Installing openSUSE Tumbleweed i686 on 32bit Compaq NC-6400 laptop:

panorain · April 17, 2021, 9:35pm

A couple weeks ago I downloaded and verified an .iso from the following link: -> http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/

It was a 32 bit snapshot by the name of: -> openSUSE-Tumbleweed-KDE-Live-i686-Snapshot20210307-Media.iso

I am uncertain between the difference in the i686 openSUSE TW .iso’s as per current or snapshot-media suffixes.

I successfully created and verified a bootable USB with balenaEtcher.

I was able to use this snapshot effectively to install openSUSE TW on an Atom 311mini 1600 mhz cpu - small laptop. It was slow to update and very slow now but in a pinch functional.

I am now attempting to use the same usb drive to install openSUSE TW onto a 32 bit Compaq nc-6400 1833 mhz Centrino Duo with 4 gigabytes of memory installed and verified. Intel integrated graphics onboard as well as Intel onboard wireless functionality. 160 GB internal sata harddisk.

The usb appears to load fine into the boot option menu where I can choose to install openSUSE Tumbleweed KDE Live. I attempt this option (The first option-default) and loading proceeds without noticeable incident except for a square mouse cursor with some (Jumbly characters inside). KDE desktop seemingly appears and background scrolls very slowly down a bit at an angle with the openSUSE welcome lizard on the sailing mast window appearing. Trying to use the mouse cursor (block) is not functional when trying to click on “install”. For that matter attempting to click on menu or closing the welcome window does not seem to work whatsoever. Everything from moving the mouse cursor to attempting to double click on the menu button or double clicking on any desktop icon seems to be exceptionally slow.

Are there a couple of options I could try with the boot menu that could yield some further success with this installation possibly?

Thank You for your thoughts and suggestions.

nrickert · April 17, 2021, 10:55pm

Your atom machine probably has a 64-bit processor. Your other machine is only 32-bit. There are some extended instructions needed for 686. I don’t know whether your system actually supports that.

panorain · April 17, 2021, 11:40pm

I powered up the HP-mini and verified that it is 32 bit with inxi as follows:

inxi -Fxz

System:

   Kernel: 5.11.11-1-pae i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
   Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.3 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210406 
 Machine:
   Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Mini 311-1000 
   v: 0390100000201B01100320000 serial: <filter> 
   Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3651 v: 49.19 serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard 
   v: F.16 date: 11/26/2010 
 Battery:
   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 29.7 Wh (85.8%) condition: 34.6/55.1 Wh (62.7%) volts: 12.6 
   min: 10.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Charging 
 CPU:
   Info: Single Core model: Intel Atom N270 bits: 32 type: MT arch: Bonnell rev: 2 
   cache: L2: 512 KiB 
   flags: nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 6399 
   Speed: 1579 MHz min/max: 800/1600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1579 2: 1577 
 Graphics:
   Device-1: NVIDIA C79 [GeForce 9400M / ION] vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
   driver: nouveau v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.0 
   Device-2: Quanta HP Webcam-50 type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-2:2 
   Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: nouveau 
   unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo> 
   OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.5 
   direct render: Yes 
 Audio:
   Device-1: NVIDIA MCP79 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
   driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:08.0 
   Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.11.11-1-pae running: yes 
   Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2-rebootstrapped running: yes 
   Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.24 running: no 
 Network:
   Device-1: NVIDIA MCP79 Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: forcedeth 
   v: kernel port: 30e0 bus-ID: 00:0a.0 
   IF: enp0s10 state: down mac: <filter> 
   Device-2: Broadcom BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n 
   vendor: Hewlett-Packard WMIB-275N Half-size Mini PCIe Card 
   driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 
   IF-ID-1: wlp3s0b1 state: up mac: <filter> 
 Drives:
   Local Storage: total: 57.84 GiB used: 11.81 GiB (20.4%) 
   ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST96812AS size: 55.9 GiB 
   ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: USB 2.0 Flash Disk size: 1.94 GiB 
 Partition:
   ID-1: / size: 26.3 GiB used: 11.05 GiB (42.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-2 
   mapped: system-root 
   ID-2: /home size: 27.58 GiB used: 574.7 MiB (2.0%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/dm-3 
   mapped: system-home 
   ID-3: /opt size: 26.3 GiB used: 11.05 GiB (42.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-2 
   mapped: system-root 
   ID-4: /var size: 26.3 GiB used: 11.05 GiB (42.0%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-2 
   mapped: system-root 
 Swap:
   ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 2 GiB used: 163.8 MiB (8.0%) dev: /dev/dm-1 
   mapped: system-swap 
 Sensors:
   System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 59.0 C 
   Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
 Info:
   Processes: 198 Uptime: N/A Memory: 1.7 GiB used: 912.3 MiB (52.3%) Init: systemd 
   runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: 2201 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 inxi: 3.3.03 
 

