[SOLVED] OpenSuse seems to want to use the whole disk

[archp2008]

I am just attempting to install OpenSuse 11.1. I find that when it gets to the partitioning part, it wants to shrink the two other existing partitions that already contain data. The NTFS partition that I set up for SUSE is recognized but it still lists the other partitions (in red) and says it want to shrink them (to sizes that seem to be less than that of the data they contain.) I tried Edit Partition to no avail and had a brief look at Create Partition but I don't really know what I'm doing there, so didn't proceed. How do I force SUSE to stay inside the previously created 8GB partition and leave the others alone?

[Segfault]

The NTFS partition that I set up for SUSE ...

Linux cannot be installed to a foreign filesystem. It needs an unformatted partition or a partition with Linux native filesystem.

[archp2008]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that SUSE would reformat that partition. Would you please tell me the steps I should go through if I want to use that 8gb of space for SUSE but still retain the other NTFS partitions for Windows.

[Segfault]

Well, maybe SuSe can reformat it during install. Not sure, how much space SuSe needs? Maybe 8 GB is not sufficient?

[archp2008]

OK, I will try it on another disk where there is a ton of space

[archp2008]

When given 275GB of free space on the disk, it wanted 20GB for root and 2GB for swap. Isn't that a lot of space? It also reformatted the whole 275GB as ext3. It did recognize the Windows on the disk and included it in the menu. It also had Windows 2 and Windows 3. I have no idea what they are for as there was only one Windows installation on that disk. Can you please tell me now how I should go about installing another distro to triple boot with the Windows and SUSE on this disk. I have the live cd's for Fedora and Mandriva One. I'm wondering if I need to create a partition manually for each distro.

[Segfault]

Well, one bad thing about Linux and FOSS in general is you can do everything in a number of ways. Here's what I'd do if I was you.
Create an empty partition for every Linux you want to install.
When installing Linuxes choose 'install bootloader on partition' (not on MBR).
Use an independent bootloader as GAG to boot (chainload) all your operating systems, incl. Windows. Why not one universal GRUB? Because you have manually set up the GRUB to boot all these operating systems, you probably do not want this. Plus, when you have to reinstall Windows restoring GAG is much easier than restoring GRUB.
Well, as I said, that's what I'd do. What you do is up to you.

[D-cat]

Keep in mind you can only boot off the MBR or a primary partition, and you can only have 4 primary partitions (there are ways around this, see the Ranish partition manager). You can have an extended partition with many logical partitions under it. The Linux kernel can be loaded from a logical partition (in some distros, this is default), but you still need the boot loader to reside on a primary partition or the MBR.

I agree that in a multi-boot environment, grub is better off on a partition than the MBR, it's safer from Windows this way. Fixing a Windows reload becomes as simple as changing the active partition to the one grub lives on... which only a primary partition can be made active. Setting this up is not hard, it just takes some planning.

OTOH, if you want to test various distros before deciding on one, there is another way. You can install a Virtual Machine manager (I recommend Sun's VirtualBox). With this, you can create several Virtual Machines, each with it's own virtual hard drive (just another file on the host) and its own sandboxed environment where you can play around safely and not worry about what you might accidentally break on one distro trying to install another.

However you wish to do it, let us know. We'll help however we can.

[gogalthorp]

You need a minimum of 2 partitions. 1 is swap (you must have one) and can be shared between distros. The other is root. Suse as default also adds a third a home partition. This is by default the rest of the unpartitioned space on the drive. This partition is mounted as /home in the file system. ( note there is always a /home directory in the file system it is just a matter of what partition is associated to it) The home partition can also be shared (with some caveats) with other distros. the /home directory is where all personal data and settings are stored. By placing it on a separate partition you can reinstall/upgrade/replace the OS with out touching your data. You can also share data between multiple OS's. The root partition in Suse is a fraction of the available unpartitioned space not exceeding 20 gig. I recommend not to be under 6 gig unless you remove some of the standard install packages. The swap is normally 2X memory not more then 2 gig. In fact it is safe for most desktop usage to have only 1gig of swap. In general I would say not to try any serious install in less then 12gig total available unpartitioned space.

Good luck.

[archp2008]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking of adding Mandriva One to the Win64 and OpenSuse on that drive. There are a couple of things I'm not sure of. Being that there is still a very large section on the disk formatted as ext3, could I install Mandriva One to that large section and let it create the partitions automatically within that section during the installation. I understand it is necessary to choose not to overwrite the MBR during the bootloader process but to manually edit Grub after the installation, so I assume that it will not boot immeidately after installtion. I may need help at the step of editing Grub. I understand Mandriva One will automatically use the swap space already there for SUSE. Is that true or do I have to click on that swap space or something? Thanks in advance for any further pointers.