Installing Suse 9.1 on a dual hard drive computer
 

Hi all,

I'm a Linux newbie with a bit of Unix experience. I recently got the Suse 9.1 distro, and would like to install it on a computer that has two hard drives. i currently have a 6 gig drive dedicated to Windoze 2K, and a second 30 gig drive reserved for Linux.

When I boot off the Suse 9.1 CD, it wants to install on my Windoze drive. There is an option to enter a command script, but i don't know enogh Linux to enter the correct command(s) to install Linux on the second drive.

Can anyone point me toward a howto that will help me create my desired configuration? In return, you can ask me any and all questions regarding audio, as I am an ex recording engineer.

Thanks in advance for your help!

It should give you the option of which to install to. Do you understand the logic of linux drives?

/dev/hda = primary IDE master
/dev/hdb = primary IDE slave
/dev/hdc = secondary IDE master
/dev/hdd = secondary IDE slave

If it says it is going to "mount" the windows drive it only means that it will make it so SuSE can read from it...not format it. and If none of this helped just take out the windows drive...that way you know you will not erase it. But SuSE 9.0 asked me where to install...it seems wierd that 9.1 would have changed

does it see both drives or just the one?

>Do you understand the logic of linux drives?
Now I do (grin). Thanks!

I chose a different install option - "install with safe settings" or some such, rather than just "install". It now gives me the prompt: "Resize Windows partition D: (dev/hdb1) from 29.7GB to 9.3GB"

This seems correct - as my C: drive is a 6.3GB unit.
I have it set up for:
C: = Win 2K/Pri master/6.3GB/dev hda/Quantum Fireball
D: = Linux/Pri slave/29.7GB/dev hdb/Quantum Fireball
Sheer luck they're matched drives (grin).

The installer also seems to want to chop up /dev hdb. It says:
"Create swap partition 500.0MB on /dev hdb2"
"Create root partition 18.1GB (/dev/hdb3 with reiser)"
**What's reiser?**
"Set mount point of /dev/hda1 to /windows/C"

All of which sounds OK to me in my newbie ignorance.

>If it says it is going to "mount" the windows drive it only >means that it will make it so SuSE can read from it...not >format it.
Cool!

>does it see both drives or just the one?
Seems to see both.

All my data is safely backed up, no stuff to lose, except the time to re-image the Windoze side, if it burps.

FWIW, I'm swapping back and forth between two 'puters to do this - with a nifty little KVM (Kybd/Video/Mouse) switcher that only costs $35 - made by IOGear. I'm here on the forum with a plain vanilla Win 98 workhorse, while setting up the dual boot unit. Makes the job WAY easier!

cool. a swap partition is like virtual memory in windows. reiser is a file system, like NTFS, or FAT. and the / partition i sthe same as the c:\ drive in windows. Anything else you don't understand yet?

ACK! I tried the "safe install". Linux went in smooth as butter, and even saw the Internet right away through my router, and DSL modem.

BUT, now my $#@! Win 2K won't boot! I get an obscenely long series of numbers, followed by "Inaccesable_Boot_
Device". the prompt then says to try re-booting, (I did), to run CHKDSK /F to check for corruption, to remove new hard drives, etc.

Win 2K starts to load, and then bombs, giving the "I_B_D" error. Could this be caused by my having GoBack on the Windows side?

Just when you thought it was safe to install a new OS...

(AAARRGH!)

I don't know what "goback" is, but if it gives you the option to boot windows and windows even starts to boot then it is not linux related. Try safe mode, last known good config, recovery console and the such.

GoBack is a hard drive/file revert utility that provides "safe points" to revert your hard drive in case of damage / viruses / etc. Works great, but changes the boot sector for its own use.

Last known good config = NG
Safe mode = NG
Safe mode w/command prompt = NG
Create bootlog = NG
All other Windows boot options = NG - tried 'em all
What I'm getting is a "stop" command, if that helps...

I think that the Linux bootloader (Grub?) messed with something that causes the Windows boot to fail, but I'm at a loss to know what to do about it.

Suggestions?

Another clue is that I no longer see the GoBack prompt go by when Windows trys to start. It used to give a 3-4 second "window" to enable a drive revert.

first off just a forum tip, you added a second post 6 minutes after the previous one, it is usually better to edit the previous post (just click edit on the post) than do this because if people look at a thread and see 11 responses or a high number they assume it is resolved, no big deal though. I am not really a windows expert, but yes since goback uses the boot sector that does sound like a problem. By boot sector do you mean the Master boot record, or the boot sector of the windoze partition? I will assume u mean the MBR, here are a few things to try

- in SuSE go into YaST and find the bootloader options and change it to Lilo rather than grub and tell it to propose a new setup and save it.

