Just installed SUSE 10.0

[mobrien_12]

It's kindof nice.  

But there's one really big problem:

It can't seem to handle data on other partitions reliably.

I tried to mount my old /home partition (ext3) and X refused to start except in the safety mode with nothing but one xterm.  Permissions were OK.  I could read and write to the parition, but X freaked out in every window manager except the ultra basic (which is no window manager) or when I logged in as root (which didn't require the use of /home).

I tried to play some of my ogg files stored on a FAT32 partition with XMMS.  XMMS couldn't handle it.  It crashed.  OGG123 could.

[worker201]

What filesystem does SuSE use?  And are the FAT32 drivers loaded as modules (only added to the kernel when necessary, or built into the kernel?  Not that I could help you if you answered these questions, but this kind of stuff would be useful to know, since it might save someone else some hassle in the future.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Hmmm ... I dunno, I think FAT16 and FAT32 support should be standard, might wanna try another distro. Or maybe they have kernel modules for em.

[worker201]

Hmmm ... I dunno, I think FAT16 and FAT32 support should be standard, might wanna try another distro. Or maybe they have kernel modules for em.

There is in fact a module for FAT support.  I personally think it ought to be built into the kernel, since most people use it so much.  I was thinking maybe the modules weren't loading properly.

[Lead Head]

There is in fact a module for FAT support.  I personally think it ought to be built into the kernel, since most people use it so much.  I was thinking maybe the modules weren't loading properly.

Are you using Gnome or KDE? I know suse 10.0 is geard toward KDE, but it runs ass loads faster with Gnome, while still keeping alot of functionality

[mobrien_12]

The naitive partition type for SUSE is ReiserFS.

I was using KDE but tried GNOME and Windowmaker and blackbox and FVWM before giving up on using my old  /home partition.

The VFAT (fat32 with Long file names) was standard as a module, and the partition was available, readable, and (like for instance with OGG123, usable)... it's just that the GUI programs couldn't handle the files being on another partition and would crash (maybe they could handle another reiser partition, but I had only the root as reiser since I planned to reuse my old /home and windows partitions).

 Very very bizzare.

Maybe another distro is in order.  Of course, I  could probably use their tech support since I bought this retail, but   I've only tried retail Linux tech support once (Caldera OpenLinux 2.2), but because it was a hard question (not "how do I make my sound card work" or something like that), they told me they wouldn't support it, so I ended up going into the source code and finding, and documenting, the solution myself.

[Lead Head]

The naitive partition type for SUSE is ReiserFS.

I was using KDE but tried GNOME and Windowmaker and blackbox and FVWM before giving up on using my old  /home partition.

The VFAT (fat32 with Long file names) was standard as a module, and the partition was available, readable, and (like for instance with OGG123, usable)... it's just that the GUI programs couldn't handle the files being on another partition and would crash (maybe they could handle another reiser partition, but I had only the root as reiser since I planned to reuse my old /home and windows partitions).

 Very very bizzare.

Maybe another distro is in order.  Of course, I  could probably use their tech support since I bought this retail, but   I've only tried retail Linux tech support once (Caldera OpenLinux 2.2), but because it was a hard question (not "how do I make my sound card work" or something like that), they told me they wouldn't support it, so I ended up going into the source code and finding, and documenting, the solution myself.

oh..I used OpenSuse 10.1

[mobrien_12]

Well, I know what the problem was now.

I tried to boot into windows today, then my old Linux install.

It's not that SUSE can't read data on other partitions reliably.

It's that the install completely #$%^ed my hard drive.  Every partition except for the ones formatted by SUSE (the root partition and the swap partition) was WRECKED.

The data is still there... sorta.  But You can't boot to any other partition, if you boot with the Win98 boot floppy it says Drive C is corrupt, RedHat won't boot.

Wow.  Good thing I keep backups.

[worker201]

Was that a hardware problem or a software problem?  Meaning, was it a bad hard drive or a bad installer somewhere?

[mobrien_12]

Was that a hardware problem or a software problem?  Meaning, was it a bad hard drive or a bad installer somewhere?

Hard drive never gave me any problems before.

I had run several diagnostics on it before installing.

[worker201]

So SuSE trashed your partitions?  That's not cool.

[mobrien_12]

So SuSE trashed your partitions?  That's not cool.

Yeah, looks like.  What a pity... this system was very stable and I didn't have to do a reinstall for years.

Doing one more backup in case there was anything I missed on the backup before the install.  Then I'm going to do a destructive test on the hard disk, wipe it clean, and start over.

update: destructive test (manufacturer's thorough test) shows no problems with the drive.

[mobrien_12]

update:  Well I was able to rescue the Winodws 98 partition just by going into SUSE's FDISK, deleting the Windows partition definiton, then creating it again using the exact same cylinder settings, but without formatting the partition.  My other Linux partitions (non SUSE) are still borked, but at least I don't have to go through the pain of reinstalling Windows.

[Pathos]

hmmm, I know someone else who's hard drive partition table got trashed.

has a bug crept into fdisk or gparted ?

[mobrien_12]

update (again): This may not totally be SUSE's fault...

I thought I had fixed the windows partition, but I found out this weekend that it had some MAJOR problems which was keeping DMA from working, windows was saying it's primary IDE controller wouldn't work, and the slave CDROM wasn't recognized in Windows (but was in DOS).  Furthermore, using FDISK to fix the windows partition had made SUSE unstable!!!

Went through several troubleshooting procedures, all of which were fruitless, so I finally got completely pissed off, dumped the windows partition onto a spare hard disk using Knoppix, and then did a full, low- level format on the drive.

Made a new windows partition on to the hard disk, formatted it, sys it, fdisk /mbr, recopied the data, and everything works.... actually it works even better because the ACPI suspend and suspend-to-ram works now, where it didn't before (not even under Linux).  

I had done a motherboard upgrade a few weeks before I had installed SUSE 10.    Everything seemed perfect except for the fact that the suspend/suspend-to-ram didn't work, but my old MB didn't have this so I had nothing to compare it to.  

What I think happened is that the new MB BIOS reported the disk geometry slightly differently.  When I made new partitions with SUSE fdisk (similarly when I "fixed" the windows partition), it borked everything... badly.  

The supend issue seems to be the real indicator.  The BIOS has no room for error....

The low level format made me work with a tabula-rasa.  Now I'll reinstall Linux this week.  If windows works, Linux will work better, and won't be anywhere near a pain to install.