 

 


p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }

Would you happen to have a link for those extended instructions for 686 I may look into?

mrmazda · April 18, 2021, 12:39am

If you include the nomodeset workaround as a kernel command line option to start the installer, I would expect the cursor problem to be gone. There’s a bug about corrupt cursors that might be hitting your Atom HP laptop. If the nomodeset workaround works for installation, you will almost certainly not want to continue with it on the installed system. I don’t remember whether or not you can use the installer boot menu selection or function key to add nomodeset for an MBR installation, but if UEFI, it must be added via the E key to append it to the line beginning with linu (which usually line breaks).

Svyatko · April 19, 2021, 11:34pm

That bug is about nouveau driver.
You can set kernel parameter with UEFI in the same manner as with MBR.

Svyatko · April 20, 2021, 12:10am

ILL Atom machine is HP - Compaq Mini 311c with Intel Atom® Processor N270.
ILL HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC has Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400.
Change CPU in HP Compaq nc6400. Supposedly Socket M, try to use Core 2 (such as Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7600 - see manual for details).

Supposedly Intel GMA 950, which is bad. Try to install Leap with Core 2, not TW.

panorain · April 20, 2021, 2:03am

Hi all and thanks for the help so far. @mrmazda adding the nomodeset flag to the usb boot parameter did in fact help BIGTIME. I am now able to almost get through the entire installation which does take some time. Then at the end of installation (98% completion) I get an error message relating to GRUB2 to device failure to install due to Decompressor being to large. I have attached a screenshot taken by spectacle of the error here: ----> https://ibb.co/6Jh4t7C

I do know that my Gateway nc-6400 laptop does not have UEFI capability (The laptop that I am installing openSUSE TW on). When installation is finished and I reboot the laptop it gets stuck at a flashing cursor at a blank screen.

I am trying to understand what you all suggest I do but am not certain if I am following that well now at this point. Do you suggest I may want to start a new tread about this perhaps? I do thank you for the help so far because I am much further now than I was initially with the installation.

Thank You

panorain · April 20, 2021, 2:19am

inxi output:

inxi -Fxz

System:
Kernel: 5.11.2-1-default i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.1 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210307
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard
product: HP Compaq nc6400 (RC454AW#ABA) v: F.0B serial: <filter>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 30AD v: KBC Version 56.34
serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 68YCU Ver. F.0B
date: 09/05/2007
CPU:
Info: Dual Core model: Intel T2400 bits: 32 type: MCP arch: M Yonah
rev: 8 cache: L2: 2 MiB
flags: nx pae sse sse2 sse3 vmx bogomips: 7314
Speed: 997 MHz min/max: 1000/1833 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 997 2: 997
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: vesa
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo>
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.4
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.11.2-1-default running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2-rebootstrapped running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.22 running: no
Network:
Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5753M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: tg3 v: kernel port: 40d0
bus-ID: 08:00.0
IF: ens1 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s port: 40d0
bus-ID: 10:00.0
IF: wlp16s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: HP Bluetooth 2.0 Interface [Broadcom BCM2045] type: USB
driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-1:2
Report: This feature requires one of these tools: hciconfig/bt-adapter
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 154.72 GiB used: 506 MiB (0.3%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9160314AS size: 149.05 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: N/A size: 3.73 GiB
ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB model: USB 2.0 Flash Disk size: 1.94 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 2.76 GiB used: 466.4 MiB (16.5%) fs: overlay
source: ERR-102
Swap:
Alert: No Swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 38.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 176 Uptime: N/A Memory: 3.31 GiB used: 1.03 GiB (31.0%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: 1711
Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 inxi: 3.3.03

