it is my understanding that the “media check” is only an md5 checksum check which i was told on the opensuse irc channel is not applicable with a live usb disk because the md5 checksum is always different from the original image’s checksum unlike a burned live cd or dvd.
i think i b0rked my live usb so i’ve redumped my (kde4) live cd image to the usb flash drive again (dd’ing /dev/zero) and am going to try to install via text mode this time. if that does not work, i think i will try the network install.
i orginally tried burning the dvd image on another (opensuse 11.2/k3b 2.0) PC but k3b said that the either the disc or medium didn’t support any burning speed below 6x so i was forced to burn at that speed. i tried burning about a dozen copies with two different brands of dvd+r’s and none of them had the proper checksum after burning. so i was forced try the live usb method of install which i have VERY inconsistent/unreliable.
WTH? if there is a problem with the HDD then why the heck would installer get done without incident? i’ve made sure my sata cables are attached securely at both ends.
i’m able to boot the live usb disk and mount both of my (sata 3.0) HDDs. the one with the system installed (swap, /, home) is formatted as ext4 & the other HDD has one partition as ext3, if any of that matters. after mounting them i checked the device.map & menu.lst files and they are both correct.
i made some progress. i chose failsafe mode in the boot menu and now the yast installer is completing in graphic/gui mode. i’ll report back the end result.
EDIT:
i was able to boot in regular mode by using “acpi=off” (i also used splash=0) and saw complaints that more than one driver wasn’t being loaded. i suspect this is a default/desktop kernel issue with missing drivers. once i boot i’ll investigate and install the other kernel if both aren’t installed by default.
don’t know what the problem was but an upgrade to the latest kernel version via the Kernel:HEAD repo solved the problem.
now to my other problem: xorg has failed miserably detecting my monitor settings/specs.
so i grabbed a valid xorg.conf file i had to set up because of the same problem (from a different PC with 11.3 freshly installed). (the only difference is the one from the other PC is a CRT monitor & this one is an LCD monitor). i then copy & pasted the relevant values from a backup of my old xorg.conf file from 11.2 (or maybe it was 11.1, i forget).
i’m pretty sure everything is fine with the xorg.conf file, except the xserver fails with this:
(EE) Screens found, but none have a usable configuration.
Fatal server error: no screens found
(the only difference in my xorg.conf file & the one from the other PC is that i don’t know the bus id of my onboard graphics card (intel g43/45) so i didn’t put that field in my xorg.conf file’s device section. (maybe this is why it isn’t working)?
i would really appreciate some help with getting my monitor configured properly. i was able to do it properly with the PC with the CRT monitor but not this LCD monitor.
you misread what i said. i only used a valid one from another PC with 11.3 freshly installed for comparison. i structured my xorg.conf file around that with values from my xorg.conf file from 11.2.
any way, i found the bus id & added to my xorg.conf file but that didn’t make a difference.
i also found that this may be an issue: CONFIG_DRM_I915_KMS
it is apparently an option that can be enabled or disabled when compiling the kernel. (i didn’t compile my kernels). it basically enables KMS by default.
so that got me thinking that i should try the “nomodeset” boot option because maybe KMS was screwing/conflicting with my xorg.conf file. unfortunately that didn’t make a difference with the default or desktop kernel either.
according to my Xorg.0.log file apparently the intel driver module is getting unloaded for some reason which is why i’m stuck in 800x600 resolution: the vesa driver is loaded when that happens.
the question is why is this happening? i didn’t have these problems with 11.2 forunately. here is the log: #1052724 - Pastie](http://pastie.org/1052724)
yes, i had read that more than once. it didn’t tell me much i didn’t know already. (i’m a computer technician & keep up-to-date with opensuse/linux developments).
i finally figured out the problem! it was due to one bios option. recently (i can’t remember when) i had the smart idea to change the amount of shared memory for my onboard graphics from 64 MB to 256MB (who would want 64 MB of graphics memory vs 256 MB right)?
when pursuing my /var/log/boot.msg file something jogged my memory: i remember reading in multiple places (including my motherboard manual) that my motherboard (asrock g43 twins full-hd) does not support using 256 MB of shared graphics memory UNLESS DDR3 RAM is used. (which i had obviously forgetten when i changed the setting). i use DDR2 RAM atm. the message in boot.msg that reminded me was a line to the effect “x amount of memory stolen/video bios broken”. so i checked the option in my bios and changed it to auto, which, take note (hopefully this might just help someone) DID NOT WORK. i had to manually set the setting to 128 MB for it function properly. i then boot into runlevel 3 & undid any changes i made to any of the files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and booted and viola! everything is detected/set properly!
it is frustrating to think that this was my fault & not opensuse’s and that all of this mess could have been prevented if not for my power-using/tweaking nature! silly:
i was a little suspicious of this problem considering, as i said, i didn’t have this problem with 11.2, barring a regression.
Hey,
Thank you for the update. I did wonder about on-board when I looked at your log file, but I wouldn’t have twigged on to that BIOS setting anyway.
It’s good you posted back your findings so others can benefit. Sorry I wasn’t too much use on this occasion. ;-))
silly: