My husband will be installing a new motherboard in my SuSE 11.2 computer. I don’t know what to expect:
Will SuSE 11.2 just go on as usual, or will it “freak out” and then I would have to re-install the system? What has been your experience?
There are not problems with motherboards
Check that Asus Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard Review | bit-tech.net
Or wait Amd’s Buldoser processors and new motherboards with socket AM3+.
The system will most definitely run, but you will need do to some fixes afterwards.
• You will most probably have another network card, so your network settings need the respective adjustments
• Same with the sound card
• In some cases also the graphic card driver needs to be reinstalled (when using an internal NVidia / ATI-card)
…beside that, the system will work as before.
Note that SuSE 11.2 will only be supported for two more months, so you should plan an upgrade soon.
gropiuskalle wrote:
> The system will most definitely run, but you will need do to some fixes
> afterwards.
Everybody’s being very optimistic, so let me redress the balance 
Firstly, we haven’t even been told that the new motherboard is the same
word length as the current one (64 bit vs 32 bit), so we don’t know
enough to even say that the code will execute at all!
Secondly, there are problems with specific devices (chips) so depending
on exactly what motherboard is used, you may find that something doesn’t
work. As well as the network, audio and graphics that gropiuskalle
mentioned, some recent chipsets have problems with some disks.
Generally, it takes linux a little while to catch up after new hardware
is introduced.
If you have enough disk, I would probably do a fresh install of 11.4 to
a different partition, and then copy your data across. That gives you
the best chance of hardware compatibility and gets you around the 11.2
end-of-life issue. If you don’t have enough disk, I would buy another disk!
Cheers, Dave
Very unlikely… unless you replace a 64bit MB+CPU (on which a 64bit system is installed) with a 32bit machine, but it’s very unlikely since you won’t find a 32bit MB and CPU that easily.
Of course, you shoudn’t buy the latest mainboard, which was just released a week ago. Network, sound, graphics issues are easy to fix if you/he knows howto.
-
But you should find out what kind of hard disk(s) you have (IDE or SATA) before replacing the mainboard. If it’s an IDE, you might not even be able to use your hard disk on the new mainboard anymore. In that case, you might consider to wait until the mainboard is broken to replace it … or buy new hard disks.
-
Check which kind of RAM you have. It would probably be DDR2. They are always less and less mainboards which can use it. You cannot use DDR2 RAM on a mainboard built for DDR3. Some AMD mainboards can use both (either or, not mixed!) but they are getting pretty rare, I guess.
Sometimes, you start buying a mainboard … and you end up buying RAM, CPU and hard disk as well. 
- Maybe we can assume that your husband knows what he’s doing (?)
What does Module ata_piix not found mean?
Error running install command for ata_piix
could not find /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3700418AS_9VMDSCCQ-part1.
Then it asks if we want to fall back to /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3700418AS_9VMDSCCQ-part1 and we hit y but it still can’t find anything.
:’(
Yes the motherboard was set up for 64 bit and my SUSE 11.2 is 32 bit.
Processor: Intel core 2 quad 2.66ghz
Motherboard: Ausu P5N-D
And, no, we don’t have much experience with Linux.
I just saw my typo, lol: the motherboard is Asus not Ausu
btw, I have the hard drive set up with two partitions: one with the SuSE 11.2 system (20 GB) and the rest was used for /home. I can install 11.4 over top of the 11.2 (replacing it) right?
But it won’t even boot! I can’t get to YaST and I don’t know the commands (I guess it’s still in init3). X won’t even start.
I do get the boot screen to choose my kernel but right after that is when I get that fatal error message.
I do not know this area very well and while I would try to fix my own system I am reluctant to give advice that may damage your system. Hopefully someone else will provide some advice.
It is probably worth while downloading the opensuse 11.2 live cd. I personally would go for 11.2 as it is the same level as your system. Boot the CD which should work and you should be able to see your hard disk. If you really can’t boot from your hard disk you may need the CD to fix your old system
I assume that you have tried the failsafe boot option
That’s OK. The opposite is not possible: 64bit Linux on 32bit hardware.
Please, tell us what you did exactly and what you intend to do.
Try to boot with an 11.4 Live CD and tell us what happens.
Yes you can, and to be perfectly honest, that is what I would do were it me in your position
Sometimes it’s quicker to install again from scratch than fix a situation like yours … even when you know your way around fixing such things
You don’t say whether you have any stuff set up which took you a while to do, like a web or mailserver, but even if you do it’s not difficult to back up config files for things like that before you start, a live cd would help if you need to do that
Best of luck whatever you decide to do
gymnart wrote:
> What does Module ata_piix not found mean?
