Pre-emptive question: Dual-boot Suse 9.1 Personal w/XP

[smitty1276]

I was just about to install SuSE 9.1 on my "linux-playground" partition, and I decided it might be a good idea to see if there are typically problems with 9.1 and XP dual-booting.

I've seen a few posts indicating problems booting to Windows after the install, but there weren't many and, of course, we only hear from the people who actually have problems.

My question to you guys is: To your knowledge, am I likely to have problems booting to XP after installing Suse?


A related point... Lately my computer has been doing some weird stuff... it will just turn itself off in the middle of whatever its doing, but it has to be unplugged from the power supply for a few seconds before it will boot again. This happens sporatically, and I haven't really been able to reproduce it intentionally.

I'm afraid that if it conks out in the middle of the linux install it could cause problems. Do you guys know if this were to happen, would I still be able to boot to XP?

[MrPointy]

I would suggest that you take care of the hardware problem problem before you start trying a new distro. You might spend time troubleshooting something that ends up to be related to the HW problem and not SuSE. Sounds like a power supply problem.

To answer your questions, you might have a problem booting to Windows if your computer just happens to die while the SuSE installation is writting Grub to the MBR (assuming you're installing grub.)

I have never had a problem booting to Windows after a SuSe installation. (knock on wood)

[smitty1276]

Thanks....

Well, I tried to install SuSE without installing a bootloader (assuming it would prompt me to make a boot disk). I thought this would be a safe way to test things out. It didn't conk out on me (I seriously think it has something to do with windows when this happens).

Apparantly it doesn't offer to make a boot disk on install. I walked the dog, came back and it was finished and rebooted to Windows.

Is there a way to get to the partitian now? I can't boot straight to it and have no boot disc. :(

Is it possible to use the windows loader to boot to linux?

[Parcival]

I agree on the power supply diagnosis. Get the old one out of your case and install a new one. :)

Nope, SuSE 9.1 doesn't directly prompt you to say where you wanna have the bootloader. The settings have to be made before the installation.

When you are on the YaST screen where you can make all your settings before installation (like partitioning, etc.) there is also a section saying where it's going to install GRUB. If you don't like the setting, just press the corresponding button and adjust it according to your desire.

Nope, I have never heard the Windows bootloader could also load Linux. My best idea at this point is to reinstall SuSE - with the DVD it doesn't really take a long time anyway. Just boot from the silver disc and when you're at the named YaST screen do the advanced partition settings and tell YaST to format and reuse the already existing partitions from your previous install.

I suggest you install GRUB to your MBR. I never had any problems with GRUB except when I had built in a harddrive with bad clusters.

[deathadder]

You may be able to boot onto the SuSE DVD/CD and install the boot loader, look for a 'rescue' option.

It is possible to use the NT boot loader to boot Linux:

http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&q=nt+boot+loader&btnG=Google+Search

[saikee]

Over the weekend I dug out a DOS7.1, Win98 and Win2000 and installed them into the box.

Then I added them to Suse 9.1's bootloader Grub which is already managing 19 Linux distros and XP.

So what is the big deal of all these problems with dual boot?

To get to a lost Suse one can use the Suse installation disk to repair the bootloader. It does ask for the user where to put it but it display the default choice made and allow the user to "change" it.

Another standard method is to boot up a Linux Live CD, log to root, change root to Suse (using chroot command), do a grub-install to put the bootloader in MBR or floppy or root patition, exist and reboot.

[moo113]

Seeing as I very recently installed SuSE 9.1 with XP already loaded I'd like to say something.

It is incredibly easy!

I used Norton Partiton Magic 8 to shrink my HD a little (I made a 20gig Linux Ext2 and 1gig Swap) and then popped in the installation DVD-ROM and rebooted.

It prompted me and asked if I wanted to install SuSE and I booted off the DVD and went into YaST2. And looked around the sections there to make sure I was installing on my Linux partiton and Swap partition. I also made sure I installed a bootloader (I used GRUB). I told YaST to install where I wanted, clicked along, added the programs I wanted and let it run.

I have a gig of Dual Channel DDR RAM and it took awhile but then again, it did install about 6 gigs of files (I checked almost everything I could).

And that's all there is to it, very simple, very easy. SuSE is all about simplicity.