Hi
i am total noob with linux and just gonna have it installed for the first time.
I’ve ordered x64 version of opensuse 11, however, its gonna take some time for my order to arrive (thats about the place where i live 
But i have 386 version of 11 now available.
Would it be difficult/troublesome to change 32 to 64 bit later if i install it now, or i better wait for my order to begin with 64 at once?
The 32 bits version and 64 are different version.
But why order it if you can download it from opensuse free of charge that why it is called opensuse
dobby9
You won’t be able to upgrade the 32 bit version to the 64 bit, so you will have to install it twice, unless you wait. However, as a newbie, installing it twice will probably help you. It’s all about the learning expirience.
Hi
Dial up internet and data caps may be a reason 
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Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.16-0.1-default
up 3:56, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.11, 0.21
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 177.80
If you only have dialup you may want to avoid the automatic update after installation, as it takes considerable time. Even more so if you plan on reinstalling anyway.
OTOH, Suse is easy on dialup due to the huge package (software) selection already on the DVD. 11.0 packages are mostly up to date, so you’ll only need a few critical/security updates.
After install you can see a description of the available updates in Yast > Online Updates, which will tell you what updates are recommended, optional, etc., so you can judge by yourself.
Thanks for your replies people.
Its not dialup, said to be a high-speed connection (and sometimes the speed is pretty good), however, the price is too high - even at nighttime downloading a dvd-size would cost about $200 so…
I have couple more questions:
Now i am going to shrink vista partition to minimum to turn most of my drive into linux FS then. Will i be able to store my data there already without need to remove/backup anything during second installation (of 64)? (Or can it be their file systems differ as well?)
And second: will second installation replace 1st perfectly, or i’ll have to clean something up to get more free space after it?
If I understand you correctly, you want to size down the Vista partition, put user data files on it (which is NTFS), reinstall openSUSE, and then move the user data files to the openSUSE file system (ext3)?
Yes. Although it is always a good idea to have important data backed up to separate media. Be absolutely sure you resize Vista with Vista - there are known yet unpredictable issues changing Vista partitions with anything other than Vista (including even XP).
Re the 2nd installation over the 1st: You will need to reformat the partitions; if they are the partitions that you still want to use, at the Partitioning step in the installation, go into Expert mode and set the mount points manually which will insure that openSUSE installs where you want it to. Alternatively, delete all the partitions leaving unallocated space and let openSUSE suggest/create new partitions.
Exactly, i wanted to do so. But now that you’ve told me –>>
Yes. Although it is always a good idea to have important data backed up to separate media. Be absolutely sure you resize Vista with Vista - there are known yet unpredictable issues changing Vista partitions with anything other than Vista (including even XP).
Unfortunately there is no way to use Vista for that: it can create only half-drive size partition, if you want to use more then one half for new partition, you have to use other soft 
–>>
Re the 2nd installation over the 1st: You will need to reformat the partitions; if they are the partitions that you still want to use, at the Partitioning step in the installation, go into Expert mode and set the mount points manually which will insure that openSUSE installs where you want it to. Alternatively, delete all the partitions leaving unallocated space and let openSUSE suggest/create new partitions.
Awww man thats bad 
I better keep most data on NTFS until then.
Edit: I’ve already got some more partition issues, however it looks easier to change anything through re-installing now (since there seems to be no graphics tool for editing them on setup cd)
But, is there a way to keep the previous grub during installation? I had changes made there to make both vista and suse work properly (i also had to do repair in vista after fist suse installation) so i wonder will the next one affect things the same way?
Are you absolutely sure about that Vista re-sizing limitation? I’m not sure I understand your description, but you should be able to down-size the partition Vista is installed on from within Vista.
Another alternative to consider . . . create an ext3 data partition, move the files from the Vista partition to the next data partition, size-down the Vista partition, move the ext3 partition into that space vacated by Vista. This can be done with a Live-CD (but again, a backup is strongly recommended). Then install openSUSE in the remaining space, afterward adding a mount point for the data partition.
Yes you get it right, i’ve googled alot about this topic and found out that all people who want to have linux/xp second to vista face this problem - no matter how big is total size of system partition vista can save only half of it. It is said to be connected with some NTFS issues, that it has some data in the middle of partition. Thats why anyone installing second OS after vista being installed (mainly, OEM) has to use additional software that manages to do this kind of resize.
As for me, I managed to find only “acronis disk director 10” thing but vista refused to launch it, so i simply used suse installer to do the resize: result, it did resize the partitions but damaged vista so i had to launch vista recover, after which it settled perfectly on a small size partition. And i installed suse one more time, now without any errors.
Thx for the additional info, and, glad you worked through to a solution.
While I did not know of the specific resizing limitation you describe, it does not surprise me. Actually, there have been other partitioning issues emerging about Vista - not advertised, poorly documented, and disastrous re Vista’s new partitioning rules (which virtually nobody was alerted to) being incompatible with previous partitioning even as done by Windows let alone 3rd-parties.
Anyway, welcome to the community!
Thanks i hope to make out everything soon, all this turns out to be not as scary as it is rumoured about 