Need help installing

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I have a Supermicro X10SAT, Xeon E3-1276 v3, 32GB ECC
and several SDD and HDD attached. hda is formatted GPT and has rEFInd in the GPT-SP, Linux mint installed in one of the partitions, and other stuff.

I want to install openSUSE in a newly created sda6, with /home in a newly created sda4, and the dedicated sde is the swap drive.

My first attempt, rEFInd did not see the new system.

I tried again and could not figure out how to specify a grub partition, even though it complains that I didn’t. The “edit” allows for mount points but doesn’t say anything about specifying the grub partition.

Then I read in an article here that the EFI boot install requires booting the DVD in UEFI mode. Sure enough, I found an entry for that on the boot menu, and get a different start-up screen.

But it gets stuck after “Loading initial ramdisk…”.

(In the other boot mode, I ran “verify media” and it checks).

If there is something wrong with my system that gets stuck at booting, is there a way to see the boot log from this step?

2

Do not use ANY Linux boot helpers. The openSUSE ISOs are ready to use without modification just do a binary copy to device (not a partition on the device)

Complete instructions here

https://en.opensuse.org/Live_USB_stick

3

As I understand his description (not his explicit mentioning), he is using a DVD, not an USB mass storage device.

4

He mentioned rEFInd which is a boot helper I think. But it is not really clear what he was trying. Seems like he tried random instruction from the web rather than follow openSUSE install instruction

5

On 2015-08-22 17:26, JDlugosz wrote:

> My first attempt, rEFInd did not see the new system.

:-?

Ah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REFInd

rEFInd is a boot menu and maintenance toolkit for
UEFI-based machines like all new PCs and Intel Macs.
It can be used to boot multiple operating systems.
It also provides a way to enter and explore the
EFI pre-boot environment.[1]

rEFInd is the active fork of the now-abandoned rEFIt.

> Then I read in an article here that the EFI boot install requires
> booting the DVD in UEFI mode. Sure enough, I found an entry for that on
> the boot menu, and get a different start-up screen.
>
> But it gets stuck after “Loading initial ramdisk…”.

I take it that what you are trying to boot is the unmodified openSUSE
installation DVD? Not your hard disk or partitions on it?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

6

It is indeed rather difficult to understand what people are doing. Specialy when they assume that the rest of the world does do the things the same way they are trying. :frowning:

But, as we like it to help, we will find out.

Please JDlugosz, try to describe a bit more elaborate what you are doing, like:

  • what is the installation medium you prepared?
  • how did you put the downloaded ISO on it?
  • could you boot from it?
  • etc.
7

I am pretty sure he just booted from a regular ISO download burned to DVD; the installer has two options: UEFI and non-UEFI as I recall correctly. At first he booted and installed the regular one, but in the end ran into troubles because the install had not prepared a special partition for the EFI which is needed for booting it. So considering that even the DVD that you install from has to be EFI enabled, he retried the install using the EFI option, but it fails to load completely. He cannot install using that mode currently, and asks whether something is wrong with his computer or with planet earth his side of the moon :D.

8

if so then most common problem is graphic drivers.

At installer boot press e find line linux= got to true end of the line (it wraps) add space and nomodeset then F10 to continue I believe (should be a prompt) This will attempt to boot with generic video derives.

If that does not work need know knew the video details. Also note that if install was made in legacy mode things are a bit of a mess since now we would have both MBR and EFI booting. Sometimes this can be made to work as hybrid boot but it highly depends on the quality of the EFI. In any case it can confuse things

Also check the iso check sums and if possible run the media check. if the problem is graphics though media check probably won’t run.

9

Yes, that was how I read the OP.

There’s a puzzle with the failing to boot. Apart from the technicality of getting the kernel and “initrd” into memory, booting should be about the same either way. The only difference is in the firmware calls (BIOS calls) used.

The most likely possibility seems to be graphic card problems (already mentioned by gogalthorp). But he should have had those also with the legacy style of booting. Maybe he used the functions (F3, I think) to change that with legacy booting, but did not know how to do the equivalent with UEFI booting (the function keys are not available). Unfortunately, he didn’t tell us anything about that, so we are left trying to guess.

10

On 2015-08-22 22:06, gogalthorp wrote:
> Also check the iso check sums and if possible run the media check.

That’s one thing we know he did :wink:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

11

I have a Supermicro X10SAT, Xeon E3-1276 v3, 32GB ECC

You understand that part, right?

and several SDD and HDD attached.
sda is formatted GPT and has rEFInd in the GPT-SP, Linux mint installed in one of the partitions, and other stuff.

  • there are several SATA drives.
  • of interest is sda, which I’ll elaborate on.

This machine already has partitions with stuff (running OS and data) on it.

