OpenSUSE Install :: 11.2 On An Existing Partitioning Scheme With Encrypted LVM
Apr 5, 2011
I have a Ubuntu server with encrypted LVM2 (logical volumes - /, /var,/tmp,/home etc.). I need to migrate this to an OpenSUSE 11.2 server (cannot use a later version due to the availability of a binary-only module - that is just the way it is). When I fire up the installer, I cannot seem to find an option to mount the encrypted disk (/dev/sda) which has the LVM2 structure. I do not want to lose /home (logical LVM2 volume), so a clean blank slate install is not an option.
I have a Intel DH67CL motherboard with UEFI support(and updated to latest BIOS). I have connected a 180GB Intel 330 SSD into my system so as to install Debian testing.
Presently, a 160GB sata hard drive is connected along with SSD and is used to boot default OS.
1. I am planning to do GPT partitioning. I am totally new to GPT partitioning. from what I understands, It needs some mandatory partitions like ESP. My doubt is, in a SSD solely booting Linux, will I need to create separate /(root) and /home and /data partitions? Also, I plan to use /var/log and some other frequently updated directories moved into existing harddrive.
So, what is the partitioning order - is this fine - ESP(512MB), /boot(100MB), /(30GB), /home(50GB) and /DATA(50GB) and remaining 16-17GB for over provisioning for the SSD?
2. is there a need to have 128MB MSR(microsoft reserved) in the case of Linux
3. With gdisk or parted for creating partitions? how to verify if partitions are aligned. In GPT, only primary partitions are supported?
4. Some answers in askubuntu/superuser says ext4 is not really good for SSD, instead take JFS? is this true? Is Btrfs mature enough to use with Desktop system
5. Which bootloader? gdisk creator Roderick is pushing for rEFInd or gummyboot instead of GRUB2.
6. In my PC, 4GB RAM is available with a core i3 processor. Shall I mount /tmp in RAM? Will I need to specify the size of RAM when mounting using /etc/fstab? A size of 1GB is fine?
I am going to set up a home server (command line only) with 2 x 1 GB HD and 4G memory. hat partitioning scheme would you recommend? Not more than 5 users Fedora Core only Will host a web page Will run DNS, DHCP, SAMBA, LAMP, NTP, Firewall, etc.. Just normal stuff.The server will host a large amount of video/audio/picture files
I am a total noob for Linux / Ubuntu. I have been using windows all my life and I decided to get rid of Bill finally. I want to install Ubuntu by Manually partitioning my HD. I have a 500GB HDD. optimal partition scheme. I repeat i am a total Noob. please let me know details for each partition like
1. Primary or Logical 2. type 3. mount point 4. size
I am having no other OS in the pc. just planning to have ubuntu. no dual boot needed.
I meet a problem about "Your boot partition is on a disk using the GPT partitioning Scheme but this machines cannot boot using GPT." in installation. Does GRUB-0.97 on CentOS 5.4 support GPT?
I have a laptop running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and I need to upgrade to the new Ubuntu, I order to get complete use of my hardware. Usually when I install a new version of Ubuntu, I have the opportunity to use my old partitioning, but now I can only use the entire disk or create a new partition table.
The laptop has other partitions that is a data and a Windows partition as I want to preserve.
How can I install the new Ubuntu on the old Ubuntu partition and preserve the data on other partitions?
I am currently running all my applications off a HD as I was unable to install the grub bootloader on my ocz pci express card (grub won't install on the pci express card as it is a raid0 array). I would like to use the HD for backup only and run everything off the ocz card - with the exception of booting (which is unfortunate but I didn't manage to make the pci express card boot). How is it possible to tell suse during the installation to create the /boot on the HD and the rest on the pci express card and also to allocate the remainder of the HD as empty storage area??
