Hi.
I have 2 problems. Getting wireless connections and Partitioning the first of the dual HD's. I have Suse Linux installed in the secondary h.d. as I could not partition drive C: using Partition Magic 8. I have never experienced this problem before. However h.d. F: responded to Partition Magic so I installed it on the secondary 120GB HD. Total Hard Drive space =240GB.

This seems a waste since WindowsXP only occupies about 1/8 of hard drive C: Why wont HP let me utilize the wasted space? How can I change this. It seems a waste to spend so much on a laptop and not being able to do what you want to do ! I contacted hp support they were uncooperative, misinformed, unknowleageable. I believe I had to define Linux to one Tech.

If anyone can recommend a better, more Linux friendly laptop... I would greatly appreciate it. I can still return this one if Im not satisfied.

Thank you .... Steve

I have an HP dv8235nr w/ 2 100 G Hds. However, i left 1st hd for Win (about to change that, it's a waste of space) and Suse on second hd. I used the suse partitioner not PM, but didn't notice any any probs about the first hd being untouchable. and not to insult, was windows swap off? do you also have that 10g HP recovery drive? I am about to wipe it and defrag the rest, then use the suse partitioner to resise the drive. so i guess i'll find out if it's a HP prob, i'll let you know.

as to linux frendly, above poss. problem aside, there's nothing that doesn't work on mine. i suppose you have another post @ wireless as you said nothing else about here, i'll look.

anything else?

didn't find a post @ wireless. Which card and whats the prob? suse 10.1 worked great w the ipw3945. only major ghost was the hardware radio kill switch(the one top center for wireless on/off). make sure wireless is on in windows as this button doesn't work in linux. it's a hardware RF_Kill switch.

Thanks...

Sorry, I didn't see the wireless forum. I will go there soon.

I didn't know that windows had a swap partition. Could you tell me what to look for to find it?

Yes. Similar to yours I have a 14GB backup partition on Windows H.D.

The wireless device in my laptop is: Itell(R)PRO wireles 3945ABG (hope this helps)

When I brought my HPdv8000 home, I started to install the Suse10.1 DVD. Changing the boot sequence to "BOOT FROM CD/DVD-R/W DEVICE". It would not boot. Windows started anyway! I couldn't even start Knoppix 4.02 Live! I tried Partition Magic8 on C: Nothing... Then I tried Partitioning the second H.D. I was successfull at making a Partition. I then formatted it with Linux ext3. Success! Suse installed!

I guess I could try qtparted to alter the C: Drive. I had difficulty finding the program on Suse10.1.

Question#1: What partition holds the valuble laptop device drivers?
#2:Why did Suse used the entire drive 120GB? It is split in 1/2. The second partion is a backup for Suse.

P.Magic says that all of the disk space is being used. So I'm stuck with only one Linux distro on a laptop with 240GB !

Steve

aha, i just remembered 1 problem i had with the install. the laptop uses a bios enabled sata excelorator, turn it off in the bios. The install wouldnt work with it on.(suse still reads faster than windows so don't worry) then Suse sees all.(this might mean a new install if your going to reformat much)


windozz swap is a file that i puts at the end of the drive its on so it's imposs. to shrink with it on. its not a seperate partition. you turn it off somewhere in My Computer i think.

Suse will use all space available to it UNLESS you tell it not to.

If your planning on trying more than 1 distro on the laptop do a new install (sata bios thing taken care of).

after turning off windoz swap and a dfrag. boot the Suse install dvd. use it to shrink Win. to the size you need for Win. The rest is a preferance thing. you do need a swap drive, common is twice your ram. if you want other distros the same swap will be used by them. then you will want a common data partition to be used by all. If you use windows, it's also nice to have a..say 10G partition of Fat32 that Win and linux can use for data you want to be accessable by both.

I don't know how much you know about the file structure or mount points in/of linux. so,before you start look around here or in the Suse admin guide about it.

mine is like this(soon to change a bit) 1st hd win
2nd hd 10G for /
1G for swap
rest for /home

we could go into that more later after you read up a bit.

oh, there is no partition with device drivers.Those are all contained in the system/kernel modules

does that help?

