SLES 9 : Few questions

[yana209]

Hi Everyone,
I'm installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 ( 6 CD's) that I downloaded from Novell website on my computer. I'm using VMWARE to virtualize this installation. So far after few attempts I have discovered that the default Graphics Card offered by VMWARE is not supported and that's why I select "Unclassified" from the list of VGA adapters and that works for 800x600 resolution. My computer is HP TX 2350 tablet that uses AMD Turion- X2 as processor and ATI radeon as graphics card.

Second question is regarding the partitions. The default partitions offered by YaST work fine and but I need to have certain partitions like /opt /usr /tmp and certain others. The question is, if I follow the default partitions scheme offered by YaST and install the OS, is it possible to add few more partitions that I need. There are few RPM installation packages that I have which work fine on the computer that have those partitions, so I assume I need to make the partitions.

I'm very new to Linux. I'm trying to replicate the server installed for my client.

Thanks.

[gogalthorp]

Version 9 is very old the current version of OpenSuse is 11.1

[yana209]

This is the same version installed for my client so I have to start from here. I mean replicate, besides I think the partitioning scheme would be a generic to SuSE. no?

[HROAdmin26]

Hi Everyone,
I'm installing Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 ( 6 CD's) that I downloaded from Novell website on my computer. I'm using VMWARE to virtualize this installation. So far after few attempts I have discovered that the default Graphics Card offered by VMWARE is not supported and that's why I select "Unclassified" from the list of VGA adapters and that works for 800x600 resolution. My computer is HP TX 2350 tablet that uses AMD Turion- X2 as processor and ATI radeon as graphics card.

Second question is regarding the partitions. The default partitions offered by YaST work fine and but I need to have certain partitions like /opt /usr /tmp and certain others. The question is, if I follow the default partitions scheme offered by YaST and install the OS, is it possible to add few more partitions that I need. There are few RPM installation packages that I have which work fine on the computer that have those partitions, so I assume I need to make the partitions.

I'm very new to Linux. I'm trying to replicate the server installed for my client.

Thanks.

The host machine's video card has no bearing on the video chip the guest sees - the guest is presented with a generic VMWare-labeled video chip. When VM's are moved between hosts, this allows the video card to remain consistent.

Re: Partitions: You will need to read more about partitioning. You have a /opt and /usr directory - it's located on the / partition if you didn't create a separate partition for them. You can change/create any partitions you want during the install. You can review the existing install if you want a reference.

Version 9 is very old the current version of OpenSuse is 11.1

OP is referring to Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9 and not the desktop Suse 9 distro. SLES 9 and SLES 10 are currently supported by Novell.

[yana209]

Thanks for the reply.

The host machine's video card has no bearing on the video chip the guest sees - the guest is presented with a generic VMWare-labeled video chip. When VM's are moved between hosts, this allows the video card to remain consistent.

it says VMWare not found, that's why I tried to choose a different one.

Re: Partitions: You will need to read more about partitioning. You have a /opt and /usr directory - it's located on the / partition if you didn't create a separate partition for them. You can change/create any partitions you want during the install. You can review the existing install if you want a reference.

I tried making partitions, here's what I need. The guide attached. The default offered by YaSt works, but when I make the partitions as mentioned, the system doesn't come after install.


ps: here's the link to the file. the attachment was big enough to be discarded in the forum.

4shared.com - document sharing - download 1_1553-AOM 901 0153 SoM R8 SP1.pdf

[gogalthorp]

Try the VESA driver. That should be a nice generic driver that should work with any card (or emulated card)

If Yast is not mounting the new partitions at startup they can be mounted in the /etc/fstab file

If you want standard tree directories to be on separate partitions it would be easier to do it at install, since install will populate these directories and if you later attach a blank partition you end up overloading those files. You would need to back the files erase the original mount the partition copy the files from backup. Since some of those files could be active this might prove to be tricky.

[yana209]

Try the VESA driver. That should be a nice generic driver that should work with any card (or emulated card)

I will try that out.

If Yast is not mounting the new partitions at startup they can be mounted in the /etc/fstab file

Can you help me do that please?

If you want standard tree directories to be on separate partitions it would be easier to do it at install, since install will populate these directories and if you later attach a blank partition you end up overloading those files. You would need to back the files erase the original mount the partition copy the files from backup. Since some of those files could be active this might prove to be tricky.

I'm making all the partitions at install, but after the first reboot during the install, as you said YaST is not able to mount the root directory. But the fact is linux never reaches the command line as well.

[gogalthorp]

Yast is only in charge of setting things up. Init more or less orchestrates the boot process.

The problem would not be hard if you could boot into the VM somehow so we could see how things are configured. Also you are using an old version which may have compatibility problems with the VM.

BTW we would need to see the output of fdisk -l (this is a lower case "L")
and the current /etc/fstab file.

Also I'm not sure why you are doing all these extra partitions. Once mounted they are just like any other directory.

[yana209]

Yast is only in charge of setting things up. Init more or less orchestrates the boot process.

The problem would not be hard if you could boot into the VM somehow so we could see how things are configured. Also you are using an old version which may have compatibility problems with the VM.

BTW we would need to see the output of fdisk -l (this is a lower case "L")
and the current /etc/fstab file.

System only complaints something like root partition cannot be mounted and keeps on telling that recursively and unfortunately I cannot give any command hence not possible to give output.

Also I'm not sure why you are doing all these extra partitions. Once mounted they are just like any other directory.

Now that's something I need to learn. There are certain applications that need files in those directories, so hence I asked if I only boot system using standard partitions and then install the RPM package (Which doesn't work for some reason), will those directories or partitions be created automatically, if not can I create them at later stage?

Thanks

[gogalthorp]

All the ones you mentioned are standard directories and are created at the install.
You can always add new directories and any RPM will normally install in the standard directories and create any sub directories needed.

The major difference here between Unix and DOS/Windows is the there are no drive letters. An external or internal partition is simply associated with a directory. This is what mount does. Those partitions may be any where the system can get to them, such as a second drive or even over a network. They simply get glued into (mounted to) the file system. They appear and are treated as directories in the tree.

The only good reason to have separate partitions for standard directories is to allow simpler backup by simply creating an image of a partition or if you need more space for some big app.

In Suse the home directory is normally a separate partition which allows all personal setting and data to be preserved if you install a newer version.