I have OpenSuse11.2 here on my laptop and I am pretty happy with it. The only problem: My DVD-drive never worked. I had to do the installation using an external USB-drive - and that worked fine, by the way. Now I want to fix the problem and I found in a forum that the solution is to boot with “brokenmodules=pata_amd”. I am no expert and I don’t know how to configure the startup such that this parameter is used. I googled through many pages, but I only found solutions for installation procedures, not for systems that are readily installed.
In theory you should just add this to the kernel line after vga=*** but this is a really old fix not seen this recommended for a long time.
If I was you I would first go into cli grub(think esc from graphical grub) then edit the kernel line to test if it works then make it pernament either by manually editing /boot/grub/menu.lst or poking in the yast boot module(Not sure on this one).
edit
May even work on the line at bottom in graphical grub.
When you want to add this just for a test:
At the Grub bootscreen, use the arrow keys (down and up) to stop the countdown. (After one down and one up you arr again at the same boot entry, but it will not boot after 8 secs).
Then type (the cursor is in the line below)* brokenmodules=pata_amd* and then hit return to get the boot started.
When you want to make this permanent, use YaST > System > Bootloader. Select the entry and hit Edit (or Change, I do not know, I have a translation) and add it as FeatherMonkey suggested.