Hi,

I also have a HP dv8000 and am attempting to install Linux but the hdd partitioning scheme really makes me uneasy.

I wanted originally to install Suse 10.0 64 bit because it has the disk partition resizing tools build into the installer, but it dies after loading the kernel, no matter what modifiers you pass to it on boot.

Strangely enough, Ubuntu and Kubuntu 64 bit boot fine from a live CD; go figure...

Anyway, I found the Gparted live CD and downloaded that with the hopes of repartitioning the 80 GB hdd, but the listed partitions scare me.

/dev/hda1/ NTFS 60.79 GB boot
unallocated 7.84 MB
/dev/hda2/ Fat32 12.72 GB LBA
/dev/hda3/ NTFS 1GB

I assume hda1 is the main ntfs/boot partition and the fat32 partition is the system restore partition, but am unsure what the 1GB partition is unless it is some sort of windows swap partition that can't be seen from Windows.

I am worried that if I use Gparted to resize hda1 to 40 GB and leave 20GB for Linux, it might somehow munge my ability to use the recovery partition.

I also assume I should only clear the space from the end of the partition, right?

Any suggestions?

Also,this laptop has 2 drive bays and I have only 1 hdd, so I am thinking of stuffing the 2nd bay with a spare 40GB hdd laying around; could I leave the first hdd alone and boot Linux from the 2nd hdd?

Thanks for the help.

Kino,
well I guess you have the AMD version, Mine is an Intel Duo and as such I have no experience with the 64bit version. I will say this however, 10.1 is better than 10.0 (somehow with Suse, the odds are always better than the evens and especially with this release) 10.0 (32)would not install on my laptop either. 10.1 rocks.

The ubuntu is a live CD which is different than an install.

I have always used the suse resize partition with great success. to me, using its simple slider too change a windows partions size is easier than Gparted.

I believe the 1G partition is the QuickPlay system. I have it too. Mind you, if you install Grub into MBR, it will no longer work. You could use it as a swap.

Hda2 fat IS the system restore. I now use it for cross os storage. I don't know if restore works after so many changes in the drives dont see why not tho. Just do a sys. snapshot for it after the changes. To be honest i have very little need or care or use for windows so...

Mine has dual drives. Suse is on the second. If you have another drive you can pop in the empty bay...I don't know why you haven't put it in allready.!

With Win. turn off swap and do a defrag before install. Win. is at the start of the drive so...And I believe Gparted as well as Suse Know where win. is. It goes for the free space (thats why you turn off swap, win puts it at the end of the drive)

Osbie,

Yeah, I have the Turion64 chip version; sorry, I should have said that...

I'll try the 10.1 release tonight; I got the 10.0 64 bit version, as there was information that the installer was broken in 10.1, but after reading up on it, it seems a fairly easy fix.

Quickplay? I think I can live without that; I bought this laptop because it was the only reasonably priced laptop I could find with dedicated graphics memory. I used to have a Sony Vaio with a Nvidia card I loved but the crappy wave soldering on the RAM buss caused it to die an early death. Wish they would offer an Nvidea card with this laptop, as I don't really care for ATI.

Thanks for all the tips; hope this install works...

OK, I guess I am going to have to ask some basic, dumb questions, but the documentation that comes with this unit SUCKS and HP is NO HELP whatsoever...

If I install the 2nd hdd and put Suse 10.1 there, I still have to install Grub to boot off the second drive, right?

The reason I was asking is that if you hit "esc" during the HP boot splash, it will give you a boot menu that says something like 1. Floppy 2. CD drive 3. Hard drive + 4. network. Does #3 mean it will attempt to boot the 2nd hdd before the 1st? If not, what the heck does the "+" mean?

I am a bit confused as to why they have that menu in there anyway, because it doesn't have a floppy, will boot from the dvd/cd drive first ANYWAY if you have a bootable image disk in and Windows network booting? What, are they trying to get into the thin client side of computing?

Thanks again; I wish HP had better docs somewhere for this machine...