Opensuse install onto a terabyte drive

[johndough]

Hi

I want to install OpenSuSE and PClos onto a terabyte drive that already has windows 7 on.

First of all Suse wouldnt play with the drive, so I used FEDORA 16 to do a clean install, then wiped that and tried to setup partitions for PClos & OS, which dorta worked.

I got win 7 back on.

Now I want to try PClos because it is installed on my other machine.  OpenSuSE because I prefer YAST for configuration etc.

GRUB seems to fail, so can anyone suggest a bootloader please?

[Old-Polack]

Hi

I want to install OpenSuSE and PClos onto a terabyte drive that already has windows 7 on.

First of all Suse wouldnt play with the drive, so I used FEDORA 16 to do a clean install, then wiped that and tried to setup partitions for PClos & OS, which dorta worked.

I got win 7 back on.

Now I want to try PClos because it is installed on my other machine.  OpenSuSE because I prefer YAST for configuration etc.

GRUB seems to fail, so can anyone suggest a bootloader please?

Grub doesn't fail if you have it installed properly and your menu.lst boot stanzas are correct. What you've written tells us what you think you have, but gives no details, so we can't know what you actually have. To start, we need to see how your drive is partitioned, so as root, in a terminal, from the liveCD;

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l                              <Enter>

Post your results.

[johndough]

Grub doesn't fail if you have it installed properly and your menu.lst boot stanzas are correct. What you've written tells us what you think you have, but gives no details, so we can't know what you actually have. To start, we need to see how your drive is partitioned, so as root, in a terminal, from the liveCD;

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l                              <Enter>

Post your results.

Hi

THanks for the response.

Well the problem is I cant, as yet, get an install.

But I can try a live install and look at the partitioning.

[Old-Polack]

Grub doesn't fail if you have it installed properly and your menu.lst boot stanzas are correct. What you've written tells us what you think you have, but gives no details, so we can't know what you actually have. To start, we need to see how your drive is partitioned, so as root, in a terminal, from the liveCD;

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l                              <Enter>

Post your results.

Hi

THanks for the response.

Well the problem is I cant, as yet, get an install.

But I can try a live install and look at the partitioning.

You don't need an installation to comply with the instructions given, to supply the asked for information.

[Just17]

GRUB seems to fail, so can anyone suggest a bootloader please?

As you do not say when ......  I will guess that at installation it seemed to hang and you aborted.

If so do the installation again, and go have a coffee while grub is doing its 'thing'.
On some setups it takes quite some time to generate a new initrd during the Grub install which makes it appear as if it has hung/failed.

[johndough]

Hiya

Well I have made some progress.

As you know Grub fails to install.  It takes a few seconds to put up an information box listing all the reasons for its failure.  In 15 years of using Linux, admittedly LiLo for most of those, its the first time I have had grub do that.

I removed the HDD and hung it in another machine, the one I am currently using, because all attempts at an install failed.

Also the  XP diskpart didn't work cleanly either on this machine.

So I rebooted into PCLOS and it created an unformatted partition of 993 GIG, and chose the efi type, rather than NTFS or EXT4.

Re-fitted the drive and used W7 diskpart to convert to GPT.

diskpart
list disk
select Disk 0
convert GPT

Installed W7 again, set a GPT partition of about 83 gig, leaving room for linuxes to start under the 128 gig mark, just in case.  Now I am now trying to be brave enough to try PCLOS.

What I need next is either elilo or efi-grub to be the boot loader of choice with a 64 bit version of PC Linux OS, as it seems to be better than opensuse at GPT drives and efi motherboards.

[dvhenry]

Why use GPT? there is no need unless the disk is over 2TB (not 1TB), and GPT is problematic.

[dvhenry]

If you insist on GPT you should at least read http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ and the relevant links. In relation to opensuse, the DVD includes elilo and is the default boot loader if installing on GPT disks, this does not mean you will get an easy install, in short avoid GPT or accept the headaches that come with it.

[Old-Polack]

Hiya

Well I have made some progress.

As you know Grub fails to install.  It takes a few seconds to put up an information box listing all the reasons for its failure.  In 15 years of using Linux, admittedly LiLo for most of those, its the first time I have had grub do that.

Actually we don't know that. You've so far told us a story, with no facts or evidence to back it up. You mention an error box, but don't supply the information from that box, so that is meaningless to us. You were asked to provide specific information about your partitions, which you failed to produce. I've been using grub as my only boot loader on all my Linux installations since SUSE 7.2 was released on June 15, 2001 and have never had it fail to install on a properly set up hard drive.

I removed the HDD and hung it in another machine, the one I am currently using, because all attempts at an install failed.

Also the  XP diskpart didn't work cleanly either on this machine.

So I rebooted into PCLOS and it created an unformatted partition of 993 GIG, and chose the efi type, rather than NTFS or EXT4.

This statement makes no sense at all. EFI is a BIOS replacement technology, and NTFS and EXT4 are hard drive partition filesystem formats. 

If you plan to install multiple operating systems, why would you choose to create a single partition that covers the entire drive, rather than partition the drive properly for the purpose which you intend? 

You claim 15 years of Linux use, yet the statements and choices you make indicate you are completely unaware of how to properly set up a hard drive for multiple operating systems, or for that matter how the computer and its various parts function at the most basic level.

