Hi all,
This is a new computer, running openSUSE 12.3 only. Desktop is KDE4. A few days ago I turned the computer on and walked away. When I came back a few minutes later the screen was blank, and no amount of fiddling with the keyboard/mouse made any difference. The f-lock key worked but that was it. I hit the reset button and it booted up fine. It happened again, not the next time I turned it on but the one after that. Then it happened again… and again. Then tonight I had to hit the reset button 5 times before it would get to, and through, the splash screen. As I type this, I’m on the affected computer.
When it acts up, It makes it through the part where I can choose whether to load KDE normally or… whatever the other option is (sorry, can’t remember the other choice). It seems to stall between there and the splash screen (where it loads the drivers?).
I’ve been having problems from the get-go with video, as in, I’m unable to load the recommended video driver (fglrx).
See here for that thread.
Anyway, I’m hoping someone can point a newbie in the right direction.
Specs:
AMD A4 5300 w/ integrated Radeon HD7480D graphics chip.
MB: F2A85-V Pro
Any help would be appreciated,
Vince
Edit - How far did you get with the fglrx install ?
Initially when I read your post it was not clear to me whether you were using the fglrx or radeon graphic driver.
Assuming you have a clean radeon open source driver setup, one possibility (speculative) is there is a complication with plymouth during boot.
Try adding the boot code “plymouth.enable=0” to your appropriate grub boot line, and see if that removes any occurrences of this problem with the ‘radeon’ driver. If it does not help, then remove that boot code.
Sorry for the delay old. I’ve been busy at work…
To answer your first question, fglrx installed fully. But any time I tried to use VLC or Kaffeine the system would freeze - to the point that I would have to do a hard reboot. I’ve since uninstalled it.
I don’t know what is loaded as of now. I’m really new to Lixux - about three weeks, to be exact. I tried to find a driver on AMD’s website, and I may have even loaded something from there, but I couldn’t find anything that specifically said it was for my version of their product.
What is this Plymouth you speak of? And where would I add this code? The more detailed the instructions, the better. 
Thanks for your time,
Vince
What is plymouth ? As the saying goes, remember, ‘google is your friend’. 
A google on ‘plymouth linux’ gives me this: Plymouth (software) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia … ie
When your PC boots, immediately after the grub2 menu (where grub2 is a menu that will look something like what I have below, but most likely with more entries):
http://thumbnails108.imagebam.com/25643/44cd7e256422980.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/44cd7e256422980)
as soon as the above grub2 boot screen disappears press the < esc > key, which should cause text to scroll by on your PC screen. That < esc > should for that boot temporary disable plymouth. Does you PC boot ok then to the radeon graphic driver ?
If it does work, then that illustrates the ‘plymouth’ may be a cause of your problem, and with your desktop functioning (to avoid re-occurence of the problem) you can go to YaST > System > Boot Loader > select-your-openSUSE-12.3-setting-that-is-the-nominal-boot > edit > Optional-Kernel-Command-Line-parameter and at the end of that entry box is where you can place the ‘plymouth.enable=0’ . Then press ‘ok’. That will apply that boot code for every boot. I’m assuming of course, that your PC is using Grub2 boot manager (and not the legacy grub boot manager).
If pressing < esc > did not work, then follow the advice here: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/how-start-opensuse-12-2-grub-2-into-run-level-3-112/ and login as a regular user to a full screen text mode. And type:
rpm -qa '*fglrx*'
you should get nothing in return. If you see some rpms installed, then you have not removed the fglrx catalyst driver correctly and that is preventing the radeon driver from properly booting. In which case you need to remove those fglrx rpms. Do you know how to do that from a command line prompt ?
Note when in a full screen text mode, you can always reboot by typing, with root permissions:
shutdown -r now
or you can shutdown by typing, with root permissions:
shutdown -h now
oldcpu,
“as soon as the above grub2 boot screen disappears press the < esc > key, which should cause text to scroll by on your PC screen.”
I pressed ESC but no text scrolled. And out of 10 restarts, pressing ESC per your directions, six times the computer booted up properly and four times it did not.
“Does you PC boot ok then to the radeon graphic driver ?”
When it boots, it seems to work ok. I’m assuming this is what you mean?
“If pressing < esc > did not work, then…”
I followed your directions and got nothing in return. So yes, fglrx did successfully uninstall.
Tonight when I turned the computer on it hung five times in a row, and on the fifth time I was presented with a text screen, which I assume is the boot sequence. Although I’m not familiar with the boot code, I did see a few things that didn’t look right: fault, error, etc… Anyway, the text only filled about 2/3 of the screen then hung. I waited about two minutes then did a manual reset.
What I don’t understand is, why does the computer eventually boot up and run good? I mean, isn’t a program either faulty or not? Hope that makes sense…
Is the next move maybe to reload openSUSE, or is it too soon for that?
Thanks,
Vince
Its a matter of timing as to when you press ESC. Press if AFTER the grub menu, and when the SuSE splash/wallpaper appears. If you do not see the text, then the ESC timing was incorrect and you need to keep pressing it. You should see text.
yes, when it boots and works ok. You can tell what driver is in use by looking at the log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log. It does take some practise to read that file.
