* John Perry <j.e.perry4@gmail.com> [05-08-17 16:07]: [...]

So I don't presently have a working linux to use for imagewriter.

you don't need linux for imagewriter, there is a windoz version: https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ -- (paka)Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA @ptilopteri http://en.opensuse.org openSUSE Community Member facebook/ptilopteri Registered Linux User #207535 @ http://linuxcounter.net Photos: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/piwigo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Mon, 8 May 2017 16:04:46 -0400 John Perry wrote:

Thanks, all,

jdd:

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Unfortunately, leap 42.2 won't install on my Samsung NP700Z7C-S01US. I made a flash drive which boots into the selection GUI

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what is that? computer boot menu? If it's an uefi computer you may have options in the firmware

As I said, it's the boot menu from the iso. The computer boots quite happily from the flash drive and goes into the installation menu (what I called the selection gui).

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USB flash drive it just booted from. However, the install selection can't see the USB flash and the "boot from hard drive" can't find a bootable hard drive at all (W10 boots reliably from the hard drive).

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may be it's not correctly made

I used the procedures detailed in https://en.opensuse.org/Create_installation_USB_stick. I hadn't seen the page you referenced.

Carlos:

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I don't know what that "Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.7.8.exe" is, but the way to create an openSUSE install USB stick is to copy the install iso image RAW to the USB stick. If you use something that tries to make it bootable, you break it and will not work.

Hmm. As I said to jdd, I used the process in https://en.opensuse.org/Create_installation_USB_stick. One of the recommendations from the suse community.

Carl:

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I'm using a newly downloaded copy of openSUSE-Leap-42.2-DVD-x86_64.iso and Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.7.8.exe.

Hi John,

I use 'live-fat-stick':

https://software.opensuse.org/package/live-fat-stick

Details / docs / errata: https://github.com/cyberorg/live-fat-stick

That's one of the options I was going to try (there are several on the wiki) if the list couldn't solve this for me. Looks as though I'll have to keep trying wiki suggestions until something works. The one thing that seems strongly indicated is that the wiki procedure using UUI is faulty. UUI split out the installation software and made the flash drive bootable, which Carlos says breaks the installer. Gives me guidance on which trick to try next.

Also, this whole project stems from an apparent conflict between W10 and Malwarebytes's rootkit detector, which reboots W10 several times during its function. Apparently W10 had downloaded a major update which I didn't know about, and when MWB rebooted its process corrupted W10's update process, which killed my computer completely. I'm in the process now of restoring my laptop, which is what prompted this episode.

So I don't presently have a working linux to use for imagewriter.

Thanks again, all.

jp

Hi John, I suspect there may be deeper issues going on with that specific (circa 2012) laptop. The initial clue you provided is the USB booted and running installer not being able to 'see' the primary drive. From the Internets: "... Hmm. I have a brand-new Samsung laptop NP700Z7C-S01US that has a flash drive described in the specs along with the main HD as "1 TB with ExpressCache™ Technology, 8GB". It shows in both Windows and suse as a separate hard drive. I've made no effort to use it myself. ..." and "Just found more info on the Samsung website: "Innovative ExpressCache™* technology provides 8GB of flash memory on the motherboard that works as an ultra fast HDD. Its intelligent, automatic caching takes 45% less time to boot up and starts Internet Explorer and frequently used applications 2 times faster, while still maintaining the safety and integrity of your data." And somewhat more worrying: "Samsung Laptops Bricked by Booting Linux Using UEFI" http://www.anandtech.com/show/6713/samsung-laptops-bricked-by-booting-linux-... and "Samsung Laptops Bricked by Booting Linux Using UEFI" http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/samsung-laptops-bricked-by-using-uef... "Samsung UEFI bug definitely not fixed" http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Samsung-UEFI-bug-definitely-not-fixed... "Booting Linux using UEFI can brick Samsung laptops" http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Booting-Linux-using-UEFI-can-brick-Sa... Fortunately, at this late date, whatever fixes / workarounds exist have long been stable and are likely well documented. The trick is to find them before investing a lot more time on this installation. hth & regards, Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Ok, it appears to be solved. Thanks, Patrick, for the link to the Win32 Disk Imager flash drive installer builder. That created a flash drive that booted up correctly and gave me the actual suse installation gui. Got to the partition management section: it says I can't add another partition to sda, even though it shows (correctly) 200G unallocated. Ok, try the Windows disk management tool. Shows everything on C:, just as suse had. Same error. So, I download gparted. It installs correctly on another flash drive using WDI. Booted; no interface. Fortunately, I'd read the preliminary notes, so restarted in safe video mode. Now I see exactly what I saw with suse and W10, so try to create a new partition in the unallocated space. Finally, I know why it won't work: there are already 4 primary partitions on the drive. You were right, Carlos. Apparently I have to wipe the drive again and reinstall, making W10 create an extended partition before it creates the software partition (it seems to have created the other 3 on its own? I don't remember telling it to create primary partitions). As I recall from long ago when you had to drag through all this stuff just to do a basic installation, you can put only 4 primary partitions on a disk; the alternative is to put up to three primary partitions and one extended partition, into which you can put any number of (secondary?) partitions. Thanks, all. Learned a lot, solved my problem. Tomorrow or Thursday I'll do it all again, hopefully correctly this time. Or maybe I'll just extend the W10 partition to fill the unallocated space and use suse under VB. jp On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 9:12 AM, Carlos E. R. <robin.listas@telefonica.net> wrote:

