OpenSUSE 13.2 network install crashes during boot.

I just tried to do a fresh install of openSUSE 13.2 on an available partition. I have an install of 13.1 on this machine currently and it works alright. I downloaded the network install CD iso image and then I rebooted the computer and got into the grub command line. I found some code on this forum and this is basically how it went.

set isofile=/openSUSE-13.2-NET-i586.iso
set root=(hd0,6)
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/boot/i386/loader/linux install=hd:$isofile
initrd (loop)boot/i386/loader/initrd

It seems to find the files and start booting alright. Some text scrolls across the screen in 640x480 resolution or something and the last line that I read is

unpacking initramfs

After that the system reboots and brings me back to the grub goot selections.

Can someone give me any clues about what is happening?

I tested it with grub2 from 13.2 and it works; I had not 32 bit image available, so I used 64 bit. Note that Net install CD cannot be used as installation source - you must point to the network.

Thank you for trying this out. It’s interesting that the same code works for you. Yes, I know that I have to connect to the network, but I never got that far. Previously, when I’ve done net installs, it asks for a network connection, or even an ip address, but not until a minimal operating system has loaded. This boot didn’t last more than about ten seconds before it aborted.

Could this have anything to do with the age of my computer? This is a desktop that I bought in 2006. It’s a dell with a 1.6 GHz Dual-core 2140 Pentium processor.

Also, what does this do?

install=hd:$isofile

I’ve looked through the various Grub2 commands, but I don’t see anything about this.

It is not quite the same. I use different version of bootloader (although I would be surprised it mattered) and different build of openSUSE.

Could this have anything to do with the age of my computer? This is a desktop that I bought in 2006. It’s a dell with a 1.6 GHz Dual-core 2140 Pentium processor.

Could you paste “cat /proc/cpuinfo”? I believe there was some discussion that recent openSUSE raises the bar for supported CPUs.

Also, what does this do?

install=hd:$isofile

I’ve looked through the various Grub2 commands, but I don’t see anything about this.

Kernel options are interpreted by kernel (or programs started by kernel). They are not related to grub in any way.

Here is the cpu info


cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 15
model name    : Genuine Intel(R) CPU            2140  @ 1.60GHz
stepping    : 2
microcode    : 0x56
cpu MHz        : 1200.000
cache size    : 1024 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 0
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 0
initial apicid    : 0
fdiv_bug    : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 10
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm
bogomips    : 3192.11
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor    : 1
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 15
model name    : Genuine Intel(R) CPU            2140  @ 1.60GHz
stepping    : 2
microcode    : 0x56
cpu MHz        : 1200.000
cache size    : 1024 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 1
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 1
initial apicid    : 1
fdiv_bug    : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 10
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm
bogomips    : 3192.11
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:


When I have a chance, I am going to try booting from the ISO for openSUSE 13.1. I did it a year ago and I was able to install that way, but I am going to try it again and see if works.

There were problems with ruby and Qt5 requiring SSE2 even on 32bit systems, upto 13.2 RC1 (I think). This made YaST crash on 32bit CPUs without SSE2 support (older AMDs in particular, everything before the Athlon64).

But those problems have been solved in time for the 13.2 release.

ImageMagick had the same issue, a fix for that was released as update to 13.2.

So I downloaded openSUSE-13.1-NET-i586.iso and I got it to work. I have both iso’s in my home directory now, and I have tried them both side by side. openSUSE-13.1 will boot, but openSUSE-13.2 will not. When the computer starts booting, I get into the grub command line and type the following.

ls (hd0,7)/adam/

This shows the filenames, so I can spell them correctly. Then

set isofile=/adam/openSUSE-13.1-NET-i586.iso
set root=(hd0,9)
loopback loop (hd0,7)$isofile
linux (loop)/boot/i386/loader/linux
initrd (loop)/boot/i386/loader/initrd
boot

This boots up fine. When I get to the main menu I select reboot instead of install. I want to install 13.2 to the partition, not 13.1.

When I use openSUSE-13.2-NET-iso it starts to boot up, but it gets to unpacking initramfs and then reboots. I can read the messages on the sreen in 640x480, but it never gets as far as resetting the screen resolution.

Why would openSUSE 13.1 work, but not openSUSE 13.2?

No idea at the moment. How much memory do you have?

But you can simply duplicate your current system and update it to 13.2 online.

There is one gig of RAM, I think.

adam@linux-gb27:~> free -h
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          990M       912M        78M       103M        11M       264M
-/+ buffers/cache:       636M       354M
Swap:         2.9G       135M       2.8G