I’ve just installed OpenSUSE 11.2, and I’ve already come across problems. Could be KDE, I guess, because I’m able to switch to a console, but switching back gives me a frozen system which I have to to a hard shutdown with. On the other hand, I’ve got an ATI card, which could also be the problem.
Anyways, when I boot into OpenSUSE I’m greeting by a black screen and cursor, with a garbled bar on the bottom of the screen that looks like the background of a CAPTCHA.
So, any way around this? I was thinking that maybe I could edit Xorg.conf (wait, is that still around?) to load up vesa or something, but I’m not sure if that’ll work.
No dice. When I try to enter runlevel 3 via grub, OpenSUSE seems to just ignore it and tries to boot into graphical mode anyways. Also, strange as it seems, the /home directory is empty, or at least doesn’t show anything with ‘LS’. Oh, and SaX2 just seems to seize up when I try to run it, and it doesn’t seem to respond to me trying to kill it with CTRL+c.
Some users have found that by following the guidance in post#11 (followed by specifying radeon or radeonhd as noted in post#1) they had success with legacy ati hardware and the “radeon” or “radeonhd” drivers.
Is this an ATI card that is considered a legacy card by ATI ?
If so, please read the link caf4926 provided in post#1: openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums post#1
and post#11 : openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums post#11
Some users have found that by following the guidance in post#11 (followed by specifying radeon or radeonhd as noted in post#1) they had success with legacy ati hardware and the “radeon” or “radeonhd” drivers.
No, I don’t think it’d be considered legacy. Came out in 2008. It’s a Radeon HD 4650.
Yep did you check the media from the install disk there is an option on the first menu.
No, but I figure that instead of waiting for that I’ll just check the MD5 of the .iso and burn it again at a lower speed. Tomorrow…
Alrighty, guys. I’ve reinstalled OpenSUSE with KDE, and I’ve managed to get it to boot into graphical mode with Vesa, but when I try to use the radeonHD driver, I get a black screen with the KDE cursor (along with some green pixels on the upper-right corner of the screen. Looks like the screen freezed just before it came up, except for the cursor. So I’m guessing that the driver itself it okay, but I’m missing some kind of option I need to set in Xorg.conf. Oh, and I tried to use the plain old radeon drivers, but the screen just goes completely blank - no cursor, nothing. But I think the 4650 is compatible with both drivers.
You are likely better off using the proprietary ATI driver (fglrx), with some guidance here for installation “the hardway” : ATI/The Hard Way - openSUSE . For the open source “radeon” and “radeonhd” drivers, the update I recommended above (for legacy) in post#5 may also work for newer hardware.
Tried to follow the ‘hard way’ tutorial. The repository it references leads me to a 404, and no matter what I do, installing fglrx fails at compiling the kernel modules (says that I need to install kernel-sources through YAST, which I did. The kernel-default and kernel-sources match up, by the way), which leaves me with what seems like a totally botched system, even if I try to use the vesa or fbdev drivers.
Frankly, I’m getting pretty pissed with this. I know I shouldn’t be comparing totally different distros, but it’s pretty much a 1-click install with Ubuntu when it comes to those proprietary drivers. Granted, those suck, but I figured it’d be at least relatively easy to to something similar with SUSE. I just want a linux distro that works flawlessly with my ATI card, I don’t care what kind of drivers I have to use.
Sorry to read you have having so much difficulty here.
I concede for new users this is not so easy, although for average users who have been with openSUSE for a while, its a breeze. The is also a “one-click” for openSUSE for installing proprietary drivers, but its track record from what I have read is not so good.
Reference the proprietary driver, since it is built on one’s system, and since its a driver, one needs the source code of the kernel for it to be built against, and one also needs the development package for it to be built with. It sort of stands to reason (for those of us who have been around openSUSE for a while). Which means one needs kernel-source and kernel-syms of the same version of the kernel (and a version of linux-kernel-headers). And one needs the base-development pattern selected (or one can pick and choose the individual packages to permit compilation, but IMHO its easier to just select the pattern I noted). After that, its a breeze to install the kernel, with some (well documented) prerequisite cautions.
For ATI devices, problems typically happen when users either (1) forget to remove any previous fglrx.rpm or (2) grab the wrong .run file. The instructions are all clearly written but there is so much there to read, that new users tend to skim thru the instructions and miss the important steps. But once one has successfully done this a few times, it becomes easy.
There is also a “repository” method, that some users swear by, but it too has its idiosyncrasies which IMHO are likely easy to address (and for average/advanced users does NOT have idiosyncrasies) , but new users run afoul of them anyway.
