Unable to install LEAP 42.2 from USB

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello Guys,

I am having an issue while I am trying to install OpenSUSE Leap 42.2.
I have a 1 TB HDD split in 2 x 500GB big partitions: one is for Ubuntu 16.10 (already installed) and the other one is for OpenSUSE but I cannot get the installer to run from the USB. I have successfully installed it on a VirtualBox machine and all went well, but when I tried to boot from USB I get to the stage where the Yast installed should start and it just hags there (I get a black screen with the cursor) and does nothing.
I have tried to find a solution online and one was to disable AHCI from BIOS. It worked but I have no mouse control (it is not powered on so I cannot use it), but the most important aspect is that the image is not rendered correctly (it is pulled down and I cannot see the buttons to push, if I could have a working mouse).
Another solution is to boot from HDD and I have found an interesting thread on the forum for an older version of OpenSUSE 13.1, which I have tried but it will not boot from the ISO. I get some error messages in the GRUB saying that it cannot find the ISO, the Linux and that I should load the kernel first.

Can anybody help me out? Has anyone encountered this issue with the latest Leap version?

Thanks.

P.S.: You will probably be thinking that I should disable UEFI from BIOS, or try to find some option to disable, but I have checked and could not find any EFI option in BIOS (I have an old Lenovo R400, with an Intel Core2 Duo, 4 GB RAM and integrated graphics). I don’t think that the BIOS is to blame or the system configuration.

2

The installer will work with both MBR or EFI booting. that is not a probem. You do need to boot the installer in the mode that you want to install.

How did you copy the iso to the USB. You must do a binary unaltered copy to the device not a partition on the device

3

This hasn’t probably much to do with your installer boot problem, but I see something strange here.

I do not know much about Ubuntu, thus is can be that it uses only one partition.
But openSUSE normally (you can change that) uses by default three (3) partitions. One for Swap (but under certain prerequisites you can live without it), one for / and a separate one for /home (again not a must but very handy).
Also when you have now two partitions on the disk and no free space left, the installer will of course not find any free space and thus have a problem in making you an partition offer.
While you can go into expert partitioning during the installation and then try to create a partitioning, IMHO it would be better to remove that partition you want to use for openSUSE and then let openSUSE offer you a partitioning based on the free space (where you can still adapt when you want).

I am not very sure, but there is a slight chance that your hanging install is due to the fact that there is nil free space on the disk.

4

Hi Henk, I have a test Ubuntu 16.10 on a system of mine and it behaves like openSUSE: it can install on a single partition if that is the only offer, but usually uses 3 (/root, /home and swap) on a legacy (MBR) install as seems the OP case.

5

Of course in can be done (Ubuntu is also Linux), but I try to get info from the OP, because he is then doing rather unusual things, which he better explains instead of letting us guess.

In any case there is no free space on the disk (if his information is correct, but we have no fdisk -l to prove it), which does not make it easier for the installer IMHO.

6

Since serious 42. x openSUSE, installation DVD never worked for me. It’s no use to burn to DVD or on pendrive. The installer always hangs accusing media error.

What works without any problem is the net installer.

7

We definitely need information about the actual disk layout (as Henk writes, “fdisk -l” or similar).
The system should have a legacy MBR disk; if it has “two large partitions” and maybe also a recovery and a service (possibly hidden) partitions, maybe there is nothing the installer can do without deleting one partition replacing it with an Extended one to make room for the install.

@elvisvinicius : the DVD image is good, at times it might be tricky to properly burn it and almost impossible with Win* utilities; the safest way is using openSUSE imagewriter.

8

@elvisvinicius : the DVD image is good, at times it might be tricky to properly burn it and almost impossible with Win* utilities; the safest way is using openSUSE imagewriter.

Yes, I have always used DVD image, but to me the openSUSE 42.1 was a total disaster, since installation. Only with the net installer to have the system installed, but full of problems.

Finally, in version 42.2, openSUSE came back to have the solid stability of 13.2 version, but only the net installer is still working. It’s not just on my PC, no matter where I download the ISO DVD and try to install, it does not work.

PS: In my attempts, the best method of burning the ISO image (even the NET installer), was with “dd” on Linux or “ImageUSB” app on Windows.