Just acquired a new laptop, Gateway NV, i5-430, 4GB, 500GB HD, Intel GMA, and, of course, Windows 7. I wish to install openSUSE (as I have on my other laptops and boxes, with Windows/XP and (sigh..) one Vista). No problems with partitoning any of them, but I have not partitioned a Windows 7 HD.I do wish to keep Windows 7, but SUSE has become my primary OS. So the question is: do I use Windows 7 utilities to "shrink" its main partition and then install 11.3 ? Alternatively, I can use the 11.3 install DVD to do the "shrink". I have already run the install up to, but NOT INCLUDING the actual partitioning.Windows has commandeered the first three (3) primary partitions, so SUSE goes to an extended partition. Windows looks something like:
1: 12GB (Recovery Partition)2: 102 MB (System Reserved)3. 453GB Windows 7 primary partitionThe 11.3 install proposes reducing #3 (above) to 163GB and allocating the remaining to SUSE (swap, /, and /home). I will probably tinker with the sizes (I really do not need a 280BG /home), and I want some space for an alternate distro.Any and all advice on the partitioning choice(s) will be appreciated. I did also attempt "GParted" from the Ubuntu liveCD, but the only way to boot that liveCD was to use "-xforcevesa" and I was not completely confident of that!(Note: already created the "factory recovery" DVDs and the apps/drivers DVD. I may dry run them before I do the actual partitioning. There is no data or software on it.)
I have 2 physical 500 GB Sata drives/stripes that appear as 1000 GB C: drive under WinXP. I have partitioned that drive into 750 GB Windows native C: and an empty 250 GB partition F: When running the installer for OpenSuse 11.2 only the physical drives appear in the list of available hard drives 2x 500 GB (= sda and sdb), rather then the partitions of 750 and 250 GB (would expect sda1 and sda2). Is it possible to install Opensuse on the 250 GB partition (F: under windows) without destroying the WinXP installation and data on the C: partition?
I am having trouble getting my portable hard drive to mount after partitioning it for VFAT. I originally had it partitioned as NTFS but I realized that my Xbox 360 will only mount VFAT filesystems. I believe that I partitioned it correctly with yast. However I am still having trouble mounting it. Below is the output of fdisk, mount and dmesg.
# fdisk - l Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x1e371e37
Trying to install OpenSUSE on an HP ML115 with an SmartArray E200 controller. Get to the partitioning screen, select LVM and carry on, when "preparing disks" I get error -4017
"Failure occurred during the following operation: Creating volume group system from /dev/cciss/c0d0p2"
Google the error and found a similar fault which was fixed back in OpenSUSE 10.2!
The only one I have involves partitioning the disk with Ubuntu and then installing OpenSUSE on top of that!
I have a very simple question I am creating a new partition for storing files, installers, documents, etc, I am going to make it ext4, now my question is, do I have to specify a mounting point?? I would not like to do that, but if I do not specify a mounting point, will I be able to access that partition? So in what cases you specify mounting point and when you do not specify mounting point?
Has anyone tried installing on an mSata drive? I tried installing OpenSuse and received the message that the partitioning on my MyDigitalSSD drive was not readable.
Id like to know if its just my generic MyDigitalSSD drive that doesnt work, or all mSata drives.
Trying to encrypt my partitions for swap, root and /home directories. However, when I go to partitioner and select the drives as sdb1, sbd2 or sbd3 and click on the encryption. It errors with a -3016 error. Can't find anything in the release notes or the security documentation that would lead me to why this screen is popping.
i have a backtrack install that i would like to keep while installing suse for an everyday OS; i start the install process but when it gets to partitioning the hard drive, it doesnt seem to recognize anything already being on there; it just gives me the setup for suse, ie: sda1 ext3 = OS sda2 or sda5 = swap. do i have to configure a partition scheme? i installed ubuntu on a desktop alongside windows very easily due to grub graphical install/partition; is there not a similar function for suse?
On my Desktop I am experiencing a very weird behavior. First of all, I would like to mention that I am posting from the very same machine...just under Windows (which tends me to roll our hardware issues).