> Error running install command for ata_piix
> could not find /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3700418AS_9VMDSCCQ-part1.
> Then it asks if we want to fall back to
> /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3700418AS_9VMDSCCQ-part1 and we hit y but it still
> can’t find anything.
Are you sure you typed that id correctly? I can’t find ST3700418AS
anywhere on the web. It should be a Seagate SATA drive but that model
number doesn’t exist, according to the Seagate product finder.
> Yes the motherboard was set up for 64 bit and my SUSE 11.2 is 32 bit.
That would be OK. Not a problem.
> Processor: Intel core 2 quad 2.66ghz
> Motherboard: Ausu P5N-D
>
> And, no, we don’t have much experience with Linux.
I don’t know anything about this motherboard personally, but a quick
google found this <http://www.linuxtested.com/results/asus_p5n-d.html>
which claims that 10.3 should work, so 11.2 should also work.
gymnart wrote:
> I just saw my typo, lol: the motherboard is Asus not Ausu
>
> btw, I have the hard drive set up with two partitions: one with the
> SuSE 11.2 system (20 GB) and the rest was used for /home. I can install
> 11.4 over top of the 11.2 (replacing it) right?
You can. If you have spare space on the disk, you could probably also
reclaim some for a new partition to use for 11.4 if you wish.
The first thing to do now is to try the live CD, as has been suggested.
It should all be working so it’s best to try to find out why it isn’t
before overwriting things
The failsafe boot only gives a text screen.
We did try the 11.2 CD’s repair tool. After it rebuilt the package database and the boot loader, the system still would not boot. It still couldn’t find the boot loader and gives a grub error 17. I’m thinking that SuSE 11.2 is “toast” now.
I’m thinking that I might go for trying to install 11.4 as was advised, and I hope I can get it installed on the right drive and partition.
ok, I’m back up now. I did have to install the driver for the new graphics card after all. But, I now have this strange problem:
Grub seems to be installed on my OLD Suse 10.0’s hard drive [the WDC WD800JB-00CR (ATA) Hard Disk] which is so weird because my SuSE 11.2 system is installed on my ST3500418AS (ATA) Hard Disk. My secondary HD (for storage) is the same as the system disk (ST3500418AS (ATA) disk)
This is the ST hard drive btw: Seagate ST3500418AS Barracuda 7200.12 Hard Drive - 3.5, 7200 RPM, SATA 3G, 500GB, 16MB Cache (OEM) at TigerDirect.com )
How could simply replacing your motherboard make your boot loader suddenly lose itself? I guess that the repair tool did something? Why would it have written the boot loader on the wrong hard drive? We told it that the drive that contains SuSE 11.2 was the default system.
Oh yeah, the repair tool also rebuilt my package database. I haven’t tried YaST for software yet but I’m hoping that it will still function ok and that I can find the repos!
This is what happens when I boot my system:
Grub fails to load (trying to boot from the default HD, which is the Seagate) and gives an error 17
Then I have to try again but this time, I have to hit F8 and go into the boot order screen and choose the old WD800JB-00CR (ATA) Hard Disk
Tah Dah! system boots! All SuSE 11.2’s system, software, etc are in place (showing up on the ST3500418AS (ATA) disk)
The WD800JB-00CR (ATA) Hard Disk has gotten kinda old and I’m concerned about it working properly in the near future plus, I shouldn’t have to boot my system this way.
Can you move Grub’s boot loader info? Or would this cause more problems for a complete novice like me?
Replacing your motherboard is far from simple… Case in point would be to try it with Windows 
You need to make sure you have put your hard drives back in the same sequence as in your old pc. I.E. Disk 1 in plug 1 and disk 2 in plug 2. I think we can assume this didn’t happen since you said Grub went missing. You should swap the cables of the hard drives. That should bring Grub back.
By default your motherboard will boot from whatever hard drive is plugged into the lowest plug number.
I am leaving the rest of your questions up to the more experienced members of this forum. Moving Grub is to much for me but have a look around the forums. I’m sure someone else has been in the same situation
Would you mind telling us if there are other hard disks as well? Also you said that your husban replaced the motherboard. Does it mean that he did the following:
- power off the computer
- open the case
- remove extension cards if any
- remove the RAM
- unplug all cables and leds from the motherboard
- remove the CPU fan and the CPU (!)
- unscrew the motherboard
- remove the old motherboard’s backplate
- insert the backplate shipped with the new motherboard
- position the new mainboard in the case (which might have holes lined up differently)
- tighten the screws
- insert the CPU back but clean up the surface and put a thin layer of thermal paste on it (!)
