Not that you probably want to but the simplest way to install is to wipe the hard drive, reload whatever version of Windows you want to use and get it working properly [ using the whole disk ]. Pop in the Linux CD/DVD and let it do all the work for you. During the install process you can decide how much disk space you want Linux to take and use. Forget all about all the gparted stuff. Let the OpenSuSE installer do all the work. No muss. No fuss. No sweat. No strain. -- (o:]>*HUGGLES*<[:o) Billie Walsh The three best words in the English Language: "I LOVE YOU" Pass them on! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Wednesday 04 July 2007 06:09, Giorgos wrote:

Hi!!! :-)

I hope not to disturb you with beginner's questions, but I'm just making my first steps on Linux. Sorry for my poor English too! :-)

Not to worry. We were all beginners once. Many of us still are...

I downloaded the openSUSE installation DVD, as well the 2 addittional CDs. I burn them and I made room at my disk with GParted. Now I have ~40GB unallocated space.

Installation run properly, until the disk partitioning. I pointed the installer at the unallocated space, but I received this message:

"The current selection is invalid. Too few partitions are marked for removal or the disk is too small. To install Linux, select more partitions to remove or select a larger disk." "OK"

What now? I read the minimum requirements and they're reporting 2.2GB for desktop installation. Did I missconfigured something? Am I missing something? Any ideas - suggestions?

To elaborate on Kai's reply, the default for simple installation is a root partition, a home-directory partition and a swap partition. First of all, you don't say what sort of partition structure you have. You say you made 40 GB available as unused space, but that doesn't tell us everything we need to know. How many partitions are defined already? Is there an extended partition table? If you don't have an extended partition table, then you get only four primary partitions. If you have an extended partition table, then you have, for practical purposes, an unlimited number of partitions. Lastly, if you want to use an extended partition table, you must reserve one of the primary partitions to hold that extended partition table. If you're installing just to experiment and don't forsee using the system you set up over the long term, you can force it to put both the root file system and the home directories in the same partition and forgo any swap in a separate partition. But even this is only an option if you have one partition slot available (whether primary or extended). In any event, if you do not have three available partitions and want to try something non-standard (well, non-default, anyway), you will have perform manual partitioning, eliminating the swap and home-directory partitions. And bottom-line, can't get around it, if you have all four primary partitions in use and don't have an extended partition table, you're out of luck without some major reorganization of your Windows installation. In this case, you might want to try the so-called "Live" disc (directly bootable, runnable CD or DVD).

THANKS!!! Giorgos. :-)

Good luck. Randall Schulz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Randall R Schulz wrote:

On Wednesday 04 July 2007 08:13, Billie Erin Walsh wrote:

...

Not that you probably want to but the simplest way to install is to wipe the hard drive, reload whatever version of Windows you want to use

Up to here, this certainly is a _simple_ solution. Simple to describe, at least.

...

and get it working properly [ using the whole disk ].

But this little bit makes it rather difficult in practice.

I don't think it's a _good_ solution unless you're really willing to treat the computer like a new one.

I don't know about most people, but it takes me days and days to get a system the way I want it. Saving and restoring all one's data and re-installing all one's applications is time-consuming, tedious and probably error-prone.

...

... Billie Walsh

Randall Schulz

I totally agree with you. HOWEVER, sometimes it works best. If Windows is working properly OpenSuSE will resize the partition and repartition everything just fine. No mucking about by someone that doesn't really know what they are doing with partitions. [ Me included ] The OpenSuSE installer is one of the best at this sort of thing. Let it do it the right way the first time. -- (o:]>*HUGGLES*<[:o) Billie Walsh The three best words in the English Language: "I LOVE YOU" Pass them on! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org