I was unable to add this inxi output information to my previous message due to 10 minutes passing.

Thank You

Svyatko · April 20, 2021, 12:39pm

Alert: No Swap data was found.

That’s bad.

Use # button for tags, enframe all output with them.

Do not use BTRFS, use ext4/XFS.

mrmazda · April 20, 2021, 12:48pm

# inxi -Cy
CPU:
  Info: Single Core model: Intel Pentium 4 bits: 64 type: MT cache: L2: 2 MiB
  Speed: 2993 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2993 2: 2993
# inxi -GSay
System:
  Host: gx151 Kernel: 5.10.16-1-default **i686 bits: 32** compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
  ...
  Desktop: KDE **Plasma 5.21.4** tk: Qt 5.15.2 **wm: kwin_x11** vt: 3 dm: startx
  Distro: **openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210418**
Graphics:
  Device-1: **Intel 82945G**/GZ Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell **driver: i915**
  **v: kernel** bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:2772 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: **X.Org** 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 **driver: loaded: intel**
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa display-ID: :1 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 444x277mm (17.5x10.9")
  s-diag: 523mm (20.6")
  Monitor-1: VGA1 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 91 size: 470x300mm (18.5x11.8")
  diag: 558mm (22")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945G x86/MMX/SSE2 v: 1.4 Mesa 21.0.2
  direct render: Yes

This is essentially the same IGP as panorain’s, in desktop form rather than laptop. Plasma starts up fine using the Intel DDX driver, but after a rather short while, it spontaneously aborts. Using the Modesetting DIX driver, Plasma startup doesn’t complete. Using DM instead of startx doesn’t help. IceWM session rather than Plasma completes, and stays completed. While the TW installation is 32bit, the CPU is actually a 64 bit Pentium 4 630, same basic family as a T2400, 65 nm lithography.

# cat .xsession-errors
/usr/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession: Checking whether an input method should be started.
sourcing /etc/sysconfig/language to get the value of INPUT_METHOD
INPUT_METHOD is not set or empty (no user selected input method).
Trying to start a default input method for the locale en_US.UTF-8 ...
There is no default input method for the current locale.
Dummy input method "none" (do not use any fancy input method by default)
gpg-connect-agent: no gpg-agent running in this session
gpg-connect-agent: no gpg-agent running in this session
xsettingsd: Loaded 0 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Created window 0x2800001 on screen 0 with timestamp 243581
xsettingsd: Selection _XSETTINGS_S0 is owned by 0x0
xsettingsd: Took ownership of selection _XSETTINGS_S0
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
xsettingsd: Reloading configuration
xsettingsd: Loaded 10 settings from /root/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf
[E][pipewire.c:335 add_interface()] can't get Spa:Pointer:Interface:Log interface -2
[E][pipewire.c:368 load_journal_logger()] can't get log interface -2
[E][pipewire.c:335 add_interface()] can't get Spa:Pointer:Interface:CPU interface -2
startkde: Starting up...
klauncher: Exiting on signal 1
X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown)

So, there’s obviously something wrong with this Plasma installation, but Xorg itself seems to be fine with the Intel DDX driver on i945G for desktop.

panorain, assuming this inxi is from a completed installation, vesa should not be the driver in use. If this was from a nomodeset boot, then ignore this. Again, if this is from an installed system, please install xdpyinfo before using inxi again, and if /var/log/Xorg.0.log exists do this:

susepaste /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If it does not exist, but ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.#.log exists, then do:

susepaste ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.#.log

Either way, provide the resulting URL here. I used # because the number might be something other than 0. If more than one such log exists, only the newest should be uploaded.

