SuSE 10.1

[markwolfe Veteran]

It should have set up dual booting with Windows, if you accepted the default GRUB installation options.

[ViperSnake]

Erm, as of 10.0, Grub installs to the First Sector of the install drive instead of the MBR by default. I addressed this issue in a post I made on the day that SUSE 10.0 came out...

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=382036

[.Ark]

Erm, as of 10.0, Grub installs to the First Sector of the install drive instead of the MBR by default. I addressed this issue in a post I made on the day that SUSE 10.0 came out...

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=382036

that didnt do aynthing for me.. i typed it into rescue and it said..

Cannot create directory '/boot/grub' : Read only file system.

I installed Suse 10 on a seperate partition.. Had vista on my first.. But now I cant access Windows... Vista's rescue system does not recognize vista exists because apparently the mbr stuff got deleted or whatever... So now Suse 10 doesnt have internet.. I cant access Vista and my laptop is pretty much ****ed up! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Fozzieb]

boot of an xp disc, choose to boot to recovery console, type fixmbr then fix boot

should set it back to allow vista to boot

[.Ark]

boot of an xp disc, choose to boot to recovery console, type fixmbr then fix boot

should set it back to allow vista to boot

Oh is Vista's and XP's boot thing same? I thought it was different..

[Cailin]

Do the same thing but with the Vista disc. The Vista and XP bootloaders are very very different!

And with regards to SuSE in itself, I've been setting it up on a server box for a few days now and it is enormously complicated. There are major differences in the locations of files or whatnot from other distributions. YaST2 is very helpful in installing additonal software but when it comes to compiling and installing other software it can be either easy or very difficult! For example, I had to update my kernel sources to get VMWare Server to install, which I'm positive not everybody knows how to do. If you're not comfortable around much of that stuff, try Mandriva as it's tailored towards beginners to Linux more.

[.Ark]

Do the same thing but with the Vista disc. The Vista and XP bootloaders are very very different!

And with regards to SuSE in itself, I've been setting it up on a server box for a few days now and it is enormously complicated. There are major differences in the locations of files or whatnot from other distributions. YaST2 is very helpful in installing additonal software but when it comes to compiling and installing other software it can be either easy or very difficult! For example, I had to update my kernel sources to get VMWare Server to install, which I'm positive not everybody knows how to do. If you're not comfortable around much of that stuff, try Mandriva as it's tailored towards beginners to Linux more.

I cant do the same with the Vista disk cuz Suse did sometihng. When I insert the Vista DVD and go to the recovery thing.. it doesnt recognize my Vista installation at all... I need my laptop running with internet asap and i cant afford to loose my files..

[betamaxman]

Vista will be booted via xps boot.ini file so forget about it for now. Boot into the SUSE install cd or dvd again and select "repair an existing instalation" from there select change bootloader to fix grub (besure to change your default, rename the OSs in the grub list if you want, then op top of the page click the grub location tab and be sure that it is for mbr of hda for ide drives or mba of sda for sata drives. That should fix it. While there you can select change partitioning, only select edit and edit what partions mount at boot but also where they are mounted.

This is the best way for SUSE.

[Inplode]

ok something strange i ran the live cd from boot blaa blaa all seem to go well the kernal did its thing then it went to load i got to the suse slash screen i guess thats it or manager ( not sure ) it was zagged and stopped loading

i tried 1280x1024 1440x1050 and safemod all did the same thing any ideas

[markwolfe Veteran]

Sounds like you (or it) selected the wrong video driver.

Not sure what tools SUSE has to fix these, but you will likely need to boot into Linux in command-line mode (since you don't have any video?) and fix your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

[Inplode]

Sounds like you (or it) selected the wrong video driver.

Not sure what tools SUSE has to fix these, but you will likely need to boot into Linux in command-line mode (since you don't have any video?) and fix your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

this is from the live dvd i cant get to anything it just stops loading after the little suse screen thats all jaggy :wacko:

[Miuku.]

this is from the live dvd i cant get to anything it just stops loading after the little suse screen thats all jaggy :wacko:

LiveDVD has ridicilously outdated drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if the drivers are bugged for your particular card.

[.Ark]

Vista will be booted via xps boot.ini file so forget about it for now. Boot into the SUSE install cd or dvd again and select "repair an existing instalation" from there select change bootloader to fix grub (besure to change your default, rename the OSs in the grub list if you want, then op top of the page click the grub location tab and be sure that it is for mbr of hda for ide drives or mba of sda for sata drives. That should fix it. While there you can select change partitioning, only select edit and edit what partions mount at boot but also where they are mounted.

This is the best way for SUSE.

There is no such thing as "repair an exisiting installation" :pinch:

[betamaxman]

Indeed there is, you access it from a small droopdown below the radio buttons for upgrade, and instalation. Can't remember exactly without booting into SUSE and noting what is there. But essently you boot to cd, select installation let everything load, then you have the mentioned options and to the left near the bottom there is a dropdown with (can't rememder exactly) "other" or something has such, you select this and you find the options I mentioned for repair.

