Linux Installation
 

Whenever I install Linux SUSE11 my computer does not give the options to dual boot. It does not recognize windows.

Always get an error when installing grub, something like error in boot loader

When you installed grub did you see a windows option? Anyway you can boot to sue and add windows entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Shylocks suggestion is correct if you have windows on the first partiton of the first drive. If you have a Recovery partition as the first it won't work. You did not indicate if the installation was successful, can you boot Opensuse? What version of windows do your have? Any other operating systems?

OK I am very new to Linux, 1st the installation was unsuccessful, my computer would not boot from the hard drive after I got done. I am running Windows 7 professional x64. I used the windows disk to do a system repair and it booted from windows after that.
My hard drive configuration is 2 physical hard drives. Drive 1 320gb has 2 partitions 1 I use to back up windows the other is formatted NTSF. Drive 2 has 3 partitions 1 has Windows 7 the other 2 are formatted NTSF. I know this can work to have both Linux and Windows and have them function properly, but something is wrong somewhere maybe in the installation or something.

By the way which version of Linux is good for a beginner.

Ubuntu seems to be popular, its oriented to those coming from an MS background.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Otherwise, try any of the top 5 or 10 at www.distrowatch.com

I'd agree with chrism01 to check distrowatch and I expect your will find Opensuse in the top 10. You have all your partitions formatted ntfs according to your last post. You won't be able to install Linux on any of them without creating a suitable filesystem.

It would be useful for us to get more specific information on what happened when you tried to install Opensuse, what specific error messages or at what point in the installation it seems to fail. Also, what did you choose when the option to install Grub bootloader came up at the end of the installation?

I keep getting the same message do not exactly remember what it say but it was a problem in the grub boot loader or something like that, I know it has something to do with grub which based on my research if grub is not working right then Linux nor Windows will not work right. How do I need to have a Partitioned set up for Linux, what kind of file system should I have?

For Linux you can choose ext3 or ext4. Use ext4. Make sure you have a swap space and a root partition / . How much RAM do you have?

Ram is good 4gb, I have a Ubuntu 2009 disk, can I use it to format the partition to ext4? I am moving my back from the 1st partition to the 2nd partition on my hard drive with the hope of installing Linux on the 1st partition.

Yes sure you can. Use atleast 1Gb of swap,anything less will be a bottleneck. Make sure that you don't format your windows drive. Ubuntu has inbuilt gprted partition manager, which during installaton will give you option to resize/format/mount,etc your partitions. However if you are planning on re-arranging your drives then make sure you install windows first and then ubuntu.

Hi!

I was just reading your thread and they covered everything I would have thought of. But I noticed you did a windows repair to get windows to boot. I understand you want duel boot to work but anytime grub or lilo don't work correctly and you want to boot windows back check this tutorial out.

http://wetalklinux.com/index.php?topic=15.0

It tell you how to fix your windows Master Boot Record. It should save you some time. Just be sure you have your windows cd.

Hope this helps for future reference

One Last Question, can I have Windows and Linux on 2 separate Hard Drives on the same computer or do both OS have to be on the same drive to dual boot?

1 or 2...

You can have a dual-boot with windows and linux on one HDD or Windows on one and Linux on the other. In the latter case, GRUB needs to be set up so that it still finds the Windows bootloader at the beginning of the first visible partition of the correct HDD.

It is also possible to install linux on a USB HDD such that Windows boots both with and without the USB HDD connected.

Doing homework in advance on where to place GRUB and what GRUB should include for chainloading instructions saves on a lot of work and on posts to this forum.

Use "Search" to look at the various threads for this topic already on the forum; there are many.

If you want more help, it would be useful if you used a linux terminal with root privileges to execute the command "fdisk -l" and post the resulting partition table.

OK just installed Ubuntu on my system during instalation it gave me the option to install Ubuntu & Windows side by side and choose which one at start-up, of course I chose that option, The installation when successful and at the end told to reboot. Problem is my computer boot directly to windows no dual boot option, how do I fix this?

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me. I finally got OpenSUSE 11 to work and dual boot, I downloaded the Live CD and did the install from the live CD works perfectly. Now I just need to learn to use it and tweak it and all that good stuff, any ideas on which forum to find information on tweaking. Thanks.