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
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. 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_w... 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 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org