Re: Fwd: [opensuse] Want To Try OpenSUSE - But Struggling With Live DVD



On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 22:50 -0800, Redefined Horizons wrote:
Thanks Ted.

The computer is actually a couple of years old, so I don't think I
have any really new hardware. (I did but in a new hard drive and DVD
drive this last few months though.)

All I really want to do is install OpenSuSE on an empty ext3 partition
you need more then this, at least usually. One partion will not properly
allow for a linux install, you want a swap, and a / at a min., and
a boot loader would need to be installed (i.e. grub/lilo) to pick
between them. You could steal the swap from your Deb. and assign it to
openSuse when you boot it of course.
What stopped your live from booting, could very well stop a normal
install at the same kernel level,
i.e. on my tyan with the HT1000 chip set, live and normal install will
not work because the kernel does't support it.
If your computer is a few years old it really should work (high high
probability). One think i have experienced, but this was some years ago,
is that on a Live distro they use to use a floppy boot sector emulation
to work from the CD, then they went to EL Torito for HW that supported
it, but if the initrd.gz is to big some El Torito's even screw up,
and openSuse has a pretty big initrd.gz on the live distros as it packs
alot of stuff in there. In the floppy emu days, you had to keep your
initrd.gz under 1.4MB, my openSuse new remaster Live DVD is 45MB
(initrd),
and I have actually run into a mobo that does have issue booting because
of that.
You should google for "linux" and your mother board model, you'll
undoubtedly get some feed back perhaps negative and positive.

Another thing that you shuold do, all be it unlikely is make sure the
md5sum matches on what you down loaded, and what you burned, make sure
you do a verify, this way you can rule out any data corruption.

In over 500 peoples machines (most different), which i have supported
LIVE CD/DVD,
failures have been few, and due to either the floppy/el-torito issue
(some years ago), or too new chip sets with no or questionable linux
support. And this later has always been resolved with a newer kernel,
except for the serverworks chip set on tyan HT1000, which is still a
work in progress for me, as their drivers havn't been adopted into linux
(but this is a high end server mobo).

-tl

on the hard drive. I'm already running Debian on the computer, and I
want to try dual-booting with an RPM based distro.

Perhaps the LiveDVD isn't the best way to get OpenSuSE installed. I
don't have a connection to the internet on that computer. Should I try
to install from CD, or will I run into the same problems?

Thanks,

Scott Huey

On 11/23/06, ted leslie <tleslie@xxxxxxx> wrote:


my guess is you have a new chip set (for IDE/SATA, etc) or a very rare
one.

I know lately in about aug./2006 a new nvidia chip set came out,
and i think you have to be REALLY recent in the kernel to get it to
work.
A chip set could very well work with PATA, but not a sata drive.
Right now the server works HT1000 chip set (like on tyan mobo),
doesn't work for me in sata, there is kernel source for a driver
from the company (bcraid), but its not in the linus (or Suse) kernel as
of yet.

What live version are you using? I remastered the most recent live
version of openSuse available then stuck the 2.6.18-2 in it,
it helped me for device support, but broke app-armour
(which isn't to big a deal for me right now).

IF you are using a mobo that is a new model in last couple/few months
and its Sata, what you are experiencing isn't all that surprising.

also don't forget to try safe boot (nodma, etc),
also some times mobo options can help to.

A live DVD for 10.2 would probably solve your issues, but that is
probably a little ways away.

A usb DVD rom (or rom/writer) could also solve it perhaps.
If you don;t want to access your harddrive, try the boot DVD,
and disable your SATA interface (if mobo allows).




-tl

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 19:02 -0800, Redefined Horizons wrote:
I want to try OpenSuSE, but I'm struggling with the Live DVD I
downloaded and burned. First I couldn't load the DVD because I didn't
have the required 512 MB of RAM. I got around that by using the shift
key trick.

However, when I get the "can't find kernel image" message when I try
to run the DVD from the text mode by entering "linux" or "failsafe". I
read something about OpenSuSE not supporting certain types of disk
drives, or something like that.

Is there a work-around simple enough for a noobie, or do I need to
look at another RPM based distro?

Thanks for the help. I hope I'm not overlooking something obvious. I'd
really like to get OpenSuSE working.

Scott Huey



--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx



Relevant Pages

  • Re: OpenSUSE 11.0 and AGP video card drivers?
    ... With OpenSUSE 11.0 I first had an ATI 9700 pro hooked up to my Acer ... again to install the nvidia drivers. ... available for my kernel version. ... NVidias 'nvidia' driver ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: [opensuse] Xen install stuck
    ... system/virtualization the offer to "Install Hypervisor and Tools" ... opensuse, ubuntu) and do much searching and reading on the web and discovered that simply put, Xen is not in a good state right now on Any OS. ... Unsupported by either Xensource or the main kernel developers that is, the dist may or may no provide some support for their own builds in some cases. ... but uses not the latest developments in the virtualization and so the network, disk, memory, & cpu performance are somewhat less than what the latest form uses. ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: Unable to insmod k8temp - help...
    ... I figured out how to install the gcc and gcc+ compilers. ... I got the source code for the k8temp package, ... simply upgraded my kernel to the latest openSUSE kernel. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: System Ram
    ... BIOS see's it all just fine, but openSUSE 11.0/KDE ... As you can see, the kernel is bigsmp, use yast and search for kernel, maybe ... it help to install that kernel if you don't run it. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: [opensuse] General Poor quality of Opensuse
    ... it has been the best desktop/workstation OS and environment ... There never was an openSUSE 5.3; there was a SuSE 5.3 ... first alpha's so once again a fail. ... requisite warning for those that do install it beware it will hog your ...
    (SuSE)