I have an old version of Suse on my system that I no longer need. How can I go about totally wiping this?
Can anybody walk me through the process?
Thanks.
Wow, a 5 year old existing SuSE Linux installation. So, if SuSE 10.1 still boots OK, why not run fdisk -l and tell us about your existing partitions. Open a terminal session and run the command:
su -
password:
fdisk -l
What, if anything, exists on this computer you want to keep and what, if anything do you want to add? For instance, you could install openSUSE 11.4 right in place of 10.1, or blow it all away and start afresh or just what is it you want to end up with?
Thank You,
Thanks for replying.
Please excuse me, but I know very little about Linux and simply want to remove all of Suse 10.1 from this computer. I have dual boot options with 11.1, which is what I normally use.
I opened a terminal and did as you suggested and got the following:
barry@linux-rtjk:~> su
Password:
linux-rtjk:/home/barry # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 2874 10011 57335985 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2874 5484 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 5485 10011 36363096 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 30401 244196001 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Disk /dev/sda: 1996 MB, 1996783104 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 242 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 243 1949952 6 FAT16
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(241, 254, 63) logical=(242, 194, 15)
linux-rtjk:/home/barry #
[LEFT]This is good information Crossbone. It appears you are booting from Partition “/dev/hda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux”, but it is hard to know where SuSE 10.1 is located. Can you add to the text files with two more, your fstab file and your grub menu.lst file. Open a terminal session and type these two commands:
cat /etc/fstab
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
Hopefully with the information from these two files we can tell you more about what to do. If hda is indeed your boot drive, an IDE drive I guess, it only has 82 GB of space, yet divided into four usable partitions which is kind of cutting it small. I will also say, that you might just decide you want to upgrade to openSUSE 11.4 and with the information I ask for above, we could suggest a new installation, replacing 11.1 and removing 10.1 for instance.
Thank You,
[/LEFT]
Hi,
I’m glad all that information means something to you!
I am already experimenting with 11.4 on another computer, but really want 10.1 gone on this one.
Here is the information you asked for:
cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part2 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part6 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
linux-11h2:/home/TheXMan # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
You need to be root to see menu.lst bcome root
su -
enter root password
then
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
And this is what I get:
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Dec 12 13:48:17 GMT 2010
default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.56-0.1
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.56-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part1 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.56-0.1-default
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.56-0.1
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.56-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part2 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.56-0.1-default
###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: SUSE Linux 10.1 (/dev/sda5)###
title SUSE Linux 10.1 (/dev/sda5)
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
As best as I can tell, the following partition was being used by SuSE Linux 10.1
/dev/hda5 2874 5484 20972826 83 Linux
This, as you can see, was how it was loaded from your menu.sys.
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: SUSE Linux 10.1 (/dev/sda5)###
title SUSE Linux 10.1 (/dev/sda5)
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
The next question is, what do you want to do with this area on your disk? You can reformat it and add it to your fstab file as yet another small partition you can use. It will be more difficult to expand to an existing partition without reinstalling openSUSE. At least it would be very hard to tell someone else to do as you can’t do anything to a partition you have mounted. You must boot from a LiveCD to have anything you could do beyond having a new but separate partition to use with openSUSE 11.1 and version 11.1 is no longer supported by SUSE.
Thank You,
James,
Thank you very much for explaining the code. I wish more people who give their help would do this!
I should explain that I have acquired a new computer and have loaded 11.4 on that.
I will continue to use 11.1 for a few more months and then abandon that, too.
What I really want to do is completely take away 10.1 and later 11.1 and then use the empty computer, which is becoming increasingly unstable, to experiment a little with other programs -although I’m the least capable person on the planet to do this! However, it’s good to learn.
So, with that in mind, how do you recommend I lose 10.1?
Many thanks for your kind help.
So, first off, you can lose the menu.lst entry showing or reminding you of this installation. If you run:
YaST / System / Boot Loader Highlight the **SUSE Linux 10.1 (/dev/sda5), **press the Delete key on the left and the OK button on the right and it will be gone. Next, you can open:
YaST / System / Partitioner and aswer Yes to the Warning. Find and select the /dev/sda5 partition on right panel listing, right click your mouse and pick Edit. In the Edit Partition /dev/sda5 window, the Formatting Option, Select the Format Bullet and the partition type of EXT4 or EXT3 if EXT4 is not an option (can’t remember what you could do at version 11.1). Select the Mount Partition Bullet and enter a place for the partition to be mounted like /Software or /Data or /MyStuff or what ever you want. Normally it is not advisable to place it in your home area and so I keep it somewhere just out of the root “/” starting partition. Then you select the **Finish **Button on the bottom right. Then you must select Finish one more time, also on the bottom right.
What this will do is to format the /dev/sda5 partition as Linux type EXT4 or EXT3, as you selected and then mount it as the folder name you entered, such as /Data and finally it will add it to your fstab file and would look something like this:
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ExcelStor_Technology_J880_PF2200K21JQR4A-part5 /Data ext4 defaults 1 2
Thank You,
So you have no plans for the space that 10.1 is using?
If you just don’t want to see it in the menu. Then as root edit the /boot/grub/menu/lst file and remove the entry. It does not appear you are mounting this in 11.1 anyway.
(note the following can destroy everything if you do it wrong so be very very careful, double/triple check everything before committing )
If you want to use the space go into Yast (after the above) partitioning and select the partition /dev/hda5 edit the properties mark to format it and mount it to some point in the file system. The name you use and where in the file system you mount it is dependent on how you plan to use the space. Once you are very sure that all things are how you want them commit the changes and reboot the old space should now show up now at the mount point you made.
The reporting of the 2 TB drive concerns me some Is it really formated 16bit DOS??
I’m really quite worried that I might destroy everything on the computer!
I am going to stop using 11.1 within the next few months.
Question: is there then a quick and easy way of completely wiping everything from the computer leaving space that I can use for something different?
If so, it would be interesting to know how this is done. Is there something in the boot menu that allows me to do this? I’m guessing life isn’t that easy!!!
I’m really quite worried that I might destroy everything on the computer!
I am going to stop using 11.1 within the next few months.
Question: is there then a quick and easy way of completely wiping everything from the computer leaving space that I can use for something different?
If so, it would be interesting to know how this is done. Is there something in the boot menu that allows me to do this? I’m guessing life isn’t that easy!!!
I would suggest you create a LiveCD, from which you can boot and load a Partitioning program of one sort and then remove all of the partitions. I must say that I would most likely not do that until time to load the new Operating System, otherwise the computer will be completely useless after removing all existing partitions until a new OS is loaded.
Thank You,