On Friday 26 October 2007 04:55:41 pm Clive Rogers wrote: > Hi Rajko, [...] > > Since 10.2 openSUSE is using generic bootloader that will boot any > > partition marked bootable independent of installed operating system. > > Right now my friend is trying out different versions of LInux so I am not > sure which way he is going to jump.
So far I know any Linux can install bootloader in bootsector of own partition. On the other side your friend can create 2 primaries, one for swap the other for installed system, and the rest can be extended partition with one logical for /home and few for test installations. I would not use my normal /home for other distros as that can make trouble. From base system in primary and /home in first of logical partitions you can boot whatever you want and have safe haven if other distro get borked. By now it worked with any distro, including FreeBSD. > > Install grub in boot sector of openSUSE partition and using console > > program cfdisk make it active, it is called 'bootable' in cfdisk. > > MBR of hard disk will stay as is. > > Limitation to this is that bootable can be only primary partition, not > > logical as generic bootloader is looking in partition table that has only > > 4 entries for primary partitions. > > This I e-mailed to him when you sent it too me. > > > YaST Partitioner for now lacks ability to change bootable/active flag so > > you have to use external program (cfdisk) to change it. > > As you know most other distros don't use YaST so again a quick check would > help him here and I could also e-mail him the pages I found. All distros I tried have cfdisk and it is with Midnight Commander (file manager with built in editor, simple ftp client, and much more) something that I test is it installed and if not install on the spot. > > If your friend decide not to use Linux all you have to do is to boot in > > openSUSE and run cfdisk again and mark windows partition as bootable and > > openSUSE will disappear, while it will be possible to boot it from CD or > > USB stick. > > Yes, I sent him the information and he has not come back to me as yet so I > don't know what he is doing. > > As far as I am concerned he should just install either lilo or grub on the > mbr and be done with it. As mentioned it will not happen since 10.2. The only thing openSUSE loads in MBR is free generic bootloader. That way user complies with other OS license 100%, ie. no componet is used outside OS context, and one day when user wants to remove linux generic bootloader can continue to serve. It is not biased toward OS, it likes only active partition :-) > But, he will only boot into a linux distro > which ever one he decides to use using the CD or as I wrote him the USB > stick like you said in your mail. > > Some people just like to be different for the sake of it I think ;-) > I am hopeful he will go with SuSE 10.3 but this will be his decision. Some people are afraid of unknown, some to loose data, and they are not thought to make backup. Some people spent days to recover system even with backup. I did system recovery for a friends, and I know what pain that is. Sitting in front of computer waiting for prompts for a few hours until system is reinstalled, patched, has antivirus and firewall. Now I will if they want to install Linux as backup solution, and then I can come when I have time, no rush ;-) -- Regards, Rajko. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