On 2017-05-09 09:06, Carl Hartung wrote:

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Hi John,

I suspect there may be deeper issues going on with that specific (circa 2012) laptop. The initial clue you provided is the USB booted and running installer not being able to 'see' the primary drive.

From the Internets:

"... Hmm. I have a brand-new Samsung laptop NP700Z7C-S01US that has a flash drive described in the specs along with the main HD as "1 TB with ExpressCache™ Technology, 8GB". It shows in both Windows and suse as a separate hard drive. I've made no effort to use it myself. ..."

and

"Just found more info on the Samsung website:

"Innovative ExpressCache™* technology provides 8GB of flash memory on the motherboard that works as an ultra fast HDD. Its intelligent, automatic caching takes 45% less time to boot up and starts Internet Explorer and frequently used applications 2 times faster, while still maintaining the safety and integrity of your data."

Oh. Good catch. Bad news :-(

John also said it on his first post:

]> I get sda, sdb, and sdc, which I ]> take to be the hard drive, Samsung's 8G internal flash

openSUSE can not install using that internal flash at all.

Where to place the boot code? On the hard disk, or on that internal flash memory? We need some knowhow.

The paragraph is confusing, though:

]> I get sda, sdb, and sdc, which I ]> take to be the hard drive, Samsung's 8G internal flash, and the 16G ]> USB flash drive it just booted from. However, the install selection ]> can't see the USB flash and the "boot from hard drive" can't find a ]> bootable hard drive at all (W10 boots reliably from the hard drive).

What is that "USB flash" that it can not see? There should only be three media: internal hard disk, internal flash, and external install media.

Guessing, the internal hard disk may have 4 primary partitions defined, which impedes automatic Linux installation. Thus the install disk will not try to install, doesn't know how.

A run of

lsblk --output \ NAME,KNAME,RA,RM,RO,SIZE,TYPE,FSTYPE,LABEL,PARTLABEL,MOUNTPOINT,UUID,PARTUUID,WWN,MODEL,ALIGNMENT,HOTPLUG

maybe from a linux rescue disk, and posted here (or a photo of the output) would help.

-- Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 2017-05-10 09:45, jdd@dodin.org wrote:

Le 10/05/2017 à 03:31, John Perry a écrit :

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already 4 primary partitions on the drive. You were right, Carlos.

from there you have several roads to take.

I understood you installs yourself w10. If so and if your computer is UEFI capable (I don't remember if it is), you can install W10 in UEFI/GPT mode where you don't anymore have this primary partitions problem - but this needs reinstall.

Even if it is not uefi capable GPT can be used, at least with Linux. I have mine that way. But I don't know for sure if Windows support it; I think I heard it doesn't.

if you can't go this way, you should still be able to remove only one primary. AFAIK only three are necessary: main (larger), EFI one (very small, max 500Mb) and may be an other W10 system.

No, EFI is not needed. It is a BIOS mode computer, old, 2012 (?) I think someone said. Windows 7/8 needs just two: Boot and system. Manufacturers add one more for rescue. And some added a fourth in order to block Linux being installed. I guess, evilly. W10 can work with just those two: at least mine, upgraded from W7, uses the same two. But I heard rumours that it install with three.

of course you can reinstall creating an extended partition from the beginning

Only with a real Microsoft install disk, not when you use one from the computer manufacturer. In those cases, what it does is recover from rescue partition, restoring to the same state as when the computer was bought. Typically you don't have the chance to customize anything. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)

On 2017-05-10 12:40, jdd@dodin.org wrote:

Le 10/05/2017 à 11:14, Carlos E. R. a écrit :

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Even if it is not uefi capable GPT can be used, at least with Linux.

only linux

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No, EFI is not needed. It is a BIOS mode computer, old, 2012 (?) I think someone said.

