i know this is a bit “cliche” but this is my first post and i after months of the possibility of moving to Linux, i finally did today. So i have a laptop about 2 years old with a 1tb hard drive with windows 10 and after doing some research i decided to move away from windows and install the latest version of OpenSuse Tumbleweed. The tutorial i used said that the installation would delete the main partition where windows was installed and install Suse in there, however that did not happen, it actually installed linux on a new created 40gb partition and left windows on the 871gb partition, this is what i have now :
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1026047 1024000 500M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1828954112 1900650495 71696384 34.2G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 1900650496 1941454847 40804352 19.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4 1261568 1828953947 1827692380 871.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5 1941454848 1953525134 12070287 5.8G Linux swap
i would like to have the windows partition formatted and have opensuse on that partition, now, i am completely new to linux but really eager to learn, so can yo uplease advise me the best way to do that, it might be as i just installed today i can format everything and start from scratch. I will wait for some advise before moving forward.
What you have seen is rather logical. The installer will not on purpose destroy your existing Windows partitions, but assume that you want to create a multi boot system, or will need the data there on your openSUSE.
Now on the last screen before installation really starts you are offered all the things that are going to be done. On top there is the proposed partitioning. At that moment you should have noticed that this is not what you want. You can then click on that item to change it. Somewhere in the screens that follow you can choose for customized and there is somewhere a checkbox to choose “Use the whole disk”. When you choose that, all old partitioning will be ignored and the installer will offer you a complete new partitioning.
That new partitioning will, most probably, have the EFI partition, a Swap partition, a root partition of 40 GB (when you go for Btrfs as the file system, which is the default) and the rest for the /home partition (this is the place where all user data will go).
As it is now, your root partition is too small (for Btrfs with snapshotting) and your /home is also very small.
It is rather difficult to use the space of sda4 and divide that between sda2 and sda3. A lot of moving, enlarging, etc.
I assume that you having this new system did not create already a lot of user files and IMHO it is best to install anew using the whole disk.
If somewhere during that installation you are unsure what to do, please first ask here. Enough people that want to help you.
Thank you so much for the fast reply, you are right it did offer me a few options but i wasn’t sure so i decided to go with the default, however i cant remember seeing an option to use the whole disk. So shall i just reboot again into the installation or shall i format any of the partitions before i do that ?
That “whole disk” option you only get when you start changing the partitioning from the screen that tells you a lot of things (partitioning, booting, Firewall, …) all giving a chance to change.
You can partition before installation. But then REMOVE all partitions except for the EFI one. That will give free space and the installer should use it.
Nevertheless, you have to check in the end what the proposal is!
That was a mistake, it should say main, I rebooted and trying to install again, the suggested partitioning does not even show the windows parti on anymore, and if I click on the expert partitioned I can see it but with a red mark on top, can you be so kind and let me know the best way to proceed.
The problem is a bit that I did not install (but upgraded existing versions) the last few times and that I think the partition in the installer has changed. So I am afraid that I can only say from my notes thjat there is a screen
Suggested Partitions > Create Partition setup
Preparing Hard Disk > Custom Partitioning (one of these could also have the “Use whole disk” option).
Expert partitioner and there you can e.g. remove all (except EFI) and build new to your liking.
But as said, I am not sure this is still the same, so you can wait for others to help you here.
OTOH, using a stand alone partition tool (e.g. install medium > rescue mode) before the installation and from there removing all partitions except the EFI one, should work and give you a fine Suggested partitioning.
Well, from the last picture, you should be able to remove sda5 (click on it and you will see options below), remove sda4, remove sda3, remove sda2.
Then create new sda2 with the same data as old sda2, but larger (40 GB).
Create sda3 with the same data as old sda5,
Create sda4 with the same data as old sda3, but use all space that is left.
With data I mean partition type (Linux Native and Linux Swap), FS type (BtrFS, Swap and Xfs) and mount point. All to be “formatted”.
ok, i downloaded a partition tool and managed to delete the windows partition, it shows now unallocated http://i.imgur.com/pbw7aWT.png and i tried to increase the btrfs and xfs partitions but it would not allowed me, it only allows me to reduce the size not increase.
That is NOT what I advised you to so. I said to remove ALL Partitions except the EFI one.
And when you do this before installation, then that is it, go and install (as I posted in post #4).
When this is during installation, then build up from there (as I posted in post #9).
It is of course correct when you do not follow advises, but you can not expect that people will then advice you further.
Hi Sorry fo rth elate reply, i however manage to sort it out, i just installed it again, during the installation I deleted the existing /home and /root partitions, and created new ones with the sizes i wanted, i have now 800tib unalocated free. #
I always understood what is free space on a disk, I just didn’t know what was the best partition scheme for Linux os as I have never used it before. thanks anyway for your help.
