This is my first post on the forum, bla bla bla, usual introduction
In a not-so-far past, I’ve installed Ubuntu with Wubi and got everything working perfectly at first install. This was good at the time but now I want to get more serious and install openSUSE 11 on a dedicated hard drive (dual boot with existing Windows XP Pro).
I’ve read the topic about pre-installation instructions and everything’s fine.
I use the DVD version for installation.
Impatient readers start here
I have 3 physical hard drives. Layout shows like this :
Drive C:
Western Digital 80 GB
IDE
NTFS
Contains personal data. For some reason, boot.ini, NTLDR, NTDETECT and other boot files used by Windows XP are located on the root of that drive but Windows XP itself is elsewhere ( see Drive E: )
Drive D:
Maxtor 40 GB
IDE
Linux Swap + Ext3
That is where I want to install openSUSE 11
. I wish to use all space available on it.
Drive E:
2 * Seagate 80 GB on a nForce4-powered RAID 0 array
SATA
NTFS
Contains Windows XP, software, games, etc…
Pretty simple setup, eh ?
However, I have trouble getting openSUSE 11 to install properly. It fails at installing the boot manager using default settings. Installer asks me if I want to modify boot manager configuration but I did not find the right settings combination to make it work.
On to my questions…
Where do I install the boot manager (presumably GRUB) ? C: ? Drive where openSUSE 11 will be installed ?
What if I install GRUB on C: ? Is there a risk I loose data on that drive ?
Am I better skipping boot manager installation and switch to another product like GAG, OSL2000 or Acronis OS Selector ?
On a lesser note, I’m wondering…
For getting KDE, Gnome, Xfce or any other window manager to work a.s.a.p. after the file copy process (let’s say after first reboot), do I HAVE to install display drivers at install time ? I own an nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT.
Is KDE 4 really a pain in the ass to make it work properly ? Should I just switch to something else, like Gnome or KDE 3.5.x ?
Hope my explanations are precise enough. Just in case you haven’t noticed, my english’s far from perfect :o.
The only thing i can help you with is that vido stuff.
I suggest you copy to a USB drive you nvidia or ATI video drivers then once you boot suse for the 1st time install them!
OSL2000 managed to identify each and every partition available on my system but I’ve never been able to boot on the Linux partition. GRUB displays an “Error 22 No such partition”.
Strangely, Windows boots up but only if I select the MBR on the RAID 0 array. Selecting the hard drive directly displays an arror about NTLDR missing.
Tried 5 times installing openSUSE but never managed to get past the first reboot.
I really want to install openSUSE but don’t plan on purchasing SLED (why would I do that ? openSUSE is free).
I will use GNU GRUB or Super GRUB Disk if I have to. I’m also willing to submit screen captures.
did you tried to install GRUB on the MBR? it will ((in a normal scenario) add chain to boot all available systems on your computer.
For the driver thing: you can have your desktop environment (kde, xfce, gnome, etc.) just working after the installation process, because those work on top of xorg which is supplied with defaults drivers that can handle most (if not all) display hardware; though there will be no 3D acceleration, which is provided by either opensource nvidia driver (not complete in terms of features), or the binary proprietary driver provided by nvidia (the link you post).
And one last thing, kde4.0 present on the dvd, is however kde team say no, a beta software, and is not intended to be use on production. just step on it if you have an adventurous mind. Instead, prefer kde3.5 or other more stable desktop environment
Hope this will help.
It looks like the grub problem is coming from your xp setup on RAID 0 array.
I am not using it so can’t help you there. Maybe someone using that kind of setup will chime-in. Do a search in the archive under suseforums.net, If memory serves there are plenty of threads pertaining to this issue.
hi. About the boot sequence: i always put grub in the root/boot partition (depends on your partitioning scheme) then i let gag do the rest. This way changing the boot behaviour doesn’ need a running system. About video drivers: you will have to install proprietary drivers to have the extra features of you hardware working.
At the end of the installation process, openSUSE installs the boot manager at a default location (provided I did not change it before the file copy process). This scenario does not seem to work.
Since I’m a wuss :o, I’m afraid to install GRUB on the MBR. Will it make my Windows partition unbootable ? Yeah, my personal data is elsewhere but I don’t want to reinstall Windows unless in a worst case scenario.
Except that boot manager thingy, everything installs fine.
As stated in my first post, I have 3 physical hard drives :
One WDC 80 GB having a single NTFS partition for storage purposes
One Maxtor 40 GB, where openSUSE 11 (and only openSUSE 11) is to be installed (Linux Swap + Ext3)
Two Seagate 80 GB acting as a 160 GB RAID 0, having a single NTFS partition, holding Windows XP and its programs
Note that openSUSE installation recognizes the RAID array. So, simply put, I have one partition per physical hard drive.
