it to a DVD because I got a bad batch of DVDs (from Verbatim, no less), and none of the DVDs were able to successfully. I gave up after getting 4 coasters. So, my installation attempt was made using a DVD that I received which had OpenSUSE 12.3 on it, and after installation, I just planned to install the updates. Anyhow, here is my system information:
So, to install OpenSUSE, I created a partition on my hard drive, so that I could keep Windows and learn Linux and smoothly transition over. and here is how that ended up looking:
I can’t finish the installation, so I’m not exactly sure what to do. I would like to apologize if this issue has already been addressed, as I am new to Linux and this forum, so I didn’t know what to search in the forum. Any help is greatly appreciated!
On 2015-04-23 03:36, kosmo7895 wrote:
>
> I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I didn’t have the photos set to public.
> They should be public now, so here is a link to all four:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/qdj4754
You are using dynamic partitions. Linux can’t use them, only Windows.
You have created a partition for opensuse, but it is ntfs, and dynamic.
Maybe if you delete it Linux will see the free space, maybe not. Maybe
you have to recreate all the partitions as static.
(windows dynamic partitions are similar to Linux LVM - neither operating
system can use the other system method)
your windows partition are set dynamic Linux can not work with them they can not be mounted or recognized. Thank patents for that. It is a legal not a technical matter.
do not use MS formatted partition to install to best to actually just provide free space the installer will use it to create 3 partition (default) swap,root,home home is optional but highly recommended. root should be at least 40 gig if you use the default BTRFS file system. If you don’t want to use that much space 20 gig is plenty for root if you select the ext4 file system. Linux puts all personal settings and data in the /home directory. Making it a separate partition means your personal stuff is kept separate from the system stuff. A very good idea. The size depends on how you use the system and what you plan to store there. swap should be at least equal to memory if you plan to hibernate. If not equal to memory up to about 4 gig. Unless you have special needs like dealing with huge arrays.
Looks like a EFI boot setup so be sure the installer is booted in EFI mode. The boot code should be grub2-efi you should have a FAT formatted efi boot partition that is mounted as /boot/efi in the Linux file system. If you use secure boot you must check that box since it is not auto detected.
If not EFI then you want to boot into MBR/legacy mode and in that case you don’t have enough partitions all 4 allowed primary partitions are taken you have to get rid of one and add a extended partition that Linux can install into as logical partitions.
Your biggest problem is the Windows dyanmic partitions. Either change them back to normal or provide space to install into do not try to mount them
Windows utilities lie. They generally do not truthfully report all space usage unless it is Windows related. Don’t rely on it
You can try openSUSE on a vm (virtual machines) and you can choose which virtualization software you can use. When you get the “hang” of it you can then dual boot your favorite Windows os and openSUSE in a vm as well. That way you can practice the installation without deleting anything from your host machine. That’s how i learn howto dual boot and that is what im telling my friends when they ask me about installing Linux system along side with Windows regardless of the distro.
There are several choices of file systems for Linux. Linux will read & write to NTFS partitions, but you must never use them for your root (/) partition (for simplicity, this is similar to your Windows system partition) or your Home (/home) partition (this is similar to your Windows Users tree and Data partition combined), because the file permissions are not easily manipulated and you can run into problems.
You really do not, at this point, need to concern yourself too much which Linux file systems to use. If you create empty partitions (unformatted), then when you install openSUSE it will suggest appropriate file systems, and you can use the installer’s custom-partitioner during install to select among the different file system.
I recommend, for newcomers, to use the ext4 filesystem.
But, as mentioned, your first priority would be to use Windows Disk Manager to convert your directories from Dynamic. The Windows partitions should still be formatted to NTFS, though, and HP_TOOLS should be left as FAT32.
The 2nd thing you need to do is delete the OpenSuse partition you created.
Then, you need to determine if Windows is installed as UEFI or legacy.
Next would be to determine if you are using GPT partitioning (it appears that you are, but Windows Disk Manager does not always actually portray the drive properly, as mentioned by someone else above).
You then would need to install openSUSE in the same manner as Windows (UEFI or legacy). If the disk layout is GPT, the installer will read that just fine (whichever install method is used) and will most likely offer to create its partitions and filesystems in the free space left by the deleted OpenSuse NTFS partition. The installer will also suggest using a combination of BTRFS formatting and XFS formatting. You can choose to custom partition at this point, and I suggest you do that, but change only the formatting type. In there, choose ext4, a friendlier system for newcomers. You can always look into the other types later on when you are more comfortable with Linux.
For help with any of the above steps, come back here and ask the appropriate question. There are many here who can help you through the process.
And, if something seems to go wrong, stop at that point and come in here for help and/or advice. Many times, what looks like a disaster is a simple little fix, but too many newcomers who have an out-of-the-ordinary experience with their install, instead of the normal smooth install, wind up installing, re-installing, aborting, and re-installing, getting into a frustrating mess.
Save yourself a lot of headaches by stopping (or, pausing at that point) when you run into a problem or uncertainty and coming here for guidance on the next step.
But, most important of all, back up your entire hard drive with a reliable HD backup program before starting anything at this point!
And, welcome to the world of Linux, and especially to openSUSE and this forum.
On 2015-04-23 04:56, kosmo7895 wrote:
>
> “You have created a partition for opensuse, but it is ntfs, and
> dynamic.”
>
> Linux doesn’t like NTFS? What formatting would I need to use in order
> for Linux to properly install and operate.
Just don’t format the partition, and Linux will format it suitably. I’d
recommend ext4.
The problem is that Windows and Linux use a different permission and
attribute system, and some other features like symlinks/hardlinks, or
sparse files. Linux needs a filesystem (disk format) that supports what
it needs. Similarly, Windows can not be installed on a Linux filesystem.
Linux can read and write to NTFS, but it is only suitable for data. Say
storing documents.
But the big issue is that the partition is dynamic, and Linux simply can
not use them at all. Patented technology.
>
> “You can try openSUSE on a vm”
>
> Which Virtual Machine would you recommend?
Whatever you like. Many use virtual box, I use vmware player. Both are
gratis for personal use.
With my laptop I downloaded ‘gparted’ (live cd or usb) first for partitioning my hardrive: resized the windows partion to a good round size (i.e. 800GB => 800000MBx1,024 = 819200MB = 800GB)
That is actually all I did - just create some free unused space.
Than I used the DVD to install openSUSE and let the installer create the partitioning - - all that worked without problems for me.
