Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1495 mails)

["Steve Swezy" <steveswezy@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you to all of you who have responded to my post. You have all given me 
a lot of good info and things to educate myself about.

> > I am trying to install openSUSE 11.1 and Fedora 10 on 2 separate already
> > existing partitions on a newly installed 120 GB HD.
>
> How did those partitions get there?
I made the first two 10 GB partitions with gparted in the Ubuntu 
installation. Then I installed Freespire and made another with it's 
partition editor, leaving a 90 GB. Freespire is the default distro. Neither 
of them has a driver for my wireless card.
I had an older laptop (which I bought used) whose HDD died. I just use it 
for travel for email and internet.
I used another WinXP disk to reinstall Win but the CD key on the laptop 
didn't work, So I thought this would be a way to save $ and try out Linux, 
which I have been wanting to do anyway.

> What type are they (1-4 are primary, above 4 are logical)? Give us the 
> output
> of 'fdisk -l' while booted to Linux.
Sorry, don't know how to do that. I'm looking as I type.

> > I actually created 3 partitions of about 10 GB each, using a LiveCD 
> > Ubuntu
> > 8.04, and installed Ubuntu on the first one and Freespire 2.08 on the
> > second.
>
> Any particular reason why those sizes were chosen?

I read somewhere online to use 10GB for each Linux partition. Somewhere else 
I read about 4GB each.
> > I have a third empty partition of 10 GB and the last partition of about 
> > 90
> > GB on which I want to install Win XP Pro.
>
> Again, why, both OS choice, and size choice?

I read a bunch of reviews about distros and these sounded good. As you know 
Ubuntu gets a lot of press! One said Freespire  was like Windows, and easier 
for Win users. But my wireless card didn't work with either, so I kept 
looking and reading and downloading distros.
> > Neither Ubuntu nor Freespire have drivers for my wireless card, but it 
> > seems
> > that openSUSE 11.1 and Fedora 10 do.
>
> Why not Ubuntu 8.10? You think drivers are missing there too? Anyway, 
> there
> are good reasons to prefer openSUSE to Ubuntu anyway. ;-)

Didn't try U 8.10. But openSUSE and Fedora both had utilities and drivers to 
set up my wireless. I just couldn't figure out how to put them in my 
existing partitions.
> > So I want to install openSUSE on the secong existing partition and Fedora 
> > on
> > the third existing partition.
>
> Again, why Fedora, which is a cutting edge distro (meaning not well suited 
> to
> newbies)?

A techie friend recommended it. He's gonna help me install Win w/o buying a 
new OS disc. I'll see if he can help me with the Linux installs also.
> > But I am totally confused by the installation DVD choices.
> > Do I do Partition Based or LVM based?
>
> In single disk systems with a reasonably small number of operating 
> systems,
> traditional partitions are simpler for non-experts.
>
> > The installation DVD wants to format both the first two partitions.
> > Can't I leave the existing partition with Ubuntu already installed and 
> > just
> > format the 2nd one (that has Freespire on it) and install openSUSE on 
> > that
> > one?
>
> You can do what you want, if you know what you want. In this case, it may
> depend on the answer to my first questions above.
>
> > And then install Fedora 10 on the 3rd, leaving the 4th empty for Win XP?
>
> > I have looked at several LiveCDs of several distros and they all have
> > different procedures regarding the existing partitions, and I am lost.
> > openSUSE (installation DVD) does not seem to allow me to choose a 
> > particular
> > partition to format and install into.
>
> > Am I being too ambitious?
>
> You probably just need to spend a little more time on multibooting 
> background
> in order to better understand some ramifications of what you seem to want,
> and maybe better plan to accomplish understood objectives. Start with some
> boot loader, partitioning & multiboot background:
>
> http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs/grub#How_does_a_PC_boot_.2F_How_can_I_set_up_a_working_GRUB.3F
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Prefered_bootloader_options
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Partitioning_for_SuSE_Linux
> http://fm.no-ip.com/partitioningindex.html
> http://fm.no-ip.com/install-doz-after.html
>
> Note there is a long tradition of making multiboot more difficult than
> necessary. I have around 30 working systems, most of which are multiboot 
> with
> more than two OSes, several with more than 10 OSes each.
>
> 1-In a single HD system, installing Grub to the MBR is unnecessary, and
> creates opportunity for trouble down the road that dependence on 
> non-standard
> MBR code brings with it.
>
> 2-NTLDR can chainload Grub, while Grub can chainload NTLDR. This means it
> needn't matter which primary is active once you've accomplished enough
> configuration steps to enable both starting the other. Of necessity for 
> this
> to work for you requires at least two primary native partitions, one for
> Windoz to use for C:, and another where Grub can live, and be mounted as a
> Linux /boot partition.
>
> 3-All partitioning tools are not created equal. Life can be much easier if
> you choose one and only one to use to create all partitions, and use the
> partitioning tools included with OS installation programs exclusively for
> choosing how to use the partitions you've already created. The one I use 
> is
> non-free, but runs natively and equivalently no matter what I boot, 
> including
> Mac, DOS, Doze, Linux & OS/2.
>
> 4-At least one separate partition for Linux /home makes it easier for
> installing, reinstalling, or testing additional Linux distros, and saving
> your work while reformatting partitions which you've decided to redo.
>
> At this point, I recommend doing more background reading, planning and
> implementing your ultimate partitioning scheme by starting from scratch.
> Adding and/or moving partitions after installing makes life complicated.
>
> Once you have your plan firmed up, post back here for comments.

I will study up with those links. Thanks hugely for your help. It is fun to 
learn about Linux and it's communities of supportive experts.

Steve Swezy


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