9

Hello gogalthorp,

I have burned the OpenSUSE ISO with Rufus tool. I used this software before to burn other linux distros and had no issues in booting from them, so I do not believe that this is the issue here.

To rephrase, I can boot in the main menu and select “Installation” option. Then the Yast installer should start to guide the user through the installation steps, but I get the message that Yast successfully started but it just leaves me hanging with a black screen and the mouse cursor.

10

Hello hcvv,

I may have not been very good at explaining the status of my HDD, so I will do it in more detail.

I have one physical HDD (Toshiba Hybrid SSD, or laptop HDD) of 1 TB in size. I have made 2 primary partitions of 500 GB each. On one of these 2 partitions I have installed Ubuntu 16.10 with the following partition scheme : 1 partitions for “/boot”, one partition for “/home” and a swap partition (4 GB I believe, which is the amount of physical RAM that I have on the laptop). So this is the “Ubuntu partition”, as I like to call it.
On the other primary partition, which is empty BTW, I would like to install OpenSUSE, so there is a lot of space there. When I tried to install OpenSUSE the space on the partition was unallocated. Is this an issue?

Let me post what “fdisk -l” command outputted for me:

Disk /dev/sda: 931,5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1cfed769

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 390828219 390826172 186,4G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 976768128 1953520064 976751937 465,8G b W95 FAT32 (this is where I would like to install OpenSUSE)
/dev/sda3 960751616 976766975 16015360 7,7G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 390830080 960751615 569921536 271,8G 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Let me know if I can provide more information so that you can help me solve this issue as fast as possible.

Thank you,
Marius.

11

I think Rufus has a “dd” option, which just does a direct binary copy to the USB device.

If you used a different option in Rufus (such as the default options), then that probably explains why it didn’t work.

12

That looks like a video driver problem…
Can you confirm that your system boots in legacy mode?
If so, you should see at the bottom of the boot screen a line of options: try F3, then “No KMS” or, if that fails too, “Text mode”.
If that works, you should be able to install and boot your system one way or the other. Then it should be possible to adjust your drivers on the installed system if you still face graphics problems.

Your actual disk layout is different from what you think, apparently.
You have FOUR primary partitions (the maximum number for a dos disk), of which I guess *buntu uses three (sda1 likely as /root, sda4 likely as /home and sda3 as swap, which is 7.7 GB, not the 4 GB you think).
At this point, the easiest way to install openSUSE is to DELETE partition sda2 and let the installer make a sensible install proposal. But please be absolutely sure that you don’t have personal files on sda2 before deleting it…
The installer needs “empty” or “clean” space on disk: an “empty partition” of type FAT32 is no usable space to install.
Please write back if this is not clear enough.

13

If you used a different option in Rufus (such as the default options), then that probably explains why it didn’t work.[/QUOTE]

Hello nrickert,

I can boot from the USB and get into the boot menu, where I can see the “Boot from Hard Disk”, “Installation”, etc. options. When I choose to install the distro I get the black screen with no response from the USB. I have checked and the installer just stops reading from the USB. Not sure why it does that.

14

You must do a binary copy of an unmodified ISO to the device. If Rufus makes any changes then it breaks the iso. Other destros may need modification to boot from a USB openSUSE does not.

If you do not see the options on the bottom of the install you are booting the installer in EFI mode… Blanking screen indicates possible video driver problem so boot in legacy not EFI mode and select NO KMS

Since you have existing partitions you will have to take control and tell the installer were and how to format partitions.

Normal install uses swap/root/home partitions. You can reuse an existing Linux swap and share an existing home (if you use a different username) but root must be on it own partition

15

On 15/01/17 06:26, elvisvinicius wrote:
>
>> @elvisvinicius : the DVD image is good, at times it might be tricky to
>> properly burn it and almost impossible with Win* utilities; the safest
>> way is using openSUSE imagewriter.
>
>
> Yes, I have always used DVD image, but to me the openSUSE 42.1 was a
> total disaster, since installation. Only with the net installer to have
> the system installed, but full of problems.
>
>
> Finally, in version 42.2, openSUSE came back to have the solid stability
> of 13.2 version, but only the net installer is still working. It’s not
> just on my PC, no matter where I download the ISO DVD and try to
> install, it does not work.
>
>
> PS: In my attempts, the best method of burning the ISO image (even the
> NET installer), was with “dd” on Linux or “ImageUSB” app on Windows.
Hi,
I can confirm that openSUSE Leap 42.2 install DVD Iso WORKS FINE from
USB flash drive. I did two fresh installs on two different machines and
had no issues.

