I installed openSuse 11.1 64-bit with Gnome : everything worked fine. The installation was on my second hard drive (dev/hdb). openSuse created a small partition on my first hard drive.
Because I wanted to be able to have more functionality I decided to re-install and to take KDE instead. Installation : OK, but when I come to the desktop screen, the only thing I can do is CTRL-ALT-DEL and switch back to Windows. The mouse pointer looks a bit odd (I have a USB scroll mouse) and I can’t move it. The arrow keys nor TAB nor SPACE work either.
I reinstalled openSuse four or five times, with or Grub or with KDE.
Now, openSuse has become completely useless, so I would like to uninstall completely and then re-install but this time with KDE.
From Windows XP however, my second hard drive has become unknown (before openSuse installation I could see it with Microsoft Explorer).
Hi,
first of all:
GRUB is the boot manager or boot loader.
KDE and GNOME do Window/Desktop management.
here is what i did, when i installed KDE 4.2 and wanted to check it out:
I logged out, and when the login screen came up i clicked my name. Then there are more options on the lower part of your screen, you can select GNOME, KDE and some others there. Make your decision and type your password+enter.
The problem is : I can’t move the mouse pointer, so I can’t do anything with the GUI (be it Gnome or KDE) for the moment.
What I’d like to do is start from scratch, but therefore I want to remove everything that has been written to disk, including GRUB.
Alas, I do not know how to do it.
So, maybe I did not formulate well my question : how do I uninstall openSuse and Grub ?
I can’t even see this second hard disk drive from within Windows XP.
Hi,
so you can boot into Windows XP, try this:
Go to system configuration, system administration, drive administration.
(I am from germany and have a german WinXP, so i don’t know if this terms are 100% correct)
You should see partitions and harddrives there, delete linux partition and reinstall with your boot CD. It may happen that you are no longer able to boot into Windows XP, but there are solutions for that problem.
Another option would be to simply fix the mouse-problem.
And you can try to boot from your WinXP install CD, use the recovery console, type FIXMBR, FIXBOOT and maybe BOOTCFG /REBUILD to come to a point where you are no longer able to boot into suse, but load WinXP by default by its own boot loader.
You should be able to throw install disk in and when it gets to the point of having partitions rcommended, dont accept those. edit them, create a primary, extended and swap. Size them similar to the existing ones…and run it. It should delete the old partitions, then recreate them. Thats what i did on one of the MANY recent installs I have done in my voyage to learn linux.
Take care,
Jeff
There is something wrong with this picture. Disk drives are not seen in Windows Explorer; partitions are. (Windows does still use its old bad habit of calling a partition or volume a “drive”, as in “the C drive”, but it is not a drive at all; it is a partition or volume). In any event, Explorer only sees partitions - and only FAT and NTFS partitions, so I don’t know what you were seeing.
Next, the easiest way to completely remove openSUSE is to delete the partitions it uses. This can be done from Windows Computer Management/Disk Management which IIRC is under Accessories/System Tools on the Programs menu. They will be marked by Windows as “healthy, unknown”.
Next, a boot loader is not uninstalled. It can be written over, it can be replaced, or the same or a different boot loader can be put in a different location now controlling the boot while leaving the old one just unused. But it is never uninstalled. If SuSE was installed on the second disk it is likely the grub was installed to the MBR of the first disk; re-installing the XP MBR code will overwrite grub there. The fixboot command re-writes the Windows partition boot sector, and it will also mark the partition “active”, which is required for the XP MBR code to work.
Thanks all of you for the effort and time given to my question.
I eventually managed, after umpty re-installs, to get a somewhat working version, notwithstanding I lost all my previous settings, but OK.
One of the major problems was, I think, the fact that openSuse with KDE did not recognize my Packard Bell USB-mouse. Even when I re-installed with Gnome, nothing seemed to be working.
In the end,in the configuration screen, I tried PS/2 mouse and lo and behold, I could do something. The wheel does not work though, but I am already happy with the situation.
As for GRUB, I do not dare to restore Windows and its MBR, so I left everything as it is now.
Another option i have used to get a fresh install was to use KILLDISK to wipe out the suse partition completely. It didnt affect my XP partition. Then I had to format the second partition again for preparation on the new install. I threw in the boot disk, then ran fdisk from the konsole. Then I did my install…again…all was well.
As for the mouse settings, good luck with that. I had to do alot of hunting until I found info to get my tablet to work. It also had to do with settings in the same area of the mouse settings. I had to change which port my device needed to be set…but if I can figure it out, I am sure you can…it just may take some reading time. Or post a specific question in regards to those settings and maybe some of the cool people here can assist.
take care,
Jeff