Based on the threads, I see I am not alone

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I was going to see if I could find out why after almost 16 attempts at installing OpenSuse 11.2, I still am unable to run it. I’ve tried the full 5 gig download, which took forever. I’ve tried the KDE only download. Normal burn speed, 1x burn speed and still no love from OpenSuse.

I’m no expert on Linux but I’m no noob either. I don’t even know what to ask since all I’m trying to do is a simple installation.

I’m not yet ready to toss it but 11.2 feels worse than January 30, 2007. The day Windows Vista dropped.

Why won’t this run?

-Jazmac

2

16 attempts at installing and this is your 1st post?

Don’t blame me, but others here will probably give you a stripping down.

I suggest if you are serious - you enlighten us on what exactly is and isn’t happening for you during install.

3

> Why won’t this run?

-welcome-

but, with nothing about your machine it is kinda hard to say why…

with only a chance to GUESS what you mean, let me ask:

when you say “this won’t run” does that mean it won’t boot up to grub?

or, boots through grub but you never get a log in screen?

or hangs while trying to start GNOME, or or or or or or or

did the DVD and CD boot up to a black screen (no green screen ever
seen) or…

or the keyboard freezes up as soon as you hold now the left Alt and
right click in Dolpin on blah blah blah…

or, based on WHICH threads do you see you are not alone?

do the keyboard num and caps lock lights flash…or…

did you check the md5sum before you burned the install media?

did you then check the disk after it had been burned?

did the Gnome live CD boot up to a desktop and run good? connect to
the net? make good sound? good looking screen? etc etc etc

does your machine meet the minimum specifications?

did you read all the hints and tips of HOW to have the best chance to
actually get a running machine? there are a bunch of them at or linked
from “Download Help” <http://en.opensuse.org/Download_Help>

do a little reading and come back and tell us specifically what you
mean by “won’t run”…

and, also tell us about your hardware…especially graphics card, RAM,
hard disk, CPU, etc…

you say “I’m no expert on Linux but I’m no noob either.” but i notice
this is your first post to the openSUSE group…again, welcome…but,
tell us a little about your Linux experience so we know at what level
to try to give answers and help…

you help us and we might be able to get you to happiness…

–
palladium

4

Yes this is my first post and I am very serious. I don’t expect to be “stripped down” since this is not a bogus post. If it gets personal, then I’ll deal with that on a different level but as it relates to the trouble I’m having with this distro, I’ve tried for several days to get this to run and it simply will not. I’m on a AMD dual core processor with 4 gig of ram. It is a Gateway laptop and runs everything else but will not run OpenSuse 11.2.

I got as far the install completing,finally, then going to the net for some additional files. The screen goes black and stays that way. I waited for up to an hour for the system to wake up but nothing happens.
A reboot takes me to root login. No GUI. Exit from that reboots and back to the root.

Then I dropped by to get heap and read a bunch of threads just like mine including some dude who claims to be heading to Windows 7 because he had so much trouble with it.

I am just looking for help and I’m asking nicely.

-Jazmac

5

Boots to grub, once. Selected OpenSuse and the rest I’ve posted.

or hangs while trying to start GNOME, or or or or or or or

did the DVD and CD boot up to a black screen (no green screen ever
seen) or…

or the keyboard freezes up as soon as you hold now the left Alt and
right click in Dolpin on blah blah blah…

Read my response to the moderator.

or, based on WHICH threads do you see you are not alone?

do the keyboard num and caps lock lights flash…or…

did you check the md5sum before you burned the install media?

did you then check the disk after it had been burned?

did the Gnome live CD boot up to a desktop and run good? connect to
the net? make good sound? good looking screen? etc etc etc

Did the disk check and it checked out ok. Disk boots fine and accepted user information normally.

does your machine meet the minimum specifications?

Yes read response to moderator

did you read all the hints and tips of HOW to have the best chance to
actually get a running machine? there are a bunch of them at or linked
from “Download Help” <http://en.opensuse.org/Download_Help>

do a little reading and come back and tell us specifically what you
mean by “won’t run”…

I read and see my comments to moderator.

and, also tell us about your hardware…especially graphics card, RAM,
hard disk, CPU, etc…

you say “I’m no expert on Linux but I’m no noob either.” but i notice
this is your first post to the openSUSE group…again, welcome…but,
tell us a little about your Linux experience so we know at what level
to try to give answers and help…

you help us and we might be able to get you to happiness…

–
palladium

Based on what I’ve posted, any ideas

-Jazmac

6

Ok you need to be a little more exact.

It’s a Gateway (Which model?). Does it have a ATI graphics chip? If so which one?

If you don’t know you can find out if you log on as root (you said you got to a command line prompt) and type

lspci

This will list all th e PCI devices and the Video chip name and number should be in one of the lines returned.

7

You must be weary of Gateway’s very few actually can install the newer Linux distro’s even though by their specs they should work fine. The most stubborn Gateway’s are their Laptop’s.

Experience has taught me not to consider Dell, HP emachines, and Gateway’s. If yours is a Laptop desire my personal preference is for Toshiba although the ATI graphics is an issue.

8

The screen going black makes me think it went into sleep mode and won’t come back. If that is the case, then disable acpi. It could also be a problem with Xorg. In either case, we do need more info. Just saying it’s a Gateway doesn’t help much. That’s like asking someone who’s having trouble with their computer, what their using and they say “Microsoft”. O.K… Well, there is Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, … What isn’t working? What have you attempted? What have you read?

If you call an auto mechanic and say “it won’t run” and he asks you what you drive, would you reply “a car”? I hope you get the idea by now. You need to provide a lot more information so that we can help you. Remember, we’re not standing right there beside you looking at your computer.

9

Try failsafe boot - which include quite a number of arguments to the kernel which may help.
Adding these at the normal boot, try each in succession and see what the difference is:


acpi=off
 edd=off
 apm=off
 pci=noacpi
 acpi=noirq
 acpi_irq_balance
 acpi_irq_nobalance
 pci=nomsi
 acpi=ht

You just start typing as soon as grub pops up

Also Once you hit enter, press Esc.
So you can watch verbose, it may help you spot what is going on.

10

Does this problem occurred after the dvd/cd installation and the system is trying to test the internet connection for the repository to update. Can you confirm what the root login you are referring to or is it just the text login. Please provide also the graphic card because I think you did not mention about it, it is important. You said you already tried it 16 times, I admire your patient and I think the folks here is willing to help. Keep on hanging in there.

Happy new year

11

We do really need more info.

I presume that you have tried just hitting keys when the screen goes black, to make sure that some screen saver or power save hasn’t been activated.

The failsafe mode is a good suggestion, especially if you have multiple graphic connectors. I haven’t heard of what I’m about to mention happening with 11.2, but have heard it with 11.1, so it may still be a problem in 11.2. I know people who have gotten into the install to some extent, and then the screen went black. Using the failsafe mode boot included the parameter “x11failsafe” which overcame the problem.

You can also try installing with safe settings.

When you say that a reboot takes you to a “root login”, do you mean you get a text login prompt, or a root command prompt?

Either way, you should very likely be getting messages before that point, complaining about some problem. Are you familiar with commands such as “dmesg”, as well as the files in “/var/log” ? Showing us the messages your probably getting, which complain about problems, would be very helpful.

Also, you say your machine runs everything else but opensuse 11.2, does that include other distros of Linux, or even older versions of opensuse, like 11.1?