2012 is not that old :-). Many uefi computers where done at the time, but the firmware vary largely from make to make

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Windows 7/8 needs just two: Boot and system. Manufacturers add one more for rescue. And some added a fourth in order to block Linux being installed. I guess, evilly.

I don't think it's done on purpose, but I never could really understand how Windows works - from one to four on the computers I had on hand

Oh, I know this for certain up to Windows 7, I did the training course ;-) I assure you that Windows only needs two (and some people manage to install on one). Using 3 or 4 is something done by the computer manufacturer. That they don't create one of them an extended is also a decision by the manufacturer, not Microsoft.

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of course you can reinstall creating an extended partition from the beginning

Only with a real Microsoft install disk, not when you use one from the computer manufacturer. In those cases, what it does is recover from rescue partition, restoring to the same state as when the computer was bought. Typically you don't have the chance to customize anything.

nope. Usually it's not so. The system recovery (when it works, that is random) uses the first existing partition, if you create one before, I did this more than once - that said one can never be sure. May vary depending of windows version, maker model, disk size... who knows :-(

Not on the systems I have tried, mostly hp. The manufacturer disk (which you have to create yourself after purchase) typically restore a compressed image, which usually sits on the last partition, but can be on dvd. The program resets the partition table, destroys everything, and leaves the computer as it was when bought, usually with no questions beyond verification at the start. Don't confuse with the Microsoft or Windows recovery disk.

worth trying, but I understood the OP installed windows himself

Yes.

for my own case I most always buy windows with the computer (as it's nearly free then), but reinstall from hacked dvd, because the windows license system is horrific, so I pay but use pirated versions :-(

LOL :-)

that said If I could get the very last map for my garmin GPS with linux, I would nearly never boot windows (apart to have clean updates when I don't need the computer :-()

With TomTom you have to use Windows. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)

On 2017-05-08 22:04, John Perry wrote:

Thanks, all,

Carlos:

...

I don't know what that "Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.7.8.exe" is, but the way to create an openSUSE install USB stick is to copy the install iso image RAW to the USB stick. If you use something that tries to make it bootable, you break it and will not work.

Hmm. As I said to jdd, I used the process in https://en.opensuse.org/Create_installation_USB_stick. One of the recommendations from the suse community.

Ah. I see it there; then it is OK. Also you say "it's the boot menu from the iso", so it is Ok.

Also, this whole project stems from an apparent conflict between W10 and Malwarebytes's rootkit detector, which reboots W10 several times during its function. Apparently W10 had downloaded a major update which I didn't know about, and when MWB rebooted its process corrupted W10's update process, which killed my computer completely. I'm in the process now of restoring my laptop, which is what prompted this episode.

So I don't presently have a working linux to use for imagewriter.

:-( Notice that M$ now recommends against the use of antivirus on W10. Are you installing Windows from scratch now? Take the opportunity to install leaving free partition space for Linux on the disk. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)

On 2017-05-09 18:28, John Perry wrote:

Thanks, all,

Carl:

Yes, I bought this laptop in December 2012, just after it went out of production (you can get really good deals that way), and found all those comments. Apparently my machine wasn't affected because, as I said, until I went from W7 to W10 a couple of years ago, I had suse running in a dual-boot configuration.

I understood from your first post that you were using Linux as a virtual machine under Windows, that you did not have a double boot system.

Carlos:

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Notice that M$ now recommends against the use of antivirus on W10.

Yes, I've seen those comments, which come across to me as pushing their own security facilities, rather than as denying others' (usually much better) qualities.

I know people that never used antivirus and have no virus on their systems. Just use safe practices.

The only problem I've ever had came when MS started downloading silently W10 updates and waiting for me to reboot. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe that's my own fault: I got tired of W10 reminding me several times a day to reboot and silenced the notification.

Yes. Just try to boot Windows 10 once a month. Updating it takes a day or two.

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Are you installing Windows from scratch now? Take the opportunity to install leaving free partition space for Linux on the disk.

Already done. That's why this whole discussion is going on. :-)

Well, I'm completely confused now as to what is your disk and partition and boot layout. Please provide that lsblk output. I would also like you to run this script in Linux and upload the result to susepaste.org: https://github.com/arvidjaar/bootinfoscript/raw/master/bootinfoscript -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" at Telcontar)