Install went fine but after the reboot I see the startup messages scrolling but and then when it comes to the login screen, all I get is a garbled screen (run level 5). I tried swiching to the console (ctrl+alt+F2 or alt+F2) but to no effect (screen stay garbled).
I tried booting to run level 3 (added init=3 to boot options) but again, everything is garbled after the boot messages scroll by. Switching consoles again has no effect.
Another thing I tried is ‘nomodeset’ kernel option. Boot messages come out in a lower resolutions (it took the lower mode) but screen goes black before the login and the monitor is complaining that the timing of the signal is wrong.
I also tried failsafe boot option with run level 3, but again, garbled screen.
I’m using a Rendition Verite video card with a Dell LCD (max res 1920x1080) over a VGA cable.
Is there anything I can do? I know I can boot of the installation disk in rescue mode and edit the files on the hard drive.
Dependent on how far one got, there may have been an Xorg.0.log file created, in which case to better understand the garbled screen (and how to possibly work around it), we would need to see the content of the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. If one can get that file, then copy it to the web site SUSE Paste, press create, and post here the website URL where the file is located. A text install may allow one to get far enough so as to obtain this sort of information.
The card is fine. It’s PCI and consumes little power. This is going to be a server, not a gaming rig.
I’m not sure whether the install completed actually. I walked away after it started installing all the packages (last step) and when I came back, all I could see was the garbled screen. I assumed the install completed but now I’m not sure.
Is there anything I can do to make it boot into runlevel 3 to avoid Xorg completely? init=3 doesn’t seem to be helping.
Log file has been pasted here. Xorg is segfaulting.
why waste your time wondering? You will always wonder about this. My guess is it did NOT complete, as during an install, it will reboot and ask for more input to configure. It will wait until you enter the information. I don’t think you saw that. Simply install again, this time in TEXT mode.
Also, what does “init=3 doesn’t seem to be helping” mean ? Serious. Just HOW are you applying this ‘init=3’ given you have no graphics / terminal ? I know that is intuitively obvious to you, but I don’t know your expertise nor do I know just ‘how’ you are attempting to apply that setting. Try booting and in the very first grub splash menu (which I assume you are seeing) type ‘3’ (no quotes) such that a 3 will appear in the options line. Then boot. That should take you to a full screen text menu.
What is of note here is X is trying to load the “rendition” driver.
I recommend you try booting with ‘nomodeset’ as a boot parameter. Then depending on whether the boot was successful, look again inside the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. Was it still trying to load the “rendition” driver?
I think it also important that you disable KMS per the openSUSE-11.3 release note recommendation for such cases (and I am thinking now you either did not read or did not understand the openSUSE-11.3 release note). ie boot to run level 3 (per the method I noted) and switch to root permissions, and run “yast” (you can run yast in text mode with root permissions if X window not available) and navigate to yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and change it to “yes”. This takes a minute or two to save once changed is submitted. (see below image examples). Then reboot with ‘shutdown -r now’ and try again to see if X runs.
Edit: note you navigate the text mode yast with TAB, Space Bar, Arrow Keys, and Enter key.
I’m setting that during boot as a kernel command line option. I tried ‘3’, ‘init 3’ and ‘init=3’ but the screen gets garbled anyway. I also booted in rescue mode, mounted the harddrive, set the runlevel to 3 in /etc/inittab but again, more garbling.
I did, as per my original post. The only differences are that I get a black screen instead of garbled one. And yes, it’s still trying to load rendition.
Well, I didn’t read it. Now that I’ve read it, I don’t really understand it. ‘nomodeset’ doesn’t seem to be helping me so I also need to set NO_KMS_IN_INITRD which despite its name, disables DRM (direct rendering module). Right?
A fair question at this point would be: are non-ATI/Intel/Nvidia PCI video cards supported in graphical mode? Should I get an ATI card? PCI or PCI-E?
OK, well to the best of my knowlege there is NO boot code called ‘init 3’. The ‘init’ will just be ignored. I think ‘init=3’ will result in NO boot code being applied. It is best to just type ‘3’ (no quotes).
Did you try Fail Safe with the ‘3’ entry ?
And then if you reach a full screen text mode, run “yast” (you can run yast in text mode with root permissions if X window not available) and navigate to yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and change it to “yes”. This takes a minute or two to save once changed is submitted. (see below image examples). Then reboot with ‘shutdown -r now’ and try again to see if X runs.
Did you try the text mode installation like I suggested ?
If you have 64-bit hardware, then I recommend a PCI-E nVidia card (if your PC supports PCI-E). If you have 32-bit hardware, I note nVidia are having difficulty currently with their 32-bit proprietary Linux graphic driver on newer graphic hardware and KDE on 32-bit openSUSE, so if you like KDE then you may wish to consider ATI. But if you are happy with LXDE or Gnome desktop and you have 32-bit hardware, then a nVidia PCI-E card should be fine.
If your PC is old, your choice may only be PCI or AGP with no PCI-E available.
I think the problem is that the Rendition Verite video card is as common as hen’s teeth. I doubt that the driver though included has had a real test with such a card in a long time and much has changed in the video world. So get a newer more popular card. Any will do and since this targeted at a server you don’t need cutting edge. Just find a cheap ATI/NVIDIA card with more then 64 meg of memory (256 is better).
Hen’s teeth, LOL! True. I went out on a splurge and got a used 4 MB ATI Rage Pro (vintage 1995) for $7 (Rendition is actually 2 years newer). Everything works fine with it.
Cheap modern cards tend to pop caps easily and still consume quite a bit of power. The more expensive ones are better made but way too power hungry. Nobody really makes server video cards. I prefer the older stuff because it runs forever and consumes almost no power. I got a Matrox Millenium (vintage 1994) that’s been up 24/7 now for 11 years.
I also tried Centos 5.5 (64 bit) on this hardware and while it didn’t have the Rendition driver out of the box, once I recompiled it from source rpm, it ran fine. I’m still not giving up. I’ll try the Rendition again, with 11.4, maybe with the driver from Centos. If OpenSuse people need any help from me, I open to it (testing, …).