I currently have a dual boot system, running SuSE 9.1 Pro and Win98. I have had to install a number of drivers (nForce 2, Winmodem, etc) for the 9.1 installation and it works perfectly fine, so I'm reluctant to just replace it. However, I have the Open SuSE 10 installation disk sitting looking at me, and I would like to try it out. I would be grateful if anyone could answer a few questions.
[list=1][*]My hard disk currently has 3 partitions (FAT, Swap, Reiser FS). If I remember rightly, an IDE disk can only have 4 primary partitions. Could SuSE 10 share a swap partition with 9.1? [*]I have tentatively tried out resizing the 9.1 partition (which currently has 44 GB free) in the installer (without writing the new partitions to disk). When I do this, I get a warning that resizing of a Reiser FS is "untested". Has anyone tried this out? Did it work?[*]Is there any disk imaging software available for Linux, just in case? Couldn't find anything listed in YaST. I would feel more confident if I knew I could return my PC to its original state if the installer trampled all over 9.1.[*]Is it a very silly idea to even attempt this?[/list=1]

Thanks,
Rob


P.S. Why doesn't Konqueror's spellchecker, running under SuSE, recognise the name SuSE??

1) True, you can only have 4 primary partitions. But, you can create an Extended partition, then create as many partitions inside that extended partition as you need. Just remember this. If you put /boot into a partition of its own, you must make that partition bootable. If you leave /boot as part of the root filesystem, then you must make that partition bootable.

2) I don't know. I don't use ReiserFS.

3) You can make a tar archive of the ReiserFS partition. cd to the root level: cd / and press enter. To make a tar archive: 'tar cf -.' (include the dash and period as part of the command). Then burn the archive to cd or dvd.

Or, use mkisofs or growisofs (for dvd) to make an iso image of a filesystem and burn it to disk.

If you hurt the ReiserFS data and have to restore, you may need a LiveCD distro such as Knoppix to restore from cd/dvd.

4) There are many Linux users with 3 or more distros on one machine. Go for it. If you have problems, it will be a learning experience working your way out of it. Plus, we're still here to help.

Just make sure you have a backup to restore ReiserFS before you start re-sizing and partitioning. CYA

i currently triple boot with Windows XP, SuSE 10.0, and Ubuntu.

1) Ubuntu And SuSE 10.0 share the same swap space and it works fine for me.

2) I've never got that message before so i cant tell you. Is this in the SuSE 10.0 installer?

3) I would just back up by documents

4) Adding SuSE 10.0 should be pretty painless. Once you have made space for it, just follow through the normal SuSE install. if i remember correctly when it comes to installing the bootloader the SuSE installer will detect Windows and SuSE 9.1. Then you just install the bootloader as normal overwrighting the first bootloader. If the SuSE 10.0 installer will not detect the other operating system(s) then dont install the bootloader. you can add other operating systems to your current one through YAST

PS. just always remember to back up your files WHENEVER you partition ur hard drive

Thanks for the advice.

I did use tar to make an archive of my filesystem, which gave me a bit more confidence as I was rudely pushing SuSE 9.1 around.

The installation went fine, and there appeared to be no problems with resizing the linux partition. I freed up 20GB of disk space, created a new partition and formatted it as ReiserFS. Both versions seem happy to share swap partitions, and the boot loader recognised all of the bootable partitions automatically.

Now to sort out the teething troubles with 10.0 (didn't load the drivers for my modem, for one thing, so I'm still posting this from 9.1)

Rob