- mount the CPU fan
- insert RAM
- connect the ATX connector(s), hard disks and other drives data and power cables, power switch, reset, speaker and other leds
- Of course plug the hard disks as they were before (like IDE master/slave or SATA1/2 or 0/1 depending on motherboards)
- close the case
- power on the computer (I would actually try that before closing the case)
- call BIOS setup and adjust settings including boot order and AHCI mode (!)
- boot the installed or a live system
I’m just asking to make sure you/he did it properly …
Yep! …
Yes, he did all that. He wrote down the plug order too and showed that to me.
So, I looked around and I saw that Grub is still there on my SATA drive but somehow it is pointing to my IDE drive rather than my SATA drive. The SATA drive is the one that has the SuSE 11.2 system.
Is there a way to tell Grub to point to the correct drive?
Anyway, this is the result of “hwinfo --disk” so you can see what drives I have hooked up:
43: IDE 300.0: 10600 Disk
[Created at block.243]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_ST3500418AS_9VM3S4B6
Unique ID: 3OOL.bhfeFxy9EQ0
Parent ID: _+Pw.hHkmxY5hVpF
SysFS ID: /class/block/sda
SysFS BusID: 3:0:0:0
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0f.0/host3/target3:0:0/3:0:0:0
Hardware Class: disk
Model: "ST3500418AS"
Device: "ST3500418AS"
Revision: "CC37"
Serial ID: "9VM3S4B6"
Driver: "sata_nv", "sd"
Driver Modules: "sata_nv"
Device File: /dev/sda
Device Files: /dev/sda, /dev/block/8:0, /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500418AS_9VM3S4B6, /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_9VM3S4B6, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:0f.0-scsi-0:0:0:0, /dev/disk/by-id/edd-int13_dev81
Device Number: block 8:0-8:15
BIOS id: 0x81
Geometry (Logical): CHS 60801/255/63
Size: 976773168 sectors a 512 bytes
Geometry (BIOS EDD): CHS 969021/16/63
Size (BIOS EDD): 976773168 sectors
Geometry (BIOS Legacy): CHS 1023/255/63
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #29 (IDE interface)
45: IDE 400.0: 10600 Disk
[Created at block.243]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_ST3500418AS_9VMDSCCQ
Unique ID: _kuT.9bcGVo4obC8
Parent ID: _+Pw.hHkmxY5hVpF
SysFS ID: /class/block/sdc
SysFS BusID: 4:0:0:0
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0f.0/host4/target4:0:0/4:0:0:0
Hardware Class: disk
Model: "ST3500418AS"
Device: "ST3500418AS"
Revision: "CC38"
Serial ID: "9VMDSCCQ"
Driver: "sata_nv", "sd"
Driver Modules: "sata_nv"
Device File: /dev/sdc
Device Files: /dev/sdc, /dev/block/8:32, /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500418AS_9VMDSCCQ, /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3500418AS_9VMDSCCQ, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:0f.0-scsi-1:0:0:0, /dev/disk/by-id/edd-int13_dev82
Device Number: block 8:32-8:47
BIOS id: 0x82
Geometry (Logical): CHS 60801/255/63
Size: 976773168 sectors a 512 bytes
Geometry (BIOS EDD): CHS 969021/16/63
Size (BIOS EDD): 976773168 sectors
Geometry (BIOS Legacy): CHS 1023/255/63
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #29 (IDE interface)
46: IDE 500.0: 10600 Disk
[Created at block.243]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_WDC_WD800JB_00CRA1_WD_WMA8E3520925
Unique ID: Rw8Y.QbrlS95LggD
Parent ID: qnJ_.kOf6HnwGAe2
SysFS ID: /class/block/sdd
SysFS BusID: 5:0:0:0
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/host5/target5:0:0/5:0:0:0
Hardware Class: disk
Model: "WDC WD800JB-00CR"
Vendor: "WDC"
Device: "WD800JB-00CR"
Revision: "17.0"
Serial ID: "WD-WMA8E3520925"
Driver: "pata_amd", "sd"
Driver Modules: "pata_amd"
Device File: /dev/sdd
Device Files: /dev/sdd, /dev/block/8:48, /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800JB-00CRA1_WD-WMA8E3520925, /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD800JB-00CWD-WMA8E3520925, /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:0d.0-scsi-0:0:0:0, /dev/disk/by-id/edd-int13_dev80
Device Number: block 8:48-8:63
BIOS id: 0x80
Geometry (Logical): CHS 9729/255/63
Size: 156301488 sectors a 512 bytes
Geometry (BIOS EDD): CHS 155061/16/63
Size (BIOS EDD): 156301488 sectors
Geometry (BIOS Legacy): CHS 1023/255/63
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #27 (IDE interface)