Cannot install SUSE 10.0 - only get a black screen immediately after Grub
I'm having a problem getting SUSE 10.0 to install on my brother's computer (he's 8000 km away from me, so this is all done via the phone :-P ). Hardware: ----------------- Motherboard = MSI 865 PE Neo2 RAM = 1 GB (2 x 512 MB Kingston) Video = MSI nVidia FX5200 Sound = SB Audugy Modem = Motorolla (hardware, not Winmodem) Hard drives = 2xsamsung 80GB on IDE1/2, liteon combo and liteon DVD-RW on IDE3/4 = 2x SATA drives (1st is 160 GB, 2nd is 400 GB) WinXP Pro is installedon 400 GB SATA drive and it is normally set to be the primary... For the initial install, the 2 SATA drives were physically unplugged (power only). and SUSE was installed on the first 80 GB IDE drive. The second 80GB IDE drive is unformatted and unpartitioned at this point. (because this is just a test install for someone who is brand new to Linux we decided that Linux should run on it's own without knowing about or talking to the WinXP install... thus the Windows/SATA drives were removed from the equation). The SUSE installer worked OK, but when the comptuer did it's initial reboot during the install, we only got a black screen immediately after the normal Grub menu. Unplugged the data cables from the SATA drives and tried again. This time it worked, and SUSE was able to boot and finish installing. Shut down SUSE, plugged the data and power back in for the SATA drives, and returned to working in Windows. When time came again to experiment with Linux on this comptuer, the boot order was changed in the BIOS so that the IDE 1 drive was checked first and booted using GRUB. GRUB came up with it's normal boot menu, and normal boot to Linux is selected... and promptly gave only a black screen - no X cursor, no "Loading Linux" screen... left for 10 minutes just in case it was stuck on something... still nothing (exactly as happened during the install). We thought this might be due to the SATA drives, so shut down, and physically unplugged the data and power cables from the SATA drives and attempted to boot again. Still got the black screen immediately after selecting SUSE 10 in the GRUB menu (this means that we can't even get to a Linux terminal at this point). OK, so maybe something went wrong in the install... re-installed SUSE 10 (SATA data and power were disconnected). The initial reboot worked, and SUSE 10.0 finished installing, and worked fine for the entire session... Shut down, and plugged in the SATA cables and returned to Windows. Tried rebooting back to Linux (with SATA plugged in, and IDE1 set as primary boot). GRUB came up, and SUSE 10 is selected. Immediately we get a black screen. Unplugging the SATA cables does not help. OK, so decided to install with the SATA drives as part of the available hardware - as in allowing SUSE to be aware of the Windows install. The first part of the install went fine, and the installer was able to find the Windows partitions on the SATA drives, mount points were identified etc. Then the initial reboot happened, GRUB was shown, SUSE10.0 selected , and black screen. Rebooted, Grub came up, select Windows in the Grub menu... and it failed... cannot boot to Windows either. Went back into the BIOS, reset the primary boot drive from the IDE1 to the SATA drive that has Windows installed. This is where we're stuck now. Windows is working fine, but nothing we do seems to work to keep Linux bootable. What might be the problem? Anyone have any suggestions wherre we can go with this? This is the first time I've ever encountered a problem like this... C.
Am Samstag 12 November 2005 07:55 schrieb Clayton
I'm having a problem getting SUSE 10.0 to install on my brother's computer (he's 8000 km away from me, so this is all done via the phone
Hi Clayton, that's hard...
Hardware: ----------------- Motherboard = MSI 865 PE Neo2 RAM = 1 GB (2 x 512 MB Kingston) Video = MSI nVidia FX5200 Sound = SB Audugy Modem = Motorolla (hardware, not Winmodem) Hard drives = 2xsamsung 80GB on IDE1/2, liteon combo and liteon DVD-RW on IDE3/4 = 2x SATA drives (1st is 160 GB, 2nd is 400 GB)
WinXP Pro is installedon 400 GB SATA drive and it is normally set to be the primary...
I have a simmilar constallation: 2 SATA disks 1 IDE disk Booting linux via grub only worked, if grub was in the MBR of the primary master disk. But I fond a workaround: I have win2k3 on PM. I made the 2nd SATA drive PM and undplugged the win disk. I installed linux on this drive with grub in MBR. After installation finished I did a: dd if=/dev/sda of=BOOTSECT.LIN bs=512 count=1 (substitute sda with hda, if you are using the newer driver) I put the file BOOTSECT.LIN on a floppy and edited: /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/fstab to point to sdb (former sda) I made the win disk PM(sda) again and the linux disk SM(sdb) I booted into windows (on ntfs), copied the file BOOTSECT.LIN to C:\ and added: C:\BOOTSECT.LIN = "SuSE Linux" to C:\boot.ini This works as long as you did not change the partitioning of the SM disk. If you repartition the linux disk, you have to rewrite the MBR on the linux disk (which must be the PM at this time) and dump the bootsector again to a file and copy this new file to C:\
...
Maybe you only have to change the devicenames in menu.lst and fstab ? -- mdc
Hi, Clayton schrieb:
The SUSE installer worked OK, but when the comptuer did it's initial reboot during the install, we only got a black screen immediately after the normal Grub menu. Unplugged the data cables from the SATA drives and tried again. This time it worked, and SUSE was able to boot and finish installing.
