2 parts---Fail safe only...and wiki install

hammymcleans · August 9, 2010, 4:57pm

my openSuse install boots on the failsafe mode only, and only blank screens on regular boot mode. But it seems to work quite well.

Unfortunately, the install instructions for a wiki are bizarrly cryptic at Mediawiki and the author admits to not understanding what they are talking about–not helpful.

My first question is–is this ok to run a mediawiki server in this mode?
" " 2nd " " – is there an easy fix? or install advice for Mediawiki on Suse?

System:
AMD64 Athlon (single processor)
4G ram
800G HD (green caviar, w/64MB cache)
on board nVidia

As a note my previous other installs were Slackware and Debian. Slackware ran fine by itself, but i couldn’t install mediawiki. Debian failed miserably, would not recognize an already partitioned disk. All the same Linux kernal. And openSUSE is in the above current state.

jdmcdaniel3 · August 10, 2010, 1:42am

Sounds like you need to add the kernel option command nomodeset in your menu.lst file for the normal kernel load. You can try this by keeping the selection on the normal kernel load and then type the option nomodeset and press enter and see what that does.

If that works you should look at this document before proceeding on…

SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE

Then, take a look at the procedure I use to install the nVidia proprietary binary driver as I install openSUSE 11.3:

During the install, when you have the option to change your booting setup, I add nomodeset to the kernel load command for the normal load/start of openSUSE. This kernel startup option is already present for the Failsafe selection for openSUSE.
During the first start of openSUSE, I download the latest nVidia Video driver to the downloads folder.
I change/save the System/Kernel option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD from “No” to “Yes” in the /etc/sysconfig Editor in Yast.
I do an update of openSUSE on the first run of openSUSE and then a restart/reboot.
In grub OS selection I add the command line option “3” to the openSUSE start line so that I just go to the run level three terminal prompt.
I login in as root and change to the /home/user/Downloads folder.
I run/install the NVIDIA video driver using “sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.44.run” and answer all questions as appropriate for my system.
Type in reboot at terminal prompt to restart the system with new video driver.

Thank You,

MatthewEhle · August 11, 2010, 2:48am

I don’t know a lot about how the failsafe mode works, but as long as you can run Apache and MySQL, then you should be just fine. Since failsafe mode disables certain services, you may find yourself better off for using it, since you don’t have to deal with the overhead and potential security issues of running extra processes. If you don’t care about having a GUI, try switching your runlevel to “3” and see if you can boot normally like that.

I am the admin for the openSUSE wikis, so I may have some advice for you about wiki installs Where are you running into problems?

user · August 11, 2010, 1:07pm

On 2010-08-11 03:06, MatthewEhle wrote:

> I don’t know a lot about how the failsafe mode works, but as long as
> you can run Apache and MySQL, then you should be just fine. Since
> failsafe mode disables certain services, you may find yourself better
> off for using it, since you don’t have to deal with the overhead and
> potential security issues of running extra processes.

Not really.

What it changes is kernel boot options, not services. Everything runs, but slower. Sometimes much
slower. If you have a multicore machine, check to see if it only uses one.

> If you don’t care
> about having a GUI, try switching your runlevel to “3” and see if you
> can boot normally like that.

That’s much better for a server. It runs faster

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

MatthewEhle · August 11, 2010, 3:27pm

So much for my assumptions… I said I didn’t know much about failsafe

BTW, where did you learn that? I have wondered before, but Google didn’t get me very far. The only thing I have seen is that the machine seemed to boot a little faster the few times I needed to use it, hence my assumption about fewer running services.

user · August 11, 2010, 7:49pm

On 2010-08-11 15:36, MatthewEhle wrote:
>
> Carlos E. R.;2204705 Wrote:
>>
>> What it changes is kernel boot options, not services. Everything runs,
>> but slower. Sometimes much
>> slower. If you have a multicore machine, check to see if it only uses
>> one.
>>
>
> So much for my assumptions… I said I didn’t know much about failsafe
>
>
> BTW, where did you learn that? I have wondered before, but Google
> didn’t get me very far. The only thing I have seen is that the machine
> seemed to boot a little faster the few times I needed to use it, hence
> my assumption about fewer running services.

I simply know, I haven’t learned it from anywhere special
Perhaps it is documented in the old suse/novell admin book, which you can install now as pdf or html.

You can have a look at how the entry is written in grub, and compare it with the normal entry. In
this computer I have (11.2):

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop root=/dev/sda9 resume=/dev/disk/by-label/b_swap splash=quiet
showopts vga=0x31a

failsafe:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop root=/dev/sda9 showopts
apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe
vga=0x31a

Then look at each entry one by one. The “showopts” entry near the beginning means that you can edit
the next entries at boot time.

For example, the failsafe has no entry “resume=”, so it can not hibernate. apm=off disables any
thing used via the apm api, like powersaving, which matches the other entry for powersaved, and
others. The rest of the entries I don’t know without looking them up in the kernel docs. The
“x11failsafe” entry is special, it makes the X11 system also start in a safe mode equivalent to the
one that was used during the installation of the system, which is (was) guaranteed to work, using
the “/etc/X11/xorg.conf.install” file instead of the “/etc/X11/xorg.conf” file.

The normal boot sequence is usually done with a splash screen that hides details. On failsafe mode
this is disabled, you see the full text, and I think with no splash.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))