Problems installing SuSE 9.1
 

-- Ok, this is now going to be my only thread in regards to my problems with installing SuSE 9.1, and all future probs. It can be merged with my other thread about SuSE if necessary.

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Ok - BAD BAD NEWS.

Well, I popped the CD in. Chose "Installation", let everything load. Finally it came to the graphical installed and I chose all the settings, got my USB mouse to work, selected how much I wanted to go to Windows and how much for Linux. Selected what software I wanted to be installed.... I clicked Install and it started resizing my Windows partition; so I went away to do other stuff.

Came back a few times to check on it, and it was at 20%, then I came back again and it was 40%... then a bit later I came back and it was on 40% still, but it was going through one of my folders which has 5mb worth of content and I saw it was going slowly. Came back a bit later, and a big red screen met my eye with in yellow writing saying there was an error. I clicked ok, and it took me back to a menu which allowed me to start the install again or do other stuff.

So, what should I do? I then took the CD out and restarted... Windows hung at the Win 98SE screen and there were black lines all over it. I then put in the SuSE CD and restarted; I selected "Boot from Hard Disk" and it booted Windows; at least Windows booted properly this time.

So WHAT should I do? I need to leave for the shops in a tad. Should I put it back in, and start it up again and leave for the shops or what?

Thanks. Much appreciated!! :)


PS: Could it be that I defragged yesterday morn but went on later that night on the net and didn't defrag again before installing?

How much free hard drive space is on your windows system?
Also, it is probably best to defrag before installing. If you have problems defragging, boot windows into safe mode and then defrag.

Good luck!

I've a 40GB hard-drive, and only use 6gb currently on Windows. Of course the whole drive is dedicated to Windows though at the moment.

Someone else told me that the defrag wouldn't have done caused an error since I haven't installed any new programs; just used currently installed ones.

The problem with defrag is it takes hours. I'd need to start up tomorrow, defrag and then only the day after install SuSE.


I'm going to try again, and see if I get the error again. I don't actually know what the error was, as it didn't say - It just said there was an error. Is there anyway to find out what the error was?

Thanks. :)

The nice thing about linux, is just like unix, and after both linux and unix, windows nt and it's successors. It keeps a log of everything. However, it doesn't help that the log would probably have first been stored on the linux ram disk during the install, and then transferred over to the linux partition after it has been created.

the best thing you should probably do, is resize the partition with a different partition manager, like Ranesh partition manager (it's downloadable at sourceforge.) Then, after resizing your windows partition, attempt your suse Linux install.

Ok... well, I'll try with SuSE again and see if I've any errors there. If not, I'll try and download that program if it's not too big since I'm on 56k, otherwise I'll pop out to purchase a copy of PartitionMagic and use that.

I'll try installing it again and see what happens.

Really disappointed in Linux so far. I'm not one of those who wants everything to be an easy plug-n-play, however I would like it to simply install easily. I'd love to learn how to compile, and learn the command line code... however so far it's proving very difficult due to the installation problems.

I tried it again, and with no luck. I put it in, clicked Install and went to throw the rubbish out and left it to partition my hard drive and install SuSE. I came back, and it came up with the same error as last time. It doesn't say WHAT the error is. All it says is "There was an error with the installation." - Nothing more, nothing less.

Any help with this?

Thanks. :)

Here are a couple of thoughts but I need more info from you. I don't have enough detail to figure out your proplem.

First of all how is your disk paritioned and formatted?

What partitions did SuSE try to set up?

Are you using a store bought copy of suse, a burned download, or FTP install?

What kind of hardware do you have?

I don't think its wise to parition from the install particularly if you have ntfs partitions. In my view its best to set them up in advance. Particularly if you have access to partition magic. It works very well.

Resizing nfts partisions to make room for another can be a real problem. I don't trust the installer to do this right.

It's FAT32, not NFTS. At the moment it's all for Windows.


It said that Windows would be on hda1, and Linux would be on hda2 and hda3. Root would be on hda3 and something else would be on hda2; cannot remember what however it was only 500mb.


I bought a copy of it off of someone who burned it.


