I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :( I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find Missing operating system on the screen. Which means it's messed up the MBR? I had a poke in the BIOS but don't see anything that looks odd. So I put the DVD back in and selected Repair Installed System Now it says: An error occurred during the installation What an incredibly irritating message! I know an error occurred, that's why I asked it to repair the system! I went to the opensuse site but haven't found any useful installation troubleshooting guides. Can anybody point me to one, please? Or any relevant threads on the list. Oh yes, the video. When it starts booting, and up until the point where you choose install or repair or rescue etc, the video is fine. After that point it switches into some mode that isn't handled properly with flickering characters etc. It's a rage 128 pro graphics card, nothing fancy and old enough that there shouldn't be any bugs left. So what's going on there? So I'm not impressed by the 10.3 installation process so far. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Dave Howorth wrote:
I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :(
I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find
Missing operating system
on the screen. Which means it's messed up the MBR? I had a poke in the BIOS but don't see anything that looks odd.
So I put the DVD back in and selected Repair Installed System
Now it says:
An error occurred during the installation
What an incredibly irritating message! I know an error occurred, that's why I asked it to repair the system!
I went to the opensuse site but haven't found any useful installation troubleshooting guides. Can anybody point me to one, please? Or any relevant threads on the list.
Oh yes, the video. When it starts booting, and up until the point where you choose install or repair or rescue etc, the video is fine. After that point it switches into some mode that isn't handled properly with flickering characters etc. It's a rage 128 pro graphics card, nothing fancy and old enough that there shouldn't be any bugs left. So what's going on there?
So I'm not impressed by the 10.3 installation process so far.
Cheers, Dave
Repair install is broken on the 10.3 DVD :-( See the ton of earlier list complaints. I had 2 borked installs with 10.3, but was always able to boot back to the install DVD and the installer would either (1) reinstall everything or (2) pick up a little before the install crash and complete. This is very very frustrating. -- David C. Rankin, J.D., P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 11:28 -0600, David C. Rankin wrote:
Dave Howorth wrote:
I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :(
I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find
Missing operating system
on the screen. Which means it's messed up the MBR? I had a poke in the BIOS but don't see anything that looks odd.
I've now found a page that I hope tells me the steps to fix this (I'll post a link if it works). But (a) why is it broken and (b) why is there no install troubleshooting how-to (or at least nobody's told me of one)?
So I put the DVD back in and selected Repair Installed System
Now it says:
An error occurred during the installation
What an incredibly irritating message! I know an error occurred, that's why I asked it to repair the system!
I went to the opensuse site but haven't found any useful installation troubleshooting guides. Can anybody point me to one, please? Or any relevant threads on the list.
Oh yes, the video. When it starts booting, and up until the point where you choose install or repair or rescue etc, the video is fine. After that point it switches into some mode that isn't handled properly with flickering characters etc. It's a rage 128 pro graphics card, nothing fancy and old enough that there shouldn't be any bugs left. So what's going on there?
I worked around this issue by selecting VESA resolution before starting the install but why do I have to? This isn't rocket science.
So I'm not impressed by the 10.3 installation process so far.
Cheers, Dave
Repair install is broken on the 10.3 DVD :-( See the ton of earlier list complaints. I had 2 borked installs with 10.3, but was always able to boot back to the install DVD and the installer would either (1) reinstall everything or (2) pick up a little before the install crash and complete.
Thanks for that. Hopefully I'll be able to find those threads.
This is very very frustrating.
Agreed. These releases increasingly look like betas. I've got better things to do than fight broken install & management systems. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Dave Howorth wrote:
I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :(
I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find
Missing operating system
on the screen. Which means it's messed up the MBR? I had a poke in the BIOS but don't see anything that looks odd.
I've now found a page that I hope tells me the steps to fix this (I'll post a link if it works). But (a) why is it broken and (b) why is there no install troubleshooting how-to (or at least nobody's told me of one)?
The easy to do fix was as documented here: <http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Howto_repair_boot_manager_Grub_on_opensuse_10.3#Manual_repair_on_the_command_line> Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Friday 30 November 2007 12:32:21 Dave Howorth wrote:
I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :(
I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find
Missing operating system
The 10.3 system installs the boot loader to the partition containing /boot, leaving a standard MBR that does nothing except hand over to the partition marked "bootable" in the partition table. My guess is that you have the wrong partition marked as bootable. Boot the rescur system, run fdisk -l, and see which partition has a * in the Boot column. If it's the wrong one, you can change it with the "a" command in fdisk On the other hand, if it's the right one, there is something wrong with your MBR. You can use YaST to set this by enabling the option to install a standard MBR in the bootloader installation section You should however be able to finish your install by booting the installation system again and selecting "boot installed system" when it asks you what you want to do. Once it completes you can log in, run YaST, and reinstall the boot loader, with the correct option But try fdisk first Anders -- Madness takes its toll -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 21:21 +0100, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Friday 30 November 2007 12:32:21 Dave Howorth wrote:
I'm trying to install 10.3 on a 4-year old 32-bit machine. I don't do enough installs to remember all the gotchas, so it's always a fraught process if anything goes wrong :(
I blew a 10.3 DVD, verified it and ran the installer. It all went happily and eventually started installing the packages so I went home and left it to it. This morning I came in to find
Missing operating system
The 10.3 system installs the boot loader to the partition containing /boot, leaving a standard MBR that does nothing except hand over to the partition marked "bootable" in the partition table.
Thanks for this. It's useful. Is there anywhere I can read more?
My guess is that you have the wrong partition marked as bootable.
I don't think so. The /boot partition is marked bootable on that disk and the other disk has a partition with the dreaded lilo marked bootable. I don't see any evidence that either is being reached.
Boot the rescur system, run fdisk -l, and see which partition has a * in the Boot column. If it's the wrong one, you can change it with the "a" command in fdisk
On the other hand, if it's the right one, there is something wrong with your MBR. You can use YaST to set this by enabling the option to install a standard MBR in the bootloader installation section
Agreed, I'd already launched the rescue system and used cfdisk to check the bootable partitions :) On Monday, I'll find time to try patching the MBR but I'll use the grub-based method I found on a web page first. Given that the Suse installer / YaST messed it up in the first place, and that Suse's repair system is broken, I don't trust it to fix it! Once the illusion of magic is shattered, I prefer to get my hands into the dirt and see just what's there.
You should however be able to finish your install by booting the installation system again and selecting "boot installed system" when it asks you what you want to do. Once it completes you can log in, run YaST, and reinstall the boot loader, with the correct option
But try fdisk first
Anders
Thanks Anders. I'll let you know how it goes on Monday.
Madness takes its toll
Ain't that the truth! Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2007/11/30 21:26 (GMT) Dave Howorth apparently typed:
On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 21:21 +0100, Anders Johansson wrote:
The 10.3 system installs the boot loader to the partition containing /boot, leaving a standard MBR that does nothing except hand over to the partition marked "bootable" in the partition table.
Thanks for this. It's useful. Is there anywhere I can read more?
http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs/grub http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Boot_Record http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/struct_Boot.htm -- " A patriot without religion . . . is as great a paradox, as an honest man without the fear of God." John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Anders Johansson -
Dave Howorth -
Dave Howorth -
David C. Rankin -
Felix Miata