• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

Need help with installing openSUSE

 
Enthuware Software Support
Posts: 4810
52
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have an old windows laptop. I tried installing Ubuntu on it and that worked fine. Ubuntu's installer suggested partitions based on existing windows installation and created a nice dual boot configuration. It was very easy to understand.

Now, I want to get rid on Ubuntu and install openSuse leaving windows as it is. So I burned openSuse dvd and started the process. But I am confused about how to partition the drive. It is not giving me any easy to follow suggestions. Ubuntu installer clearly told me that it found windows and it gave me an option to dual boot. But openSuse is giving me raw information and expects me to figure out the partitions. All I want to do is just leave windows as it is and use the other partitions for openSuse.

Can some one please help me with this?

Attached are a few screen shots of what is shown by the installer.
IMG_20150729_123316.gif
[Thumbnail for IMG_20150729_123316.gif]
 
Marshal
Posts: 79178
377
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Start by showing us what the current partition table looks like. You can boot into Ubuntu and run gparted. Beware: gparted can severely damage your data, and it must be run as “root” or maybe a sudo‑er. You can install it with
sudo apt-get install gparted

Or as an alternative, System→Preferences→Disks. Or you can download gparted (.iso =230MB) and create a bootable CD and run it from that.
 
Sheriff
Posts: 5555
326
IntelliJ IDE Python Java Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
As a side question: What do you want from openSUSE that you don't have with Ubuntu?
 
Paul Anilprem
Enthuware Software Support
Posts: 4810
52
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Start by showing us what the current partition table looks like. You can boot into Ubuntu and run gparted. Beware: gparted can severely damage your data, and it must be run as “root” or maybe a sudo‑er. You can install it with
sudo apt-get install gparted

Or as an alternative, System→Preferences→Disks. Or you can download gparted (.iso =230MB) and create a bootable CD and run it from that.


Thank you for responding. Attached is the what is shown by gparted.
Screenshot-from-2015-07-29-14_17_30.png
[Thumbnail for Screenshot-from-2015-07-29-14_17_30.png]
 
Paul Anilprem
Enthuware Software Support
Posts: 4810
52
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Tim Cooke wrote:As a side question: What do you want from openSUSE that you don't have with Ubuntu?


I tried out ubuntu and I just want to try out openSuse as well. I understand that both that very different flavors. Before I get too comfortable with one flavor, I want to check out others as well.
 
Campbell Ritchie
Marshal
Posts: 79178
377
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That makes life difficult. Had you a separate partition mounted as /home, you could simply have installed OpenSUSE around it and retained the /home partition. Now you are going to have to back up your entire home folder, install OpenSUSE and restore all your files. I don't believe you can install SUSE as some sort of upgrade to Ubuntu.
Which version of Windows® is it?

This is how I would partition a disc: old thread.
Leave Windows alone.
Reformat the existing swap partition again as swap space. I think you are all right for size with 3GB, but you can search for advice and you can always change the size. More about partitioning here and here. If SUSE creates separate / and /home and swap partitions as a default, try the default and see what you think.

This is how I would partition the remaining space:
  • 1: about 0.25MiB to 0.5MiB format as ext4 and mount as /boot
  • 2: about 40GB: format as ext4 and mount as / You can use less space if you are not installing many programs. I need to install LaTeX and all the packages to go with it occupy about 11GB, but you might not need that much space. I notice your current Linux partition is <10% full. The / partition is also called the root partition.
  • 3: remainder of drive: format as ext4 and mount as /home

  •  
    Paul Anilprem
    Enthuware Software Support
    Posts: 4810
    52
    • Mark post as helpful
    • send pies
      Number of slices to send:
      Optional 'thank-you' note:
    • Quote
    • Report post to moderator

    Campbell Ritchie wrote:That makes life difficult. Had you a separate partition mounted as /home, you could simply have installed OpenSUSE around it and retained the /home partition.


    Well, shame on me for not making the right choice In my defence, I was lulled into complacency by ubuntu installer.

    Now you are going to have to back up your entire home folder, install OpenSUSE and restore all your files. I don't believe you can install SUSE as some sort of upgrade to Ubuntu.
    Which version of Windows® is it?

    This is how I would partition a disc: old thread.
    Leave Windows alone.
    Reformat the existing swap partition again as swap space. I think you are all right for size with 3GB, but you can search for advice and you can always change the size. More about partitioning here and here. If SUSE creates separate / and /home and swap partitions as a default, try the default and see what you think.

    This is how I would partition the remaining space:

  • 1: about 0.25MiB to 0.5MiB format as ext4 and mount as /boot
  • 2: about 40GB: format as ext4 and mount as / You can use less space if you are not installing many programs. I need to install LaTeX and all the packages to go with it occupy about 11GB, but you might not need that much space. I notice your current Linux partition is <10% full. The / partition is also called the root partition.
  • 3: remainder of drive: format as ext4 and mount as /home


  • I have windows 8.1.
    I don't want to retain my stuff in ubuntu (I don't have any). I don't want to upgrade ubuntu. I just want to get rid of it and install openSuse in its place. I don't mind if it reformats that partition. Currently, when I boot, I get an option of booting into ubuntu or windows. I want to leave windows as it is and have opensuse instead of ubuntu.

    Does that change anything? Does that make it easier?
    Anyway, that doesn't look like a good first impression of openSUSE
     
    Campbell Ritchie
    Marshal
    Posts: 79178
    377
    • Mark post as helpful
    • send pies
      Number of slices to send:
      Optional 'thank-you' note:
    • Quote
    • Report post to moderator
    Many Linux distros produce separate /home partitions as a default. It is unfortunate that Ubuntu doesn't, and you have to give it specific instructions to do so. If you have nothing to keep in the ext4 partition, try the default partitioning and see whether you have enough space in the /home partition.
    Remember you can always go back and change the partitioning if you aren't happy with it.
     
    Saloon Keeper
    Posts: 27763
    196
    Android Eclipse IDE Tomcat Server Redhat Java Linux
    • Mark post as helpful
    • send pies
      Number of slices to send:
      Optional 'thank-you' note:
    • Quote
    • Report post to moderator
    SuSe and Ubuntu are very different distros. SuSe is more like Red Hat, but even there it would not be possible to simply "upgrade". You'd either have to wipe the old OS or create a new partition to hold the new OS.

    In Linux, installers generally have 1 of 2 default partitioning schemes. Either they slop all the directories into one big partition or they break out selected subtrees into independent partitions. Typically /boot and /home are among those broken out, maybe 2 or 3 others. Then there's the swapfile, which is usually set up as a swap partition independent of the filesystem.

    I said "partitions", but one of the other things some Linuxes do is use the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and create/use Logical Volumes instead of physical partitions. Although usually /boot is a separate physical partition, since older versions of Grub couldn't handle having the bootfiles in an LVM Logical Volume.

     
    Paul Anilprem
    Enthuware Software Support
    Posts: 4810
    52
    • Mark post as helpful
    • send pies
      Number of slices to send:
      Optional 'thank-you' note:
    • Quote
    • Report post to moderator
    Thank you for your suggestions. Will do accordingly.
     
    reply
      Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
    • New Topic