Installation should be like a walk in the park but it’s not
I’m pretty sure the MBR is somehow messy and I want to clean it up but I’m not familiar with this.
According to Wikipedia…
The MBR (or partition sector) is the first 512-byte boot sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk.
So, logically, there is one MBR per physical hard drive.
I remember something about repair feature of openSUSE install. Program told me it could repair the partition table (using gpart) in automatic or expert mode but I always cancelled it because I was afraid to make my system unbootable.
As stated in my first post, I have 3 physical hard drives :
One WDC 80 GB having a single NTFS partition for storage purposes
One Maxtor 40 GB, where openSUSE 11 (and only openSUSE 11) is to be installed (Linux Swap + Ext3)
Two Seagate 80 GB acting as a 160 GB RAID 0, having a single NTFS partition, holding Windows XP and its programs
Note that openSUSE installation recognizes the RAID array. So, simply put, I have one partition per physical hard drive.
Installation should be like a walk in the park but it’s not
I’m pretty sure the MBR is somehow messy and I want to clean it up but I’m not familiar with this.
According to Wikipedia…
So, logically, there is one MBR per physical hard drive.
I remember something about repair feature of openSUSE install. Program told me it could repair the partition table (using gpart) in automatic or expert mode but I always cancelled it because I was afraid to make my system unbootable.
You should be safe installing GRUB (Grand unification Boot Loader) in MBR as that is where bios boots to
What happens when you boot now Do you. get some kind of text editor
Before the end of openSUSE install (after file copy process but before first reboot), the installation program tries to install the boot manager (presumably GRUB) but returns an arror. Program then asks me if I want to reconfigure GRUB so it will install properly.
At this point, each time I tried installing openSUSE, I failed installing the boot manager properly. That is probably because I installed GRUB in the wrong location. I then skipped the boot manager installation, finished install and rebooted… to the point where I’m stuck ; hdd(0,1) error 22, no such partition. I will write down the exact message error as soon as I can, it might help.
On to your suggestion, I will try installing GRUB on the MBR but… where precisely ?
On the MBR of the drive I want to install openSUSE to ?
On the MBR of the first hard drive met in the BIOS boot order sequence ?
This is confusing but I’m willing to get it working.
However, my computer boots a really weird way. I will explain.
First, according to BIOS, boot order goes as follow :
[ul]
[li]CDROM
[/li][li]Hard drives (WDC (storage drive) Maxtor (openSUSE 11) and RAID 0 array (labelled as E: in Windows))
[/li][/ul]
During the test, my Windows XP CDROM is in the drive.
ALRIGHT, so computer boots up like this :
[ul]
[li]P.O.S.T.
[/li][li]Attempt to boot from CDROM. Windows XP CD shows a message « Press any key to start from CDROM… » but I let it go.
[/li][li]Acronis OS Loader shows up (a gui boot manager). I installed this a couple of days ago but forgot to uninstall it.
[/li][li]I have an entry labelled «Linux» in the mnu. I double-click on it.
[/li][li]GNU GRUB appears but immediately shows up an error (error 15 file not found)… I press any key and GNU GRUB menu appears with the following items :
[/li][LIST]
[li]openSUSE 11.0
[/li][li]windows 1
[/li][li]linux 1
[/li][li]windows 2
[/li][li]linux 2
[/li][li]Disquette
[/li][li]failsafe — openSUSE 11.0
[/li][/ul]
[li]If I click on openSUSE 11.0, error 22 — no such partition appears.
[/li][/LIST]
All of a sudden, I’m wondering… « what if I modify one of the commands of item openSUSE 11.0 ? ». So I replaced hd(0,1) for hd(1,1) everywhere I could and tried booting again. TA-DA ! It worked !.
Good, good I say but WHY ?
I solved a problem without understanding the under-the-hood mechanics ! I hate that
Please help find me an explanation… what happens right after I let the CDROM spin without pressing a key ? I mean, technically speaking ?
This is mad… Acronis, then GRUB, then I can start breathing again. I will clean up all this mess because it’s not practical.
It’s not that I don’t like openSUSE but I’ve found out it’s not very responsive. Interface is really nice to use but sometimes starting an app takes too much time.
However, in the last days I’ve learned it’s always a good thing to recreate MBR, partition tables and partitions when installing Linux on a recently formatted hard drive.
I reinstalled Ubuntu and things works a-1 now. I still had to edit commands in the GRUB menu to make it start but it works.
Thanks to all for help, it’s been much appreciated
On my original installation, Grub continually failed - my SATA drives were giving it fits. I changed to LILO and no problem. I think Grub can be a bit finicky at times