Next, a short history I installed 11.2 on my machine when it came out last year. I upgraded my hardware (new mainboard, cpu, ...) without reinstalling. Everything went fine I upgraded to KDE 4.4...still everything ok I did a system upgrade to 11.3 final using zypper And there it starts. After the upgrade, the first boot didnt work as expected (the system just hang). So I just did a restart and 11.3 was up and running. Now, since last week, I cannot boot my system at all. The screen just shows me the boot-splash but the progress bar isnt moving a thing. So I started with the option splash=verbose which did not show me a single line of output. The system just hangs right after the GRUB selection occured. So I decided to download 11.3, burn it to a disc and reinstall it. Well...this doesnt work either At least it shows me some lines of output, which look fine, but some lines after starting KDM the screen goes black and thats it. The only way I got something was when I started the installation in Textmode. I was able to log in but I dont know what to do then. I ran yast2 but it didnt look like I could install the system that way.It would be nice to get it running with my home-partition still in place.
I'm having some (well, a lot actually) of problems trying to get OpenSUSE 11.2 installed on my home PC. I am attempting to set up a dual boot configuration with Windows 7 installed on an bios Nvidia RAID 0.I was able to shrink the partition in Windows, and rebooted onto the net install for OpenSUSE (the MD5 validated DVD install failed multiple burns with "Repository not found"). I get into the graphical installer portion with no problems off the net install CD. However, the installer is not recognizing that there is an existing RAID 0. It lists the 2 SATA disks in the RAID separately. I can click on SDA1, and both SDB and SDB1 and it shows the disks, but does not recognize any existing partitions. If I click on SDA I get an immediate segfault in YaST and drop back to the text mode installer menu. It is loading the nv_sata module just fine.
From forum searches and google it seems that this is not usually a problem. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 with the Nvidia Nforce 570 chipset running an AMD X2 64 3800+. Removing the stripeset and redoing it as Linux software RAID is not an option, I do not have enough space for a total backup/restore. Anything I do has to be nondestructive to the existing Windows installation.I really want to have a linux installation but between the DVD installer failing and now this issue I am about ready to give up on it.
In the near future I will be obliged to change my computer. Currently, my system is OpenSuse 11.2 with KDE 4.5.3 on a dual-boot (with WinVista) laptop. I plan to have the new machine again be dual-boot (Win7).
First question: Is there a way to "describe" the current system in a way that, after the initial partitioning and probably a basic installation of OpenSuse 11.2, makes it easy to reproduce the current OpenSuse 11.2 installation (i.e., installed packages, profiles; more?) on the new machine? This would reduce manual work to copying some system files (e.g., /etc/csh.cshrc and similar) and of course /home/username etc.
Second question: Same as first, but this time with a change to OpenSuse 11.3 or the soon to come OpenSuse 11.4. A potential initial installation of OpenSuse 11.2 would be possible.
As every time when a new OpenSuse Version arrives, I tried to install 11.4 (I have 11.2 ans 11.3 on separate partitions, + a Windows 7 that already was there when I bought my computer). Previous versions always recognized existing installations and added them to the Grub list, 11.4 doesen't... it merely recognizes the Windows. This is blocking me from testing it before adopting, as I always do, as I don't know how to add these entries manually; I'm too afraid not to be able to add the entries once installed, and not being able to use my older versions in case I have troubles. What went wrong in this release that developers forgot this important part? How I could manually add my entries for 11.2 and 11.3?
I have an encrypted filesystem that I've decided I don't want encrypted anymore. Seems the easiest way to do this is simply reformat the filesystem, but I can't. If I try to do it in YaST2 I get either system error code -3005 (unknown) or -3008 (apparently in use). When I try to do it from the command line I get:
Code: frylock:/home/joel # umount /dev/sdb5 umount: /dev/sdb5: not mounted frylock:/home/joel # mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb5 mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009) /dev/sdb5 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here! frylock:/home/joel #
It's unmounted, I don't know how to make it any less in use than that.I can't delete the partition because it's not the last logical partition in the extended partition.
I haven't used encryption previously but through that for better security, I would enable it on one of my disks. I went though the process and when done, copied data to the device etc. My house had a powercut the other day and I noticed that the device did not mount automatically upon restart. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the de-cryption password and have lost access to my data. Is there a way of either recovering my password or getting the partition to mount without the password so I can access the data, copy/back up and then re-create the partition without encryption?
