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13.2 Installation Problems
Installation problems are situations when a machine fails to install. It may fail entirely
or it may not be able to start the graphical installer. This section highlights some of the
typical problems you might run into and offers possible solutions or workarounds for this kind of
situations.
13.2.2 Hardware Information
Display detected hardware and technical data using . Click any node of the tree for more information about a device. This module is
especially useful, for example, when submitting a support request for which you need information
about your hardware.
Save the hardware information displayed to a file by clicking . Select the desired directory and filename then click to
create the file.
13.2.3 No Bootable CD-ROM Drive Available
If your computer does not contain a bootable CD or DVD-ROM drive or if the one you have is
not supported by Linux, there are several options for installing your machine without a need for
a built-in CD or DVD drive:
- Booting from a Floppy Disk
-
Create a boot floppy and boot from floppy disk instead of CD or DVD.
- Using an External Boot Device
-
If it is supported by the machine's BIOS and the installation kernel, boot for
installation from external CD or DVD drives.
- Network Boot via PXE
-
If a machine lacks a CD or DVD drive, but provides a working ethernet connection,
perform a completely network-based installation. See Section 1.1.3, Remote Installation via VNC—PXE Boot and Wake on LAN, (↑ Reference ) and Section 1.1.6, Remote Installation via SSH—PXE Boot and Wake on LAN, (↑ Reference ) for details.
Booting from a Floppy Disk (SYSLINUX)
On some older computers, there is no bootable CD-ROM drive available, but a floppy disk
drive. To install on such a system, create boot disks and boot your system with them.
The boot disks include the loader SYSLINUX and the program linuxrc. SYSLINUX enables the
selection of a kernel during the boot procedure and the specification of any parameters needed
for the hardware used. The program linuxrc supports the loading of kernel modules for your
hardware and subsequently starts the installation.
When booting from a boot disk, the boot procedure is initiated by the boot loader
SYSLINUX (package syslinux). When the system is booted, SYSLINUX runs
a minimum hardware detection that mainly consists of the following steps:
-
The program checks if the BIOS provides VESA 2.0–compliant
framebuffer support and boots the kernel accordingly.
-
The monitor data (DDC info) is read.
-
The first block of the first hard disk (MBR) is read to map BIOS IDs to Linux device
names during the boot loader configuration. The program attempts to read the block by means
of the the lba32 functions of the BIOS to determine if the BIOS supports these functions.
If you keep Shift pressed when SYSLINUX starts, all these steps are
skipped. For troubleshooting purposes, insert the line verbose 1
in syslinux.cfg for the boot loader to display which action is
currently being performed.
If the machine does not boot from the floppy disk, you may need to change the boot
sequence in the BIOS to A,C,CDROM.
External Boot Devices
Most CD-ROM drives are supported. If problems arise when booting from the CD-ROM drive,
try booting CD 2 of the CD set.
If the system does not have a CD-ROM or floppy disk, it is still possible that an
external CD-ROM, connected with USB, FireWire, or SCSI, can be used to boot the system. This
depends largely on the interaction of the BIOS and the hardware used. Sometimes a BIOS update
may help if you encounter problems.
13.2.4 Booting from Installation Media Fails
There are two possible reasons for a machine not to boot for installation:
- CD or DVD-ROM Drive Unable to Read the Boot Image
-
Your CD-ROM drive might not be able to read the boot image on CD 1. In this case, use CD
2 to boot the system. CD 2 contains a conventional 2.88 MB boot image that can be read even
by unsupported drives and allows you to perform the installation over the network as
described in Section 1.0, Remote Installation, (↑ Reference ).
- Incorrect Boot Sequence in BIOS
-
The BIOS boot sequence must have CD-ROM set as the first entry for booting.
Otherwise the machine would try to boot from another medium, typically the hard disk.
Guidance for changing the BIOS boot sequence can be found the documentation provided with
your motherboard or in the following paragraphs.
The BIOS is the software that enables the very basic functions of a computer. Motherboard
vendors provide a BIOS specifically made for their hardware. Normally, the BIOS setup can only
be accessed at a specific time—when the machine is booting. During this initialization
phase, the machine performs a number of diagnostic hardware tests. One of them is a memory
check, indicated by a memory counter. When the counter appears, look for a line, usually below
the counter or somewhere at the bottom, mentioning the key to press to access the BIOS setup.
Usually the key to press is Del, F1, or Esc.
Press this key until the BIOS setup screen appears.
Changing the BIOS Boot Sequence
-
Enter the BIOS using the proper key as announced by the boot routines and wait for the
BIOS screen to appear.
-
To change the boot sequence in an AWARD BIOS, look for the entry. Other manufacturers may have a different name for this, such as
. When you have found the entry, select it and confirm
with Enter.
-
In the screen that opens, look for a subentry called .
The boot sequence is often set to something like C,A or
A,C. In the former case, the machine first searches the hard disk (C) then
the floppy drive (A) to find a bootable medium. Change the settings by pressing
PgUp or PgDown until the sequence is
A,CDROM,C.
-
Leave the BIOS setup screen by pressing Esc. To save the changes,
select or press F10. To confirm
that your settings should be saved, press Y.
Changing the Boot Sequence in a SCSI BIOS (Adaptec Host Adapter)
-
Open the setup by pressing Ctrl+A.
-
Select , which displays the connected hardware
components.
Make note of the SCSI ID of your CD-ROM drive.
-
Exit the menu with Esc.
-
Open . Under , select and press
Enter.
