Can't boot into KDE

openSUSE 13.2 32bit KDE

I’m trying to install 13.2 on an old box with only 1GB memory. No errors during installation. No errors are reported in a console as it boots, then when it switches to graphics a rotating cursor appears but no image displays, the screen flashes and the process repeats. I can’t switch to any other window and I have to turn the power off to stop the repeating process. I booted to level 3 and ran YaST which identified the graphics as SiS 660. A previously installed Knoppix ran in graphics mode so I believe the graphics card is functioning. Invoking “startx” results in the following output.


X.Org X Server 1.16.1
Release Date: 2014-09-21
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: openSUSE SUSE LINUX
Current Operating System: Linux linux-0iln 3.16.6-2-default #1 SMP Mon Oct 20 13:47:22 UTC 2014 (feb42ea) i686
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.6-2-default root=UUID=633cd6f4-ba65-467a-87d0-95c69f08eaaf resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/a5b02ff9-81c2-4617-a46e-c6f639bb0de4 splash=silent quiet showopts 3
Build Date: 08 October 2014  05:32:42PM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.32.6
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/home/ion/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Feb  6 09:41:51 2015
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE) 
Fatal server error:
(EE) xf86OpenConsole: Cannot open /dev/tty0 (No such file or directory)
(EE) 
(EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
     at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
(EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/ion/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
(EE) 
VGA Arbitration: Cannot restore default device.
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xinit failed. /usr/bin/Xorg is not setuid, maybe that's the reason?
If so either use a display manager (strongly recommended) or adjust /etc/permissions.local and run "chkstat --system --set" afterwards

Could someone please suggest the next step in resolving the problem. Thanks in advance.

SiS is old and never did have good drivers. Does it boot to recovery mode ie vga driver?

Yes it does, and I will adjust my grub accordingly. I didn’t think of doing the obvious, Many thanks for the quick response.

It may be worth trying the latest driver from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/XOrg/openSUSE_13.2/ It has xf86-video-sis version 0.10.7-30.1, compared to 0.10.7-8.1.4 in the main openSUSE repository. Use the “Switch system packages” feature to get all files from the X11 repository.

I installed openSUSE 13.1 32-bit KDE on an old IBM ThinkPad T23 with S3 Savage graphics. It would not boot to graphics mode with the Savage driver from the stock installation, but does work correctly with the updated X11 repository driver.

Running with acceleration enabled gave rather flaky graphics. I edited the 50-device.conf file to be

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Default Device"
  Driver "savage"
  Option "NoAccel" "true"
EndSection

and rebooted, and graphics are running satisfactorily.

Regards,
Howard