Installation of 13.1: hangs at the very beginning; no options available

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I try installing 13.1 with the DVD image and the Network image on USB stick. The stick seems to boot correctly, however, I have only three entries available: Install, Rescue System and Check Install Medium (or similar names), no further options as described in several guides… With all three options, the system tries to start but it hangs after couple of seconds, probably when trying to start X. I have to shut down the system manually.

The images were correct, I checked the md5 sum, and were written using the SUSE image writer.

Currently, 12.3 is installed (no problem with this installation) on my system but I want to do a fresh install not an upgrade. My system uses UEFI, Windows 8 is installed. Furthermore, it has Intel and NVIDIA graphics using Optimus.

Any idea how to further debug or start text mode installation?

Thanks

2

Press ‘e’ at the boot screen when “Install” is selected, you can change the boot options then.
Try to append “nomodeset” to the line starting with “linux”, that should help if its gfx driver related.
Press ‘F10’ to boot/start the installation then.

PS: Not sure if this applies on an optimus system as well, but the latest release notes contain this entry:

5.2. Garbage on the Screen During Installation with the Nouveau Driver

On some systems with NVIDIA cards, the installer may show garbage on the
top part of the screen due to problems with the default nouveau driver. If
you are affected by this problem, you can disable the nouveau kernel module
to run the installer and then enable it again once the system is installed
or upgraded.


To disable the kernel module, once you boot from the installation media,
select the 'Installation' entry in grub and press 'e' to edit the
parameters. Then go to the line starting with 'linux' (or 'linuxefi') and
add brokenmodules=nouveau at the end. Now press F10 to continue booting
with the new parameter. After the system is installed, you can re-enable
the nouveau module by editing /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf and
removing the entry that blacklists nouveau.
3

This is typical of a boot on a UEFI box. You might want to look at Bug 822769 which requests that a 4th option (boot with “nomodeset” be added). In the meantime, try what Wolfi323 suggested.

4

Thank you, that worked!

5

Well, while nomodeset works and seems to be used by default now also after the installation, 3d acceleration with Intel drivers does not work. Without nomodeset, the error is back again (nouveau is blacklisted).

How can I debug this problem? /var/log/messages does not seem to get information (I guess the issue is too early).

Thanks!

6

Of course. With “nomodeset” you effectively prevent the intel driver from being used.

Maybe try install the newer intel driver from here, some crashes have been fixed there: (will be released as online update soon)
Index of /repositories/home:/sumski:/bnc847762/openSUSE_13.1

After installing that, try to boot without “nomodeset” and see if it works then.

7

I am having the same issue as the OP and I added the option “nomodeset” and still received the same error. Where do I go from here? My computer is a Lenovo S230u Thinkpad Twist.
Thanks

8

Another try which worked successfully on my machine…

When you load your install media, you will arrive at a screen that says

Installation
Rescue
Test Firmware
Test RAM

At the bottom, it says to press “F3” to choose alternate video options.
Try “No KMS” first. According to the 13.1 Release Notes, this is similar to, but <not exactly> the same as “nomodeset” so is worth a try.

That worked for me.
Then, after the full installation later on you can go into YAST > Sysconfig editor and turn KMS back on (set NO_KMS_IN_INITRD to “no”)

Or, if even that setting fails you can choose the “TEXT” option to enter text mode.

The hardware this worked on
i7-4700MQ HD 4600

HTH,
TSU

9

Thanks for the hint, it does not solve my issue, though. As far as I can see, the repository you listed includes an X driver, i.e. it is used when X starts. My crash, however, happens right after starting openSUSE. So it may be connected to the fancy high resolution terminal? Framebuffer? So is it an issue of the kernel? (just throwing uneducated guesses here)

10

Well, you wrote this in the first post:

With all three options, the system tries to start but it hangs after couple of seconds, probably when trying to start X.

That’s why I suggested the newer X driver.

Of course it could be the intel kernel driver that causes the hang. “nomodeset” prevents that one from being loaded (which then also forces another X driver as a consequence).

You could also try to disable plymouth (the boot splash), this has caused problems for some people in the past. Add this to the kernel options instead of “nomodeset”:

plymouth.enable=0
11

It’s not plymouth. I will try a more recent kernel (which also supports optimus better as far as I know).

12

Good idea.

You can get 3.12 here:
Index of /repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard

13

I also tried this one and an older 3.10, both show the same error (although 3.12 shows some colour at the top of the screen ;)). I activated some debugging output of the kernel and it really seems to show a line starting with fb: before it hangs. The output is too fast to give more details.

It’s strange, though, it worked without problem in openSUSE 12.3 and I also tried the 3.10 kernel, I think…

14

12.3 has kernel 3.7.10.
Try to install that one.
If that also hangs, I guess we can rule out the kernel…

15

I finally found the issue. The system did NOT hang, there was just no (visible) output on the screen (making things worse, shutting down the system does not turn of the laptop so pressing the power button did not have a visible effect). From here, instead of nomodeset one has to add acpi_backlight=vendor for Intel Haswell graphics.