I've a Fujitsu-Siemens hard drive, a MATSHITA DVD-ROM SR-8174, a Lucent LT WinModem, 500 megahertz Intel Pentium III, Generic floppy disk drive (3.5"), 256 Megabytes Installed Memory, Board: FIC A430/A450 Mass Production.



So what should I do? Don't really want to forget about Linux and continue using Windows, but at this rate it may seem like I'll have to do this. :(

I am by no means a pro linux user. So, keep that in mind.

I think that your problems may stem from partitioning errors, although it is odd that there was progress before an error message arose. Maybe it is the CD. (it may be the fat32 filesystem, also)

The only error message I encountered on installation of SuSe was partitioning related, and that was because I hadn't specified which partitions to be erased and used. Conveniently I had already had my partitions resized with MandrakeMove.

the 500mb partition (hda2) is your swap drive.

I installed by FTP. ftp.suse.com Maybe try that. Get a boot disk and restart your comp. Install your network card module. Then install from /pub/suse/i386/current

If this is your first installation, just know that its going to take awhile, and, most likely, it will be a negative experience. It was for me. But if you do it successfully once, successive times get a WHOLE lot easier.

Don't forget to select the packages you want to install with SuSe.

And don't give up!

Well, you don't have to give up that easy. Even if you can't get SuSE to run there are other options. With you system specs Mandrake might be a better option. I find that SuSE can be a bit demanding as far as hardwre goes. A PIII 500 might be a little slow for good performance.

I hoped you remembered to back up any important documents before doing that. If not do it right now before you do anything else.

So did I understand right that this error came up while you were trying to resize the paritition? I'm suprised that you can get on your hard drive at all right now. How much of your drive is now accesible from windows? The whole thing or just part? I have'nt used windows 98 in a long time but as I recall if you open my computer or windows explorer (the file manager not the web browser) and right click on the c drive icon there is a menu item called properties. That should tell you how big the fat32 partition is.

I think that either the drive was to fragmented to partition right, there were bad sectors or just some file errors. After you back up important files you need to run a fulll scandisk with checking badsectors and then run defrag. It also could be that you have a swap file or something in the middle of it that doesn't want to move. IF this computere is a compaq or something that puts hidden bios and/or other things on the hard drive it gets even more comlicated.

IF you have or can get acces to the program partiition magic that would really help you now. You could setup and resize your partitions from there. It will also check for and fix any errors that might have been created from Suse resiziing. Second best would be to get a hold of the latest Knoppix live disk or one of the recent betas of Mepis. Both of this are Linux version that run off a CD and can give you acces to tools to set up your drive and see possible problems. But then after you run the disk utilities in windows, if they fix any drive errors and you find that it was seriously fragmented (though I doubt that with only 6gigs in use) you might find that suse partitioning works fine.

There also could be a problem with the cd you were given. In that case ftp install would be better. But that is only an option if you have access to high speed internet.

Let me know where things are at after you back up files, check how big a partitiion is usable from windows, and run windows disk utilities. Let me know the results of all that and I'll help you with the next best step then.

Yeah. I too think that it's to do with partitioning. I tried again, and sat in front of the screen... at 40% it just stopped, went to a black screen and then to a red one saying "Error".


Should I maybe purchase Mandrake 10 Official (It'd be download edition, 5 CD pack and would only cost £6 inc shipping) and see if that works? I only really wanted SuSE because I heard it'd work with my modem, and I saw a topic here with another user who has the same modem as me working in SuSE linux.


I'm on 56k, so it's kinda hard to download and burn an ISO, and too long/difficult to do an FTP install.


Yeah I know. Kinda frustrating though. :P Was well worried when I saw the red screen saying "Error" and then seeing black lines all over the screen with "Windows 98" on.
I definitely want to use Linux no matter what; I've had so many problems with Windows that this small thing won't put me off Linux at all. I've been wanting to switch to Linux for ages, however haven't really had the umph, and after my last set of problems with Windows I just made the decision to purchase SuSE.


Don't worry, I won't! ;)
I've been using Knoppix quite a bit, and really like it. Runs off the CD though and is pretty slow due to it in KDE. Would love to have an actual installed Linux distro.