The bottom line thou, is to go with what works best for one’s self. I like openSUSE for a variety of reasons, but even without those reasons, I would be reluctant to change distro’s, because I am so used to the openSUSE way of doing things, I find it easy. My brief tests of other distributions have been a test of my patience because of their different way of doing things, and hence I don’t test other distributions as much today, as I once did.
Alright. I’m going to do another fresh install and see if I can get this working.
Sorry about my outburst. This is just so totally different for me compared to debian. Well, I guess overall they’re pretty similar, but how to actually go about solving a problem in OpenSUSE is new to me, and working on a computer problem for something like three days straight with no results is pretty tiring, you know? I mean, I had the same problem when I switched from Windows to Slackware (which, by the way, was way too big of a jump for a newbie to make). I should sorta keep reminding myself it’s sort of a new field.
Okay, so one more try, and this time I’m following everything and asking about absolutely anything I’m not sure about. Supernoob away!
After you complete the initial install, do NOT add a bunch of repositories. Stick with ONLY OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman. Be cautious that the one-click-install may add many extra repositories. If it does, once the one-click install (of an application) is complete, disable those extra repositories.
You may need to add extra respository to update Mesa and the various xorg / X11 drivers for your openSUSE-11.2, and if you do, after update is complete, disable the repos.
To custom compile the graphic driver, you will need linux-kernel-headers, the base development package (recommended), and also must have kernel-source and kernel syms as the same version of your driver. Hence if you have the 2.6.31.5 kernel, you will need kernel-source and kernel-syms of same 2.6.31.5 version. If you then update to the 2.6.31.12 kernel, this will probably break your driver, and you will need to also update kernel-source and kernel syms to 2.6.31.12 version and then rebuild your driver with the .run command.
Of course you can try the one-click install driver installation, or the repository method driver installation. I prefer the “hardway” (which is the custom compilation) but each to their own. One needs to find a method that works for one, and then use it.
I’m assuming that you have an ATI card then, or at least have experience with them. How does it work under linux? What driver are you using? How is it’s 3D acceleration, for instance?
I am a BIG nVidia card fan, but I do not have only nVidia hardware. Our desktop PCs at home have:
PCI-3 nVidia GeForce GTX260 graphics
on a 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 w/6GB (Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard) [age-6 months] on 64-bit openSUSE-11.2 - AGP ATI RV280 (Radeon-9200Pro) graphics
32-bit AMD Sempon-2600 w/1GB (Epox EP-8K7A motherboard) [age-4 years] works well ONLY after Updating mesa, xorg-x11-driver-input, xorg-x11-driver-video and xorg-x11-driver-video-radeonhd as noted here: openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums on 32-bit openSUSE-11.2. - **PCI nVidia GeForce 8400GS graphics **
on a 32-bit AMD Athlon-2800 w/2GB (Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard) [age-5 years] on 32-bit openSUSE-11.2 - AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 graphics
on a 32-bit AMD Athlon-1100 w/1GB (MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard) w/ [age 9-years] on 32-bit openSUSE-11.2
and our laptops
ATI Radeon 3450HD graphics
on a 64-bit Dell Studio 1537 laptop with Intel P8400 w/4GB RAM, [age-1 year] running openSUSE-11.1 - Intel i855 graphics
on a 32-bit Fujitsu-Simens Amilo 7400M laptop w/1.256 GB RAM w/Intel 1.5 celeron, and (?) [age-5 years] running openSUSE-11.1
The two ATI cards work well. The Dell Studio 1537 with the ATI Radeon-3450 is running openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-4.3.4 and it works very well. I use it for corporate presentations/meetings. Note that I have NOT yet updated that laptop with a Radeon3450 to openSUSE-11.2.
Reference the two PCs with ATI devices:
Radeon HD3450
use proprietary ATI driver installed “the hardway” which isn’t hard. 3D graphics work great. xrandr for driving external monitor works great on openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-4.3.4. *]AGP ATI RV280 (Radeon-9200Pro) graphics - use radeon opensource driver. 3D works OK on openSUSE-11.2 with KDE-4.3.4. Had to update mesa, xorg-x11-driver-input, xorg-x11-driver-video and xorg-x11-driver-video-radeonhd as noted above.
I should update this noting I eventually did sucessfully install openSUSE-11.2 on this laptop with the RadeonHD3450 graphics. I installed the latest ATI proprietary catalyst driver “the hardway” (which is not hard). 3D/special desktop effects, etc… all work great.