Agama failing to launch Leap 16.0 fresh install

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I have an older bios machine whith a nvidia graphics card and wish to install Leap 16.0. I downloaded both the offline and network installers. When I boot from the usb drive the installer hangs after initializing user 3. Just goes to a blank screen with with the cursor at the top left corner. This happens trying both the offline and network versions of the installer. After doing this there is nothing left to do but turn the machine off.

I have used multiple usb drives using both linux and windows to make the bootable drive. I have also tried different usb ports on the compter, same result.

I searched the forum but found nothing that would help me fix this issue. On a side note after the machine goes to the blank screen if I press and hold ctl-alt I get a screen with a QR code in it. That took my phone back to the installer but I could do nothing with it. Also, when I hit ctl-alt-delete to reboot I see the installer boot process continuing before the machine reboots.

Any suggestions>
Dave

2

@diacobel.1 a known issue with Nvidia, edit the installer grub menu and add nomodeset, once install completed, install the nvidia driver and remove the nomodeset…

3

I am not finding a grub menu on the usb installer. There is grub.cfg but it already has no ‘modeset 3’ in it. Not sure where to place nomodeset.

4

@diacobel.1 you boot the installer, in grub highlight the install option, press the e key to edit, use the arrow keys to move down to the line starting linux, press the end key, add nomodeset, then press the F10 to boot…

5

I was afraid that is what you meant. I am not making it to the grub login menu. It stops immediately after initializing user 3. Goes to a blank screen with the cursor frozen and unresponsive in the upper left corner.

Is there a key sequence that get the boot sequence going again? I have noticed doing a ctl-alt-delete to reboot out of the frozen screen will result in the boot sequence starting again. Unfortunately the computer then reboots.

6

@diacobel.1 how was the install media created?

7

Not so long ago, I bought a USB stick that was defunct right from the start!
That stick probably was too cheap - sh… happens.

Using (e.g.) KDE dolphin navigate to the folder where your downloaded .iso-image is
(let us assume it is the file “Leap-16.0-online-installer-x86_64-Build171.1.install.iso”).

Open a terminal there (so you won’t need to change directories using the command line).

In the terminal enter

sha256sum Leap-16.0-online-installer-x86_64-Build171.1.install.iso

Check if the resulting checksum is equal to the one that you can get for that iso from download.opensuse.org.

Plug your USB stick.
Now in the terminal become root using su.

Enter:
hwinfo --disk --short

Look which /dev/sdX your USB stick is.

Burn the .iso image of the Leap 16 installer to that stick:
dd if="Leap-16.0-online-installer-x86_64-Build171.1.install.iso" of=/dev/sdX bs=64M conv=fdatasync status=progress
where sdX can be taken from the output of hwinfo (see above).

You will get an output like:
683671552 Bytes (684 MB, 652 MiB) copied, 31 s, 22,2 MB/s
etc.

From that message copy the count 683671552.

Then read the contents of the USB stick back to the hard disk:
dd if=/dev/sdX of="Leap-16.0-online-installer-x86_64-Build171.1.install.read-from-USB.iso" bs=64M iflag=count_bytes count=683671552 conv=fdatasync status=progress
in which the count 683671552 is the one that you copied from the output of dd above.

Then similar as before
sha256sum Leap-16.0-online-installer-x86_64-Build171.1.install.read-from-USB.iso

If the checksum still is the same as before, then your USB stick isn’t broken an the image on it is intact.

8

I tried multiple usb drives, did the checksum. Used dd and imagewriter in Linux, Rufus in Windows to create the bootable usb drive. Tried every usb port the computer has. No luck. Got pissed and dug out my usb dvd burner and burned the iso to a blank dvd. Still won’t boot. Still hangs at the same spot which is after initializing user 3. I think it goes back to the original solution Malcomlewis put forth. At the original grub menu I arrow down to the second entry, the option to install Leap 16.0 then type ‘e’ to enter the edit mode. I add nomodeset after the last line in the box and press F10 to reboot. At the reboot I get the error message nomodeset command not found. I am putting nomodeset in the wrong location?

9

I also tried Impression. A clean light app. I don’t know who wrote it but I like it.

10

The place where you add nomodeset is important. It has to be at the end of the line which starts with linux. See

or

11

Finally got it installed. Went to remove the nomodeset but it is not in the grub menu. Is there another location I need to remove it from?

12

If it is not in the kernel command line, then there is nothing to remove.
Ther content of the kernel command line can be shown from a running system via:

cat /proc/cmdline

13

@diacobel.1 if nomodeset is in the output @hui mentioned, then;

update-bootloader --del-option nomodeset
update-bootloader

Then can reboot…

14

I have had a running system installed after all of the help I received here. Turns out I should have started this as a Nvidia not an Agama issue. Unfornately I am still not 100% there. My Nvidia card is a GTX 650 ti and requires the G05 drivers. After I installed the Nvidia repo much to my surprise only the G06 drivers were listed. I spent several days trying to figure out how I had screwed up until I came across an arcticle saying Leap 16.0 will no longer support older Nvidia hardware and will only provide support for newer cards compatible with G06 drivers. Okay, so I went to the Nvidia site and downloaded the correct driver. It is a .run file. I switched to runlevel 3, logged in as root, made sure the file was executable, and got the message permission denied. ?? Any idea how to get this driver on my machine?

15

@diacobel.1 I doubt it will work with the leap 16.0 kernel without patching…

Normally ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-{version}.run or sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-{version}.run should work.

16

I was a bit frustrated when I typed that last post and was not very clear. What I should have said is the compile fails. The compiler is too new in Leap 16.0. I am running Tumbleweed on my main machine and the G05 drivers are available for Tumbleweed. How were they able to get the Nvidia modules to compile? How can I get the them to compile?

17

@diacobel.1 patches… https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/X11:Drivers:Video/nvidia-gfxG05
But again, fixes may be only applicable to later versions of kernels, not the Leap version…

I would suggest you visit the Nvidia Forums and see if there is a patch set you can add for that run file and kernel.