Installed SUSE 10.1....experiencing problems

So, I didn't want to start a new thread, because well... I started this one way back...

Anyways, I've been trying to install SUSE 10.1 on a Celeron 1.2 ghz with 256 RAM and a 64 Nvidia vid card. So far, nothing but problems.

a.] I can't seem to install with a GUI. Everytime I choose "Installation" it loads the kernel, and then a black screen appears. I read a little of the manual which tells me to install in text mode. But one of the reasons I chose SUSE 10.1... was the pretty GUI that would help me through everything while being athestically pleasing.
b.] My keyboard doesn't seem to want to work... I can move around with arrow keys, but none of my letters work. Which makes installing in text mode, kind of difficult, seeing as to how it doesn't allow a mouse. Oh, I'm using a Microsoft keyboard, which might be the bane of all that is free. But you can't blame me... it was cheap!

So, I guess the question is, will a Microsoft Internet Keyboard work under SuSE Linux? And is there any way to get into the GUI installation? I don't really understand why the graphical installer doesn't work.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

Hello,
Sad to hear. Why don't you try SUSE live DVD first? You will then see if you have compatibility problems. Post in the SUSE forum, you might get answers there too. I would suggest you try a simple cheap keyboard.
Mrk

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

Hello, there Mrk. I will try that solution later on tonight.

[oh, btw thanks for the SUSE guide that you wrote the other day. That coupled with the Novell installation guide pushed me towards this installation on this machine.]

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

I think that your problem with the graphical may be that xorg isn't detecting your graphics card so thus nothing will display in the graphical install.

However, something is tripping up the hardware detection for the kernel. Try unplugging everything out of the computer except for the mouse and the keyboard. Also, maybe the graphics card is causing the kernel to do a little pannicking which stops it from properly detecting the other devices.

Good luck

Alphalutra1

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

Ah, I believe I may have figured a little out.

1024*800 or 800*600 doesn't work, but installing under VESA mode seemed to have done the trick to booting up the GUI. [I have no idea what VESA mode is, or what it does, so someone may be able to clear that up.]

And next up, the keyboard. It would seem it was a false alarm. I had originally thought that when a word was underlined like the "N" for Next meant if I typed N, I would choose the Next option. Apparently not. Well, I'm not sure really. But I used TAB + Enter which worked just as well. I will look further into my Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard compatibility and report in.

And the fight to get rid of Windows continues. It seems 3 of my install discs were corrupt, so I will be redownloading them and reburning. Such a waste of CDs.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

it's normally alt with the underlined letter (alt-n) to select that option.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

Ah, thanks iceni60, I tried alt+n and it works like a charm. That was a big "duhhh" on my part.

Okay, so finally finished backing up all my data [without imaging software, and with Nero and about 15 CD-R's], and started to GPart [with the liveCD] my drive last night.

Problem: GPart cannot resize drive because of 12 bad sectors.

This harddrive will be the death of me.

Will chkdisk fix these bad sectors? I haven't yet run it because it takes about two hours to scan with my computer, but I know that there's an option to "scan for and attempt recovery for bad sectors". Otherwise, I'm lost. Please say there's a way to fix these 12 bad sectors...

 

chkdsk /R should do the trick

 

Awesome. I'll do the chkdisk a few times later tonight then.

Question though, could I run /f and /r at the same time? Such as...

"chkdsk c: /f /r"

Just so that I kill two birds with one stone?

 

yes that will work

 

Didn't work. I did a "chkdsk /f /r" and those 12 bogies are still there.

I read into the error details on the GParted LiveCD and it tells me to do something about -bad-sectors with ntfsresize, but I have no idea what that means so I'm going to consult the website and manual for GParted. I'll report back next week on what other problem this computer could possibly throw at me.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

VESA is the generic nvidia driver. i used a DVD to install SUSE maybe you could try one too?? i might start a thread showing what i've done to configure SUSE. it should help others as well as me if i ever break something and need to reinstall.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

I was going to try a DVD too, but I don't have a DVD burner. [which is quite a problem in this day and age it would seem.]

But I've already got my data fully backed up on CDs [finally], and waiting for a new harddrive to arrive via UPS in say 5-7 days. [Depending on how newegg.com deals with Thursday purchases. I do hope it comes Saturday.]

I see you've made the switch from Ubuntu to SUSE. What made you switch if I may ask? Personally, I think SUSE had a lot of good packages and was backed by a very good development team. Even though I only used Ubuntu for about a month via liveCD, I will definately miss the support forums.

 

Re: Hum. Linux.

i got all my Linux cds from Linux magazines, maybe SUSE is on the cover of one where you live??

i switched to SUSE because Ubuntu doesn't support my RAID ARRAY on my new computer, so it can't see my HDDs and won't install.

there's really not a big difference because being Linux and Open Soruce i can setup SUSE the same way i have Ubuntu. so, i have the Gnome desktop and many of the same programs.

the biggest differences are the package managers - Ubuntu is Debian based, so uses .deb packages, whereas SUSE is RPM based so uses RPMs. debian has by far the most packages, on my ubuntu livecd there are over 18,000 packages it will automatically configure and install for you.

i like both distros.