Re-fitted the drive and used W7 diskpart to convert to GPT.

Why on Earth would you choose to do that? There is no need, no benefit, and any number of reasons to avoid such a move unless absolutely necessary, which in your case it is not. 

diskpart
list disk
select Disk 0
convert GPT

Installed W7 again, set a GPT partition of about 83 gig, leaving room for linuxes to start under the 128 gig mark, just in case.  Now I am now trying to be brave enough to try PCLOS.

What I need next is either elilo or efi-grub to be the boot loader of choice with a 64 bit version of PC Linux OS, as it seems to be better than opensuse at GPT drives and efi motherboards.

Well so far it seems you've made all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons, so it's no wonder you have problems with installations. There is no PCLinuxOS 64 bit release, as of this date. There is only a 64 bit testing version, which is totally unsupported, meant only for advanced users helping to check for inconsistencies and bugs before a supportable final release to the general public can be made.

[johndough]

Hiya

Well I am making progress.

I am using Knoppix 7 in 64 bit mode

Looked at my HDD and all seems well.

Added a couple of partitions.

So I have something like

105 mb fat area,  efi system partition
134 mb microsoft reserved partition

88 gig  NTFS Win7
14 gig  PCLos
25 gig  OpenSuSE

873 gig FREE


If you insist on GPT you should at least read http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/        I did.


I did find a shortcoming in using GRUB, in that it failed to be able to boot anything above the 128 gig limit, or so it said, when I put opensuse on a machine about 700 gig in.
That is still a work in progress.



AS to 15 years with Linux


I started with a version that required the input of the ramdac chip to get anykind of screen display, then onto suse 6.0.

I did have occasion to telephone suse for support on the Smartlink modem, being put through to the German office I found out that they had not yet encountered the device.
So when I learned howto enable the device and compile the source I passed the info onto SUSE, and posted the steps needed on the web somewhere.

OK FI7TAI-34596-M5-E TP560i Smartlink 5634PCV "Surfrider", Topic TP560i
chipset with Linux support (PCI\VEN_151F&DEV_0000&SUBSYS_0000151F&REV_00)
- - PCI

Not all disabilities are obvious, so sometimes being a little circumspect can avoid embarassment.
Some  of mine are physical and fairly obvious others are internal, memory etc; and are classed as hidden.

[djohnston]

Not all disabilities are obvious, so sometimes being a little circumspect can avoid embarassment.
Some  of mine are physical and fairly obvious others are internal, memory etc; and are classed as hidden.

 

[johndough]

Not all disabilities are obvious, so sometimes being a little circumspect can avoid embarassment.
Some  of mine are physical and fairly obvious others are internal, memory etc; and are classed as hidden.

 

Hiya

Well the comments about my choices/decision making etc.

Well a little more progress to report.

I switched to CentOS 6.2 and it gave warnings about imcompatibilty or something, so I waited a few days.

Did an install of CentOS 6.2, and Win 7 still booted, so something was obviously wrong.
W7 showed some newly created Logical Volumes, which I wasnt hapy with.

I left it use all the current Linux allocated space, that bit for PCLos etc. and it also use all the free space as well.


So I did a reinstall with me giving the partition sizes.

I deleted the logical volume and made sda5,6 &7 as 20 gig /, 20 gig /home & 2gig swap.

The install seemed to go well and it offered a place, /dev/sda5, as the choice of bootloader space.  I said YES.

WIndows 7 booted again, so....

Silly me

The "bios" has 3 choices of bootable device, in order of priority they were

Windows Boot Manager
Hitachi HDD
BluRay/DVD  (which I selected for Cent OS install)

so I chose Hitachi HDD and CentOS came up as a boot choice for a few seconds and then booted by default.


So now I have to find a way to install PCLos and add it to the CentOS bootloader, and increase the time to choose to about 28 seconds.

Then I can remove CentOS and use PCLos, provided I can substitute the booter.


I will try and post the partition table later.


Success


[root@dhcppc2 johndough]# fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x06dc198e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      121602   976762583+  ee  GPT

[root@dhcppc2 johndough]# parted -l
Model: ATA Hitachi HDS5C101 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   fat32           EFI system partition          boot, hidden, legacy_boot
 2      106MB   240MB   134MB                   Microsoft reserved partition  hidden, msftres, legacy_boot
 3      240MB   87.9GB  87.7GB  ntfs            Basic data partition          hidden, legacy_boot
 4      87.9GB  88.5GB  524MB   ext4                                          boot, legacy_boot
 5      88.5GB  109GB   21.0GB  ext4                                          boot
 6      109GB   130GB   21.0GB  ext4
 7      130GB   133GB   2097MB  linux-swap(v1)

[johndough]

Hiya

Well faffing around a little with Knoppix 7, and it wont install.

So I installed, as a gamble, Linux Mint 32 bit version 12.

It gave me a boot menu, including Opensuse.

Booted into opensuse and patched the mint grub.cfg into the suse grub.cfg so I now have a choice of opensuse, centos or mint.

Time to lose mint and put PCLos on its rightful place.

Then try and chainload for win 7;)

Happy Daze.