Sudden Problem with OpenSUSE 13.1

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello All!

In my Dell Laptop 1645 (Feb 2010 version), I have Windows 7, 64 bit. I installed OpenSUSE 13.1 64 bit. The BIOS is non-UEFI (atleast bios does not show any option for UEFI or secure boot – pretty old one 2010). I could boot GRUB2 as GRUB UEFI indicated incompatibility and error in installation. After Grubs based installation from OpenSUSE-13.1_64 bit DVD, I find installation has been done as i686 and not as x86_64. However, while I earlier installed old versions like 11, 12.2 etc. I could install in x86_64 mode.

I like to use softwares like netgen, OCC, Salome, OpenFOAM etc. Now If I install FOAM in x86_64 version it shows incompatibility. If I install i585 version it shows architecture should be transferred to i586 from i686. It becomes an World War for me to redo everything.

Since the bios is an old one upgraded from Dell till 2011 I hope it may not work in UEFI even if I try to install UEFI firmware. Rather, it will make the Windows non-bootable and I need to roll back.

Can anyone help?

Regs
Abhijit

2

I’m a bit unclear on what you are posting.

If you used the 64-bit DVD image or the 64-bit live image, you should have a 64 bit install. If, instead, you used a 32bit install image, then you will have a 32bit install.

You can use the command:


uname -a

That will tell you the installed architecture. On my system, it gives:


 Linux nwr2 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

and you can see the “x86_64” there.

No, maybe you are saying that grub2 is 32bit. If so, then yes, that is normal. A 64bit install using MBR booting, uses 32bit grub2. The whole idea of MBR booting is based on the use of a 16bit system loader. So, during MBR booting, grub2 must initially run as 16bit. It then may switch to 32bit, to access higher memory addresses. As far as I know, only grub2-efi is built as 64bit, because the UEFI specification requires that the boot loader use the native machine architecture.

Perhaps you can clarify what you are asking.

3

I tried to install OpenSUSE 13.1 using x86_64 DVD. I find that most of the installed files have architecture x86_64. However, while I wanted to see o/p of


uname -a

in my system gives


Linux Aditya.home 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

The Hardware is Dell 1645 XPS studio 16 with i7 processor and 4 GB RAM. Earlier while I used older versions of SUSE 64 bit DVD, the installed OS became 64 bit.
This time I am surprised to see that 64 bit SUSE 13.1 DVD inatalls i686 version.
Any Handle?

4

On 2014-02-01 10:16, vegaonline wrote:

> I tried to install OpenSUSE 13.1 using x86_64 DVD. I find that most of
> the installed files have architecture x86_64. However, while I wanted to
> see o/p of

…

> Code:
> --------------------
>
> Linux Aditya.home 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
>
> --------------------

No, impossible. You downloaded the wrong DVD.

Open that dvd, and look at the header of the file “content”, or at the
structure of the “suse” directory. The 64 bit DVD does not have an i686
directory. Thee is an i586 directory with only one package,
“master-boot-code-1.22-14.1.2.i586.rpm”.

As the 64 bit DVD does not contain an i686 kernel, it is impossible it
can install what it does not have.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

5

Brother!

I also believe that if the DVD contains x86_64 data, how can i686 comes in the picture. .
The first few lines of the header of the file “content” shows :

