[wplug] Question from a newbie

J Aaron Farr jaaronfarr at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 5 19:11:12 EST 2002


On Sun, 2002-11-03 at 21:06, Gonffen wrote:
> Okay thanks for all the help (it's been really useful).  Does anyone
> know whether or not I can install SUSE on my computer with WINXP without
> repartitioning the hard drive.  Also how would you do it?
> 

I've installed and used SuSE 8.0

The next version of SuSE (I think it'll be 8.2) will include a
partitioning tool like Partition Magic called Acronis OS Selector.  I
don't know when the next version is due, but you can get a copy of
Acronis from their web site for $45:
(http://www.acronis.com/products/osselector/)

SuSE includes a boot loader (I think it's lilo, I'd have to check) and
during installation it will set everything up for you.  It's _very_
straight forward and I wouldn't worry about it.  SuSE will detect your
WinXP installation and set up a boot option for it.

As for partitioning...

You at least need room for Linux to reside.  If you already have a "D:"
drive (that is, your hard drive already has more than one partition),
then if you're willing to give up the D:\ drive to linux, then you're
probably good to go.  During installation, SuSE has a partitioning tool
that will prepare the partition for you.

If you don't have a second partition, or a second hard drive, then
you're simply _must_ partition the drive in order to install SuSE
(unless some other clever WPLUGer knows some magic I'm not aware of). 
Without Partition Magic or a similar tool, repartitioning the drive will
mean reinstalling _everything_, including WinXP.

Even if you have a second partition already set up, you may have issues
if your first partition is larger than 8 GB.  This has to do with your
BIOS.  I know some work has been done in this area, so I'm not sure if
it's something you still have to worry about, but myself, I always end
up putting a small /boot partition in the front of the disk just to be
safe.  Perhaps someone else can better describe the 8GB limit and if
it's something you'll need to consider.

jaaron




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