My motherboard has died recently, after 9 years of service. After replacing it with a new board, I boot into Tumbleweed 4.14 kernel but cannot sign in. Same problem with openSUSE Leap 42.3. No problems with booting Debian Stretch, Linux Mint, Fedora 27, or Windows 7.
Since I still have iso image files of both Tumbleweed and Leap on the hard drive, I am looking for suggestions of free or open-source Windows software applications to write or convert these files to a format that is suitable for booting from a USB drive. The reason being I bought a case by mistake so it does not have space for a DVD drive.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks a lot for your help.
What exactly is preventing sign in? Black screen? Non-responsive keyboard? Bad password? Other?
Have you set the new motherboard BIOS to boot in BIOS compatible mode rather than UEFI?
No problems with booting Debian Stretch, Linux Mint, Fedora 27, or Windows 7.
So, this is a multiboot machine and only openSUSE refuses allowing login?
Since I still have iso image files of both Tumbleweed and Leap on the hard drive, I am looking for suggestions of free or open-source Windows software applications to write or convert these files to a format that is suitable for booting from a USB drive. The reason being I bought a case by mistake so it does not have space for a DVD drive.
For what reason exactly do you want to boot from USB? If you can multiboot into Stretch, Mint or Fedora, openSUSE repairs can be performed via chroot. Alternatively, whichever Linux bootloader is in control can have a stanza added to load an openSUSE installation kernel and initrd for a new HTTP installation, or along with the command line option rescue to repair the installation via HTTP.
For Tumbleweed, the dark screen shows “Loading Linux 4.14.14-1-default” and “loading initial ramdisk” for a very long time. For Leap, the screen shows: “xhci_hcd can’t set up: —19”. After a long wait, screen shows 3 green dots. Another long wait > one beep. I then was able to log in. I chose Icewm instead of the usual Plasma Desktop. Tried to update via zypper up but the terminal shows:
Connection failed. Could not resolve host: download.opensuse.org
I then went to YAST to configure a wired (Ethernet) connection, as my PC is connected to the router. After reboot, the screen was black for a while then returned the GRUB MENU screen with the entry for Leap. The screen was frozen at this point.
BIOS boots in compatible mode (MBR), not UEFI.
Considering the last few days trying to find the solution, and given the fact the PC case has no bay for a DVD player/writer, I want to re-install Tumbleweed and Leap via USB thumb drives.
I cannot access the internet and I don’t know how to do a chroot or a rescue repair. I have the original Tumbleweed and Leap DVDs but I cannot use them.
I believe the problem is that Tumbleweed and Leap are not able to recognize my new Ge 520 video card and new RAM sticks. Therefore, I thought it would be faster and easier to re-install both via USB thumb drives as I said in Item #3 above.
I would very much appreciate any other suggestions from all forum members.
I suggest you use the e key at the Grub menu to clear quiet from, and add plymouth.enable=0 to, the kernel cmdline, and don’t give up waiting until at least 15-20 minutes have passed. If nomodeset is on the cmdline, try removing it as well.
For Leap, the screen shows: “xhci_hcd can’t set up: —19”. After a long wait, screen shows 3 green dots. Another long wait > one beep. I then was able to log in. I chose Icewm instead of the usual Plasma Desktop. Tried to update via zypper up but the terminal shows:
Connection failed. Could not resolve host: download.opensuse.org
I then went to YAST to configure a wired (Ethernet) connection, as my PC is connected to the router. After reboot, the screen was black for a while then returned the GRUB MENU screen with the entry for Leap. The screen was frozen at this point.
Removing quiet and disabling Plymouth should help if not solve this as well, by allowing you to see error messages during boot, but because with the new motherboard you are using new gfx, you likely need more. Did you have proprietary NVidia drivers installed for the old motherboard and gfx? If so, they need to be completely and thoroughly uninstalled before you can expect the new Ge 520 to work. Booting from the rescue Grub selection and/or in single mode should allow you to do this. Chrooting would be another way. See if https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/528745-Nouveau-How-to-reverse-from-nvidia-to-nouveau helps.
What model is the new motherboard?
BIOS boots in compatible mode (MBR), not UEFI.
Considering the last few days trying to find the solution, and given the fact the PC case has no bay for a DVD player/writer, I want to re-install Tumbleweed and Leap via USB thumb drives.
I believe the problem is that Tumbleweed and Leap are not able to recognize my new Ge 520 video card and new RAM sticks.
Likely the video card is the right track. Distros don’t care about RAM, which generally either works or not. You should be able to boot in single user and/or rescue mode and uninstall old NVidia drivers and any blacklisting of nouveau that may have been in place, then successfully reboot using the FOSS modesetting driver built into Xorg before determining if you again need a proprietary video driver. All the GeForce cards I have are running entirely on FOSS drivers.
I have the original Tumbleweed and Leap DVDs but I cannot use them.
…
Therefore, I thought it would be faster and easier to re-install both via USB thumb drives as I said in Item #3 above.
Did you try the method I suggested for using your saved isos to create USB media using Windows or Fedora or Stretch or Mint?
Hello gogalthorp, Thanks for your reply. I am writing to you via a different and working PC. 1. Are you sure the command suggested is “mkinird”, or should it be “mkinitrd”? 2. How do I get the screen to show the terminal? I can’t remember whether it’s CTRL+ALT+F1 (or F2, F3, etc.)
Really? I have TW installs on USB stick or SSDs (should be non-UEFI, but the dead 9-year-old MOBO should be legacy BIOS anyway, or?) I put in various different machines in the past and they simply booted. Never had to adjust anything. Where is the difference to this case here?
[QUOTE=suse_rasputin;2856174]Really? I have TW installs on USB stick or SSDs (should be non-UEFI, but the dead 9-year-old MOBO should be legacy BIOS anyway, or?) I put in various different machines in the past and they simply booted. Never had to adjust anything. Where is the difference to this case her]