Also go to your favorite torrent sight and do a search for "SUSE 10 Bible" and you will get a pdf of the book and print off the pages for setting SUSE up, there is no difference from 10 to 10.1. :cool:

When I have time (tonight perhaps)I will boot up SUSE and make a detailed account of the steps for you..

Here are some screenies of yast grub utility and partitioner, they are from my hard disc instalation however it runs the same from the cd or dvd.

Grub setting default and editing the OS list

Setting ahat hd mbr.

Yast partitioner, selecting a partition to edit

The edit page, note the mount point, for a directory within a mount point add a / for example /Fat is a folder, if you want a sub folder within the /Fat folder perhaps called XP you would add /Fat/XP and so on. Remember you can type in this field has well has use the droop down.

And fstab options, choose mountable by user.

Edited August 13, 2006 by betamaxman

[betamaxman]

So here goes;

Boot up the SUSE install cd or dvd

Choose your language

Agree to the license agreement

SUSE analyzes your system

You arrive at the installation page and see the options for “Installation Mode”, the options are a radio button for New Installation, and Update, and a check box for Include add on products from separate media. Ignore these and click the “Other” button down lower and further to the right.

You get another pair of radio buttons for “Repair installed system”, and “Boot installed system”. Choose the “Repair installed system” radio button and click “next”

From this page choose “Expert tools” from the options shown and click “next” again.

A new page will load with more options, they are,

Install New Boot Loader

Start Partitioning Tool

Repair File System

Recover Lost Partitioning

Save Settings to Floppy

Verify Installed Software

So to repair, reinstall or edit grub or lilo, you will of course select “Install New Boot Loader” and yast will launch the bootloader tool same has in the screenies posted in my last post, and you can edit, add other Oss or put grub back to the mbr of whatever hard drive you desire, or to a partition if you desire.

To edit mounting points and so on use the “Start Partitioning Tool”. And so on and so on. :cool:

[.Ark]

betamaxman... thanks for your time.. but this is gonna make me install grub on a different partition.. how can i get windows back on the list? :/

[markwolfe Veteran]

.Ark,

Ok, first, let's see if we can identify where Windows resides on your drives. Do an fdisk -l (that is a lowercase letter "L", not the number one) as root, and post the output here. That will list out all partitions seen.

Also post your /boot/grub/menu.lst file, so we can get ready to add in a Windows entry (or fix the existing one).

[betamaxman]

betamaxman... thanks for your time.. but this is gonna make me install grub on a different partition.. how can i get windows back on the list? :/

Has markj has said you need to find where vista is first, then useing the bootloader tool has shown in the screenie click "add" instead of edit.

Your vista partition via the dropdown

Via the browse button

And lastly for an example, my XP entry, vist should be similar.

This can of course be done via cmd line, editing the /etc/fstab file and the /etc/grub.conf file. But I have found this to be an excellent alternative when useing SUSE. The partitioning tool will also allow you to locate your vista partition, simply look for ntfs (if that is still what vista uses it did the last time I had vista installed) and the partition size. Best thing is if you are wrong simply boot back into SUSE remove the wrong entry and select another partition to add.

Also if you are useing good old ide drives use GAG to boot your vista installation.

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

First setup gag (don't worry it won't be installed to hard drive unless you hit the H key afterwards)

choose your keyboard (key1)

then "any key"

add an OS

name the os

pick an icon

return to the gag menu

hit the number button representing vista

remember you can now boot vista and gag is not installed to the mbr unless you hit the H button for "save gag to hard disc"

Edited August 14, 2006 by betamaxman

[.Ark]

okay so fdisk -l

Device Boot - System

/dev/hda1 - Linux swap/ Solaris

/dev/hda2 - W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/hda3 - Linux

/dev/hda4 - Linux

/dev/hda5 - HPFS/NTFS

I did skip the start, end, blcoks and id sections.. cuz i thought they werent necessary.. anyway

betamaxman.. when I click browse.. i see a folder called windows.. what next? I thought hda5 was vista.. so did /dev/hda5 and created an entry but that did not work.. so yeh what am i doin next?

[betamaxman]

Looks like we are back to Vista again. If I understand things correctly you only have linux and vista installed, and no XP installed. If you had XP installed then the best way would be too boot xp from grub, has xp's bootup would have a vista entry and you would simply boot xp. If something is amiss in vista then you might try a repair install of vista because something is obviously amiss there.

Aparently booting vista via grub is problematic and doing it through xp is the best if not only way. A search "booting vista from grub" turned up this thread abd many others similar to it.

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:2Vz4b...;client=firefox

On a ubuntu forum some dude fixed his problem doing this.

Quote;

"Right I have now installed Ubuntu 6 to try and replicate the problem and the problem is still there but also my grub is very messy.