  • GPT format
  • rEFInd in the special GPT System Partition, to provide for multi booting of the various partitions.
  • Linux mint installed in one of the partitions.
  • Clonezilla, data partitions, room for other distros…

I want to install openSUSE in a newly created sda6, with /home in a newly created sda4, and the dedicated sde is the swap drive.

I don’t want to wipe out the drive and everything on it. I want to install openSUSE specifically in the partition sda6 and sda4. Those are partitions on sda which also has other stuff on it: you really can’t follow this? It sounds detailed and specific to me, so help me out here if something doesn’t scan.

My first attempt, rEFInd did not see the new system.

I put in the DVD and let it boot. As I later learned, it booted in legacy mode, and gave the fancy welcome graphic with the options keys noted at the bottom. I let it run the install, and told it where to put root, home, and left out swap since it wouldn’t let me specify sde or sde1. I have 32GB RAM so swap isn’t a problem.

Upon rebooting, the EFI menu did not show a new option for openSUSE or anything in sda6.

I tried again and could not figure out how to specify a grub partition, even though it complains that I didn’t. The “edit” allows for mount points but doesn’t say anything about specifying the grub partition.

I tried again, but could not find a way to specify the grub partition. It complains that it wants one, but I could find no way to specify it.

Then I read in an article here that the EFI boot install requires booting the DVD in UEFI mode. Sure enough, I found an entry for that on the boot menu, and get a different start-up screen.

But it gets stuck after “Loading initial ramdisk…”.

Booting the DVD in UEFI mode, I get a different, plain, menu. Whether I pick Install or Check Media, it gets stuck and won’t boot. In later experiments I found that even if I remove all the drives from the system (other than the DVD), unplug everything except one keyboard and trackball, and pull a add-on USB3 port PCIe card, I cannot boot the DVD in UEFI mode.

(In the other boot mode, I ran “verify media” and it checks).

In legacy boot mode, the image runs and it passes the media check. So it’s not a corrupted DVD.

If there is something wrong with my system that gets stuck at booting, is there a way to see the boot log from this step?

“Gets stuck” is not very diagnostic. Booting Linux often shows a log on the console as to what it’s doing, such as errors, timeouts, crashes, etc. If I could see that I might tell where it is stopping, on some kind of error or timeout loop. Though that this point since I’ve already pulled everything except the video card, it would not be helpful.

12

On 2015-08-25 14:16, JDlugosz wrote:

Thanks for the extended explanations. Now things are clear.

> I put in the DVD and let it boot. As I later learned, it booted in
> legacy mode, and gave the fancy welcome graphic with the options keys

>
> Upon rebooting, the EFI menu did not show a new option for openSUSE or
> anything in sda6.

Yes, because it was installed in legacy mode. It might have even
overwrote your MBR with Grub.

>> I tried again and could not figure out how to specify a grub partition,
>> even though it complains that I didn’t. The “edit” allows for mount
>> points but doesn’t say anything about specifying the grub partition.
>>
>
> I tried again, but could not find a way to specify the grub partition.
> It complains that it wants one, but I could find no way to specify it.

Grub doesn’t use a partition, so it is not in that section :slight_smile:

> Booting the DVD in UEFI mode, I get a different, plain, menu. Whether I
> pick Install or Check Media, it gets stuck and won’t boot. In later
> experiments I found that even if I remove all the drives from the system
> (other than the DVD), unplug everything except one keyboard and
> trackball, and pull a add-on USB3 port PCIe card, I cannot boot the DVD
> in UEFI mode.

You are selecting to boot the DVD from rEFInd?
Try to boot it instead from the BIOS/UEFI selection menu.

> “Gets stuck” is not very diagnostic. Booting Linux often shows a log on
> the console as to what it’s doing, such as errors, timeouts, crashes,
> etc. If I could see that I might tell where it is stopping, on some
> kind of error or timeout loop. Though that this point since I’ve
> already pulled everything except the video card, it would not be
> helpful.

If it crashes before it finishes loading initrd, it can do about
nothing. The kernel is not yet running, thus no logs, nothing.

One possibility is video problem. What video hardware do you have?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

13

I have an NVIDIA 970 graphics card.

I think that’s part of the problem I have trying to boot things now: the desire to use a fancy splash screen instead of staying in text mode gives a blank screen instead of useful information.

When I got open SUSE installed on a ssd by itself, after several tries I figured out that it’s grub2 blanking the screen. I got it to work by specifying “text” in the boot options menu when installing.

14

Okay.

When you get to that UEFI boot screen (for the DVD), hit the ‘e’ key.

That allows you to edit the boot line.

Scroll down until you find a line beginning with “linux” (or, actually, “linuxefi”).

Scroll to the end of that line, and append " nomodeset".

Continue booting (a notation on the screen will tell you how).

That should get you to the installer using different graphics support that should still work with nvidia. The graphics won’t be the best in quality, but you can add a nvidia driver later.

15

I believe you have already solved your problem by now?..?.