 

I have the same problem as you with bad sectors . I think actually that the hard disk is damaged and I haven't got around to replacing it. However, you can use ntfsresize with the -b switch to allow it to resize a disk with bad sectors.

Cheers,

Alphaltura1

 

Yea, that's what I deduced my problem was. Gave up on GParted and that harddrive. Ordered a 320 WD from newegg, and waiting for that to arrive in the mail. My mobo won't be able to detect all 320, but I can always use the hdd later on when I replace this computer, so I don't mind the loss of about 200 gigs. Going to image over my windows partition and install Linux sometime this month. Will let you know how I go.

"ntfsresize --bad-sectors" did not work with me either, because it threw out some sort of error message. I had no idea of where to go from there, so I just left my Windows alone. Will be formatting that hdd later anyways for storage.

 

before you install Linux on a HDD you want to dual-boot with Windows, you need to defrag the Windows partition first. it's probably not related but who knows? there's also spinrite which Leo Laporte spends half his time talking about. it is suppose to be good though. it will fix lots of HDD errors. it's not free.

 

Yea, that was among the things I did, defrag, defrag pagefile, chkdsk, etc. In the end, I just opted for more hdd space.

Then again, I don't blame the harddrive. It's a Seagate that hasn't failed me in about 6 or 7 years. It's been through a lot of hard shutdowns while writing, power outages, etc. And it's still running quite smoothly.

 

So, I finally got around to getting that new 320 GB harddrive inside my computer. [surprisingly this old mobo detected all 298 formatted gigs!] Got all my documents over and set up a dual boot with Windows XP.

Installed SUSE 10.1. Took approximately 6 hours because I installed basically a lot of packages. [I realize now it's going to be annoying to work my way through them, but I wanted to try everything first to see how things worked.]

Finally set things up so that my music can be played, Internet accessed [SUSE did a good job in detecting all of my hardware, network card, etc. so no complaints from me.].

I have, however, a few questions. Where is the Add/Remove equivilent? I'm looking through YAST, but I have no idea how to work most of these things.

And what is the easiest way to work out the Nvidia drivers, and set up MPlayer with all the necessary codecs?

Thirdly if anyone knows of any good KDE widgets [low resource too if that's possible] to have a CPU/Memory/Swap/Harddrive space monitor, stocks panel, and weather it'd be greatly appreciated. Working my way through dog's suggestion, but if there are any recommendations I'd love to try them out. Also, how does one get Karamba to run automatically at startup?

Which brings me to my last question of the day. Where do I find the startup list? I want to see if there's anything running that I do not want to be running at startup. I guess it's a windows habit.

 

you can remove stuff with this command -
sudo rpm -e packagename

mplayer should come with all the codecs, but you need to install all restricted formats. there's stuff about codecs and the nvidia driver install at this link. if you need help say so.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=815050&postcount=29

i've never used Karamba so i don't know anything about it. programs are started by startup scripts. you can change the settings (runlevels) either at opening Yast>System>system services (runlevel) or for more options - alt-F2 then run ksysv
i wrote abit about how i setup SUSE in this thread.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=139146

 

I will be definately taking a look at the runlevels tonight. 88 threads taking up a constant 30% of my CPU usage was getting to be ridiculous.

Thanks much iceni60, getting rid of a few needless processes as well as getting SMART up and running should take the most of the week.

On a side note, is there a Real Alternative for Linux? It's that that I have something against Real Media, but I just don't like it. :T

 

i'm sure you can use something like Amarok or maybe Banshee for real files. i use totem with gnome. i can't remember what i did though.

 

Finally got all my media up and running. MPlayer and amaroK both installed. Yast, although EXTREMELY SLOW, has done quite well in this aspect.

Still way too many threads/processes for my taste, and CPU usage is steady at 30% even with disabling some unneeded service. I guess it's something else that is wrong, that I have yet to figure out. Doesn't run slowly, so I guess it's fine for now. Just hope the CPU doesn't burn out at this rate.

Found myself a good widget called StockQuotes and Liquid Weather. StockQuotes doesn't work too well, I can't seem to add any stocks, [maybe because of Perl? I have all of it installed though. Something to figure out later.]

But as for now, my basic system is all up and running. Thanks a lot for all the help here. Much appreciated.

 

Perhaps one last problem.

How does one configure Bittorrent for SUSE? I went into YAST firewall, and opened port 60698 for TCP and UDP [port number was randomly chosen]. Would this pose any potential security related problems? [I'm too used to the whole "have to stealth/close ports" mentality.] I don't normally torrent, but I do once inawhile when there's a new distro to try out. Tried to get Fedora Core yesterday, and could not manage to get more than 5 minutes without a "stalled" status on Ktorrent.

Also, YAST firewall controls seem to be very limited compared to those of Guarddog. I've tried looking at how to install Guarddog for SUSE, but only found 9.1 on the homepage. Is it supported for 10.1? [if so, any guides on how to install?]

 

i found a thread regarding azureus and suse:

Firewall Problems In Azureus, Suse 10.1

one poster having teh same issues as you, managed to install guarddog on suse 10. that was their solution.

HTH