Any Linux experts?
polycounter lvl 17
I'm trying to setup my computer to dual boot with WinXP and SLES9.
When I reach the installation point where YaST does "Performing Installation: preparing your hard disk," the progress bar reaches 100% but the clock cursor just sits there indefinately as though it is stalled.
My partitions look as such:
/dev/hda 55.8GB (alpha numeric #) 0 7295
//dev/hda1 34.9GB HPFS/NTFS 0 4568
//dev/hda2 1.0GB Linix (SWAP) 4569 4699
//dev/hda3 19.8GB Linix Native (REISER) 4700 7295
The instructions I have in my SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Admin book (with which the SLES9 DVD came) say to delete all partitions and then just setup the swap and reiser partitions. However, as I mentioned before, I'm trying to set it up so it will dual boot and since XP is already installed and partition space allocated for it, I dont want to delete that particular partition.
When I reach the installation point where YaST does "Performing Installation: preparing your hard disk," the progress bar reaches 100% but the clock cursor just sits there indefinately as though it is stalled.
My partitions look as such:
/dev/hda 55.8GB (alpha numeric #) 0 7295
//dev/hda1 34.9GB HPFS/NTFS 0 4568
//dev/hda2 1.0GB Linix (SWAP) 4569 4699
//dev/hda3 19.8GB Linix Native (REISER) 4700 7295
The instructions I have in my SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Admin book (with which the SLES9 DVD came) say to delete all partitions and then just setup the swap and reiser partitions. However, as I mentioned before, I'm trying to set it up so it will dual boot and since XP is already installed and partition space allocated for it, I dont want to delete that particular partition.
Replies
Maybe you should stick to Ubuntu instead?
I dunno if this is your first time using linux, but if it is, you may want to try and use a live disc for a while to get used to it. Slax: http://www.slax.org/?lang=en is a good one to try out and get used to how things work.
If not, a possible solution to your problem may be that it is having problems with the install trying to load the boot loader (grub, I assume..) on the MBR. If possible, you may want to try another distro or, as Cheap said, make sure the network is plugged in somehow or another, even if it is a local network.
Good luck, if you can provide anymore info, let us know.
Anyways, how long have you allowed it to wait at the point you mentioned? One thing I've found, even with the liveCDs, is it will hang for long periods as it figures out configurations. You won't get any feedback, like configuring computer, it just sits. Honestly, I'd walk away for a while, then revisit.
You should be fine with your Windows install on a different partition without killing windows. I've been dual booting Windows and Linux for a while now.
Maybe reconfigure the partition setup in a different way (the swap should the the last partition to provide faster access btw), and use EXT3 instead of ReiserFS (which is more or less discontinued and unsupported by now since the creator of it is suspect of a murder case).
Oh and have you given the main linux partition the right "mount point" e.g. "/"?
But I would also suggest that you use a different Linux version. AFAIK Suse enterprise edition 9 is quite old already... so either get the newest OpenSuse edition (should be something like 10.x or so) which is a free download, or switch to Ubuntu (or Kubuntu if you prefer KDE; also a free download), which I use personally and which is more userfriendly in many ways.