Partition hacking: installing Windows Vista and openSUSE Linux on the same machine

Once in a while a computer scientist has to install a computer. Sounds simple? Think again, especially if you want to perform a multi boot installation. In this case, the goal was to install Windows Vista and openSUSE Linux.

Here are the steps I followed:

(this procedure destroys all data in the computer so make sure you have all your data stored safely elsewhere before starting something similar)

Step 1 - Create partitions

Insert the Linux installation disc.
Restart your computer. Press key combination at start-up to boot from disc (e.g. F8).

Create the partition scheme:
(the sizes are just examples)

P1 (recovery) - NTFS - 13 GB
P2 WinVista - NTFS - 50 GB
P3 WinData - FAT32 - 500 GB
P4 Extended partition
P4.1 Linux Swap - swap - 8 GB
P4.2 Linux - ext3 - 42 GB

No need to format.

FAT32 is supported by Windows and Linux. This way the data partition can be accessed by both Windows and Linux. The drawbacks of using FAT32 are the maximum file size of 4GB and no security and extended attributes.

Take note of the device name for the Linux partition. It should be something like: /dev/sda6 or /dev/sde6.


Step 2 - Install Linux

Continue Linux installation on partition P4.2.

After installation, the MBR is loaded with GRUB.


Step 3 - Install Windows Vista

Insert the Windows installation disc.
Restart your computer. Press key combination at start-up to boot from disc (e.g. F8).

Install Windows on partition P2.

After the installation, GRUB is replaced in the MBR with Windows Boot Manager. This means that it is no longer possible to boot Linux.

Reboot.

Install drivers.
Run Windows Update until there are no more updates available. It is normal to have a large number of updates.


Step 4 - Restore GRUB

Insert the Linux installation disc.
Restart your computer. Press key combination at start-up to boot from disc (e.g. F8).

Choose the "Rescue mode" option and choose the 'root' user.

Rescue> mount /dev/sda6 /mnt

Rescue> grub

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,5)

grub> root (hd0,5)

grub> setup (hd0)

grub> quit

Rescue> reboot

Restart - GRUB should be back in control of the booting process.

If you wish to change the GRUB menu, just edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file using Linux.

If at any time you need to restore Windows Boot Manager (for a Windows Service Pack installation, for instance), you can use the free tool EasyBCD.


--

Good luck with your installations!

Windows Vista is actually OK

Back in the days when Microsoft named the Windows versions by year - Windows 95, 98, 2000 - I had a "golden" rule: never install a Windows version on its year!

This meant that I would wait at least a year after release so Microsoft could finish the product. By the way, this is true not only of Microsoft software but of all software: complex software has bugs; new software has more bugs than older software (assuming it is still being developed, of course).

I applied the "golden" rule to Windows Vista: wait for the first service pack before installing it.

Now that I did, I'm happy with it. Windows Vista is not bad and is actually OK. It got very bad early reviews but now that hardware has caught up with it, and that many bugs have been fixed, using Windows Vista is actually an upgrade from Windows XP. It has several user interface improvements that are worthwhile. The main problem is UAC. It's so annoying I have my doubts it actually makes the system more secure. As a user I just want to click "continue" to get on with what I'm doing.


Screenshot credits: Paul's Computer Service