Should I then place an order for Mandrake 10 Official Download Edition? I've a 56k so think downloading it would take too long. It'd only cost me £6 inc. shipping and all so I don't mind. Only reason, as I said above, that I chose SuSE was due to the modem. I've a Lucent LT WinModem, how easy would it be to get it working with Mandrake 10 Official?


I've all my important documents on ZIP disks. To be honest, if me laptop and ZIP disks burnt down it wouldn't really matter, hehe, I've also got it all stored online. Everything that I don't have copied isn't important; and I also keep all of my work in hard copy so no real problems.


Yes, it came up while I was trying to resize the partition. It got to 40%, then just hung there for about 20 minutes... a black screen popped up for a few seconds, then a red one saying "Error.".
As far as I'm aware, my whole hard drive is accessible in Windows. Right clicked on the C: drive, and then selected Properties; it said Capacity was 37.2GB, being used was 6.37GB and free was 30.8GB - So it'd seem the whole drive is accessible.


I'll re-backup all my important files on Sunday since tomorrow I've visitors. After I back up, I'll run the scan disk and then defrag. Should I do this all in Safe Mode?
How do I find out if I have a swap or something in the middle that doesn't want to move? What I'll do is after backing everything up, I'll delete the folder which it hung on to see if maybe that was the problem.
My laptop is a Medion; I'm not sure if they have hidden bios' or anything like that.


I might ask around to see if a friend has it. It'd be waste as I think it's something like £40; especially if I'm only going to use it once. I have Knoppix 3.3 or 3.2 I think is. Not sure of the version, however I do have an older version (no older than 3.2); would I be able to do the stuff in that or do I NEED the latest version which is 3.4 as far as I'm aware.


An FTP install isn't possible, I'm only on 56k. Do you think it is the CD or something else?



I'd do defrag and all that tomorrow, or even tonight... however it takes well over a few hours to defrag my system, which is why I'd rather wait till Sunday when the visitors are gone. It'd be much better then.

Thanks for all of your help. It's much appreciated. :)

Well you don't necessarily need to reback up the files if you already did.

Yeah its not worth the money to run out and buy partition magic unless you are a PC pro. But you should be able to do this with Knoppix. There is a program called QParted that I know was on the last version of Knoppix but I think was on earlier versions as well. After you do the defrag and all boot that sucker up and look for qparted. You can try typing that command in a konsole after you boot up and see if it runs anything. That should easily resize the partition for you. If you get that program running and it shows that you already have more than one partition you're gonna wanna proceed with caution though. You may have a little free space left from the failed resize. Also, if you can't get this and can't get PM you can consider just deleting the partition and reninstalling windows. There is a text based program that will resize but its a tough one to use.

You can make your windows partition whatever size you want. Then make two logical partitions. One would be twice the amount of ram you have and you format as a linux swap. The other is just the rest of the drive with ext3 or rieserfs. If you can make those you are all set. Suse will install to them easily.

Since you already have Suse you should try it before going to mandrake. It may work fairly well. Particularly if you run a lower memory windows manager like XFCE instead of KDE or Gnome. If SUSE seems to slow give Mandrake a try. Or slackware if you think you can handle it. I think SUSE is the best for a Linux beginer though.

Anyhow, the problem you had more likely has to do with some errors on your disk or shortcomings in the SuSe partition resizer than a bad disk. A bad cd would fail 40% through the install not 40% through the partition resize.

eBopBob - unless I'm missing something very obvious, the problem here is that all 40G of space on your 40G drive are already allocated to Windows. There is no disk space available to install Linux into, and that is why it fails. What you need to do is to repartition your drive so that you reduce the amount of space that is allocated to Windows, and thereby create space into which you can install Linux.

The critical question is: Have you successfully resized your Windows partition so that it occupying less space on the hard drive? Until the answer is Yes, there's no point in attempting the Linux installation because there is no room to install it into -- 100% of your drive is already allocated to Windows, even if you are only actually using 6G out of the 40G. Thus, and at the risk of describing something that you already are fully aware of, you need to make disk space available to your Linux system.

