Install DVD boot menu doesn't appear

I have a dual processor fairly old Xeon machine (x86) where I like to try installing different linux distributions just for fun and familiarity.

My main production machine (x86_64) seemed to boot the install DVD just fine with the menu options including boot from hard disk, install, etc. I was able to install v11.1 just fine and it worked flawlessly.

On the dual xeon machine, however, boot options don’t even show up - only the Christmasy theme and a separate text box on the top left with a bunch of numbers that do seem to change if I press some keys on the keyboard. But no response at all as far as menu selection. This has been a long standing issue with the Opensuse installer and I have just not gotten around to reporting. As far as I recall, this issue has prevented me from using Suse on that machine from at least v10.0 or earlier. Since this behavior happens very early before any booting - I can’t extract any useful information. Here are some things that I have tried:

  1. Switched to a standard keyboard instead of the USB one but didn’t help.

  2. Tried the network-based mini disk. Same issue.

  3. Same with the live CD. By this point, I guess I wasn’t expecting anything different since they all use the same boot menu!

  4. I know that this is not necessarily relevant to this forum but I have been successful with Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora installers. That said, I really like the look and feel of Opensuse 11.1 and would like to install this on that machine.

Could someone please help diagnose the problem? I can provide any additional information about the hardware on the machine if needed. Thanks.

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Just to make sure you mentioned this DVD worked on your x86_64
machine… is this a 64-bit DVD? If so then it won’t work on your
non-64-bit Xeon machine at all which would explain, partially, why you
are seeing what you are seeing. If your mini-ISO for a network-based
setup was also x86_64 I would expect to see the same thing as you are
seeing. If your LiveCD is also x86_64 I’d expect the same there too.
If the Ubuntu/Fedors/etc. distros are 32-bit builds that would also
explain why things are working there properly. Ubuntu doesn’t, as I
recall, ship an 8.10 version of the desktop with x86_64 support
(strange, but that’s what I was told by a local Ubuntu guru) so that
would help support the theory.

Not all Xeons are x86_64… that’s relatively new, really.

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> I have a dual processor fairly old Xeon machine (x86) where I like to
> try installing different linux distributions just for fun and
> familiarity.
>
> My main production machine (x86_64) seemed to boot the install DVD just
> fine with the menu options including boot from hard disk, install, etc.
> I was able to install v11.1 just fine and it worked flawlessly.
>
> On the dual xeon machine, however, boot options don’t even show up -
> only the Christmasy theme and a separate text box on the top left with a
> bunch of numbers that do seem to change if I press some keys on the
> keyboard. But no response at all as far as menu selection. This has
> been a long standing issue with the Opensuse installer and I have just
> not gotten around to reporting. As far as I recall, this issue has
> prevented me from using Suse on that machine from at least v10.0 or
> earlier. Since this behavior happens very early before any booting - I
> can’t extract any useful information. Here are some things that I have
> tried:
>
> 1. Switched to a standard keyboard instead of the USB one but didn’t
> help.
>
> 2. Tried the network-based mini disk. Same issue.
>
> 3. Same with the live CD. By this point, I guess I wasn’t expecting
> anything different since they all use the same boot menu!
>
> 4. I know that this is not necessarily relevant to this forum but I
> have been successful with Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora installers. That
> said, I really like the look and feel of Opensuse 11.1 and would like to
> install this on that machine.
>
> Could someone please help diagnose the problem? I can provide any
> additional information about the hardware on the machine if needed.
> Thanks.
>
>
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I am sure this is not the issue. I have tried the 32-bit installations only on the old Xeon machine. I used to have an old Pentium 3 machine that used to work when the Xeon machine was not working. So, at that time, both were 32-bit, and yet this xeon machine just didn’t “like” the suse installer. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Hello,

I have the same problem, on 2 differents computers with the 586 iso (downloaded with bittorent) :

  • lenovo A61 tower,
  • Nec VL5 tower.

So I can see the penguin theme (menu with boot from harddisk, installation, repair installed system, etc…), and at the top left corner a text box like this (either with a PS/2 or USB keyboard, PS/2 mouse in the 2 cases):

----data----prog----------

  • :…- :…-
  • :…- :…fffffffff. 5-
    -0: 444. 1 - 1: 11a0.15-
    -1: 437. 1 - 2: 119d. 5 -

-err 8…-
-ip c153:…97.7…-
-…-

Pressing shift while booting doesnt make me enter in text mode installation, only the same penguin screen.

Pressing F3 only brings me to the same screen, but I can see the different video modes that I should be able to choose, but it fails the same way, keyboard only change the text in the text box at top left of the screen.

Nice to know I am not alone in this issue! Although I wish this issue didn’t exist at all.

My machine is not a branded one however. I assembled the hardware0 myself. Someone please help! Thanks.

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Have both of you verified the md5sums of both the ISO from which you
burned as well as the CD once burned with the ‘Verify written Data’
option in k3b (or equivalent in other burners assuming they have this
feature? Tried burning the DVD more slowly?

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> Nice to know I am not alone in this issue! Although I wish this issue
> didn’t exist at all.
>
> My machine is not a branded one however. I assembled the hardware0
> myself. Someone please help! Thanks.
>
>
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I have done the verify disk part but didn’t do the md5sum check since it is a bit of a bother doing that on the windows machine where I am downloading the x86 DVD.

I don’t think the DVD is written incorrectly since I have had this problem with the installer on multiple opensuse versions where the same x86 disk installed fine on one of my older (now decommissioned) pentium 3 machine.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.

