OpenSuSE 10.3 failing to uninstall openSuSE installer from the windows boot
 

Yesterday I installed openSuSE 10.3 starting from Windows Vista. The installation guide (= opensuse103_startup.pdf, downloaded from novell.com) said that after reboot openSuSE installer would start.

Everything worked fine during installation from DVD, the 10.3 distribution runs well, the bootloader GRUB comes up after booting. Choosing SuSE 10.3 works quite fine, but choosing windows restarts the openSUSE installer again (but I want be able reboot Vista!).

The startup guide promised (in section 1.2.3) that when Microsoft Windows is booted again, instlux is automatically
uninstalled. Obviously this is not the case.

What I can see from the windows boot screen is that the commands listed in the GRUB menu.lst (title windows) are being executed, afterwards a screen with the header "windows-start-manager" comes up, then the openSUSE Installer v.3.0.30 starts.

Since I've got no Vista DVD (recovery version), I would like to know if there is any possibility to remove the installation program and to tell windows to boot again. It seems to me that the problem does not really lie with openSUSE with the menu.lst entries being executed, but more with the windows boot sequence.

I had close look on the windows folders and there is a second file menu.lst in the folder /windows/C/ (must have been created in Vista by the installation program:

hiddenmenu.
timeout 0
title openSUSE 10.3 installer (LOCAL).
find --set-root /openSUSE_hitme.txt
kernel /openSUSE/linux devfs=mount,dall
ramdisk_size=65536 lang=de splash=silent vga=0x31A
initrd /openSUSE/initrd

If I change the entries, would that be any possibility? Should I change any other entries in windows startup files?

Thank you in advance

could you please copy the last section of the file
/boot/grub/menu.lst
to a post...

even with vista, this should contain the lines

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

entry in menu.lst
 

The entry in the menu.lst is currently as follows

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1


and fdisk -l says

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7eb2c1c8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 643 5156864 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 643 10006 75207680 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 10007 14593 36845077+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 10007 10198 1542208+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 10199 11974 14265688+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 11975 14593 21037086 83 Linux


Lucens

ok, next thing to try (viewing your drive, it has a recovery partition) doing a recovery of vista..
i know you just installed linux, but we can recover linux easier than windows...
so if you can try to do a D2D recovery using the appropriate command for your pc...
Next is to remove the installer...hopefully you should be able to do this in safe mode...
cant help you with the commands as i am not windows fluent, especially vista...
if need be you can even remove the mbr and allow windows to boot(you can reinstall the bootloader to mbr in linux, with ease...)...

Hey guys, i'm very new here, and I just want to introduce myself.

I was browsing the net, and after about 3 hours I stumbled upon this thread. It has the exact same problem as I do. I tried to install opensuse 11.0 via the installer in windows, and long story short I cannot make a bootloader like grub or lilo from the opensuse installer. Therefore everytime I boot it will straight away go to the installer - even if I select to launch vista. How do I remove the installer so I can boot back into windows?

Thanks immensely for any help.

As you are a newbie, like myself, I would recommend to you to use a Vista-Recovery DVD. It simply restores Vista's bootsector without touching GRUB, so afterwards you should be able to choose between openSuSE and Vista.

Best wishes, :-)
Lucens