Having issues with my sound and graphics

I am having two problems with a fresh installation of 11.2 milestone 4 (Gnome). I am wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to go about fixing them.

The first problem is an issue with my graphic display. I have to boot up in failsafe mode because if I use the normal boot up my monitor displays a few blocks of random colors once I get to the login screen, at least I think it is the login screen. When the display turns into those random colors I think my computer freezes also, because when I hit the power button it doesn’t turn the computer off. It just hangs there.

I have an Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT.

The other problem I am having is my sound isn’t working when I am using the failsafe mode. I think it has something to do with a conflict between my sound card and my motherboard’s onboard sound device. I noticed that in my sound preferences it lists two internal audio devices, even though I have my onboard sound disabled in my BIOS. Is it possible to disable the motherboard’s sound device in OpenSUSE somehow and keep it from being used?

I have an ASUS K8V-X motherboard and a soundblaster live! 24 bit soundcard.

Reference your two sound cards, you could take a look here to see if there is anything that may help: MultipleCards - ALSA wiki

Reference your graphics only working in safe mode, … what graphics driver have you selected? You can check that by typing:

grep -i driver /etc/X11/xorg.conf 

also, what code in the safemode allows your graphics to work ? With root permissions copy and paste to a terminal konsole:
cp /boot/grub/menu.lst file /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak
and then open the version of menu.lst.bak that you just by copying and pasting:

  • in gnome: gnomesu 'gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak’
  • in kde: kdesu 'kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak’

and compare the difference between the safemode boot menu item and the regular boot. Write those boot codes down on a piece of paper.

Then reboot your PC, and remove one of the boot codes from the safe mode when the grub menu appears. Does your graphics still work? If so, reboot and remove another from the grub menu. Does your graphics still work? Keep doing this until you discover the menu item that causes your graphics to work. Once you know that it may be easier to figure out your graphics boot problem.

I notice you did not post this in our subforum area for pre-release/beta software … Pre-Release/Beta - openSUSE Forums That makes me wonder if you installed 11.2 milestone4 in the knowledge that it is NOT to be used for normal operation, but rather used for testing ? If you are looking for a system to use for day to day use, then I recommend you stop now and instead install 11.1.