On 10/20/2012 06:53 PM, Jim Sabatke wrote:

trying to get my HP laptop to dual boot

- maybe best install openSuSE with VirtualBox, and then run Windows on VirtualBox ............ best regards Ellan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

It would appear that on Oct 20, Jim Sabatke did say:

I've just spent an enormous time, again, trying to get my HP laptop to dual boot. I have created partitions. I "fixed" Windows after using gparted to create the partition spaces so that it boots. I used the Windows partition format and sizing tool to create partitions that the Suse install could see and use.

That might have been part of the problem... Last I knew it wasn't a good idea to use windows tools to create partitions for Linux. I've never had problems resizing a vista partition with gparted. But that to, could have been part of the problem. I've been googling and I came across some articles that don't think it's wise to use a non-windows tool to resize a windows 7 partition. I do wish I'd found that before my first reply. Because I know I said I'd use gparted... What I perhaps should have added was that no matter which tool I used to shrink the windows partition with, I'd have thought about backing up my stuff (probably with clonezilla) first. I'm sorry I didn't think to mention that step. If I had to use the Windows partition sizing tool it would only have been to shrink the windows partition, leaving the empty space as unallocated "free spaced". Then I'd use a Linux tool to create the Linux partitions in the free space. For example the partitioning tool the Linux installer uses if you select the custom {user defined} partition usage option during the install should work more reliably for this than a Windows based tool. Or, assuming you left the new empty space as unallocated free space I'd look for an installer option to install to the free space, allowing it to create whatever partitions it wanted to {within the free space...}

The Suse install appeared to run fine, except a bunch of errors at the end that all seemed to be erroneous and ignorable (like "modprobe hid_generic not found").

That sounds like the OpenSuSE install wasn't completely successful. Which could be a problem because the MBR (master boot record) most likely now points to the grub or grub2 files that should have been installed to /boot & /boot/grub on your new Linux filesystem. And if the installer was having errors it might not have done that properly. Which could result in an unbootable system.

Then, of course the laptop won't reboot, but there is where all of the "help" sites I found online go in different directions. Of course, the Windows "fix" disk I created gets Windows running again, but absolutely nothing I try, like running "boot_fix" works. I can't really make boot_fix work because I can't get it connected to the internet.

OK So you got windows running again. But the "fix" disk didn't do a good enough job for it to connect to the internet. Is that right?? Well a lot would depend on what you mean by a "fix" disk. It might be that it restored windows to a state before you configured your Internet access??

I've looked at a lot of searches and this seems to be a pretty common problem, that some "gifted" people get through, and leaves everyone else thinking there is no help out there.

Well I'm not so sure I'm exactly "gifted". I know that getting a new PC set up to duel boot any version of Linux AND windows is something I find easier to do than to explain. And I suspect that at least some of the truly gifted people who truly know what they are doing forget how hard the documentation can be for the un-initiated to understand. And it's likely that many of them tossed windows off their systems before they ever got to find out what new devilry MS cooked up for Windows 7 that makes it hard for people to multi-boot with it. And likely some of them have been busy figuring out how to deal with the "UEFI Secure Boot" that Microsoft wants to be enabled on Windows 8 machines... I hate to recommend trashing an existing install. But if you can still boot windows 7, but can't get OpenSuSE to run, Then perhaps the best course is to assume that the installation failed. If you can still run Windows 7's partition format and sizing tool, then you might try using it to return the Linux space to unallocated free space. (Warning: This would destroy the files that grub needs to boot anything with. But the next step I'd recommend should fix that.) Once that's done you can try the OpenSuSE installation disk again. Only this time use it's partitioning tool to create the Linux partition(s) from the unallocated free space. You need at least one Linux partition for which you need to make sure the installer plans to use "/" as a mount point. And it's also a good idea to devote some space for a swap partition. I'm not the guy to ask how big a swap you need however. Perhaps someone else will explain that part... If you can't make the installer's partitioning tool work for you then: While the hard drive space you intend to install to is in an unallocated "free space" state you can look for an installer option to just use the free space and let the installer decide how to configure the new partitions. Hopefully when you try to install to Linux partitions that were created with Linux tools the installation itself will complete without error resulting in a fully functional grub boot capable of booting Linux and chainloading the windows 7 loader on /dev/sda1... Best of luck to you -- | ~^~ ~^~ | <*> <*> | ^ JtWdyP | \___/ << there's nothing like an idiot who thinks he knows everything, of >> << course, if I actually knew everything, I'd know I was an idiot. >> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org