Suse 9.2 question

[mdchesne]

OK, just reinstalled linux Suse 9.2 on my comp. Never actually checked if it worked B4 when it was installed, but I decided to go fresh anyways.

So here's the problems:
1) Suse is on a single 160gb HDD right now, windows is on the rest. I need to dual boot, but windows won't recognize the suse OS. I have the HDD with windows as the master and suse as the slave so windows should be booting first. Only way to switch between OSs is to manually change the SATA cable from one to the other. Then that one works, but not the other. Confused. BTW hate dualbooting but until i get problem 2 worked out, i'm stuck. Mobo driver prob or what?
2) Here's a big one. Suse 9.2 won't recognize my x800xl from powercolor. List of all the grafix cards supported in install menu list every one EXCEPT x800XL <-- THE XL IS ALL I ASK! WHY SUSE WHY! Ok, so I was told it doesn't matter what one you choose by the people at novell so I just picked the xt which was closer to the xl than the plain jane (figured pipelines, speed, etc). But the screen, as you can imagine with a GPU not supported, is deafult and crappy looking. colors are all askew, etc. I know 9.3 supports the x800xl (wish i waited that extra couple months... oh well). Anyone know of a patch or update I can download? driver maybe. Please link me and don't tell me to look on novell's site. i did. I got lost and confused (not really, but most updates are security issue ones).

 

[Zelmo3]

If you don't have much installed on the system yet, then it sounds like the easiest way to clear up both problems is to download and install SuSE 9.3, which I hear recently became available on Novell's ftp server.

Otherwise, it sounds like you've almost certainly installed grub on the local disk. As I recall there are three options for where to install grub: on a floppy, on the boot sector of SuSE's disk, or on the master boot record. You'll need to either install grub on the MBR or tell Windows that there's another OS and where to find it. I'm guessing it's easier to install grub on the MBR. It should just be a matter of changing the setting in YaST.

For the video driver you can get the latest version from ATI's site. They explicitly support SuSE and the download labeled "ATI Driver Installer" is supposed to set everything up for you. If you run that and find that everything works except 3D, post back here and we'll get that working too.

 

[manly]

http://www.novell.com/products/linuxpro...oads/suse_linux/instructions_eval.html

 

[mdchesne]

Originally posted by: Zelmo3

Otherwise, it sounds like you've almost certainly installed grub on the local disk.

dunno. maybe. I always am loath to mess with the software of my computer so I let people do it for me. Including installations of major programs and/or operating systems. If grub is a program that partitions or dual boots, maybe i have it. I wouldn't know

But I'm downloading the eval version of 9.3 right now. Anything special I need to do with the ISO once i burn it on a dvd? Can I just install it over 9.2 on my linux HDD like a mac OS or do i need to do a clean install? Also... eval version? unlike windows, I hope i don't need to keygen my way past that annoying "register me now" popup

 

[mdchesne]

Checking my ISO file using md5deep.exe produces no number. Thus i cannot check the md5sum number as novell says i should. typing in "md5sum SUSE-10.3-Eval-DVD" into md5deep.exe and it gets nothing. same with ....DVD.iso

 

[Zelmo3]

From what I can find, using md5deep involves just typing "md5deep <filename>" (without quotes of course), i.e., "md5deep SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD" if that's the name of the file. Take care that if you're doing this in Linux or other unix-type OSes that everything is case sensitive, so watch what's capitalized and what's not.
If you're running md5deep in Linux, do it in a console in the same directory where you have the iso saved. Make sure md5deep is in your path (check it by typing "md5deep -h" and see if you get a usage message). If it's not, then either copy it to a location in your path (such as /usr/local/bin) or copy it to the directory where the iso is and run it with "./md5deep <filename>".
I'm not sure that it's any different if you're running it in Windows. You probably still need to open a console (pick "Run..." from the Start menu or hit WinKey-R" and enter "cmd" as the program to run) and use it as stated above. I don't know what the standard Windows path is or how to alter it easily, so it's easiest just to put md5deep in the same directory as the iso.
Again, no need to type "md5sum" when using md5deep. Novell's instructions assume you're using the standard GNU md5sum program, which in this case we're not.

Now, regarding the Eval thing, I couldn't find an explanation of how that version differs from the retail version, apart from not having tech support from Novell. If that's the only difference then you should be able to install over your previous installation and it will keep all of your settings and personal files intact.

 

[mdchesne]

tried all the md5deep combinations, md5sum, md5, all the -h's, -x's, etc. and i'm not getting any printout. It's in the same directory and all. only thing I can thinki of is that the iso itself is incomplete. I mean, it's only 2.3gb compared to the 4.3 novell says it should be, but it downloaded to that size so i dunno. I'll try redownloading again today

 

[Zelmo3]

You can save yourself some time downloading if you do an ftp install. On this page, scroll down to the last section where it says "SUSE LINUX 9.3 ftp version." There are links for installation instructions and the ftp server. The iso for that installation is less than 60MB, and if you have a broadband connection going into your ethernet port then the ftp install is a reliable and efficient way to get everything you need.

 

[mdchesne]

ok, got the iso downloaded and loaded onto boot CD. if i am to boot off it, how will i define the location of the installation? I don't want to wipe out windows.... yet... but only want to upgrade my SUSE 9.2 which is on a totally seperate HDD. (which windows won't acknowledge)
[SUSE] [Windows]
|_______|
Dual Boot