After update to 11.4, I would like to regain access to my encrypted home that I left intact. Both user.img and user.key files are there, but when I create the same user again in YaST, it does not recognize their presence and it asks again for size of the image. I am afraid it will just overwrite the old image. I do have full backup of hte data, but since its 150GB, I would rather not have to transfer it again.
this is my first time doing a custom partition, I tried to do it with only the assistance of reading as I go, but I don't believe I found enough information last night. What I am trying to do, is put openSUSE on 200gb out of 500gb space on my external hard drive, as well as on 50gb space out of 110gb on my internal hard drive. The remaining 60gb space on my internal drive is going to be for microsoft windows. The remaining 300gb space on my external drive will be storage space. It seems like what I want to do is achievable
What I want is to have my main openSUSE on the external drive (primary partition I think?), with the GRUB loader so that when the external drive is not plugged in, my little brother can use windows on my internal hard drive. I tried this last night, and when installation had finished, I rebooted my computer and the screen was just blank black with the flashing white line as if waiting for me to type, although it would not allow me to type when I tried. It would be great if someone could tell me the order in which to partition, including the terms primary partition, extended partition, and logical partition, as needed.. I don't want to permanently muck up this machine.
I am running Suse 11.1 on a netbook that I would like to free up for work. Since I would like to keep the existing setup on the new machine, I was wondering if there was a process for copying an exisiting installation to new hardware. This will be a desktop system ( Cheapie PIV most likely )
What just happened was that I was experiencing some serious blue screen errors in Windows all of a sudden, so I loaded up my recovery partition for windows, and ran the "Restore complete system function". At some point, it had to restart, and I got the BIOS error "Unable to detect operating system". Eventually I got openSUSE to work again by reinstalling it using my DVD. However, now, whenever I load my windows partition, I get a windows error that says it cannot configure Windows on my hardware! The furthest it gets is a blue Windows screen that says "Please wait while Windows continues to configure your hardware."
My windows version is Vista, and I use openSUSE 11.3 as my primary partition. My question is this: How can I re-install Windows onto my partition? I have a recovery partition setup still, but I'm afraid that the Restore Complete System function will mess with my linux partitions again!
All I want Windows for is to play WoW! Running WoW through Wine is fail on my laptop for some reason, its far too slow and problematic. Please help me... some Linux forums just trashed me for using Windows at all, but its my only option available for my particular spec of computer to play this game, so that type of advice doesn't help me much. Feasible alternatives to a Windows partition would be nice, but Wine clearly doesn't work for me like I desire.
I just upgraded my OpenSuSE 11.2 system to 11.3 and have experienced the following problem:
My hard drive was encrypted beforehand, and after the upgrade(which went smoothly) will no longer decrypt. I type in my passphrase at the prompt, press enter and the start up process never resumes. I am able to access the filesystem from the Rescue System option in the install disk. What's strange is that this worked smoothly on another laptop of mine.
I am running OpenSUSE 11.3 GNOME, and I recently reinstalled Windows, and it overwrote GRUB. I only have an Ubuntu LiveCD (I installed with the OpenSUSE DVD), how do I get GRUB back? Note that the Ubuntu LiveCD doesn't recognize the LVM Encrypted partition, so I can't mount it.
I am having a problem setting up an encrypted home directory with openSUSE 11.3. I used Yast User and Group Management to edit an existing user to encrypt the home directory and the user.key and user.img files were created in the /home directory. I tried it out and logged in as user and created a new file. I logged out and logged in as a different user and was able to see the newly created file in the first users home directory.
I figured I did something wrong so I went back to Yast and deleted the user. I deleted the /home/user directory using file manager su mode. I tried again to create a new user with an encrypted home directory using Yast and now when Yast tries to write the changes I get an error: "pam_mount is already setup for user. Use --replace to replace the existing entry." I do not know how to proceed from here except to try with a different user name as I do not understand what the error message means and what command to use --replace with.
