Hello,
I'm trying to make my first steps with Linux, and currently facing troubles installing it.

I have an ASUS Laptop (N55SF)- Processor: 8x Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @2.20GHz - RAM: 6 GB- Hard Disk: 750 GB - OS: Windows 7

before i started the installation i partioned my Hard Disk as follows:
- under windows 7 i shrunk my C: OS partition to 166 GB (impossible to shrink more according to windows Partitioning tool)
- using GParted i moved my D:/ DATA partition just next to C:/ and resized it to 400GB
- using GParted i created a new Partition 107 GB and i plan to install openSUSE 12.1 on it

- then i followed the instructions to create a bootable usb stick
- i booted from it
- pressed F4 and choosed Hard Disk
- typed namescheme=by-label
- during the system analysis, and when it reached "search for Linux parttions", the following warning poped-up
YaST2
The partitioning on disk /dev/sdb is not readable by the partitioning tool parted, which is used to change the partition table.
You can use the partitions on disk dev/sdb as they are.
You can format them and assign mount points to them, but you cannot add, edit, resize, or remove partitions from that disk with with this tool.

- i pressed OK and followed the setup instructions (new installation- Region/Time Zone- KDE Desktop)
- The suggested partitioning was as follows

• Delete partition /dev/sda1 (25.00 GB)
• Delete Windows partition /dev/sda2 (166.09 GB). Resize impossible due to inconsistent fs. Try checking fs under Windows
• Delete Windows partition /dev/sda3 (400.00 GB). Resize impossible due to inconsistent fs. Try checking fs under Windows
• Delete Windows partition /dev/sda2 (107.55 GB). Resize impossible due to inconsistent fs. Try checking fs under Windows
• Create swap volume /dev/sda1 (2.01 GB)
• Create root volume /dev/sda2 (20.00 GB)
• Create volume /dev/sda3 (676.63 GB) for /home with ext4

- I of course didn't accept it and proceeded as follow

- Create Partition Setup
- Checked "1.IDE Disk, 698.64 GB, /dev/sda, ST9750423AS" - Next
- Checked the 4th (last) hard disk "107.55 GB", HPFS/NTFS (/dev/sda4) - Next

- the new Suggested Partitioning was the following:

• Delete Windows partition /dev/sda4 (107.55 GB)
• Create extended partition /dev/sda4 (107.55 GB)
• Create swap volume /dev/sda5 (2.01 GB)
• Create root volume /dev/sda6 (20.00 GB)
• Create volume /dev/sda7 (85.54 GB) for /home with ext4
• set mount point of /dev/sda2 to /windows/C
• set mount point of /dev/sda3 to /windows/D

- i proceeded through the edit Partition Setup to unmout the C drive, and kept the D drive mounted to use it as shared drive between W7 and SUSE.- Next
- filled the Create New User fields - Next
- under the installation settings, the Booting section was as follow:
The bootloader is installed on a partition that does not lie entirely below 128 GB. The system might not boot if BIOS support only lba24 (result error 18 during install grub MBR)

• Boot Loader Type: GRUB
• Status Location: /dev/sda4 (extended)
• Change Location:
  • Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
  • Boot from "/" partition is disabled (enable)
• Sections:
  • openSUSE 12.1 (default)
  • windows 1
  • windows 2
  • Linux other
  • Failsafe -- openSUSE 12.1
• order of Hard Disks: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb

- i pressed Install

The installation was doing fine in the beginning, until it reached 39% where it has been blocked for about half an hour; i tried to abort but the interface wasn't responding, and at the end i had no choice than using the power button to force a shutdown.

After that i re-used GParted to remove the partitions created by SUSE installer, and re-created a new formatted partition, which i can see now under W7 as E:, and thought that it would be better if i post my problem in this forum before re-trying.

Is-there any thing wrong with my installation procedure?

