Part Table broken after attempted install (Macbook Pro)

English Install/Boot/Login
1

A few months ago I installed openSuSE 11.0 on my harddrive along with OS X and Windows XP. I defragged XP and resized, then used openSuSE’s partition tool to make two new partitions, one for swap, on for boot. After install, I attempted to install GRUB and it failed after numerous attempts. LILO errored I think, but finished its install. I rebooted, and couldn’t boot into Windows OR Linux. OS X, however worked. This is on a current-gen Macbook Pro (well, not the brand-new ones).

I’ve read several things since then. One said that there can’t be more than 4 partitions, and there were (one for EFI), totalling 5. But I don’t think that’s the problem…

Rather, I think the partition table wasn’t written correctly. OpenSuSE 11.1 beta3’s release notes mentioned a fix for installing on Macs, that their partitioner didn’t write the partition table properly to the MBR.

So… how would I go about repairing this? Thank you for any and all help!

~Dusty

2

I’m not sure.
The point about the partitions you mention is: 4 primary partitions
Normally you would make the 4th partition an Extended Partition

So let’s say you have
XP (1)
OS X (2)

to add the suse partitions you would use 1 more Primary

/ (root) (3)

now all the remaining space create Partition (4) ‘Extended’

Then within the extended Partition create two more partitions:
swap (5) only need 1GB
/home (6) as much space as you have left

I think I got the numbers right?

As for the fix you mention I don’t know

But I might try re-installing. use the partitioner to delete everything except your XP and OS X which are hopefully on the first 2 partitions.
Then create partitions as described above.

PPC Partitioning - openSUSE
HOWTOs - openSUSE

3

Hm… next time I’ll set that partition as extended.

Also, a reinstall doesn’t work… :C

4

Bump? D: @_@