dual boot openSUSE on Ubuntu unit

th1bill · 06-30-2009, 01:33 PM

... I'm a recent windoze convert and I'm a hands on student of 64 years. My unit is running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and I need to dual boot openSUSE to test it. Since I converted it has been my mission to push Linux to as many as will receive and one thing I do well is to revive units that have been replaced and pass them along to high school students whose parents are less than well off. Having a trail of happy students I have been approached by a couple of men, each seeking to computerize their small business' and that is the reason I wish to test the openSUSE project.
... Having already had the user nightmare of trying to dual boot the Fedora I know that I will not try to sell that install to a user without a tech on staff. Not wanting to kill my system and recover again I am asking, is openSUSE boot friendly? If I install it and put it on another partition will I have the option to boot either system?
... I have installed the system into my virtualbox but it does not seem to find the internet but windows does and both machines are set up the same, in respect to networking. If openSUSE will be as friendly as Ubuntu is and was when I installed it on the windoze machine, that is all I need to know. If not I'm asking for a tutorial on how to get the dual boot option after the install.
... In advance, please understand that I charge no-one for my help as I am a 100% disabled vet and just need people to help so that I have work to do and for your help, I thank-you very much.

pljvaldez · 06-30-2009, 01:57 PM

Typically what I do is what is called chainloading. I'll create a partition for a linux distro to go on (or a separate hard drive). Then I'll install to that partition/disk. During install, it should ask you where you would like to put the bootloader - in the Master Boot Record (MBR) or in the root (/) partition. Here you should choose the root partition. Then from your current Ubuntu install, you just have to add the following line to /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Code:

title Some other linux
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1
boot

The root partition line is the important part. Hard disks start at 0 = /dev/sda, 1 = /dev/sdb, etc. Partitions start at 0 also, so (0,0) = /dev/sda1, (0,1) = /dev/sda2, (1,3) = /dev/sdb4, etc. Then you can install a distro in that partition, try it out, and then reinstall a different distro over the top of it later and you never have to mess with configuring grub again.

Basically, what all this does is always boots Ubuntu (which is your main desktop) and from the Ubuntu grub menu, you select the other distro. Then that distro's bootloader (grub, lilo, NTLDR, etc) will boot up that distro.

thorkelljarl · 06-30-2009, 02:30 PM

Congratulations on your conversion to Windows...

Yes, openSUSE is generally boot friendly. It uses GRUB as default. If openSUSE is installed last, the system should boot to an openSUSE screen with a menu, giving the ability to move down to another listed OS and chain boot. During installation you may choose where to install Grub, but I have found that the standard proposal for where to put GRUB can be followed unless there are particular requirements for partitions and HDD, although I have not tried with virtual machines and the like.

I have dual booted with XP, it first, and with other linuxs, they first, without a problem. I have used GRUB's ability to boot from any partition to set up my HDD as one extended partition and play around with several distros. GRUB seems to get put in the right place and things boot.

I would however suggest that you install KDE 3.5 as well as KDE 4. I find 4 very new, shiny, and wobbly, but 3.5 very adjustable and sturdy. I would not advise 4 to you for that business contact, but expect 4.2 to be quite a bit better.

th1bill · 06-30-2009, 03:59 PM

... Thanks to both of you, this is just what I needed. With the assurance that SUSE is not lie Fedora on the install and will allow the dual boot I believe that it will be easier to convert folks to it. I believe for the testing purpose I will go with the new partition that I'll create with te Gparted Live CD. Since there are so many Linux distros and most people are scared to do anything to their computers I would almost be willing to bet that this is not going to be the last one I test for someone. One of these days I'll find a youngster to teach not to fear and that will be eve better.
... Thanks!

Bill Taylor
Killer Spade 806 CE
1968 & '69

thorkelljarl · 06-30-2009, 04:30 PM

The other machine...

I have system that is somewhat new: dual core, 4GB RAM, 500 SATA HDD, etc.

I also have a system that I collected from cast-offs and the trash: Athlon XP2000+ CPU, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, etc. that I use for things like dual boot experiments and anything else that is likely to end in a mess when I try it the first time.

Might you not start to ask any and all within reach about any old computer parts they have or can find to build a try-it-out rig?

th1bill · 06-30-2009, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorkelljarl

The other machine...

I have system that is somewhat new: dual core, 4GB RAM, 500 SATA HDD, etc.

I also have a system that I collected from cast-offs and the trash: Athlon XP2000+ CPU, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, etc. that I use for things like dual boot experiments and anything else that is likely to end in a mess when I try it the first time.

Might you not start to ask any and all within reach about any old computer parts they have or can find to build a try-it-out rig?

I do eed t do that but every time I get one up and running there is some student that has no money and I end up giving it away.

I used gparted ad reduced the size of my Ubuntu install by 13 gig and I installed openSUSE there but I was never given the option to place the boot into the root, so now I have a SUSE boot system and will need to correct that because it only offers me one option for booting Ubuntu and it looks to me like each time I update and the kernel is changed that I'm going to need to learn to find the menu and rewrite it.

I have also found that SUSE 11.1 has networking problems and it looks like it will need to be configured by hand. I'll check back here but it looks like I need a tutorial to pass alon to the souls that might go with SUSE and I need to figure out what to do with my MBR to point it to the grub in ubuntu.

yancek · 06-30-2009, 10:52 PM

During your installation of Openssue 11.1, the option as to where to install the bootloader comes after you are instructed to set root password.
You then get a screen with the following options, click the + to the left of any and get an expanded tree with options. Clicking Booting gives your disk partition layout as well as several choices as to where you want the bootloader installed.
System: Partitioning: Booting: Keyboard Layout: TimeZone: Default Runlevel:

It's not clear whether you are booting from the Grub in Ubuntu or Opensuse? If you can boot Opensuse run command: "fdisk -l" (without quotes, lower case Letter L) and post this partition information here so someone can tell you what to put in your menu.lst file. If you are booting from Ubuntu, change the command to: sudo fdisk -l.

th1bill · 07-01-2009, 07:02 AM

Since I'm going to need to configure my network setting, SUSE install did not detect, I've booted Ubuntu from the openSUSE grub. Following are the results for the fdisk command in Ubuntu. If you need them from SUSE I'll copy them and type on rebooting Ubuntu and again, thanks for your time and trouble.

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfb82fb82

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 7670 61609243+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9328 9729 3229065 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 * 7671 9327 13309852+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 9328 9729 3229033+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
th1bill@th1bill-desktop:~$