I'm struggling since yesterday morning and yet didn't succeed my SUSE installation

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards

It's hard to guess what might have happened. Did you select ext4 filesystem for the root partition, sda6 as it is indicated in your output. Could you boot the Opensuse CD and click the Menu tab to get a konsole or terminal window open, login as root with: su, hit the enter key and entery: fdisk -l (Lower case Letter L in the command) and post it here. It will show your current partition info.

In the Live Installation Settings, you can access more info by clicking on any of the headings, System, Partitioning, Booting, etc.

Thank you for the help !

I rebooted using the usb stick, and chose check installation Media - entered the settings and configured it to open the shell before and after YaST (i'm not sure what u meant by " Menu tab"), i got the shell and typed " fdisk -l", this's what i got:

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes/4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa383324

http://data.imagup.com/10/1148214041.png

Disk /dev/sdb: 8011 MB, 8011120640 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7640 cylinders, total 15646720 sectors
Units= sectors of 1*512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes/512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3d3e118f

http://data.imagup.com/10/1148214200.png

Disk /dev/sdb1: 4628 MB, 4628414464 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 4414 cylinders, total 9039872 sectors
Units= sectors of 1*512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes/512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3d3e118f

http://data.imagup.com/11/1148214249.png
___________________________________________________________

I noticed after executing this command that my hard disk capacity is 750 GB, however the sum of all my partitions (including the RECOVERY) is less than 700 GB, where is the missing 50 GB ??


NB:
- In the beginning i was using a DVD to install SUSE, but it was very slow and it was pausing and hanging (sometimes it hangs at 6% !)- with the bootable usb stick the installation got much faster but again hangs on 39%.

- As mentioned on my previous post, after the installation failure i booted on GParted - removed all the partitions created by openSUSE and re-created a new formatted partition (107 GB), so there's no sda6 any more.

Sorry for the links, i've fixed them !

The first image you posted shows sda partitions. You have four partitions, all of which show windows filesystems which take up the entire drive. During the installation process of Opensuse you will need to change this to a Linux filesystem, the default being ext4. Installing Opensuse to an ntfs filesystem won't work. You will be given the option to select the filesystem type as well as the mount point during the installation.

If you have the standard Opensuse installation CD on a flash drive, you should have several options on boot including something like Try it or use as a Live CD. When you select that option, which probably is the default, you boot to a Desktop where you should see the Suse green Gecko icon in the extreme lower left as well as an install icon on the Desktop.

When you boot the Opensuse flash drive to begin the install, you should first see the License Agreement, then the time zone selection. After that you get the Suggested Partitioning window. Select Edit Partition Setup and you should get a new window showing your partitions. Right click on the partition you want to use (sda4??, don't know which) and you will see a pop-up giving you options including Edit which you select. You should see a new window where you need to select Format and set the fileystem type (ext4) and a check box to format. Make sure you get the right partition because formatting is going to destroy any data on that partition. You will need to set a mount point for the root filesystem which is indicated by this symbol: /, the forward slash. Review and if things are what you want, click the Finish tab. You should be back at the Suggested Partitioning window and the changes you made should now show in the window. If it is right, click the Next tab and you are at the Live Installation Settings page where you can review everything again before making any changes by clicking on the heading, System, Partitioning, etc... If you click on Booting, you get another page with a number of different options for the bootloader.

If the DVD and flash both hang, did you do an md5checksum to verify the download was good before creating the iso image?

yes i did the md5 and sha1 checksums and they were good.

Well this link explains every thing, it's a compatibility issue, openSUSE 12.1 won't work with my ASUS N55SF, i was relatively "lucky" to figure it out early (Mano61 wasted 10 days, and didn't come to a solution ...).

So i guess i've to stuck with W7

Thank you for your time, and i've just 1 last question: is it possible to get my missing 50 GB back?

Some space if used by the filesystem and some sectors may be bad. I won't really try to explain because I'm not really knowledgeable on the subject. You might search here at LQ or google for an explanation. I bought a computer with one 320GB drive in it and from the start, it would show as 298GB so...?

this's an explanation for the missing space.