This post is about certain things encountered while installing openSuse Leap 15.2 into a dual OS environment on 2 computers. I kept hitting these issues and finally decided to make some comment.
1. Installing all the available desktops using the patterns tab on Yast software maintenance left daemon files which got powered up in one desktop environment where they should never had appeared. It appears that desktop installations should NOT leave traces of daemons around, but unfortunately that is occurring, particularly for the file indexers. I finally ended up with some type of low level interrupts, which chewed up the disk time and paralyzed the desktop continually making any work impossible. I thought a desktop environment install would have left software only functional in that environment, but systemd kept collecting new tasks until finally the system was tasked out. Looking at sysconfig revealed the problem area. There were interacting conflicts.
2. I had much trouble with fixing btfs partition problems, as I could not find a rescue system which was able to handle the ntfs partitions of Windows and the btfs partitions of linux. The openSuse rescue disk crashed spectacularly when I went to resize a windows partition. I understand that each creator of software wants their own product to function perfectly, but in a multiple OS environment, it seems that the customer needs the best of both worlds. Knoppix 8.6 would NOT even handle the btfs partition, this is a serious deficiency of what is a fairly good stand-alone rescue system.
3. Each OS wants to wipe out the other system partitions during install time. This is understandable, but requires great care to NOT wipe out good data and the Master Boot Record. I had to continually switch to Expert Partitioner during linux install mode, because the windows partitions were scheduled to be destroyed and reformatted. I see the same problem from the windows install and even after a successfull system install, MS Windows seems to think linux partitions are waiting to be converted to MS drives and will clobber them if given a chance.
4. I had much problems with a sys5 interrupt from a supposedly compatible opensuse linux install of the cyberpower daemon to monitor UPS power, the system would suddenly start freezing. I had to do a complete fresh install from scratch all over again (this happened 4 or 5 times) Finally I gave up and used the apcupsd daemon to monitor the CPS UPS unit and it is doing a good job (and the monitor screen is a gui which CPS lacks)
I finallly have two systems functional now, but only because I stayed strictly with the Plasma 5 desktop and did NOT install any other desktop. In fact OpenSuse 15.2 installs the lead-in for the IceWM and TWM desktop managers, you can see them when you go to login in, but I removed the files under Yast and only have the 3 Plasma desktop logins (normal, Wayland, Full Wayland).
There is an oversight during the openSuse Leap 15.2 install which should have been fixed, it is the gpg key, that key is missing during the wifi attempted connect and KDE Wallet hammers you with missing key messages. It is easy to generate a user key, this should be inserted into the install page where the user is identified and defined.
Anyway dual operating systems are still tricky to handle when considering GRUB and it took me about week to correctly install under a UEFI environment on the HP Z420 workstation, due to bad instructions from the MS WIndows 10 download page (neglected to say that the USB stick for downloading MUST be ntfs partitioned, not fat32 partitioned due to the file splice error (no files > 4.2 gigs) and that cost me 3 days of time, the other 4 learning how to work with the firmware on the HP workstation and installing the OS's
I have the backups in place, and it is a joy to backup in less than a minute internally and externally.
Enough for now.
- Randall
1. Installing all the available desktops using the patterns tab on Yast software maintenance left daemon files which got powered up in one desktop environment where they should never had appeared. It appears that desktop installations should NOT leave traces of daemons around, but unfortunately that is occurring, particularly for the file indexers. I finally ended up with some type of low level interrupts, which chewed up the disk time and paralyzed the desktop continually making any work impossible. I thought a desktop environment install would have left software only functional in that environment, but systemd kept collecting new tasks until finally the system was tasked out. Looking at sysconfig revealed the problem area. There were interacting conflicts.
2. I had much trouble with fixing btfs partition problems, as I could not find a rescue system which was able to handle the ntfs partitions of Windows and the btfs partitions of linux. The openSuse rescue disk crashed spectacularly when I went to resize a windows partition. I understand that each creator of software wants their own product to function perfectly, but in a multiple OS environment, it seems that the customer needs the best of both worlds. Knoppix 8.6 would NOT even handle the btfs partition, this is a serious deficiency of what is a fairly good stand-alone rescue system.
3. Each OS wants to wipe out the other system partitions during install time. This is understandable, but requires great care to NOT wipe out good data and the Master Boot Record. I had to continually switch to Expert Partitioner during linux install mode, because the windows partitions were scheduled to be destroyed and reformatted. I see the same problem from the windows install and even after a successfull system install, MS Windows seems to think linux partitions are waiting to be converted to MS drives and will clobber them if given a chance.
4. I had much problems with a sys5 interrupt from a supposedly compatible opensuse linux install of the cyberpower daemon to monitor UPS power, the system would suddenly start freezing. I had to do a complete fresh install from scratch all over again (this happened 4 or 5 times) Finally I gave up and used the apcupsd daemon to monitor the CPS UPS unit and it is doing a good job (and the monitor screen is a gui which CPS lacks)
I finallly have two systems functional now, but only because I stayed strictly with the Plasma 5 desktop and did NOT install any other desktop. In fact OpenSuse 15.2 installs the lead-in for the IceWM and TWM desktop managers, you can see them when you go to login in, but I removed the files under Yast and only have the 3 Plasma desktop logins (normal, Wayland, Full Wayland).
There is an oversight during the openSuse Leap 15.2 install which should have been fixed, it is the gpg key, that key is missing during the wifi attempted connect and KDE Wallet hammers you with missing key messages. It is easy to generate a user key, this should be inserted into the install page where the user is identified and defined.
Anyway dual operating systems are still tricky to handle when considering GRUB and it took me about week to correctly install under a UEFI environment on the HP Z420 workstation, due to bad instructions from the MS WIndows 10 download page (neglected to say that the USB stick for downloading MUST be ntfs partitioned, not fat32 partitioned due to the file splice error (no files > 4.2 gigs) and that cost me 3 days of time, the other 4 learning how to work with the firmware on the HP workstation and installing the OS's
I have the backups in place, and it is a joy to backup in less than a minute internally and externally.
Enough for now.
- Randall