Dual boot SuSE 10.1 with XP

[ramen85]

Alrite, I want to put SuSE on my laptop so I can dual boot XP and SuSE. I just made a primary partition with Partition Magic (8.5GB) and called it letter F:

Thats what I have so far. I've been doing searches on google about Dual booting, I have a basic idea how to do it. Basically, I want to leave everything to default at the partition step when I run the SuSE install... but then I have to edit the GRUB boot loader with some Windows XP information?? So, my question is, is there a turtial or how-to on installing SuSE so that it see's XP and I'm able to pick which OS to boot to?

I did this before on my Desktop and what happened was it removed my Windowsd XP MBR and would automatically boot to SuSE as default... so thats why i feel unsafe to attempt this on my laptop that I use for school.


Cliff notes: Have a laptop with a 100GB HDD and I already partitioned a primary drive F: (8.GB). I need help with properly installing SuSE 10.1 so that I am able to pick which OS to boot to.


Thanks in advance.

[naburleson]

Just insert the cd and restart, once you get to the configuration part it will show you the partition scheme. since you created a 8 gig partition it should use that as your Linux partition and just leave windows alone. GRUB will be installed auto. and you can edit it so windows will be the default option to boot unless you select otherwise. Did you already format the partition you created with a file system?

[ramen85]

Yes the new partition is formatted as NTFS.

You said to edit the GRUB so that windows will be the default... but what i want is a menu that lets you select to boot into Windows XP or Linux.

When i attempted this on my desktop, it would right away boot with GRUB and into SuSE, im afraid this will happen again.

So, install SuSE on that 8gb partition I made and leave all the options at the partition menu to default but make sure ot select the 8gb partition. Then boot to SuSE and edit what so I can boot to XP?

[naked dave]

Hi

I have a similar setup on my desktop:

80Gb HDD with Windows XP on
120Gb HDD with Suse 10.1 on

I installed the Suse partition second, as I had previously used Windows, before i saw the light! So in effect Suse was on the slave hard drive (sort of like yours been on the second partition I suppose!)

I ran the Suse Installer, allowed grub to install the bootloader onto my Windows boot sector, and now I get a nice cool blue screen which allows me to select if I want to boot windows or linux.

As mentioned above you can do it manually but in my case I didnt need to do this.

Hope it helps

[devils casper]

Have a laptop with a 100GB HDD and I already partitioned a primary drive F: (8.GB). I need help with properly installing SuSE 10.1 so that I am able to pick which OS to boot to.

dont label the partition. leave it as unpartitioned/free space. you have single HardDisk and Dual Boot is default in all Linux distros.

delete F: Drive. dont format, leave it as free space. start SuSe installation. in partition section, select "Unpartitioned/Free Space'..... dont change anything in Boot Loader section.

as i wrote earlier, Dual Boot is default. you can change default Boot Up OS any time.




casper

[mahlerfan]

Deleted unhelpful comments since I was too uncaffeinated to absorb the opening post.

[ramen85]

hmmm im still unsure.

ok right now at the installation menu under Partioning it says

* Create extended partition /dev/hda3 (8.1GB)
* Create swap partition /dev/hda5 (1019.7MB) I have 1GB of ram.
* Create root partition /dev/hda6 (3.2GB) with reiserfs
* Create partition /dev/hda7 (3.9GB) for /home with reiserfs
* Set mount point of /dev/hda2 to windows/C

then if I go to the Expert option and under the heading Booting it has the following

Boot Loader Type: GRUB
Location: 1, IDE, 93.1GB, /dev/hda, HTS541010G9AT00 (MB)
Sections: SUSE Linux 10.1, Windows (default), Failsafe -- Suse Linux 10.1
Added Kernel Parameters: splash=silent

I then click on the header Booting and I get the following

(default) SUSE Linux 10.1 Image /boot/vmlinuz (/dev/hda6, root=/dev/hda6)

Windows Other /dev/hda2

Failsafe SUSE... Image (same as SUSE Linux 10.1)


Then if i click on Boot Loader Installation tab at the top, where it says Boot Loader Location its selected as Other and it has /dev/hda in the box. At this menu I can change Other to Master Boot Record of /dev/hda or Boot Sector of Boot Partition /dev/hda6


This is where Im stuck at. Do i change anything in the Partioning menu and also the Booting settings as well.

[devils casper]

in which partition windows is installed? first or second ? its showing /dev/hda2 as windows partition. what is in /dev/hda1?

GRUB should be installed in Master Boot Record of /dev/hda. in Boot Loader section, change 'Other' to 'MBR of /dev/hda'.




casper

[ramen85]

windows is in the second (dev/hda2).
dev/hda1 is my recovery partition (Asus laptop)

so basically leave everything alone in the Partitioning menu and change Boot Loader Location to "Master Boot Record of /dev/hda" ?

[mahlerfan]

Deleted unhelpful comments since I was too uncaffeinated to absorb the opening post.