Blackscreen after splash screen

Hi, having issues with a fresh install of OpenSUSE 13.1, my motherboard is an Intel D850EMV2, 780megs of RAM, 40gig drive, Gateway 15 inch monitor, an ATI 8500LE video card, USB mouse. Intel 3.06HT cpu

Everything seems fine until the final splash screen comes up and then it drops to a black background. The boot options are visible when it first loads and I haven’t tried any options as yet, waiting to get some suggestions. I was only wanting to get some experience with REDHAT on this machine and there is nothing on it to loose so I have time to figure this out with some help. I have had other older Linux distros running on the same video card in 05 and motherboard so I haven’t a clue what made the install balk. I used a Live CD 32bit 13.1 downloaded last evening.

Thanks

Probably the video.

Does it boot to safe mode?

Thanks for the reply and your time, I stepped back to an earlier version I had downloaded years ago, and it installed well on this machine without any problems. I just have a few minor things to sort like which audio to use. I have OpenSUSE 10.1 running with gnome.

Thank you

10.1 is totally out of support. No bug patch or other fixes are available.

I note AMD graphics. You could try disabling plymouth, as some users with AMD hardware find that is necessary when they have symptoms such as your PC exhibited.

no Plymouth on 10.1 rotfl!

Indeed. And the user went to 10.1 and has it working. :slight_smile: It did not work on 13.1 (where 13.1 has plymouth). >:(

I also tried Fedora which did exactly the same thing, no desktop after the install and opening splash screens, I changed video cards to an NVidia 4000 series with more memory and even this card made no difference what so ever in the OpenSUSE 13.1 install. It does install fine, maybe a bit slower due to resources but it does install. Same thing with Fedora recent release, it just mirrors what I see on OpenSUSE 13.1 just different splash screen. Same installer no doubt. What is the usual procedure to fix this when I boot into OpenSUSE 13.1.

This machine I am installing to has nothing but blank space and no harm can be done, I’m sure the problem can be corrected with the right information.

Did you try a boot to safe mode/ select advanced I think it should be second line down

Another option i to temp modify boot line. Press 3 at grub menu find line starting with linux go all the way to end of that line (press end key) enter a space then nomodeset press f10 to continue boot. This will force use of a lesser and perhaps more compatible video driver

If either the above works then come back and we can lead you to a more permanent fix.

Yes, with the nVidia card in it, you would get this result at first boot. You need to use the failsafe options to boot into OpenSUSE 13.1 and X, then install the correct nVidia driver from the repositories. Make sure you match the driver to the card series.

-fb

I give up, one thing is certain and that is the system is much too top heavy for an older rig, I went thru my pile of spare parts and came up with an NVidia 5200, not a terrible card for this particular machine, I did manage to get a live desktop from a cd I had burned earlier of 13.1 but the time it takes to get a desktop on screen is like sitting in a dentist chair waiting for what comes next, after it finally posted a desktop the thing was rolled over on both sides of the screen (pincushion) so it still loaded the wrong driver for this other card. Since the bulk of cards I own is NVidia and will be in the future I think enough time is wasted for me. To be honest I would even hesitate loading 13.1 on my 64 bit machine with the GT640, just too many problems for what should be a simple install, even if it required a lower quality first start. Another issue is with only 768 megs of ram for this particular machine it chokes on a live install and complains about possibly not being able to install from Live CD. Thanks for the help and recommendations. I do manage to get CentOS 6.5 up and running without all these problems and for the experience I want with the RPMs that will probably be the best choice. I also had REDHAT enterprise 6.5 running without problems. :shame:

On 2014-01-10 01:26, materene wrote:

> Another issue is with only 768 megs of ram for this
> particular machine it chokes on a live install and complains about
> possibly not being able to install from Live CD.

If you are that low on memory, you have to somehow create a swap
partition first. You can do so by connecting the disk on another
computer, or using one of those small Linuxes distros such as “Damn
Small Linux” or “Puppy” to create a swap partition. See wikipedia for more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Linux_distribution

For the size of the swap, make it as big as you like, so that the total
of ram and swap is as big as you probably will ever need.

Another possibility is of course using the full DVD install, not the lives.

(I’m using an NVidia GeForce 9500 GT card here).


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

You give up way too soon, it isn’t tough.

Please reconsider, and read on:

one thing is certain and that is the system is much too top heavy for an older rig

I don’t find it so, am running it just fine on several older machines, have been for a couple years, and OpenSUSE is performing admirably. You may just sense that it is when you boot with the live CD/DVD, as that does seem to run quite sluggishly.

But, from the HD, it is quite nice.

