problem starting suse 9.1
 

Very new to linx. I installed a free version of Suse 9.1, downloaded from their site, burned to disc and then installed on a computer that already had windows ME. Installation went great, everything seems to work i even managed to configure my modem and mail and was able to get on the internet without a problem.

My problem is that after I shutdown and restarted computer I do not know how to get started again without going through a lengthy process,

i.e.
1. Set computer to boot from cdrom first.
2. Insert suse cd.
3. Green screen appears
4. I choose installation
5. After everything is loaded i abort installation
6. Then I choose to load system (windows or linux) windows will not load but suse linux loads without a problem.

When suse starts everything is fine, I really love it. Do I have to go through this everytime I start the computer up. I did a new installation at the start and all went well. Getting started seems to be a big problem and will I every be able to access Windows ME again.

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

I dual-boot Windows 2000 and SuSE 9.1. SuSE was unable to write a decent boot block to load GRUB, so I am using a boot floppy to swap between systems. So walk through your boot process as you have describe it one more time, then start Yast. You can use Yast to create a boot floppy with a boot loader on it which will include both SuSE and your Windows. If you need more help for that I can look up the exact way to do it later (I'm not on a Linux machine right now).

Your last sentence makes it sound as if you couldn't access your Windows anymore - if hat is the case you should use your Windows boot CD to repair the Windows installation first.

Robin

Thank you, Robin

I have a live cd, so I shall try later to get into windows later.

I tried to make a boot floppy but I got the error, selected image does not exist on installation medium.

Any ideas

Thank, star5

I suppose you used the 'create boot disk' icon in the system group in Yast2. (I'm translating the German terms, so it might be a different name.) That's not how I did it, I got the same error actually when I tried that. I have no idea where those images are supposed to be.

Here's what I did: next to the aforementioned icon there is one with a sneaker shoe saying 'Configuration of boot loader'. I'm supposing it's LILO. In the menu, choose /dev/fd0 as 'location of boot loader'. In 'available entries' make sure something points at your kernel (e. g. Label=Linux, Type=Image, Image/Device=/boot/vmlinuz (/dev/sda1, root=/dev/sda1). Your actual entry may vary, especially if you don't have SCSI disks (hdaX instead of sdaX).

There should also be an entry for your Windows such as 'Windows ; Other ; /dev/hda1.

There may be more, for example 'Failsafe', but that needn't concern us now.

Set the standard to the entry you'd like to boot automatically when you don't choose anything else from the menu you get. I suppose you can leave all the other entries as they are.

If you then proceed with the dialogue I expect that you'll be prompted for a floppy disk, and the boot loader will be put on it. You might have to set your system bios to boot from floppy first (before hard disk) if that's not the present setting, but you should be able to boot at least your linux this way, maybe even your Windows if you haven't killed it and you give the entry the correct device (hard disk) where its boot block is located.

Hope that helps,

Robin