Quick to hang on fresh install (dual boot w/ XP)

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello,

Recently decided to dual boot openSUSE with Windows XP having no first-hand knowledge of any open source OS… An Ubuntu friend helped me get this far.

Please redirect to the most pertinent forum if it is inappropriate here.

My computer hangs ~15-20 minutes after startup. I do not know where to begin to fix the problem. I’ll list my hardware and try to explain as best as I can about what we have done.

Motherboard: WF887 (Dell B110 original), i865 Chipset
Processor: SL6WG Pentium 4 HT 3.2, 800 MT/s FSB, 512 KB L2 cache, Socket 478
Memory: PNY Optima 2x1GB DDR 400 MHz PC3200 Dual-Channel
Video Card 1: Sparkle GeForce 9500 GT 1024 MB DDR2 PCI
Video Card 2: Sparkle GeForce 9500 GT 512 MB DDR2 PCI
Hard Drive 1: WD800JB Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM IDE

  • XP, /root, /home, /swap
    Hard Drive 2: WD2500JB Western Digital 250 GB 7200 RPM IDE
  • NTFS, intended to be shared between OS
    PSU: advertised as 400w, says max: 418w on label - cheap
    Wireless Card: WMP300N Cisco-Linksys Wireless N PCI (Broadcom BCM4329)
    Mouse: Logitech Wireless Performance MX (bluetooth w/ USB adapter)

We installed Windows XP, used the partition tool in XP to keep all but 36 GB free for OpenSUSE, formatted the 2nd Hard Drive as NTFS, and then did automatic install of OpenSUSE (checking that it found the partition fine). Both OS are now booting fine from the openSUSE Grub bootloader. We then installed the nVidia proprietary driver “the hard way” (not using the nVidia repository in Yast - I don’t know exactly what method my friend used to accomplish this) and the wireless card driver (same approach). Then we ran the openSUSE updates and called it a night.

Now my computer is hanging up ~15-20 minutes after startup and CTRL+ALT+BKSPC does not effect it. Please help me where to start with this!

#2

Do you know if you have added the kernel load option nomodeset to the standard load for openSUSE? This option also exists in the Failsafe selection, along with lots of other things. You can actually just type in the option nomodeset, with the standard openSUSE selection and then press the enter key. If this helps, you can edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as root and add the nomodeset command there for use all of the time.

Thank You,

#3

At first I could only boot into failsafe and we found the 8 options that failsafe uses and narrowed it down to nomodeset. We found that nomodeset loads the ‘nv’ graphics driver. Installing the proprietary nVidia driver allowed me to boot normally without failsafe. I can go back to using the ‘nv’ driver with nomodeset but the video we tested was not satisfactory.

#4

At first I could only boot into failsafe and we found the 8 options that failsafe uses and narrowed it down to nomodeset. We found that nomodeset loads the ‘nv’ graphics driver. Installing the proprietary nVidia driver allowed me to boot normally without failsafe. I can go back to using the ‘nv’ driver with nomodeset but the video we tested was not satisfactory.
I use an nVIDIA video card and I install the driver the hard way and I keep the nomodeset command in my Grub Menu.lst file all of the time. It has to be there to get the nVIDIA driver to load and does not hurt to have there even after the option NO_KMS_IN_INITRD=yes is set in the SYSCONFIG file. I have written a bash script file that can be used to load the nVIDIA driver the hard way. You can find it here:

LNVHW - Load NVIDIA (driver the) Hard Way from runlevel 3

Thank You,