FYI: I used the the openSUSE Imagewriter to make bootable USB install
stick (https://software.opensuse.org/package/imagewriter).

16

Please gentleman.

Did no one of you come to the conclusion that we are now discussing (at least) two different subjects here?

I think the OP here has the right to have his problem discussed without the thread being cluttered with a different problem: “How to create/burn an installation DVD”.

Normally I would stop posting in such a messed up thread because I refuse to unravel each and every post to see if it has information about the original problem. But in this case it is NOT the fault of the OP here. So please @elvisvinicius, start a thread of your own, with a title that describes your problem. All others, please wait for that thread and stop littering this thread about a partition problem.

17

@mariusvoicu

First something that has nothing to do with your problem, but with your posting:
Please in the future use CODE tags around copied/pasted computer text in a post. It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. When applicable copy/paste complete, that is including the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt.

You seem to have confusing ideas about partitioning. Maybe you first read morw information about it like: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3ABasics_of_partitions,_filesystems,_mount_points.

Like already explained above, the fdisk listing clearly shows that you have four (4) partitions and not two (2) as you said.

And I repeat, what is repeated above by others, that you should remove that partition where you want openSUSE, because when space on the disk is occupied with a partition, it can NOT be used for installation on free space.

But, that said, the installer willnot be able to create the default three partitions (like you have them also for Ubuntu) in that free space, for he simple reason that there can be no mre then four (4) primary partitions. You will understand that when you understood the documentation I pointed to above.

What you could do.
Install openSUSE in that free space with only one partition (which will be sda2 again), and use the existing Swap partition (sda3), that can be shared with Ubuntu without further action. And not having a separate /home partition.

18

Hello guys,

I have deleted the sda2 partition as suggested and booted without KMS and I could successfully install OpenSUSE Leap 42.2 with the default partitioning scheme. It seemed that there was indeed a video driver issue.

But after the installation completed it will not boot in the desktop. It just puts the laptop in sleep mode and just displays a black screen. I booted in recovery mode and it boots but I have no taskbar in the bottom of the desktop, just the “home” and “documents” folders in the top left corner. I cannot call the terminal to do any updates or anything else.

Can anybody tell me what the heck is wrong with my laptop? My laptop has Intel Gen4 integrated graphics, if this info is relevant.

Thank you.

@hcvv
Thanks for the suggestions and advice regarding posting CODE in the replies to any thread. I will use that. And also for the link regarding the partitioning.

19

IMHO this is really hardware dependent. I have installed openSUSE-Leap-42.2 on 5 PCs with completely different hardware. The three newer one’s I installed using a USB pendrive. For the two older one’s I had to use the installation DVD as the BIOS on those PCs would not support the pendrive I was using. Possibly they would have worked with a different pendrive. One of the two using the DVD install fact did not have a DVD drive, so I had to use an external USB DVD drive (which worked). The hardware used and install I achieved is documented here in my blog: https://forums.opensuse.org/entry.php/175-Installing-open-SUSE-LEAP-42-2-on-two-EFI-PCs.

Hardware from different manufacturers can be finicky and IMHO it be difficult for one ISO to work for all with the same technique.

20

Intel graphics ? Likely the driver is i915 driver.

One speculative possibility to try, is with root permissions create the file : /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf and adopt a glamor solution with this content in that file:


Section "Device"
        Identifier "Xorg Modesetting Driver "
        Driver "modesetting"
EndSection

save that and reboot.

Note this thread which is not specific to your problem - but it does go into problems with the Intel driver and some hardware with openSUSE-LEAP-42.2 : Screen Freeze on Leap 42.2 only option is reboot - Applications - openSUSE Forums