Installing Linux on a second drive. (Was: [LBo] Opening > su)

[Inade]

Lynn Gallup wrote:

> When I attempt to open > su, I receive a "Sorry" message saying that 
> the file cannot be opened. Using the file manager, I floated the 
> cursor above the file name and it reports the file as being empty.
>  
> It hardly seems appropriate for a file of this type to be empty so I'm 
> wondering if something might have messed up when I installed SUSE. 
> What do you folks think?
>  
> If I decide to re-install SUSE, can anyone tell me a way to make the 
> installation occur in a different drive (not just a different 
> partition) or does GRUB require both Windows and Linux to be in the 
> same physical drive?
>  
> Thanks,
> Lynn
> P.S.: Thanks, Harold, for giving me the web address of that Linux 
> tutorial site. I'm starting thru it and it is a very good one, both 
> thorough (for the newbie) and well written.
> LG
>  

Ok. This is relatively simple, but very delicate.  You have to read 
everything twice, just to make sure you don't pick the wrong choice by 
accident (and it is very easy too do. I speak from personal experience).

Yes, you can install Linux on another drive than Windows.  It will be 
hdb.  hda is the first (master) drive, hdb is the second (slave) drive, 
hdc would be a third drive.  BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU TYPE THE NAMES.

Lets pretend you have a first drive with Windows and a ntfs data drive.  
They will be hda1 and hda2 partitions.

On your second drive, you will put, for the sake of argument, a linux 
Suse partition and a /swap partition. You could also add a /home 
partition, too. That will be hdb1, hdb2 and hdb3 if they are primary 
partitions.  If you put logical partitions on an extended partition, the 
counting will start at hda5 for the logical partitions. It is 
recommended to have /swap on a primary partition.

When you partition, or when Suse asks you where you want to put the 
installation, choose hdb1.  Or whichever partition you want, remembering 
that >b< will be on your second drive, and >a< on your first drive in 
the partition name.

***

As for Grub, it doesn't really care on which drive things are.  It's all 
the same to Grub - it just counts drives and partitions, like if they 
all are in a big collective olympic swimming pool.  But here is the 
catch. IT STARTS COUNTING AT ZERO. 

So, to Grub, your first drive is hd0.  Your second drive is hd1, and so 
forth.
 
So, when you load the MBR at start, it points to wherever your Suse is, 
in your case it could easily be hard drive 2.  It then reads the 
menu.lst file, which tells him that Windows is in (hd0,0), and Suse is 
in (hd1,0).

Here is a Linux/Grub comparison of names:

First drive, first partition, is hda1 to Linux and (hd0,0) to Grub
First drive, second partition, is hda2 to Linux, and (hd0,1) to Grub.
etc.

Second drive, first partition, is hdb1 to Linux, and (hd1,0) to Grub
Second drive, second partition, is hdb2 to Linux, and (hd1,1) to Grub.

and so on and so forth.

THE FOLLOWING NOTE IS FOR VERY ADVANCED USERS:  Grub can also write to 
the MBR of drive 2, or even load a computer from the MBR of drive 2, if 
your BIOS and involved hardware allows it.  But this is rarely used and 
way beyond beginner's skills.

I hope all of this was clear.

Jisao