FAQ: SUSE 9.1/Windows XP Dual Boot
 

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...and_Windows_XP

The problem with SUSE 9.1 and Windows XP is that SUSE's version of parted goofs up the partition tables that Windows XP uses, while correctly creating the partition tables that LVM uses. (Logical Volume Management I think...) So basically you need to get a fix for this.

So, step one is to get the bug fix, before you break your computer and don't have access to the 'net. (Actually if you do this wrong, you would be able to connect to your new SUSE partition, but not your Windows XP partition.)
Hit up:
portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/fhassel_windows_not_booting91.html
(sorry about no clicky for you, I don't have 5 posts on this forum yet...)
and download the fix.

Step two is to break out your favorite CD set or bootstrap CD for you LPBs, and start up your installation.

****DON'T GO INTO THE YAST INSTALLER YET!!!***

If YAST starts, you've gone too far. Go back.

I used the .iso image for my install, but there's no reason that the floppy disk would work any differently. When you get the choice to load drivers, select other, and then choose your CD as the location. You should get a popup that asks if you want to load parted fix. Do it.

**SPECIAL NOTE: This is for installing both operating systems on ONE hard disk device, there is a bit more to configuring GRUB if you want each OS on different drives. ***

Next, install as normal, paying close attention to the bootloader. I recommend GRUB(default) over LILO, because YAST will most likely be able to autodetect your Windows Partition and set it up to boot automatically for you. You may want to set Windows to load as default as well. I did, but lets all pretend I never said that. (I set my splash=verbose as well, but I like to see what it's doing behind the scenes as much as possible)

You may want to goof with your partitions some as well, since SUSE's automatic partitions aren't always optimal, but they'll get the job done if you are iffy on Linux partitions.

And that's all that there is to it really. If there's any comments or if you appreciated this, feel free to leave a message or addition.

Can the moderators please please make this a sticky.

my naive young body spent time answering a grub query but I think it had nothing to do with grub (the bootloader) but with SUSE.

This may help newbies who may not search or who know how to search?
include me if you like just make it a sticky ok?

thegreedyturtle

I found you in wiki before I found you here so well done

you are now in my tutorial which is here
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...86#post1208786

I think did something wrong, because when I installed SuSE 9.1 Pro on my hard drive as a dual boot with WinXP, I didn't have to do any of this. The install was successful, and both my Windows XP install and my SUSE 9.1 install work great - unless you count the fact that I still don't have wireless on the Linux side working, yet.

In fact, SuSE automatically recognized my NTFS parts and placed a tree entry for them. I can read from them with no problems whatsoever (this is one of the coolest things I've seen Linux do). I look forward to when I can write (safely) to an NTFS partition.

Just sayin'.

There may be a difference in when 9.1 GPL edition came out and when PRO did?

I don't have suse so don't care.

NTFS 4 Schadeboy
 

Hello to schadeboy

Good news for you !

Take a look at:

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

All the NTFS-Files you will need for that, you surely will find on you XP Partition.
Or you can download the (read description for XP owners for captive ;) RTFM ;) !

For the other way, there is a tool, too!

http://p-nand-q.com/download/rfstool/overview.html
since SUSE uses the reiser file-system, you will love that tool. There is a graphical addon for it available:

http://yareg.akucom.de/

Have a lot of fun,

Pete

I just bought a Toshiba Satellite and it came with XP, obviously, and I bought suse 9.1 pro and installed it dual boot and haven't had any problems with either, but I have run a system repair on suse and it keeps wanting to repair the postfix package. No matter what I do it will "fix" it and then if I run system repair again it will be the same problem. I don't know if that would have something to do with the dual boot. Other than that everything is great.

If you use a harddrive newer than 1996 and greater than 504MB just change your hard drive read write to LBA under your bios menu. Quick, safe and easy fix and works with all distros that use 2.6 or greater kernel.

I have had this problem with Suse 9.1 PRO, and it caused me a currupted partitiontable :(
Yesterday I gave it a new try and the installation went fine.
The harddrive is in LBA Mode and was in LBA before, so I did not change anything.

Umm, I already installed suse 9.1 on a new partition I created after my xp partition and now can't get back into xp. How can I get back into xp? If I re-install suse according to this method will that let me back in? Or do I need to just boot from the windows cd (that I can't find)?

Greenareyou:
My first guess is that somehow the boot information for XP has been corrupted. What you may want to try is to boot from the XP Setup CD (see link below if you don't have your boot CD) and go into Recovery mode. You'll need to select the Windows installation you want to enter into (usually only one is listed) and then enter the Administror password. Once there, you'll type FIXMBR at the command prompt. It'll warn you that the program could possibly render all of your patitions useless, but I wouldn't worry about it. Go ahead and let the program run.

If it works, and your Windows XP install is okay from there, you'll boot back into Windows XP without the GRUB boot loader. You can then try to reinstall SUSE from there.

To get a copy of the Windows XP setup disks, click here. NOte, this is just the prelminary setup files for Windows XP, and not the full-on Windows XP install CD. If you wanted to reinstall Windows, you would still need your setup CD. However, these disks will get you to the recovery console (if memory serves).

-Schadeboy

hey thanks, it worked. Sorry to interrupt the thread

Another solution for installing Suse beside WinXP without using the build in SuSE partitioner, is to create the partitions you need for SuSE with another partition program from another Linux distribution.

I took a slackware CD for this:
Boot the cd, and use fdisk or cfdisk for adding the partitions you need.
You can also use a live-CD for this, ( Knoppix ).

After you created the partitions you need, you can start the SuSE setup again and tell SuSE wich partitions to use...
Easy and safe.

Raphael M

Not that I doubt you and too lazy to check suse myself, but any alerts at suse that the PRO edition has a buggy partitiion tool? or are you the first to report?