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md5sum shouldn’t, in my opinion, be seen as an inconvenience. md5sum
utilities exist aplenty, even for windows, and while it does take a
minute (literally) or so to check an entire DVD you can’t burn a full
DVD in that much time no matter how fast the burner and it will save you
broken ISOs. Either way the burn speed causes all kinds of weird issues
including those that you are seeing… it seems to really depend on the
media, the burn speed, the burner, and the reader. Some DVDs will work
in one system but not another. Sometimes fileA will be missing, other
times fileB… all on the same DVD. Anyway it’s a thought. I don’t
have any others at this point.

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> I have done the verify disk part but didn’t do the md5sum check since it
> is a bit of a bother doing that on the windows machine where I am
> downloading the x86 DVD.
>
> I don’t think the DVD is written incorrectly since I have had this
> problem with the installer on multiple opensuse versions where the same
> x86 disk installed fine on one of my older (now decommissioned) pentium
> 3 machine.
>
> Any other suggestions? Thanks.
>
>
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OK, sorry for the delayed response.

I took the time to download the x86 DVD once again. The md5sum checked out fine. Wrote the disk at lower speed (8x) and the disk verification was done successfully as well.

When I boot with the above disk, I still have the very same issue. At this point, I am thinking that the installer has a problem with some hardware on the machine.

Please advise. Thanks.

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That is the next most-likely option… you may have some drive or card
or something that isn’t supported. Have you tried going through the
list of supported hardware on the opensuse.org site to see if you have
anything not on the list there?

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> OK, sorry for the delayed response.
>
> I took the time to download the x86 DVD once again. The md5sum checked
> out fine. Wrote the disk at lower speed (8x) and the disk verification
> was done successfully as well.
>
> When I boot with the above disk, I still have the very same issue. At
> this point, I am thinking that the installer has a problem with some
> hardware on the machine.
>
> Please advise. Thanks.
>
>
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The only hardware that is iffy on my machine is the wireless-N card AR5416 but that is not critical to me right now as I also have a wired connection. All other hardware seems to be okay, fairly old even. I should once again point out that other distributions are fine with this machine. So, is there a way we could attack this problem from the end of what’s different between say the Ubuntu installer and the Suse installer? I don’t know. Any suggestions? Thanks.

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There may be, but unfortunately I’m no expert on Grub and that part of
the installer. Perhaps try getting the 11.0 ISO and seeing if it will
work. If it does you could use that to point to an 11.1 installation
source, I believe, to continue the installation. Creating a network
install source isn’t that hard and I think you can probably find some
online though installation speed will be slower in that case (I think
opensuse.org even has one).

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> The only hardware that is iffy on my machine is the wireless-N card
> AR5416 but that is not critical to me right now as I also have a wired
> connection. All other hardware seems to be okay, fairly old even. I
> should once again point out that other distributions are fine with this
> machine. So, is there a way we could attack this problem from the end
> of what’s different between say the Ubuntu installer and the Suse
> installer? I don’t know. Any suggestions? Thanks.
>
>
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I tried the network CD of 11.0 as well. Didn’t help. As I mentioned before, this issue has been ongoing for a long time with the Suse installer. I might have to give up on getting Suse on this machine. Thanks anyway.

Just to finish this thread in the interest of providing the information - I was able to install Opensuse 11.1 on my machine eventually. Here’s the process I followed (based on googling a few websites, sorry I didn’t save the links to reference):

  1. I had an old Ubuntu installation on the machine already. So, I booted that up.

  2. Copy the initrd and linux files from the install DVD (boot/i386/loader) into a linux partition.

  3. edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to add a new entry:

Install Opensuse 11.1

root (hd1,6) → linux partition where files were copied.
uppermem 2000000
kernel /kernel
initrd /initrd

  1. Select this option upon reboot. This boots Suse fine.

  2. Here’s where I had some trouble. The installer then asks for installation source and selecting the DVD didn’t work for me. A copied .iso image on the same partition didn’t do it either although the websites I referenced said that should work. I specified internet installation and pointed to the opensuse servers.

  3. After a few hours of downloading (I selected too many things to install!), my system was ready. From now on, further upgrades on this machine will follow this process instead of downloading the DVD/liveCD, etc.

Thanks all.

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That’s good information… hat’s off to you. Thank-you for posting
back your results.

Good luck.

rangarajan wrote:
> Just to finish this thread in the interest of providing the information
> - I was able to install Opensuse 11.1 on my machine eventually. Here’s
> the process I followed (based on googling a few websites, sorry I didn’t
> save the links to reference):
>
> 1. I had an old Ubuntu installation on the machine already. So, I
> booted that up.
>
> 2. Copy the initrd and linux files from the install DVD
> (boot/i386/loader) into a linux partition.
>
> 3. edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to add a new entry:
>
> # Install Opensuse 11.1
> root (hd1,6) → linux partition where files were copied.
> uppermem 2000000
> kernel /kernel
> initrd /initrd
>
> 4. Select this option upon reboot. This boots Suse fine.
>
> 5. Here’s where I had some trouble. The installer then asks for
> installation source and selecting the DVD didn’t work for me. A copied
> .iso image on the same partition didn’t do it either although the
> websites I referenced said that should work. I specified internet
> installation and pointed to the opensuse servers.
>
> 6. After a few hours of downloading (I selected too many things to
> install!), my system was ready. From now on, further upgrades on this
> machine will follow this process instead of downloading the DVD/liveCD,
> etc.
>
> Thanks all.
>
>
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Penguins are dangerous beasts, this I can tell you !

Today I tried again to install opensuse (same DVD). This time I didnt get the penguin christmas screen (I suppose it is showed only for a few specified days), but the usual green screen, installation is currently in the progress.

Eastern eggs (or customized screens) are nice, but if they prevent installation, I really dont need them.