I went thru my pile of spare parts and came up with an NVidia 5200, not a terrible card for this particular machine, I did manage to get a live desktop from a cd I had burned earlier of 13.1 but the time it takes to get a desktop on screen is like sitting in a dentist chair waiting for what comes next, after it finally posted a desktop the thing was rolled over on both sides of the screen (pincushion) so it still loaded the wrong driver for this other card. Since the bulk of cards I own is NVidia and will be in the future I think enough time is wasted for me.

Most of my machines are running nVidia cards of various models. Because the nVidia driver is Proprietary, it is not bundled with the install media. So, what you must do is install OpenSUSE, boot with failsafe (or with “nomodeset”), use Yast & add the nVidia repository, then install the driver that matches your nVidia card.

All quite simple, and the beauty is, I really like the controls in the nVidia XServer control panel … especially when using video out to a tv system or 2nd monitor.

Give it another shot, I am sure you will be pleased.

Another issue is with only 768 megs of ram for this particular machine it chokes on a live install and complains about possibly not being able to install from Live CD.

768 Megs? :open_mouth:

Oh.

I am leaving what I wrote in the first part of this message for your consideration, since I have already written it.

However, I should note that you ought to have at least 1-Gig RAM, to be reasonably satisfied with the latest OpenSUSE versions, and 2-Gig or more would be much more satisfying. But, 1-Gig does work okay, as I have a couple machines running that (with nVidia cards and tv out) and no complaints from the users.

Good luck, whatever your final choice, and all the best to you.

-fb

I think you meant from a liveDVD and not from a CD.

My old sandbox PC, which has a 32-bit athlon-1100 CPU has a Nvida FX5200 graphic card. It has 2GB of RAM and it does boot slowly off of a liveDVD (it has 2GB of RAM).

But once installed, with the LXDE desktop, it runs reasonably well. I’ve participated/contributed in a few bug reports on the FX5200 wrt the nouveau driver, and the developers now have the nouveau driver working well with the FX5200 graphic card.

You stated the wrong driver was loaded. Please, can you be more explicit. What was the wrong driver ? What did you expect for the right driver ? For my FX5200 the correct driver is the ‘nouveau’ driver and it was correctly loaded.

I don’t know if this also affects you, but…

When I installed OpenSUSE 13.1 the last time, upgrading offline from the install DVD, I wound up with an unrequested addition in the tray, an entry for an “iBus” app. My system was running a bit sluggishly, but the moment I turned that app off, then disabled it, my system sped up considerably, was suddenly very snappy.

That app had something to do with input devices, but dumping it never affected any of the input devices I was using, just made a huge difference in system performance.

Look for it, & if it is there, try turning it off & see if it kicks your system’s reaction time up a notch.

-fb

On 2014-01-10 07:06, Fraser Bell wrote:
> 768 Megs? :open_mouth:
>
> Oh.
>
> I am leaving what I wrote in the first part of this message for your
> consideration, since I have already written it.
>
> However, I should note that you ought to have -at least- 1-Gig RAM, to
> be reasonably satisfied with the latest OpenSUSE versions, and 2-Gig
> or more would be much more satisfying. But, 1-Gig does work okay, as I
> have a couple machines running that (with nVidia cards and tv out) and
> no complaints from the users.

I have an old laptop I use with an old cpu and just 500 MB. It works
just fine, at least for my uses. Mostly, I have it as the 24*7 machine
for some server type tasks in text mode (with an external big disk over
USB), but I also have used it for watching movies while I “work” on my
more modern laptop. Meaning it is quite capable of running a light
desktop such as LXDE or XFCE. Of course, using memory hogs like
LibreOffice would not be fast, but they do work, provided you have ample
swap available.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

On 2014-01-10 07:46, Fraser Bell wrote:
>
> I don’t know if this also affects you, but…
>
> When I installed OpenSUSE 13.1 the last time, upgrading offline from the
> install DVD, I wound up with an unrequested addition in the tray, an
> entry for an “iBus” app. My system was running a bit sluggishly, but
> the moment I turned that app off, then disabled it, my system sped up
> considerably, was suddenly very snappy.

That’s interesting. I’ll try.

I understand it is required for typing, er… with non latin alphabets.
But it is also installed for people like me using both English and
Spanish with a single keyboard. I still do not know if it is necessary
or not, I have not tried to remove it.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

Interesting. I really have no idea what it is for, I was busy & just spun past it on the fly. I was just pleased at the difference it made, and at the time wasn’t curious enough to stop and look into the reason why.

But, I seemed to get the sense it was for additional input devices, and theorized in my own mind that it had to do with touchscreens and the like. Think I’ll actually dig into it just for the knowledge when I get the time.

Thanks,
-fb