I have rEFInd installed. I was able to install and boot Ubuntu 13.04 just fine. I was able to install openSUSE 12.3 just fine, even with my thunderbolt display connected to my new 27" thunderbolt display. I installed from a DVD that I burned from the iso I downloaded. During the install the external display was at a great resolution, everything was working great. However, upon install complete and it asking for a reboot, then rebooting, then selecting my new option in rEFInd for OpenSUSE I got the following…
It just stops, nothing further happens. It doesn’t matter if I have the display port plugged in or not, normal or single user mode selected in rEFInd or not. It doesn’t matter.
**I did notice that Ubuntu works using 3.8.0-19-generic (listed the rEFInd menu),openSUSE is using 3.7.10-1.1-desktop. Also, Ubuntu was using the following for the display driver… x.org x server - amd/ati display driver wrapper from xserver-xorg-video-ati
I really really want this to work as my main development platform. I wasn’t keen on all the Amazon **** in Ubuntu out the gate. So, Im willing to really get this working, but striking out big time with the google goose chase. It baffles me that this installs without a hitch and then gets stuck on boot for something that worked fine during the install. So if you can help that’s great!
I also noticed in the “Software” list for the install that there were proprietary drivers being installed. Most likely the broadcom wireless (although I was wired during install) and maybe an ati driver, but I would like to know at that point in time what specifically was being installed and or how to get that list once this boots up.
Does using rEFInd allow you to see the GRUB2 menu? or is that all just obfusicated by it? (the normal or single user mode selections are from the rEFInd menu, so I’m guessing that you never see the GRUB menu … which might make things a little more difficult.
4.152659] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
4.157406] [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting.
4.158996] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled. 4.160393] fb: conflicting fb hw usage radeondrmfb vs EFI VGA - removing generic driver
Actually, the bolded line isn’t a problem at all, but is normal and expected behaviour – the kernel starts and the console framebuffer is set up using (for EFI based devices) the efifb driver, which, in turn, is replaced a very short while afterwards, by the slightly later loading kernel DRM/KMS driver for the graphics adapter (which, in this example, would be the “radeon” DRM/KMS kernel driver, and “radeondrmfb” is simply the framebuffer driver that is integrated (and inseparablely located) within that DRM driver).
The fact that things freeze after this point, however, is indicative that there is a problem with the DRM driver. What it is I don’t know – but I note that there is another issue at play here too: this is a fairly recent vintatge MacBook; meaning it would be Intel driven, and likely has Sandy Bridge graphics adapter. i.e. hybrid graphics is at play. … and the intel adapter has its own DRM/KMS driver too.
I did notice that Ubuntu works using 3.8.0-19-generic (listed the rEFInd menu),openSUSE is using 3.7.10-1.1-desktop.
A newer kernel means newer DRM drivers
Also, Ubuntu was using the following for the display driver… x.org x server - amd/ati display driver wrapper from xserver-xorg-video-ati
That’s the userspace xorg driver for the AMD adapter — your problem occurs before X is even an issue.
Perhaps the Ubuntu install simply has the intel DRM driver blacklisted on kernel boot (note: blacklisting will not prevent it from loading once starts up; just on boot) … this is, assuming that the issue lies in which adapter is being initiated to drive the laptop’s own display panel.
It baffles me that this installs without a hitch and then gets stuck on boot for something that worked fine during the install.
the mechanism that is used during booting the installation disc (and the simple graphics envirnoment it creates) is different then what you use post install. If you are able to use/select the GRUB2’s recovery boot option, you should be able boot using the exact same mechanism/environment as that which was done on installation.
I also noticed in the “Software” list for the install that there were proprietary drivers being installed. Most likely the broadcom wireless (although I was wired during install) and maybe an ati driver, but I would like to know at that point in time what specifically was being installed and or how to get that list once this boots up
Well, the prop. ati drivers do NOT get installed at installation. Possibly wireless drivers, or perhaps it was non-OSS fonts or something like that. In any regard, this is a completely separate issue, and you shouldn’t mix this with your graphics issue (start a new thread about it if you want). I will, however, mention that you should be able to review the installation history using Yast Software Mgmt (Under Extra > Show History).
arvidjaar and Tyler,
I never see GRUB2. However, while selecting openSUSE in rEFInd and pressing F2, then selecting F2 again when presented with the two boot choices I can then edit a line of text, not sure what exactly it is, but, I appended nomodeset to the end of that line. I now get this screenshot (I hope a screenshot is ok, its too much to type). Where all the dots are it takes a long time before it gets to the line that follows those dots. Then, it doesn’t matter if I press Y or N, nothing happens.
Also, the following are my partitions. I don’t know why its unable to fail back to 6, thats where openSUSE got installed. However, it seems to have problems before that anyway otherwise it wouldn’t need to ask? FYI - initially Ubuntu created 5,6,7 below (and probably 4 as well). During the openSUSE install I deleted and recreated 6 and 7. I told it to not reformat 5. I think 6 and 7 were swapped in Ubuntu. I also shrunk 5 by 30GB and gave it to 6. All of that worked of course like I said because it was able to install. EDIT - also, this is with everything unplugged, Hitachi is the HD in my laptop, the only one.
sda1 = efi boot
2 = osx recovery
3 = osx
4 = 1MB partition…not sure what it does (GRUB?)
5 = /home
6 = /
7 = swap
I assume that you are using grub2 in openSUSE, in which case configuration file is /boot/grub2/grub.cfg on openSUSE partition. You can boot from live CD, Ubuntu or whatever and simply edit this file. Boot options look like
menuentry title ... {
...
linux /boot/vmlinuz-x.y.z arg1 arg2 ...
initrd /boot/initrd-x.y.z
}
Just add nomodeset at the end of linux line. In case of secure boot it will be linuxefi.
