I have received a new Dell Inspiron 15, Series 3000 system loaded with Windows 7 Pro. I have loaded openSUSE 13.1 both KDE and Gnome Desktops tripple-booted with Windows 7. Windows has been corrupted requiring a re-load of the same. The Scheme of partitions is as follows:
rsp@gnome131:~> sudo /usr/sbin/fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa1d785cf
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 80324 40131 de Dell Utility
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2 81920 41570303 20744192 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 41570304 339834879 149132288 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 * 339834880 1953523711 806844416 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 587595776 1871570943 641987584 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 1871572992 1953523711 40975360 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 479178752 587593727 54207488 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 339836928 370765823 15464448 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda9 370767872 479176703 54204416 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Grub2 is on Extended Partition which is shown as bootable above. Gnome is on /dev/sda7, KDE on /dev/sda9, /home on /dev/sda5 and swap on /dev/sda6. Windows 7 was booted by grub from /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 seemed to contain Windows system and ‘Restore’ utility etc. Dell Utility is at /dev/sda1.
Output of /usr/sbin/fdisk -l /boot/backup_mbr is as below:
rsp@gnome131:~> /usr/sbin/fdisk -l /boot/backup_mbr
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Failed to read extended partition table (offset=339834880)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 5 will be corrected by w(rite)
Disk /boot/backup_mbr: 0 MB, 512 bytes, 1 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa1d785cf
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/boot/backup_mbr1 63 80324 40131 de Dell Utility
/boot/backup_mbr2 81920 41570303 20744192 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/boot/backup_mbr3 41570304 339834879 149132288 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/boot/backup_mbr4 * 339834880 1953523711 806844416 5 Extended
The question that I wish to ask is that if Windows 7 was to be reloaded, will hat make my gnome and KDE partions unbootable by grub2? If so then what would be the remedy?
First off why separate gnome and KDE you can install them both at the same time to a single partition setup no need to triple boot???
Chances are that installing Windows will make any other OS unbootable. Also I assume that this machine has an EFI BIOS if it is new. So why is there and extended partition???
I also see a FAT partition which maybe /efi/boot most new machines will use GPT partitioning not the old MBR partitioning. Mixing modes is a ****-shoot at best
What you are telling us does not make sense. I’m totally confused. I say erase it all and start from scratch. Unless you have a real Windows disk (not an image) it will want to take the whole drive.
I am sorry I do not understand EFI bios or GPT portioning. I am not an expert. I am prepared to begin anew with windows Kindly give a reference how to install both KDE and Gnome together.
Form the full DVD (not one of the live DVDs) You can choose which desktops you want installed.
Or you can install from a a live DVD and then in Yast -software management choose the patern for any other or all other desktops and then you can decide which one you want to start at the login screen
If this is a new machine (ie made in the last 3 years or so) then it is almost certain a EFI BIOS Assuming Win8 was installed it will be installed in EFI mode. You will need to install openSUSE in EFI mode or you will have a big mess. To be sure to install in EFI mode you will need to be sure to boot the instll media in EFI mode. This may require you to seletct EFI mode from the BIOS. The trouble is that each maker has set things up different so there is not a universal key to press to get to the boot mode selection during boot. You will need to obtain and read the instructions from the people who made the machine. Note that if you wish to install in MBR mode you must also tell the BIOS to boot to the older mode. Again the exact languge used in the menus may not be consistent between differnt computer makers or even different models from the same maker
Now Since you have Win7 and Things may be set up to use the older MBR partitioning. It appears that is what you have But it Also looks like you may have installed Linux in EFI mode because I see what appears to be FAT formatted partition that may be the efi/boot partition. So you got a mess.
If you reinstall Win7 then you will most likely need to fix the boot since Windows generally messes everything up.
IMO back up any important data and wipe it all and install again correctly.
And thank MS for all the easy ways they let you install other OS’s They pushed this mess on us.:’(
All the things that gogalthorp are right,you first have to install win and then linux.
Options are
try to fix the corruption using linux,read the man page of NTFS
try the application testdisk at openSUSE
Anyway the probabilities of make the win boot are really poor.
Possibly a solution for make any system to boot is a live cd(or USB) called super-grub but i have really long time to use it, you can read more here http://www.supergrubdisk.org/.
N.B. If you mess up with sda1 probably you are loosing the dell utility what ever that is.
Thanks for your reply. What I did not tell earlier was that the machine was received loaded with Windows 7 Pro along with a dvd of Win 8.1. They also sent me a DVD of Windows 7 Pro later on my complaint about corrupted Windows 7 Pro. The whole hard disk was used by windows. Then I used gparted to adjust the windows partition and load the foretold openSUSE scheme of partitions. I checked up by rebooting the Windows. It was alive then. It did do some check disk procedure but came alive at the end of it. Then it seemed that it did some up gradations and when I shut it, it continued to tell me not to power off and continued up gradation. My SUSE was working on both partitions and I configured the two despots separately. They are working fine. Then after checking SUSE when I restarted the windows it did not start. The /dev/sda8 that is showing as FAT was created by me as Windows D drive. The Windows always booted from /dev/sda2 which was its boot partition. /dev/sda3 was the windows recovery partition.
I am not sure whether SUSE was installed in EFS mode. I installed it normally as I have been doing for many years now. Incidentally, I had started using SUSE 10, some time back.
Is it possible to select both the KDE & Gnome desktops when the installer presents the screen for selection of the desktop? If so, then would the first screen on boot give a choice of booting into KDE or Gnome desktops?
It seems to me that I may have to reload every thing, as you had also suggested, unless there is another remedy for the ailing system. For the time being, it does not concern much for me because I hardly use windows. But still there is a nagging feeling that the system is not functioning correctly!
Well if you boot the dvd in EFI mode (may happen automagically) and then just click through without really checking the scheme you will get an EFI install. So in your case you need to be sure that you do not boot to EFI mode or watch the scheme and change things back to MBR. That FAT partition looks a lot like a efi/boot partition.in openSUSE it would be mounted as /boot/efi But mixing modes will create multiple partition tables GPT and MBR so this can be a problem. You may get by with that and you may not. It is always best to do thing right so you don’t suddenly have odd problems latter on.
O.K.
best solution is to install win from your dvd,better not delete sda1.
Then install openSUSE from the last edition dvd,you probably need the x64 edition.
You can shrink( i think, please somebody help) the NTFS partitions from the installation dvd just select custom partioning and you don’t need a FAT partition anymore(has a limit of 2gb file size if you don’t choose the ext edition) you can use a NTFS partition and you will have read-write access from win and openSUSE,
i don’t really remember if you can create a NTFS with openSUSE dvd,but you can use gparted again just to be sure,or any other application from your suse on the disk(qpartd,etc)
During the installation choose custom applications from the menu and select any pattern you want(KDE,gnome,xfce,…),at the login screen of openSUSE you can choose the current desctop by clicking at settings.Of course you can install many more desktops after the installation.
Since you currently using openSUSE just install from yast any desktop you want,for even more go to the link http://software.opensuse.org/search? and type what ever you have in mind
Also you can prepare your disk with gparted,qparted,…
Better read the manual/help first if you find the time.
Win is a “customer” a part.
Another idea is to download a virtual machine software like virtual box or vmware and try your O.S.'s there.
Anyway i don’t see what you have to afraid of,
In the worst case you are going to learn from real experience(since your hardware its new)
