I have a bit of a problem.

 

I have been using SuSE Linux 9.0 Personal for a while and recently bought a new computer. Before this new computer I had an old modem that Linux wouldn't support. With the new computer, I finally got online with Linux. BTW, I use a duak-boot Windows XP and Linux system. The Windows installation is fairly important.

 

I launched YaST Online Update (YOU) for the first time and downloaded I think msot of the security updates. I restarted the computer to find that after starting up, when just about to show the KDM logon screen, all I got was a long beep and a restart. After running the YaST Repair Tool from the CD, it now just beeps forever until you switch it off.

 

My system:

 

Intel P4 HT 3.0GHz

1.0 GB RAM

Quote:I launched YaST Online Update (YOU) for the first time and downloaded I think msot of the security updates. I restarted the computer to find that after starting up, when just about to show the KDM logon screen, all I got was a long beep and a restart. After running the YaST Repair Tool from the CD, it now just beeps forever until you switch it off.

 

at what point does it beep, before the boot loader? if so it could indicate a hardware fault (RAM would be the most likely).

 

can you still load windows?

 

when you boot with the rescue cd and get into the system maybe try altering the runlevel so that X (kdm) doesnt start, hopefully then you can get a console login and repair the broken packages/install. unfortunately never used yast/suse, also i haven't experienced x/kdm dropping me to a long beep :(

Linux does its thing loading all of the usual stuff at startup: networking, hotplugging etc., tries to switch to runlevel 5, takes a few seconds and then just keeps beeping. I don't think it's hardware because the bootloader still runs (I can still get Windows - it is absolutely fine).

 

SuSE's automatic GRUB configuration gives me a 'Failsafe' option which can get me into the text-only Linux prompt stuff, but I'm not experienced enough to know how to even find the broken packages. As I said, I did loads of updates (maybe I should have been slower and done one at a time) and I don't know which one caused the problem.

 

The only solution I can think of at the moment would be to reinstall Linux, but I don't want to disturb the Windows installation (by messing up GRUB and meaning I wouldn't be able to get into it).

 

It might be something to do with the Nvidia 3D drivers (I've got NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200). SuSE doesn't include the drivers and the download appeared to fail.

 

Thanks again for your help.

Quote:Linux does its thing loading all of the usual stuff at startup: networking, hotplugging etc., tries to switch to runlevel 5, takes a few seconds and then just keeps beeping. I don't think it's hardware because the bootloader still runs (I can still get Windows - it is absolutely fine).

 

ah ok, not hardware then...

 

Quote:SuSE's automatic GRUB configuration gives me a 'Failsafe' option which can get me into the text-only Linux prompt stuff, but I'm not experienced enough to know how to even find the broken packages. As I said, I did loads of updates (maybe I should have been slower and done one at a time) and I don't know which one caused the problem.

 

well thats good, at least we know that the system isn't completely broken, instead then broken packages are most likely related only to X.

 

i found this Suse Admin Guide whilst scanning around.. within it is this a page about the online update from the command line, or this one about using yast from the command line. try a reinstall of X and kdm.. maybe that can clear this up?

 

Quote:The only solution I can think of at the moment would be to reinstall Linux, but I don't want to disturb the Windows installation (by messing up GRUB and meaning I wouldn't be able to get into it).

 

well all the new distros will pick up windows and add it to the list of boot options... in fact when creating a dual boot system this is the way you need to do it.. windows installed first, linux second, so the reinstall will be fine... i will argue that you should give it a bash at fixing :)

 

Quote:It might be something to do with the Nvidia 3D drivers (I've got NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200). SuSE doesn't include the drivers and the download appeared to fail.

 

ah... possible, X will attempt to load these drivers.. so maybe try the command line utilities from above in a bid to reinstall those? maybe try altering your X settings to use the default vga to see if it loads?

Thank you very much for your help and assistance, but to be honest, I think it will be easier just to reinstall, as it virtually a completely new install anyway.

 

It leaves the question, though, if I reinstall and try the NVIDIA driver installation again (which I presume is the problem considering it didn't install properly and it only crashes when going graphical), will I be faced with the same problem?

 

Hopefully sometime I'll get round to sorting it out, but thanks for your help again.

yast includes an nvidia driver (as you probably noticed)

 

before you update again (when you've reinstalled) backup your xorg.conf to a safe place

 

then go and update the nvidia driver (and make note of any error messages that you may see)

 

if it fails again, simply copy back the xorg.conf and you are good to go

 

the file is located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 

cheers

 

anyweb

Right. I've finally got round to reinstalling SuSE and was going to try anyweb's strategy of backing up xorg.conf, but I can't find it o_O. I'm running as root and have checked /etc/X11 and done a file search in /etc/.

 

 

Where is it? :/

Quote:Right. I've finally got round to reinstalling SuSE and was going to try anyweb's strategy of backing up xorg.conf, but I can't find it  o_O. I'm running as root and have checked /etc/X11 and done a file search in /etc/. 

 

Where is it?  :/

 

it is possible that you have XFree86 installed rather than Xorg.. so look for filenames like:

 

XFConfig86-4

XFConfig86

 

Both are valid names for XFree86 config files..

X is probably not configured, in my fedora box i didn't need to configure it, but in my freebsd box /etc/X11/xorg.conf was missing.. just run



(that's if your running Xorg), it will create a file called xorg.conf.new or something like that.

that configuration file is what Xorg thinks is the best, copy it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and tweak it as you like.