BASEARCHS x86_64
CONTENTSTYLE 11
DATADIR suse
DESCRDIR suse/setup/descr
DISTRIBUTION openSUSE
LABEL openSUSE
LINGUAS cs da de en en_GB en_US es fi fr hu it ja nb nl pl pt pt_BR ru sv zh zh_CN zh_TW
NAME openSUSE
RELNOTESURL http://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes/x86_64/openSUSE/13.1/release-notes-openSUSE.rpm
VENDOR openSUSE
VERSION 13.1
RELEASE 1.10
META SHA256 22b76833801210a252ed1a00b6c5d4c800c89a24bcd7162592f561d9b8c636b7 app-icons.tar.gz
META SHA256 02bfee819d968a97f7a31a29265ee017ad1fcc465bd46b3ced220616f4f1a070 appdata.xml.gz
META SHA256 e533789cded733ee63c8de8966541c9fb7976f248699cb5b5b0ba9f70df55429 dvd-13.1-13.6.1.x86_64.pat.gz
META SHA256 48e95ebba4f6d332378ca343451defbc053073a0adf3521969fffe74fb080923 packages.DU.gz
META SHA256 c1c000324bbf7cc67d64c5d2403a3836d091ad5e9bbd18bfe932816c90bb837a packages.FL.gz
META SHA256 cb32ba94f11c1f574cdb807643df5356ac40d7a46ab39ed1912dde237cf87413 packages.cs.gz
META SHA256 12a6328a3f1ea13854e17306fafcc7a68d17ca703ef80d467aed27fd30fb8649 packages.de.gz
META SHA256 d8197911e272b452df1441160153c115ad4a559ef60fb4f69a2bd881a724d387 packages.en.gz
META SHA256 b86ef2fe33138f8593326538f8197aefdcab04bb71f3b6fbb1811798720cf730 packages.es.gz
META SHA256 ea74f7a8941362fb0d578865b003c0228c6564c5c95a72edd049c27e011344ad packages.fi.gz
META SHA256 fd7a7b72a0a2b946b78909ea358fb0a9d7a2ff7c719bed6fadfc979892227564 packages.fr.gz
META SHA256 6f451df38a626e6c90c988e5da2e48b4800a61b9f9a201c4f784deab4d3c247a packages.gz
META SHA256 829ec83fa77ba368829bb7801b4e8c4023facebc1194f3f9f4b75d663c58a141 packages.hu.gz
META SHA256 6668f8b284d9e05f096ea9f5ba47da8fa416b493654257f3a435157528c4fd9e packages.it.gz
META SHA256 df2ad0057133e2df56e9bc04df4677f0b5351fbfa25504099e055d512e9f1455 packages.ja.gz
META SHA256 4a276d1585c4c85a98dd9fa5256d26f1e9898a819c4a393ddd0db1b2399c90e8 packages.nl.gz
META SHA256 89aa0713b08e90f236eff93f3a8ba5ef1c9a61425c214ac655698e36bccff8f5 packages.pl.gz
META SHA256 aa6b2d20304fc107689d467f6429aee89511e977a4b83b6dd463ceb0d26a450b packages.pt.gz
META SHA256 51f3c201955ed4e75fff64668d366154517914adcb1815523dddf245c49058ad packages.pt_BR.gz
META SHA256 4174f1201bccb8df8c35e3d2f68fac253286eeefc7fdd3b52e16df574864f0a8 packages.ru.gz
META SHA256 16f227617049ab685901fec9132d472ed8f3b41c3059c775a9a934929b86640a packages.zh_CN.gz
META SHA256 2f4636d20dedc934440f265800ef056fb4763a201d6c826e6e7f33d63795a4dd patterns
HASH SHA256 88e80af6d7d00c9e1c68394af40079407e243ae10f508d68843cf15bb41e2eaf license.tar.gz
HASH SHA256 74c04e33bbac86db0cd5af004d08cf19af62c81d179c7018678206c267c6f8b2 control.xml
HASH SHA256 b5b09c6fbc81f7c5b00ac38a5dc768bad2601ef48d1c1b2df28009ff28a87c0a boot/x86_64/arabic-fonts.rpm
HASH SHA256 0a43cd62931660b87821bed8470b972e86bf173a5b29536ac6d2449e86cd87f3 boot/x86_64/arphic-uming-fonts.rpm
HASH SHA256 906038fec0baed45e80ee9edffb303ab6ab6b8b624d5721d9fd8f47e276dca8d boot/x86_64/bind
HASH SHA256 a4859679441c231b57caa1ed84eeec11bb0217574a83f938defaa1dbe37a5d2b boot/x86_64/branding
HASH SHA256 c8109a0a4fde9646ca1e8bc502c1f0bda214df5cb32ae09ac46721028e337a83 boot/x86_64/common
HASH SHA256 bbfa1254ebddb53373f9450892edf5af235639de753469ec5f4da9a8184131f8 boot/x86_64/config
… … … … …

That is the reason why I have become mad!! I do not understand. Another point is that all the file installed were x86_64 version.

ciao
Abhijit

6

On 2014-02-01 14:56, vegaonline wrote:

>> As the 64 bit DVD does not contain an i686 kernel, it is impossible it
>> can install what it does not have.

> Brother!
>
> I also believe that if the DVD contains x86_64 data, how can i686 comes
> in the picture. .
> The first few lines of the header of the file “content” shows :
>>
>> BASEARCHS x86_64
>> CONTENTSTYLE 11
>> VENDOR openSUSE
>> VERSION 13.1
>> RELEASE 1.10

Well, it can only come then from online repos.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

7

Here’s another thing to check:


% file /usr/bin/ls
/usr/bin/ls: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=eb844a5c20c70a59fc693cd1061f851fb7d046f4, stripped

That shows me that “/usr/bin/ls” is compiled for 64bit. I doubt that it would work when running a 32bit kernel.

8

In my case, I find as :

/home/vega> file /usr/bin/ls
/usr/bin/ls: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=eb844a5c20c70a59fc693cd1061f851fb7d046f4, stripped
/home/vega>
9

Hi carlos!

You are right, after installation, I installed several softwares using yast from internet like gnuplot, gfortran, lam, lapack etc.
However, if installation using YAST changes arch then there is problem, I think.

ciao
Abhijit

10

If I look for “kernel-desktop” in Yast software management, and I click the “version” tab, it shows me both the 64bit and the 32bit version. If careless, I could accidentally install the 32bit kernel. I’m not sure whether there would be any warnings if I tried.