- if you computer supports booting from the second harddrive just install grub or lilo on that drive and change your boot settings of your computer

-if neither of those works then obtain a DOS boot disk and type "fdisk /mbr" at the command prompt, this will remove the linux bootloaders in the mbr. Uninstall GoBack and then reinstall linux (or at least the bootloader but booting off the SuSE cd's if you have them (it gives you the option to boot to an installed partition)).

I think GoBack and linux are unlikely to agree unless you can boot off of the second drive. You need a different way of backing up or to choose an OS (or live withought backups)

I used to have goback when I was still using windows & before I could install linux & dual boot between the two I had to remove the goback program because it was messing with my partitions. Try removing goback if you can & then try installing again.

Thanks to both you folks for the forum & other tips!

The reason I want to make a dual-booter, (even with GoBack if possible), is that I'm a free-lance computer tech and want to start migrating the end-users I support over to Linux. I know that many people will want to use the more familiar Windoze GUI while they learn to live w/Linux.

Given that, GoBack (or something like it) is a VERY useful tool for Windoze users. While it can be used for backup purposes, it's not the right (or bright) way to use it. Nothing takes the place of real backups... It's designed for those situations where you install a new program, and it crashes your system, or you just accidently erased all the email in your inbox. GB is very helpful for those of us still dealing with Windoze.

Some questions:
*Does it make more sense to try and fix my Win 2K setup, or to simply re-install it? The current install has all the service packs, is correctly configured, and has all the progs I need loaded - but I'm not wedded to it. If it's cleaner & faster to wipe & reload, I'm down for it.

>in SuSE go into YaST and find the bootloader options and change it to Lilo rather than grub and tell it to propose a new setup and save it.

*Found YaST, found boot section. Don't understand why Lilo would work better with GoBack? I like the other idea(s) you had more.

>if you computer supports booting from the second harddrive just install grub or lilo on that drive and change your boot settings of your computer.

*Sounds great, not sure how to do it? My 'puter is an Intel clone, 400mhz/P2, w/ an Asus P2B motherboard. The BIOS does allow different boot sequences - it's A/CD-ROM/C now, it does NOT allow the sequence I'd want, A/CD-ROM/D. It does offer D/A, which will do - I can always flip the BIOS for boot from CD-ROM.
*How to install Grub on the D (/dev/hdb) drive?

>...obtain a DOS boot disk and type "fdisk /mbr" at the command prompt, this will remove the linux bootloaders...

*Will that take out ONLY the Linux bootloaders? Sounds like a simple fix. How to re-install the L* b'loaders?

Please refer me to howto's if you can - I don't expect to be spoon-fed - just trying to do a very specific setup.

>I used to have goback ...& before I could...dual boot ...I had to remove...goback...it was messing with my partitions. Try removing goback if you can & then try installing again.

Do you mean installing GoBacl again, after the dual-boot is working? That would be my ideal setup! A dual-booter that works both ways, & GB to prop up the wobbly Windoze (grin).

**NEW EVENT(S)**

After a bit o' study, I booted from the Win 2K CD, pressed (R) to repair, and then (C) to use the Recovery Console. Once in it, I then used the command "fixmbr" (w/no quotes) and got my Win 2k to boot again - with GoBack disabled.

Goback does seem the issue here - could someone forward that fact to the Suse folks? Or give me the right link, so I can? I saw nothing about such a conflict in the distro dox I read (sigh).

Of course, the "fixmbr" took out Grub too - can someone tell me how to set Grub up to boot from my D: (/dev/hdb1) drive? I'd like to do that, so I can try re-enabling GoBack for my Windoze setup.

I got this approach from reading the Suse embedded help in my installation. It was also not mentioned in the pre-install dox. Sort of like having the can opener inside the can...

The problem with GoBack isn't limited to only Suse, I had the same problems trying to install several other distros as well until I removed it. I believe it is possible to restart it after linux is installed, but I'm not positive. The way I used to understand it is that the program would make something like a virtual partition where all the data is stored & when you try to install linux with it active the install/partitioning setup steps of the distro doesn't read the partitioning scheme correctly so it won't install correctly :(.
For help with grub try the search button on this forum, there are a good many posts that may help.

Another option is to install grub or lilo on a floppy and boot off that for Linux, and remove the floppy to boot Windows. I never (well, hardly ever) use my floppy drive now, so I have my bootloader permanently in there - unless I want to boot windows.