I have run into a problem trying to do a DVD upgrade from 11.2 → 11.4. My computer is setup correctly to boot from DVD …it boots successfully from the 10.1, 10.3, 11.2 DVD so I don’t think there is an issue w/ the BIOS config.
I have run md5sum on the DVD and the generated sum agrees with the values posted on the 11.4 download page so I don’t think my media has been corrupted.
When I put in the 11.4 DVD and reboot the machine I see flashing from the DVD activity light and hear the disk spinup…then it boots 11.2 from the harddisk.
Any advice on how to troubleshoot this issue appreciates…
On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 01:36:03 +0000, jamesLittlefield wrote:
> I have run into a problem trying to do a DVD upgrade from 11.2 → 11.4.
> My computer is setup correctly to boot from DVD …it boots successfully
> from the 10.1, 10.3, 11.2 DVD so I don’t think there is an issue w/ the
> BIOS config.
>
> I have run md5sum on the DVD and the generated sum agrees with the
> values posted on the 11.4 download page so I don’t think my media has
> been corrupted.
>
> When I put in the 11.4 DVD and reboot the machine I see flashing from
> the DVD activity light and hear the disk spinup…then it boots 11.2
> from the harddisk.
>
> Any advice on how to troubleshoot this issue appreciates…
Got another system you can try booting the DVD from?
Did you copy the iso file or burn an iso image? (two different things) If you just copied the file then you don’t have a bootable image you have a file. I would not expect the checksum to be the same for an iso image as for the downloded file.
I have experience with burning iso images and understand the difference between a file copy and an image burn
I have already reburned the original iso to a second DVD and get the same result
I did try booting the DVD on another machine and it boots fine!!
Based on the DVD booting correctly on another machine (and having a matching md5sum computed off the dvd) I think this pretty much takes the dvd integrity out of the suspect list. At this point I think perhaps the issue is that I am running my Suse stuff on a very ancient machine with very little RAM (I think I have only about 400Meg…which is less than the 11.4 minimum required configuration). Somehow I got away with it on the earlier 11.x releases! Does it seem reasonable that the boot would fail (silently) due to lack of sufficient RAM?
400 meg is small for today’s OS’s but that should not effect the boot. More likely the DVD is out of whack. I have one like that won’t boot or recognize some disks but otherwise seems fine.
On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:16:02 +0000, gogalthorp wrote:
> 400 meg is small for today’s OS’s but that should not effect the boot.
> More likely the DVD is out of whack. I have one like that won’t boot or
> recognize some disks but otherwise seems fine.
I might be inclined to suspect the drive rather than the DVD.
James, is the disc being booted in the drive it was burned on, or a
different drive?
If it’s an older system, the optical drive could be slightly out of
alignment, which could cause an issue like this - but it might not have
problems reading other media (especially pressed media).
Yes, but it still could be related to the interaction between the DVD reader and the DVD. I have encountered cases where a PC-B would not boot from the DVD created by PC-A, but PC-A had no problem. PC-B would boot from a DVD created by PC-B. Sometimes the age difference in the DVD writers/readers come in to play with their respective age and usage difference.
The 11.4 disk was burned on the same drive that I’m trying to boot from. I too would suspect the drive except that I can still boot my old 11.2 install DVD on the same drive?! Will check the parts box and see if I have a spare DVD drive floating around…
I have also (the hardway) discovered both burning media and buring speed come in to play. I have noted that sometimes (only rarely but I have been bit a couple of times) that an RW will not boot properly with a .iso file burned on to it, but with same burner a +R or -R will work fine. So IMHO stay away from an RW. The amount of money one saves is not worth the time spent sorting problems even if one were only to get a problem once.
Second, I have also (the hardway) discovered that on occasion burning at a high speed does not work. One should burn at the slowest speed their burner allows to minimize the risk of a problem. Burning at a high speed and having it work on PC-B’s DVD reader is no guarantee that that same DVD (burned at a high speed) will work on PC-A’s DVD reader. Burning at a high speed with PC-A’s read/write device is no guarantee that it will boot on PC-A’s read/write device. Again, booting at the slowest possible speed significantly improves the probability of success.
