Uninstalling OpenSuse 11.0 but keeping 10.2

[suselearner]

From scanning the posts in various places it appears that removing Linux is generally related to systems with an accompanying dual boot of Windows.

My situation is that I have a dual boot which has both OpenSuse 10.2 and Opensuse 11.0

However the goal is to only remove 11.0

These are the only OS's on the system.

Thanks in advance. These forums are invaluable.

[Jonathan183]

You should be able to do this ... what do you want to do with the partitions currently used by openSUSE 11?
Boot from the OS you want to keep ... what is the output of

su -
fdisk -l
mount
cat /etc/fstab
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[gogalthorp]

IMHO it would be easiest to just recycle the partitions. Mount the old partitions in the OS you want to keep. I originally had XP and Suse 10.1 Once I was comfortable with Linux I reformatted the XP partition to Linux and mounted (note can be done in Yast) it as /vm in root (/). I now use it to store my VM images using VMware Server. I Still run XP it is just run in a VM.

I suppose that it would all depend on what you wanted to use the space for.

[suselearner]

Thanks to you both for your input. Space is nice but not the primary consideration. However it frees up disk then all the better. Here's the system info I took from 10.2 as superuser.

linux102:/home/user1 # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2874 36481 269956260 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2874 5484 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 5485 36481 248983371 83 Linux
linux102:/home/user1 # mount
/dev/sda5 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
linux102:/home/user1 # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/sda5 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sda6 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
linux102:/home/user1 # cat /boot/grum/menu.lst
cat: /boot/grum/menu.lst: No such file or directory
linux102:/home/user1 # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Apr 24 03:08:38 UTC 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sda5 vga=0x31a resume= /dev/sda1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: openSUSE 10.2 (/ dev/sda2)###
title openSUSE 10.2 (/dev/sda2)
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sda1 splash =silent showopts
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sda5 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

[Jonathan183]

linux102:/home/user1 # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2874 36481 269956260 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2874 5484 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 5485 36481 248983371 83 Linux

linux102:/home/user1 # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/sda5 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sda6 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/sda1 swap swap defaults 0 0

linux102:/home/user1 # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Apr 24 03:08:38 UTC 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,4)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sda5 vga=0x31a resume= /dev/sda1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: openSUSE 10.2 (/ dev/sda2)###
title openSUSE 10.2 (/dev/sda2)
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sda1 splash =silent showopts
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sda5 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

From the above you are using all except sda2 for the current version of Linux.

Your grub menu.lst does not include an entry for loading other grub menus so I assume grub is currently configured for openSUSE 11 and a menu entry is available for starting 10.2 from it. It looks as though the second entry is for 10.2 when it used to reside on sda2 is this correct?

My suggestion is ... to install grub from 10.2 to the MBR of the hard drive, you can do this in Yast or in a root terminal

grub
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd0)
quit

When you restart the system you should get your 10.2 grub menu only.

You can then use sda2 for whatever you want to. If you intend changing partition structure then that will be best done using a live CD such as PartedMagic - as ever backup data first

[suselearner]

You are correct. It is initially loading 11.0 and the 10.2 is a selection there. Thank you for assisting in this.

[Jonathan183]

Hopefully things will work out the way you want ... btw I though the oldest version still being supported was openSUSE 10.3 (see here) which may cause problems if you have 10.2 only - especially if you have a net connection.