I have the following operating systems listed in grub

Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386

Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386 (recovery mode)

Ubuntu, memtest86+

Other operating systems

Windows NT/2000/XP (this is not an OS but a built in recovery partition)

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

By selecting the last XP one, this takes me to a new boot menu offering either earlier windows (xp) or microsoft windows (vista). Vista fails to load with missing winload.exe file.

So what I have done is booted with the Vista dvd and have done a repair, it detected the boot problem and fixed it. So now on the second menu I have the above entries plus a new one "vista ultimate recovered". This one does actually boot.

So while I can now boot to either ubuntu, xp or vista, my boot menus are very messy as you can see.

What I really need is ubuntu, ubuntu recovery, the second XP entry and the vista entry all on one menu. Is this possible please?"

Reply With Quote

So the skinny on this is there are some grub vista booting issues, but people seem to get it to work, you are simply going to have to play arround a bit to get it to work. I would try the repair of vista and see if this can get it to boot for you. Then see if grub can boot it. Also in the booting section of yast there is the option to "propose a new configuration", give that a try has well. Also the mention that mandrake had no problems suggests that lilo has better success than grub so you can also switch to lilo in the booting tool in yast.

Sorry you are experiencing these problems, but if you keep at it you can fix it, I has I have said booted xp has well has vista and vista modified xp's boot.ini file to include vista, so I did not have a grub entry for vista only xp and when xp was booted I got xp's black abd white boot option page and from there booted vista. I later changed my grub entry name for xp to XP/Vista. So perhaps you should try booting both xp and vista with linux, if you are not already that is.

What is in /dev/hda2 - W95 Ext'd (LBA?

Edited August 15, 2006 by betamaxman

[.Ark]

Yeah.. i have vista installed and it worked great.. what im thinkin is that.. grub basically erased vista's mbr and wrote the grub stuff over it and therefore there is no way for the bootloader to find vista..all of the vista stuff is on partition 1 but its having hard time finding the boot file or wahtever..

[betamaxman]

Grub always overwrites the mbr, and boots the boot secter of xp ntloader or whatever have you the OSs kernel for example or has you have said the boot file. Here is something to try, fix vista by doing a repair install without reformating the drive leaving your current vista intact but fixing the boot sector. Then repair SUSE using the methode I have shown, but this time put SUSE,s grub not to the mbr of the hard drive but to the boot sector of SUSE. This should have no effect on Vista, and it will boot normaly, however SUSE will be unbootable. Now go to the link I provided for gag, download it and you can either burn a cd iso if you like to boot to cd or put it on a floppy if you like to boot it to flopy. Now boot gag has I described and without installing it to the mbr see if you can boot SUSE and Vista, with out it installed to mbr you will have to reset it up with each reboot, but if it boots each up you can install it to the mbr and use it has your bootloader.

Or fix Vista has above and repair SUSE again only this time switch from grub to lilo and see if it is friendlier than grub to Vista. :cool:

[.Ark]

Grub always overwrites the mbr, and boots the boot secter of xp ntloader or whatever have you the OSs kernel for example or has you have said the boot file. Here is something to try, fix vista by doing a repair install without reformating the drive leaving your current vista intact but fixing the boot sector. Then repair SUSE using the methode I have shown, but this time put SUSE,s grub not to the mbr of the hard drive but to the boot sector of SUSE. This should have no effect on Vista, and it will boot normaly, however SUSE will be unbootable. Now go to the link I provided for gag, download it and you can either burn a cd iso if you like to boot to cd or put it on a floppy if you like to boot it to flopy. Now boot gag has I described and without installing it to the mbr see if you can boot SUSE and Vista, with out it installed to mbr you will have to reset it up with each reboot, but if it boots each up you can install it to the mbr and use it has your bootloader.

Or fix Vista has above and repair SUSE again only this time switch from grub to lilo and see if it is friendlier than grub to Vista. :cool:

what do u mean repair install? I honestly dont care about suse anymore.. just wanna have VIsta back so that i can get back to work..I wasted enough time with SUSE and Linux trying to fix wifi problems.. mounting problems and what not... so if you could just help me boot vista back.. i would be VERY thankful!

[betamaxman]

There should be an option has there is in xp to do a repair install over your existing installation (with out doing a reformate.) I had a few builds of vista installed and lost interest in them and I never did a repair install with it, however i saw it mentioned in the links to threads I posted. I will tell you how in xp and you can try with vista and see if it is still included. You boot into windows has you would to do a formate installation pressing enter to install. then you should be given the option to press something to do a repair install in xp it is simply r. If this is still in vista amd I can't see it not, it will go has if you are doing a formate install only after you bootup vista will be has it was settings aps etc. only with any corupt or missing files fixed.

Good luck, and no hard feelings from anyone here, ya tried more than some people do. Give linux a vacation and try again someother time, perhaps there will be better grub support for vista by then. :cool:

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ Agreed.

Even XP and Vista have boot loader problems, judging by the threads in the Windows section here.

Once Vista is out of beta and is a mainstream product, I think you will see better ability to dual-boot it with Linux, XP and others.