Edd Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 (edited) I want to give suse a go, but i don't want to completely remove my Mandriva installation to do so. I had a search about and I read that people have problems running another distro along side Mandriva. What is the best way for me to go about installing suse 9.2 alongside Mandriva without the 2 conflicting with each other? Or any other Distro for that matter :) Thanks a lot! Edited July 31, 2005 by Edd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Greets! It is not that hard, despite the trouble some have reported. But, preparation is the key. 1) Create a partition for SuSE. Make it large enough so that you could partition it further during the SuSE install, if you want. 2) You only need one swap partition for any linux distros. Don't make another swap. SuSE will indentify the swap partition, and ask if you want to use it. Use it. 3) During the install, do not install a new boot loader. If SuSE insists, install it to the SuSE partition, not the mbr. SuSE will warn you that it might not be able to boot. Ignore the warning. 4) When the install completes, boot into Mandriva. Mount your new SuSE partition. Copy the data in the /boot to Mandriva's /boot. 5) I use lilo. Edit lilo for the SuSE selection. Use the Mandriva section as a guide. Note that the /boot folder is located in a different place, and that you must refer to the SuSe kernel that you copied. 6) Run lilo -v 7) Reboot, choose SuSE 8) Complete the SuSE install. If you need details on any of these points, let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 With Grub it is even easier. Follow lxthusdans routine through till 4. then copy the boot data from boot in suse into /boot/grub/menu.lst in Mandriva and save. Make sure that what you paste in looks similar to the Mandriva details but not the same, the difference being the partition details and the kernel details. When you next reboot you should see suse listed in the boot menu. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboy Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 (edited) Here's a third boot option, besides the good suggestions from Ixthusdan and AussieJohn. In SuSE (at least version 9.3), during the install setup you can choose to create a bootloader floppy (just select the /dev/fd0 option rather than MBR or root partition). Advantage: This is the simplest, easiest way to make sure you can boot into SuSE without having to mess with the lilo/grub configuration for your existing Mandriva install just yet. Maybe you're experimenting and not sure you really want to keep SuSE, or don't want at this time to mess with the lilo or grub details of being able to boot both distros. Get your SuSE up and going and later on you could always go back and apply the lilo or grub details to be able to boot both distros from the same lilo or grub menu as your Mandriva install. I think it's always a good option to have a bootloader floppy available anyway, and what better time to create it than when you're doing the install and have enough to mess with without doing the boot integration just yet. Edited August 1, 2005 by jboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 Hi jboy. You are correct. It is a good alternative and one which I use a lot. But my response was to the original request to using Multiple OS bootup choice. So yes there are 3 solutions to the prob. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edd Posted August 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 Thanks a lot for all your replies, I have downloaded the ISO and am just getting round to burning it. I will get back to you with how it goes or if I run into any problems :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboy Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 Greetings, AussieJohn. I'm pleased to personally say hello and thanks as I've benefitted from many of your posts and have logged them into my tips file. That's what I love about MUB - practically every day I pick up several tip gems. I've found that oftentimes the floppy bootloader option is not addressed in some distro's install/setup documentation, so I thought I'd mention that SuSE had it. I remember I got caught unprepared once (I loved Ixthusdan's quip that "preparation is the key") in installing SimplyMepis 3.3.1 assuming I would have that option, only to find out mid-way through the install they didn't include the option for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 Thanks jboy for your thanks. I am happy to help when I can. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edd Posted August 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 well I burnt and tried to install Suse earlier, but the installer just cuts out during the install! My laptop just turns off. I have asked on a few suse forums for a bit of help - this wouldn't be happening due to Mandriva existing on the system too would it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 My guess is you need some boot options - no clue as to which though... Can't seem to think of any explanation that is related to having Mandriva on the same harddrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edd Posted August 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 I figured I'd need some sort of commands. Well as long as I know Mandriva ent the problem. I'll post here if I find out the problem in case it is of use to anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 Turn off acpi. There is an option to load SuSE that way, at least there was when I ran SuSE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edd Posted August 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 I tried that but it still did exactly the same. I read somewhere it's something with my laptop to do with grounding. So I am going to stick with Mandriva, at the end of the day, if it works, then I needn't change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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