About that Grub error, I’m clueless ATM. Maybe a web search or a Bugzilla search can find something.

Svyatko · April 20, 2021, 12:57pm

KDE Plasma uses OpenGL 2.0 by default. Try to use XRender. Or turn off effects.
IMHO x86 architecture is untested in our days, use AMD64 instead.

panorain · April 20, 2021, 3:50pm

Hello, I was given a brief response about the GRUB2 error on the users@lists.opensuse.org forum listing.

“lzma_decompress.img in trustedgrub is 129MB. This is certainly too big to make any sense. Open bug report.” <-So I did file a bug report.

Sorry for using html code tags.

@mrmazda the “inxi -Fxz output” I pasted above is from the live boot installation session.

@Svyatko I am right now attempting to reinstall with the EXT4 filesystem and XFS home directory partition option with the “swap partition to memory option ticked”. I also enabled the “trusted boot” option once again this time.

Thanks for your helping.

awerlang · April 20, 2021, 6:33pm

From https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed:

         Please be aware of the following limitations of the live images:

They should not be used to install or upgrade Tumbleweed. Please use the Tumbleweed media instead

They have a limited package and driver selection, so cannot be considered an accurate reflection as to whether Tumbleweed will work on your hardware or not

mrmazda · April 20, 2021, 9:46pm

Please attach y2logs to your bug 1185023.

panorain · April 21, 2021, 3:10am

I attempted to retry installation with a live snapshot again earlier today and it became a little exasperating with the continued pauses during package downloading.

@awerlang So I downloaded and verified a Tumbleweed .iso from your suggestion here: -> https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed <- I selected the EXT4 filesystem with XFS filesystem selected for home partition. I used a wired connection to the modem this attempt also. Things began very slowly with receiving package information from the main repository but with 2 retries success. This time installing had no or holdups until at 98% GRUB2-Decompressor error.

@mrmazda I was able to attach the copy of y2logs in .tgz format to the bug report. Thanks for letting me know about this.

I also now have more files that I copied over from the attempted installation computer from /tmp and /var/log to usb with the following names: -> messages, hwinfo.log and dmesg.log but I did not attach them to the bug report as of yet only filed them here.

Are there any other suggestions or things maybe I could try at this point? I will power the computer off in a while but now I can still access /tmp after this failed installation attempt.

Ok thanks for your help again.

arvidjaar · April 21, 2021, 7:30am

Do not use trustedgrub2, use standard grub2 which does not have this issue.

panorain · April 22, 2021, 12:38am

@arvidjaar This sounds like great advice but I am not certain how to implement this into the installation yet. I will have to do some searching.

It looks like some work is being done with the bug report.

Thanks

awerlang · April 22, 2021, 3:47am

Assuming you can get past the GRUB error, if you got the Offline/DVD .iso image, then you can uncheck “use online repositories”, which is causing some delay in your installation. Setup repositories in YaST after installation.

arvidjaar · April 22, 2021, 7:41am

Bootloader configuration - Trusted Boot Support.

panorain · April 22, 2021, 6:01pm

I attempted installation again with “Trusted Boot Support” disabled (It is disabled by default). The OSS repository was having problems connecting so I ticked abort for that. Installation completed in full this time.

I was able to reboot the computer and then use YaST Software to enable the following repositories:

Version: Tumbleweed [http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/](http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/)Version: Tumbleweed http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/ 
Version: Tumbleweed [http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/](http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/)

Then in Konsole:

zypper dup

I am wondering whether or not to mark this post as solved now due to bug report still being active.

Thank You for all your helping with this.