Want to Dual-boot OpenSUSE after Vista

M

mxcrowe

Member
I have Vista x64 installed on my system and I would like to dual-boot Vista and OpenSUSE from my single HD. I created a new 80GB partition, which is formatted ext3 via Gparted, for OpenSUSE. I have read through the tutorials here and at the OpenSUSE site, but I can't convince myself that I can pull this off without losing the ability to boot to Vista, or worse, losing my whole Vista partition. Can anyone point me to a nice, step-by-step process for installing OpenSUSE 11 on a new partition after Vista x64 is already installed and running? All this bootloader stuff is really scaring me off, but I would love to play around with Linux. I'm using the guide at Linux - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
as my starting point, but are there any specifics for OpenSUSE 11 that I need to know about before I take the plunge? Thanks for the support from the many experts on this forum and at NeoSmart!
 
Hello,

No. There is no specific for OpenSUSE. Just follow the guide and you will be all set.

Cheers,
Mak
 
That's encouraging...but you can elaborate on this line from the tutorial, relative to what I'm going to see when I run the OpenSUSE installer?
"When prompted to set up the bootloader, make sure you specify to install LILO, GRUB, or whatever to the bootsector of the partition that Linux is being installed to and not the MBR of your hard drive."
I'm not sure how I will have to specifically respond when I get to that point during the install process.
 
Ok, OpenSUSE gives me the following options:

1) boot from the boot partition
2) boot from the extended partition
3) boot from the MBR
4) boot from the root partition

or

5) customer boot partition

Which one is the "bootsector of the partition that Linux is being installed to"?

The partitioner is creating:
1) an extended partition sda2 (78.1G)
2) a swap partition sda5 (2G)
3) a root partition sda6 (20g) with ext3
4) a partition sda7 (56.1G) for /home with ext3

and setting a mount point of sda1 to /windows/C
 
Guys,
I went ahead with the install and chose the boot partition (sda6). Went back to Vista and used EasyBCD as directed. Everything works great with dual-boot! thanks!
Now I just have to figure out how to make OpenSUSE connect to the internet!!
Thanks for the help and the great software.
-Michael:smile:
 
This leaves me just as baffled as ever. I always lose ability to boot Vista, probably because OpenSUSE's terminology in the installer is not clear,
I have a primary sda2 that I want to use as the place for GRUB and then point easyBCD to that -- that works fine for Ubuntu and Mandriva. After sda2 I have an extended with swap, home and root partitions.
Are you people saying I shouldn't have the openSUSE GRUB installed to that primary sda2?
 
You absoloutely should install GRUB to the primary sda2. Just don't install it to sda itself.
 
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