"can't Install, Not Enough Memory Or Your Computer Cannot Run

My computer is not the best, it is a Dell Optiplex GX100, with 384MB ram rather than the 128MB it came with.

It works without complaint with SL10.1, but when i tried to install opensuse10.2 on it, YaST installer had to run in text mode, because the graphics card wasn't good enough. The install went fine until first reboot, at which point it tried to start an x-server again, and it couldn't, so it just kept trying and trying. When i booted into runlevel 3, i was asked to put my username and password in, and of course, i couldn't, because it still needed to be set up.

Are there any ways to get around this, maybe a text-only installation?


(this post is further to these two topics: [topic=34189]34189[/topic] and [topic=35081]35081[/topic])

I have a friend who has an Optiplex, and he had the same problem. The problem was fixed when I took my Enterprise Edition 10.2 CDs and installed them on his machine. This also fixed a problem that he had with OpenSuse blackscreening on him. It seems that SLED (Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop) has more hardware compatibility issues worked out than OpenSuse does.

There could be other causes for this problem. ...

I installed SuSE on two old PC's (one with Intel 866MHz, the other with Intel-1.1 GHz), both with 256MB RAM. The biggest problem with the installation was the old CD drives, which would not read the CDs properly (although on the surface it appeared they were ok). Typically the install would fail at some bizarre place, often in the first reboot, with symptoms like you observed.

I was using factory CD to avoid burning problems.

In one case I solved the problem by replacing the CD drive in the old pc with an inexpensive new drive. In the second case I did a text install and after a few attempts it worked. The PCs have been rock solid since the install was finally successful.

well i've done it. it turned out all i needed to do was to press F3 and select "text" (or was it ascii?). the bottom of the screen was not showing due to the fact the monitor i was using has bizarre frequencies or something (its nearly as old as i am =] ) so i didn't see those bits.

oh the joy of simple solutions =]