I don’t know either. But I do know, from your description, it is likely that the pressing of [ESC] was not done at the correct time. It should cause a text scrolling to take place and the openSUSE splash/wall paper should quickly go away after the [ESC] being pressed.
I also know various openSUSE process are loaded in parallel at boot, and its possible there is a ‘race’ condition causing the random results.
Too soon IMHO. My suspicion is you will have the identical problem if you re-install.
oldcpu,
Good evening.
So, you were right; I was pressing the ESC key too soon. I just did 5 restarts in a row and all five were perfect.
“You can tell what driver is in use by looking at the log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log.”
I’d like to try this, though I apparently need some guidance. I tried it in a terminal but was unsuccessful.
I appreciate your time.
Vince
OK, thats good news. So it appears the problem is plymouth is somehow interfering with either X or the graphic driver. My guess is the graphic driver as I have only read about this being experienced with some AMD Radeon hardware with the open source radeon driver. I only know the solution because I had a similar problem with my Dell Studio 1537 laptop and its AMD Radeon HD3450 hardware with the open source radeon hardware. In fact someone else on our forum posted the solution, which I duly made note of, and I no longer know where the original thread is located.
The idea now is to disable plymouth permanently so that you do not have to remember to press < ESC > all the time.
Assuming you are using the grub2 boot manager, to add “plymouth.enable=0” as a boot code, go to YaST > System > Boot Loader > Boot Loader Options and under “Optional Kernel Command line paramter” at the end of the line, with a space between it and the previous entry (which is probably “showopts”, add the code “plymouth.enable=0” (no quotes) and click ‘OK’.
That should save the setting and from now on you should not have to press < ESC > all the time when you boot the PC.
wrt the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, open that file with a text editor, copy its contents, and paste its contents to SUSE Paste and press the ‘create’ button. That will give you an internet address/web/url where the file contents has been pasted. Share that URL here. I’ll point out on that URL where in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file it notes the radeon driver (or other graphic driver if that is the case) is loaded.
oldcpu,
So far, so good for the boot issue. Were you able to determine which driver I have?
Again, thanks for the help.
Vince
I had a quick look. The default radeon driver is loaded.
As deano_ferrai noted, it is clearly the radeon driver. What I look for is multiple occurrences of (II) driver(0) and/or (==) driver(0) and/or (–) driver(0) and/or (**) driver(0) …
For example in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file you see:
18.269] (II) RADEON: Driver for ATI Radeon chipsets:
.......
18.276] (II) RADEON(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
"Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
18.276] (==) RADEON(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
18.276] (II) RADEON(0): Pixel depth = 24 bits stored in 4 bytes (32 bpp pixmaps)
18.276] (==) RADEON(0): Default visual is TrueColor
18.276] (==) RADEON(0): RGB weight 888
18.276] (II) RADEON(0): Using 8 bits per RGB (8 bit DAC)
18.276] (--) RADEON(0): Chipset: "ARUBA" (ChipID = 0x9993)
18.276] (II) Loading sub module "dri2"
18.276] (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
18.276] (II) Module "dri2" already built-in
plus many more (II) RADEON(0), (==) RADEON(0) … where the number of occurences with ‘RADEON’ significanly outweigh any occurences of (II) FBDEV, or (II) VESA (if any ) … and also typically the last (II) driver will be with RADEON(0) … Its also possible the ’ (0) ’ at the end indicates the driver that was selected in the end, as opposed to a driver that was temporarily loaded and unloaded during the driver loading/testing part ( where that is speculation on my part) .
On my PC with nvidia gaphic hardware and a proprietary nVidia driver installed and configured, I see:
(II) NVIDIA GLX Module 319.17 Thu Apr 25 21:41:50 PDT 2013
15.618] Loading extension GLX
15.618] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 0
15.618] (==) Matched nouveau as autoconfigured driver 1
15.618] (==) Matched nv as autoconfigured driver 2
15.618] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 3
15.618] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 4
15.618] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 5
15.618] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
15.618] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
15.619] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
15.619] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
15.619] compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
15.619] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
.......
15.621] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver 319.17 Thu Apr 25 21:23:57 PDT 2013
15.621] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
.......
15.625] (II) NVIDIA(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
"Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
15.625] (==) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
15.625] (==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
15.625] (==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
15.625] (==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
15.625] (**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling 2D acceleration
17.003] (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce GTX 260 (GT200) at PCI:2:0:0 (GPU-0)
17.003] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 917504 kBytes
17.003] (--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 62.00.3d.00.00
17.003] (II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): Valid display device(s) on GeForce GTX 260 at PCI:2:0:0
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): CRT-0
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): CRT-1
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): TV-0
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): DFP-0
17.008] (--) NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (DFP-1) (boot, connected)
....... etc ....
with many more (II) NVIDIA(0), (–) NVIDIA(0), (==) NVIDIA, (**) NVIDIA(0) …
oldcpu,
Couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks. And thank you Deano.
Vince