-
Enter the ID of the CD-ROM drive and press Enter again.
-
Press Esc twice to return to the start screen of the SCSI BIOS.
-
Exit this screen and confirm with to boot the computer.
Regardless of what language and keyboard layout your final installation will be using, most
BIOS configurations use the US keyboard layout as depicted in the following
figure:
13.2.5 Fails to Boot
Some hardware types, mainly fairly old or very recent ones, fail to install. In many
cases, this might happen because support for this type of hardware is missing from the
installation kernel or due to certain functionality included in this kernel, such as ACPI,
that still cause problems on some hardware.
If your system fails to install using the standard mode
from the first installation boot screen, try the following:
-
With the first CD or DVD still in the CD-ROM drive, reboot the machine with Ctrl+Alt+Del or using the hardware reset button.
-
When the boot screen appears, use the arrow keys of your keyboard to navigate to
and press Enter to launch the boot and installation process. This option disables the support
for ACPI power management techniques.
-
Proceed with the installation as described in Section 1.0, Installation with YaST.
If this fails, proceed as above, but choose
instead. This option disables ACPI and DMA support. Most hardware should boot with this option.
If both of these options fail, use the boot options prompt to pass any additional
parameters needed to support this type of hardware to the installation kernel. For more
information about the parameters available as boot options, refer to the kernel documentation
located in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
HINT: Obtaining Kernel Documentation
Install the kernel-source package to view the
kernel documentation. There are various other ACPI-related kernel parameters that can be entered at the boot
prompt prior to booting for installation:
-
acpi=off
-
This parameter disables the complete ACPI subsystem on your computer. This may be
useful if your computer cannot handle ACPI at all or if you think ACPI in your computer
causes trouble.
-
acpi=force
-
Always enable ACPI even if your computer has an old BIOS dated before the year 2000.
This parameter also enables ACPI if it is set in addition to
acpi=off.
-
acpi=noirq
-
Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing.
-
acpi=ht
-
Run only enough ACPI to enable hyper-threading.
-
acpi=strict
-
Be less tolerant of platforms that are not strictly ACPI specification compliant.
-
pci=noacpi
-
Disable PCI IRQ routing of the new ACPI system.
-
pnpacpi=off
-
This option is for seriell or parallel problems when your
BIOS setup contains wrong interrupts or ports.
-
notsc
-
Disable the time stamp counter. This option can be used to
work around timing problems on your systems. It is a new
feature, if you see regressions on your machine, especially
time related or even total hangs, this option is worth a try.
-
nohz=off
-
Disable the nohz feature. If your machine hangs, this option
might help. Generally, you do not need it.
Once you have determined the right parameter combination, YaST automatically writes
them to the boot loader configuration to make sure that the system boots properly next time.
If unexplainable errors occur when the kernel is loaded or during the installation, select
in the boot menu to check the memory. If returns an error, it is usually a hardware error.
13.2.6 Fails to Launch Graphical Installer
After you insert the first CD or DVD into your drive and reboot your machine, the
installation screen comes up, but after you select , the
graphical installer does not start.
There are several ways to deal with this situation:
To change to another screen resolution for installation, proceed as follows:
-
Boot for installation.
-
Press F3
to open a menu from which to select a lower resolution for
installation purposes.
-
Select and proceed with the installation as described in
Section 1.0, Installation with YaST.
To perform an installation in text mode, proceed as follows:
-
Boot for installation.
-
Press F3
and select .
-
Select and proceed with the installation as described in
Section 1.0, Installation with YaST.
To perform a VNC installation, proceed as follows:
-
Boot for installation.
-
Enter the following text at the boot options prompt: vnc=1 vncpassword=some_password
Replace some_password with the password to use for
installation.
-
Select then press Enter to start the installation.
Instead of starting right into the graphical installation routine, the system continues
to run in text mode then halts, displaying a message containing the IP address and port number
at which the installer can be reached via a browser interface or a VNC viewer application.
-
If using a browser to access the installer, launch the browser and enter the address
information provided by the installation routines on the future openSUSE machine and hit
Enter: https://ip_address_of_machine:5801
A dialog opens in the browser window prompting you for the VNC password. Enter it and
proceed with the installation as described in Section 1.0, Installation with YaST.
IMPORTANT: Installation via VNC works with any browser under any operating system, provided Java
support is enabled.
If you use any kind of VNC viewer on your preferred operating system, enter the IP
address and password when prompted to do so. A window opens, displaying the installation
dialogs. Proceed with the installation as usual.
13.2.7 Only Minimalistic Boot Screen Started
You inserted the first CD or DVD into the drive, the BIOS routines are finished, but the
system does not start with the graphical boot screen. Instead it launches a very minimalistic
text-based interface. This might happen on any machine not providing sufficient graphics memory
for rendering a graphical boot screen.
Although the text boot screen looks minimalistic, it provides nearly the same
functionality as the graphical one:
- Boot Options
-
Unlike the graphical interface, the different boot options cannot be selected using the
cursor keys of your keyboard. The boot menu of the text mode boot screen offers some keywords
to enter at the boot prompt. These keywords map to the options offered in the graphical
version. Enter your choice and hit Enter to launch the boot
process.
- Custom Boot Options
-
After selecting a boot option, enter the appropriate keyword at the boot prompt or
enter some custom boot options as described in Fails to Boot. To launch the installation process, press Enter.
- Screen Resolutions
-
Use the F keys to determine the screen resolution for installation. If you need to boot
in text mode, choose F3.
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