Try the kernel parameter edd=off and report back. Regards, Carl-Daniel -- http://www.hailfinger.org/
The SUSE installer worked OK, but when the comptuer did it's initial reboot during the install, we only got a black screen immediately after the normal Grub menu. Unplugged the data cables from the SATA drives and tried again. This time it worked, and SUSE was able to boot and finish installing.
Try the kernel parameter edd=off and report back.
Tried it... went from 100% failure to intermittent failure on boot. Disabled SATA, and that seems to clear up the rest of the boot problem... for Linux. Now of course with SATA disabled, we can't boot back to Windows without an extra step in the BIOS to re-enable SATA. Funny since all the other machines I installed SUSE on with SATA work fine. Granted this is an old motherboard with an early SATA controller... Still looking for a real solution... my brother (a new Linux user) still has it firmly drilled into his brain that Linux is too hard to use - fuelled by this hardware/software problem I've been trying to work him through. :-( C.
Clayton schrieb:
The SUSE installer worked OK, but when the comptuer did it's initial reboot during the install, we only got a black screen immediately after the normal Grub menu. Unplugged the data cables from the SATA drives and tried again. This time it worked, and SUSE was able to boot and finish installing.
Try the kernel parameter edd=off and report back.
Tried it... went from 100% failure to intermittent failure on boot.
Then your problem is clear. You have a BIOS bug. I hacked on the edd stuff a while ago and if disabling it makes your machine boot, the only thing that can help you is a BIOS update (in your case mainboard and sata controller BIOS). Explanation: The EDD code calls into the BIOS before the kernel enters protected mode, so if that call hangs, your machine will not boot.
Disabled SATA, and that seems to clear up the rest of the boot problem... for Linux. Now of course with SATA disabled, we can't boot back to Windows without an extra step in the BIOS to re-enable SATA. Funny since all the other machines I installed SUSE on with SATA work fine. Granted this is an old motherboard with an early SATA controller...
Hm, is your computer by any chance manufactured by Fujitsu-Siemens? Did I understand correctly that you can boot into Linux with SATA enabled and edd=off? If not, can you find a pattern when Linux with SATA works, like only the first time after switching on the machine, or only if no CD/DVD was in any drive or something like that? Regards, Carl-Daniel -- http://www.hailfinger.org/
Then your problem is clear. You have a BIOS bug.
Dang... Ok, that's something we can deal with.. have to go hunting on the MSI site for a new BIOS and flash it. My brother can do that... I hope :-)
sata controller BIOS). Explanation: The EDD code calls into the BIOS before the kernel enters protected mode, so if that call hangs, your machine will not boot.
Interesting.. that's good to know...
Hm, is your computer by any chance manufactured by Fujitsu-Siemens?
Nope. It's a "home built" system, assembled from various individual bits.
Did I understand correctly that you can boot into Linux with SATA enabled and edd=off? If not, can you find a pattern when Linux with SATA works, like only the first time after switching on the machine, or only if no CD/DVD was in any drive or something like that?
I tried listing all the combinations we've tried... but I have ot check again with my brother... just to be sire... so I'll try to follow up on this later. We do have a fairly repeatable pattern where Linux will boot initially (without the edd=off param), but if we enable SATA at any point and boot to Windows, then disable SATA and try to boot Linux it's dead, and remains dead. only a reinstall seems to "resurrect" it again. Using edd=off, and with SATA enabled, we were able to get it working, but there were still intermittent boot problems - sometimes it will take 3 or 4 tries to get Linux to boot. We will try a BIOS update, and I'll try to get a complete list of the combinations we've tried and results... C.
Clayton wrote:
Then your problem is clear. You have a BIOS bug.
Dang... Ok, that's something we can deal with.. have to go hunting on the MSI site for a new BIOS and flash it. My brother can do that... I hope :-)
bios update for your mainboard is here. http://www.msicomputer.com/support/bios_result.asp?platform=Intel&model=865PE%20Neo2%20Series%20(MS-6728%20PCBv1)&newsearch=1
Cristian Rodriguez wrote:
Clayton wrote:
Then your problem is clear. You have a BIOS bug. Dang... Ok, that's something we can deal with.. have to go hunting on the MSI site for a new BIOS and flash it. My brother can do that... I hope :-)
bios update for your mainboard is here.
We did the BIOS update and no luck. Linux is still unbootable on that particular system. Basically the best we can get it (using the edd=off param and SATA set to keep enabled (either in native or legacy mode)) is an initial good boot, and good subsequent reboots. As long as we leave it in Linux, and never boot back to Windows, Linux works fine. But even after a single boot back to Windows, Linux becomes totally unbootable regardless of BIOS settings and kernel parameters.... safe mode is out as well. It just sits there with a black screen immediately after the Grub menu. I think the conclusion is... we're going to try to find another motherboard and dump this one. I can't see any other way around it (unless someone else has a brainwave on how to get this working). It's a good excuse to upgrade the hardware :-) Thanks for the help C.
participants (4)
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Carl-Daniel Hailfinger -
Clayton -
Cristian Rodriguez -
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