New install of openSUSE 13.1 I get stuck in looping boot dms_krn_helper<=HELP?!

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello,
I am pretty new to Linux and run into an issue with this distro that I cannot solve or workaround.

I grew tired of buggy Mint, so I installed openSUSE 13.1 on my laptop. I am now stuck in a repeating loop where the desktop GUI freezes, then I ATTEMPT to open a terminal, it scrolls and rolls a lot of code and then, it reboots and the same thing happens again.
I have a Dell Insprion 8600 w/ 2GRAM and 80G HD. Pentium processor 1.5GHz/600GHz

I cannot access that screen to post the exact message I am getting, however I have snagged a few error messages–

unable to handle kernal NULL pointer deference at 0000000a

and

Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception is interrupt
krm_dms_helper: panic occurred, switching back to text console

that computer is not online, hooked to a printer or networked so that I can actually copy the message.

Thank you-

2

Can you make a photo of screen with panic message?

3

https://app.box.com/s/zt0n3sttmo5o563dt16v is the link to the picture.
Had to figure a way to get em up, so- this works!!

THANK you.

This “craptop” is a rescue from its certain demise. My father had wiped it, never reinstalled drivers- its a decade old, but a Dell with lifetime hardware warranty. So, I’m trying to breathe new life into it.

4

Unfortunately panic seems to be caused by followup error and the original error scrolled off the screen.

Which video card you have? Try booting with “nomodeset” kernel option; for a start try Recovery mode menu entry (in Advanced submenu). Does it work?

5

How much memory in the old guy? The computer not your dad :stuck_out_tongue:

6

BWAH AH AH AH HAAAAA!! (logical after my ‘RESCUE’ crack)

hehe- HE doesn’t have much, sadly. He designed liquid oxygen rocketry systems. He reinstalled the old XP OS, NEVER updated drivers, or plugged in- so- its been like trying to rebuild Windows 95, lol…

I’m not certain why this happened, but it IS up and running now. I got it into safe mode (advanced ops) and zypper’d updates and so far today everything SEEMS to be loading (cabled via ethernet) as it has Broadcom B43 (i believe) wireless drivers and they’ve AALSO been an issue. Currently installing the updates and what not. HOWEVER, it is quite sluggish.

The Dell Inspiron has 2G RAM, 80G HDD and videocard is an NVDIA of sorts…It still freezes if I do more than one task and much of anything else.

7

I guess you should try to install the proprietary nvidia driver then.
Apparently (according to googling for “Dell Inspriron 8600”) it has an nVidia GeForce FX Go5650, so you would need the G01 (173.14.xx) driver for that.

So add the nvidia repo in YaST->Software Repositories->Add->Community Repositories.
Then enter YaST->Software Management and search for “kernel” to see which kernel package you have actually installed (kernel-desktop, kernel-pae, or kernel-default)
Then install those two packages:
nvidia-gfxG01-kmp-desktop (or nvidia-gfxG01-kmp-pae or nvidia-gfxG01-kmp-default, according to the kernel) and x11-video-nvidia-G01

Maybe it works better afterwards?

Regarding wireless: depending on your exact chipset you should either install b43-firmware or the broadcom-wl driver. But better open a new thread in the wireless forum for this and please add the output of “lspci -nnk” there.

8

MMM maybe check the memory there is a memory test on the install media. Run it over night, need several passes to be sure all is well.

Worth seeing which NVIDIA chip it may need the proprietary driver if it is not too old and lost NVIDIA support

lspci

should list it

9

Thank you. I have managed to get past the loop. I now have a working system, albeit the drivers for wireless are Broadcom B43, so I’ve DL’d B43 Cutter and am starting to see the proverbial “pot of hold”. I appreciate the suggestions you’ve shared as the system NEEDS tweaking and some TLC. My father’s attitude is one that had created a vast amount of extra effort to re-birth the ol’ Dell. Being it’s lifetime warrantied for hardware, I’m gonna keep babying it as a project. ;)) being that it is now NEEDED for work, will add the expediency and extra effort to said “TLC”…!!!
i ran Mint 13 before and this is a bit different. I’m re-learning the man…
CHEERS to all…!!!

10

As I mentioned, there’s an RPM package available with the firmware for the b43 driver, i.e. “b43-firmware”:

If you install this, you don’t need to use b43-fwcutter manually.

Then there’s also the broadcom-wl driver (also available on Packman), which might work better depending on the chipset (or it might even be the only one that supports your chipset).

But as I said, this should be the topic of a new thread in the wireless forum… :wink: