Currently have FC4 and Win XP PRO as dual boot on a P4, 1 GB RAM and on the primary HDD with two partitions.

I would like to install SuSE 9.3 or newer version as a third system but on a second HDD for learning. I attempted to install SuSE 10.0 on a PIII unit with 384 MB RAM, but SuSE 10.0 indicated it needed 256 MB RAM - can't figure that one out. My P4 unit wouldn 't even recognize the SuSE 10 version.

So - I attempted to install the 9.3 version to my P4 unit, but I was presented with the options to "(1) replace current FC4 OS, (2) repair FC4 installation plus (3) one other that I can't recall". In any event, I was unable to install the SuSE 9.3 OS as a 3rd OS on my P4 unit without destroying the FC4 installation. Any detailed instructions appreciated - when I say 'detailed' I really would like a real 'how to'.

Bob

Hello bob, when you load the yast (suse) installation routine (after you choose your language etc) yast will ponder your computer for a while and then present its choices for your installation. You should choose a custom partitioning setup (by clicking on the appropriate link) and then clicking custom partitionig for experts. and manually assign mountpoints partitions etc. If you tell it to then suse will leave the fc partition alone.

After that you will need to configure the bootloader (again by clicking on the link). I'm afraid i cant help you much with grub or fedora, but in my setup i installed slackwares bootloader (lilo) to its own partition and i tell suse to just boot that partition same as it does for windows. You could do the same with suse and then update fedoras bootloader to boot suse as well as windows.

Be carefull before manually changing your partition table or bootloader though.

You need a partition for install every Linux. Operating systems don't grow on trees. They need spaces to reside in.

You can put a Linux in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th..... disk. All it needs is a lousy partition of about 5Gb large.

So in your case you obviously are running out of space so that Suse can only be installed on top of an existing partition.

You should "resize" your partitions to squeeze empty space out.

As you have a 2nd disk why not use FC4 to partition it and install your Suse there.

The Grub in FC4, or even Lilo if you have chosen it, can multi boot all your systems.

I run 4 disks with over 60 installed systems all bootable by one Grub. So no need to fear with 3 systems in two disks.

One thing you can do, is share your

"swap" and "home partitions across your linux operating systems...

you could even create your "home" partition as a vfat and share it with you windows partition as well.

I was aware that a partition had to be used to install a 3rd OS, so I partitioned my 2nd HDD into two units. I took the plunge by installing SuSE 9.3 on the second partition of hdb. Everything went well except for a couple of issues.

When GRUB presents itself, I see several options - SuSE 9.3, WINDOWS 1, WINDOWS 2, SuSE (something about 'safe') and another I forget at the moment. I can select SuSE OR Windows and run either one just fine; however, Two issues of concern:
(1) Why two Windows? I've experimented and either one will start Win XP;
(2) What happened to my Fedora Core 4? It is no longer available for startup. In looking at the partitions on my 120 GB HDD, one is Windows, and the other should/must be my FC4 although how do I select it since it isn't available in the GRUB (I hope this is the right word)?

Bob

Grub can be boot manually and the instructions to boot is always contained in a batch file called /boot/grub/menu.lst

It is a very simple matter to include Fedora in Suse's /boot/grub/menu.lst but you need to inculde the lines of how Fedora boots itself. These typically have

title Fedora <---- a line describing the Linux kernel, safe means stable
root (hd0,?) <---- a line to tell which partition to be booted (Grub count from 0, so (hd0,0) means 1st aprtition of 1st disk)
kernel /boot/vmlinuzxxxxxxxx <------ tell Grub which kenel to use, vmlinuzxxxxxxx is the kernel name
initrd /boot/initrdxxxxxxxxxxxx<------ tell Grub the name of the ram disk to be included (may be omitted but I think FC uses one)

Therefore all you need to do is log in as root, make a temp. directory in /mnt of Suse and mount your Fedora partition (or its /boot partition if you have several). Then in the Suse desktop you click the file manager to open both FC and Suse /boot/grub/menu.lst.

You then cut and paste Fedora's self booting bits into Suse (omitting the junk until you reach the title line).

Save your /boot/grub/menu.lst in Suse, reboot and Fedora should be bootable.

---------------

You need to list Suse's /boot/grub/menu.lst here if you still have a problem with booting

Dear Gentelmen,

I am new to Linux. Here is my situaiton:

I have two hard drives, A with 60GB set to master, B with 40 GB set to slave.

I partitioned A into two parts, one with only 100MB for Linux/boot. I partitioned B also into two parts, one with 2G for the swap.

First, I installed XP installed the other part of A. No problem, running fine.

Next, I installed Linux in the following manner:

/boot into the 100Mb part in A
/ in B
/swap into the 2G part in B

Also, I used grub and chose the first sector, not MBR for the installation.

The linux runs fine, too. Here is the grub.conf:

-------------------------------
title linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinux-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title win
rootboverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
-------------------------------

But when I reboot into XP, the mouse hanged after "chailoader +1".

I spent all the afternoon figuring what's the problem. and tried many suggestions, like
--------------------------------
title win
rootboverify (hd0,4)
map (hd0) (hd1) //here, it says the command is unrecognized.
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
--------------------------
and
--------------------------------
title win
rootboverify (hd1,4) //here, it says hard not recognized
chainloader +1
--------------------------
and some others.

Please kindly help me out, your Linux masters! Any suggestion is worthwhile. Thanks a million!!!

Saikee and others - Many thanks for the replies and the suggestions. I removed SuSE from my main PC and installed it on a PIII unit that now has Win XP and SuSE 9.3 on it. It works OK, but would like a bit more speed, which is why I wanted SuSE on my P4 unit. I may try to re-install with Saikee's suggestion when I am more comfortable with multiple boot processes and understand Linux better. Meanwhile, I continue to rely on Win XP as my main OS - although I am now on the net using FC4 features.

Again Thanks for all the replies

Bob

Doodoowoo,

There is something odd about your menu.lst (this is the file that matters)

You should never be able to install a DOS or Win in a logical partition, which always starts at the 5th partition in a disk. As Grub counts from 0 and so your root (hd0,4) is hda5, assuming your 60Gb is a IDE disk, hooked at the master as claimed, which Linux always call hda. Grub can boot non-LInux systems so it uses a numbering system on the disks as handed down by the BIOS.

DOS and Window parition can only be bootable from primary partitions which Linux reserves hda1, hda2, hda3 and hda4 for them regardless if they exist or not.

You should do a

fdisk -l

in a Linux terminal to see how your two disks have been partitioned. From it you should be able to see where is you Windows a partition. Partition type 7 (or 0x7) is NTFS. My guess is it should be in hda2 and root (hd0,1) should be used in Grub.

Identify the correct partition reference and change it in your /boot/grub/menu.lst should fire up your XP. Don't add map statement to boot XP if it is already in the first disk!, unless it was installed in the second disk and has since been moved to the front of the booting queue as the 1st disk.

sgtbob--

For "more speed" or a lighter Desktop manager, try something like fluxbox...

Also, make sure your swap partition is a correct size, equal to the amount of RAM

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/partition-4.html

Good luck!!! SuSE 10 rocks!