Installing Suse 9.1 on a brand new TP

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psommerlad · #1 Post by **psommerlad** » Wed May 26, 2004 4:38 pm

Hi all,

I just want to give a word of caution when installing Suse 9.1 (or some other recent linux edition) on a brand new Thinkpad (I've got a R50 this week).

I inserted my Linux bood CD, before I even finished the first boot into WinXP. Since IBM provides recovery information in an unpartitioned area of the harddisk my Linux install went fine finding free space but besides dumping a partially converted FAT/NTFS Windows partition also the recovery data on the harddisk. A try to restore to factory defaults using the Access IBM button made things worse, it also deleted any remaining things from the Windows partition. Only Linux continued to run fine...

So I orderd Recovery CDs and my first try to install them worked only half way. So I deleted also my Linux partitions to have nascent HD again and tried again... it is still running...

BTW: does anybody know, why it takes so long to install IBM's applications on the first boot of WinXP?

So I recommend the following:
- first get your Windows up and running fine.
- when you install Linux, only use the space you obtain by shrinking the partition. One thing I'll check later on is to define a partition with an invalid partition code that just covers the "recovery" space on the harddisk.
- if you need them, order the recovery CDs (they are free for a newly purchased thinkpad). Tell support you tried to install Linux and thus removed your recovery info on the harddisk without knowing. I think they might also come in handy when I upgrade the harddisk sometime.

Yours
Peter.

Jens Herrmann · #2 Post by **Jens Herrmann** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:20 am

Hi,

I installed Suse Linux Professional without any problems on my R50. The recovery partition was still there. Sometimes, there can be a problem with the Grub boot loader, I had this one when Suse 9.0 was running... Windows wasn't able to start, the IBM Recovery disks helped. But now, Suse Linux 9.1 Pro is running great on my Thinkpad R50, no problems so far! I'm kind of happy

HKILP7M8 · #3 Post by **HKILP7M8** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:26 pm

Jens, are you running a dual boot?
I would like to run Windows Server 2003, Windows XP SP2 and Suse Linux 9.1 Pro. I would like to do this were I can boot to Windows or Linux. What is the best way of doing this?

FxXP · #4 Post by **FxXP** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 2:54 am

SuSe is a distrobution that does not like to be dual-booted with another operating system. I noticed this last year when I tried to dualboot with an active XP partition. SuSe specifically said that it would wipe out any partitions on the HDD.

Jens Herrmann · #5 Post by **Jens Herrmann** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 9:08 am

@ HKILP7M8

it is no problem runnig all this three operation systems. i did it with my test computer. it was fine. what you have to do is: install the microsoft systems at first. after this, install suse. the grub bootloader is ok, it will find your windows installations. don't worry if grub only finds one windows entry. you can choose between your windows installations after you selected "windows" during the boot sequence.

here is another good homepage if you want to run linux on a thinkpad:
http://www.sebastiandierksmeier.de/thin ... ex.en.html

give linux a try. i'm working with it for almost 4 years now. sometimes it is not easy, but i like the whole idea of free software where everybody can share there information.

dkpw · #6 Post by **dkpw** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:23 pm

FxXP wrote:SuSe is a distrobution that does not like to be dual-booted with another operating system. I noticed this last year when I tried to dualboot with an active XP partition.

Tosh and piffle! Both SuSE 9.0 or 9.1 work flawlessly in a dual boot environment from my experience.

The way I did it was to install XP, unlock the Pre-desktop area, use Partition Magic to create two 20GB partitions, install SuSE 9.1 into the empty partition, configure booting through GRUB and there you have it - a dual boot T41.

I've experienced no problems moving between XP and SuSE on a daily basis for over three months. I use XP in work and SuSE in the evenings and weekends. No problems - even after XP locks up.

Regards

dkpw

#7 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:56 pm

Another way, of course, once you get to three or more systems is to use VMware. The newest version supports Windows 2003 server if I remember correctly. That way, you can run the other OS at the same time as XP. ... JDHurst

leasure98 · #8 Post by **leasure98** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:23 pm

Was wondering if you guys running Suse 9.1 if you had any luck with hibernate and returning to a working system? I was thinking of installing Fedora Core 2 on a T22 but there are hoops to jump through and googling has led me to believe that nobody knows how to fix this. Most I can tell is that ACPI in Linux hasn't matured enough but APM works with a few "tricks". I'm not a big fan of "tricks" and just wanted something that works. Thanks!

dkpw · #9 Post by **dkpw** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 1:30 pm

Hi leasure98,

Sorry, I can't advise on hibernation in SuSE 9.1, since when my T41 is running Linux at home, it's carried from room to room open and then plugged into one of the several AC adaptors scattered around the house. When I'm not using it, Seti gets to use it.

I installed SuSE 9.1 without ACPI support for a couple of reasons, a) I've heard of problems with Ndiswrapper and Centrino wireless NICs if ACPI is enabled, b) Advice on the SuSE website indicated this was a recommended setting for T41s under SuSE 9.0 so when it came to install 9.1 I kept that option.

Unfortunately I could not find a reference to the status of a T22 in the SuSE hardware databases at either

http://cdb.suse.de/?LANG=en_UK
or
http://www.suse.com/en/business/certifi ... index.html

I think your comments about ACPI are right - tricks though are part of the fun of Linux, in my opinion. It might be worth your time to download and burn the SuSE Live CD to see what options that gives you on the T22 before doing anything permanent to your hard drive. You can obtain a copy from:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/live-cd-9.1/

Regards,

dkpw

leasure98 · #10 Post by **leasure98** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:42 pm

Thanks for the info, dkpw. Yeah, like you said "it's part of the fun of Linux". I agree totally, but there comes a time when you need to or have to have a break. Family, work, finishing a garage, soccer, sick kids, etc. I've been messing around for 6 months with it and have learned quite a lot. But that was with my second desktop downstairs. Now we're talking about my "baby". Although it's no T41 it's great to me and I want nothin' but the best. Seriously, though, I've read posts were some laptop fans wouldn't even come on, causing major heat. I definitely don't want that. Sorry to rant, but thank you.

Installing Suse 9.1 on a brand new TP

Installing Suse 9.1 on a brand new TP

Suse Linux 9.1 Professional

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