Using your 40G drive to illustrate this process, suppose it currently is set up so that all 40G appear as the C:\ drive but you decide that you want to create a logical D:\ drive. To do this, you would first defragment your C:\ drive in order to create the maximum amount of contiguous free space, then use a partitioning tool to resize your existing C:\ drive to, say, 20G, and then you would give define the newly available 20G as the [logical] D:\ drive. This would give you 20G for the C:\ drive and 20G for the D:\ drive. (Along these lines, if you now right clicked on the C:\ drive, you would see that you are using 6G out of 20G with 14G free.)

In order to install Linux, you would want to do basically the same thing, but you don't really want to keep the D:\ drive because you need that space to install Linux into. Therefore, you would want to drop the D:\ drive, leaving it as unallocated space. At the end of this procedure, of the 40G total that you have on your disk, 20G would be allocated to Windows, and 20G would be unallocated.

NOW you are ready to start the Suse installation, and one of the first steps would be to partition that unallocated space however you wanted under Linux. Once you make the disk space available to Suse, the installation should proceed normally.

Again, if I have missed or overlooked any relevant points in this thread, my apologies, but at least from what has been described thus far, the basic problem here appears to simply be that you are attempting to install Linux onto a disk that has no available (meaning unallocated) space. -- J.W.

Well, I'll do it again - It's quick via Zip Disk; and it'll also allow me to go through all of my files and sort out what I need and what I don't. Then I'll be sure that I've backed it all up, and be able to delete the folder SuSE had difficulty resizing.


Does QParted have a graphical interface, or must it all be done via the command line? If it must all be done via the command line, will it tell me how much is here and how much is there?


I'm guessing this would have been caused due to SuSE not partitioning my hard drive correctly, eh? What should I do in a case like this?


Well, if it comes to the fact I'd need to uninstall Windows, I think I'd then just install Linux totally on the whole hard drive without having Windows; but before I do something like this I MUST find my driver CDs for Windows; then I'd be willing to install Linux on the whole hard drive.


SuSE tried to make a partition which was 500mb, but I've 256mb ram... so shouldn't it have been 512mb? Or not?


Yes, I've seen screenshots of XFCE and quite like it. I also like KDE though; mostly because it is very aesthetically pleasing. However in the end when I learn more and am better at using Linux, I could even use something like Fluxbox or IceWM; just need time to better myself at Linux before I use something more basic such as that.


I've only dabbled before with Knoppix; not much. Just checking it out, trying a few commands to see how the Command Line works. I know there is someone here who started with Slackware and he said it helped him a lot in the long run; but again my main concern is my modem. I don't mind the graphics card not working 100% however it's pretty important that I have my modem working; may end up purchasing a external one that works though if needs be. It'd help too when I get a new PC which'll probably have a WinModem too.


Ok, thanks for that. :)
This is what I'll do then: Tomorrow when the visitors leave, I'll boot up Windows, back up everything important and delete the folder it hung on, and do ScanDisk and Defragment (Should I do this in Safe Mode or just in normal mode?), then I'll pop SuSE in again and see if it works then right after I do a defragment as last time I defragmented the morning before I tried to install. On Sunday night I'll let you know the results, who knows, maybe I'll be posting using SuSE instead of Windows! :D (I hope! :P)

Hi there J.W.,

Ok - Well, what I did was pop in the SuSE Pro 9.1 CD1, then select "Installation" and then it loaded YaST. Then I selected all my options, which was just checking that everything was chosen correctly and select that I've a USB mouse and not a PS/2 or Serial one.

Then it has only two options: "Abort" and "Install". When you click "Install", it firstly resizes and partitions the hard-drive and then after it has done that successfully, it will install SuSE 9.1 Pro; so even though it says "Install" to click, it firstly partitions the hard drive and then installs, however SuSE cannot partition my hard drive correctly so it's no where near the stage of installation.

SuSE said it will partition my hard drive as 16.6GB for Windows, and 20.1GB for Linux and 500mb for SWAP. Now the problem is, at 40% of the resizing and partitioning stage, it just cuts out and says "Error".

Sorry if there was any confusion or misunderstanding. :)