I just don’t know about rEFInd (I mean, I know what it is, but I just don’t know anything about its workings), so, for me, its just adding a layer of abstraction. Meaning I have no idea what exactly your edit changed (nor can I envision whether where you might have made a mistake)…but you likely did something that it didn’t like rotfl! … If we were dealing straight with GRUB, then it would be a different story …
Can you go into the EFI and disable the Intel graphics adapter?
I tried doing this, but then I still get the same output as my original post, as if modereset is still enabled. Im not really sure where exactly to make this change.
Anyway, for sda6 I have /boot/grub…and grub2 and grub2-efi…making the nomodeset edit in all of these doesnt help. For sda5 (root for Ubuntu, still boots) all I have is grub (no 2 or efi,…not that it really matters for this partition). Is there some other place I need to set the nomodeset?
I think refind just scans the partitions for anything beginning with vmlinuz and lists them as options in the menu, Im not sure what happens after that, as in what config file etc is used. I cant seem to find out where the actual rEFInd config file is for the partition that had opensuse installed on it, sda6. On sda2 (OSX) there is /EFI/refind/refind.conf from when I installed refind on osx. But, it just lists “examples” in that file and a few switches. This layer of abstraction is confusing for sure, I wish I could just go straight to Grub, but I think refind is needed on this macbook, thats how sda1 (/EFI) gets OSX to load in the first place, even before I installed refind. I dont know what to do.
In this case you will probably have more luck on rEFInd list.
I wish I could just go straight to Grub, but I think refind is needed on this macbook, thats how sda1 (/EFI) gets OSX to load in the first place, even before I installed refind. I dont know what to do.
I have older Macbook and I did install 12.3 directly using grub2 as bootloader. I had to bless it using OS X (I think I ended up blessing the whole ESP by mistake) so it appeared in firmware boot menu, but that was it.
Progress…Im able to now get to the text based yast2 installer, which seems to want to finish up installing openSUSE…I power down at this point. The following is what I did, but, I still need to get the GUI working vs text.
With rEFInd, pressing F2 on one of the boot options and then F2 again allows you to edit the boot parameters (the entire line below with the bold text). So when I spoke about it above that is what it was doing, but, I wasn’t making the correct edit. So, I noticed in my screenshot that I linked to above, the text on the last line where it asks to “fail back” or something refers to the Hitachi drive with a number much longer than what was (bolded below) being used by rEFInd (looks like you shouldn’t trust rEFInd auto scan!!!). I simply appended the missing numbers along with nomodeset and bam, it worked (well, without a GUI anyway). Also, I got “OK” on all the feedback during boot except it being unable to located/load the swap partition.
While in the text based installer of Yast2 I see options for “Help” extra with the letter H bolded, but, how do I select that (TAB or SHIFT+TAB or SHIFT+H dont work)?
Im trying to create the manual entry for this in rEFInd, not having the greatest of luck though.
The error message I get when yast2 starts up is…
Graphical interface could not be started. Either the required packages were not installed or the graphics card is not properly supported.
I kind of suspected that you had simply appended the option right in the middle of a wrapped line
I simply appended the missing numbers along with nomodeset and bam, it worked (well, without a GUI anyway). Also, I got “OK” on all the feedback during boot except it being unable to located/load the swap partition.
ro root=dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS727575A9E362_J3640094GB1GVE-part6 initrd=boot\initrd-3.7.10-1.1-desktop nomodeset
umm, this looks to me like you’re appending to the initrd line, as opposed to the linux kernel line … but there seems to be some sort of effect anyway
Graphical interface could not be started. Either the required packages were not installed or the graphics card is not properly supported.
(again, I’m assuming (and you should confirm) that this system is using hybrid graphics - an integrated intel gpu and a discrete amd gpu … by the way, did you attempt to turn off the gpu via the efi (I said earlier to turn off the intel, but you could do either)? … if you do, remove the nomodeset option and try again
using nomodeset was just an attempt to get you back into X using a simple generic xorg driver.
I think the problem is that X is borking – because you’ve used the nomodeset, the DRM/KMS drivers can’t work during boot (you’d get the EFI GOP and then just the efifb during the entire kernel boot). Once X tries to start up, the intel and radeon drivers (both the xorg and kernel drivers) will attempt to load, but they only support KMS, so (because of the earlier nomodeset directive) they fail, but not gracefully, and the X server crashes, and so you never even end up getting a basic X environment (driven by the generic fbdev xorg driver) … and all you are left with is console, through which the yast ncurses can be driven … that’s my best guess at the moment
If you are referring to uncommenting “textonly” in refind.conf and leaving the “use_graphics_for” line commented out (by default) in the same file then yes, I have disabled the GPU. If there is a different way let me know.
DOH! I think you mean by CMD+OPTION+O+F…never done that on the mac, used “del” or F11 plenty on PC’s over the years. Will get back to you.
CMD+OPTION+O+F does nothing (probably because its for older macs). I did google disabling the gpu via efi/macbook pro, but damm it was it wayyyy too intrusive, I cant afford to have the OSX partition go down or be stuck in in a console for days on end.
Most likely the broadcom wireless (although I was wired during install) and maybe an ati driver, but I would like to know at that point in time what specifically was being installed and or how to get that list once this boots up.
Most likely the broadcom wireless (although I was wired during install) and maybe an ati driver, but I would like to know at that point in time what specifically was being installed and or how to get that list once this boots up