I just installed SuSE 8.1. I just switched to linux from windows. During installation I encountered a slight problem. When the SuSE installation screen came up, when I chose any of the options for installation, the screen would just go black after loading the kernel. Someone told me to try entering vga=normal. That worked and I was able to install it. After installing it linux boots up perfectly fine except the list of what's being loaded is on a dos looking screen instead of inside the SuSE bootloader screen. I'm just curious what the problem may have been. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Did you pick lilo rather than grub as your bootloader?

That might explain it.


If you feel like trying out different options to try to get your bootloader looking pretty (be careful), then keep in mind that you can always boot up an installed OS by using the first or second installation CD (I forget exactly which one). If it trys to boot up Windows then you don't have the correct option.


Here's my /boot/grub/menu.lst file:

gfxmenu (hd1,8)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title SuSE8.1
kernel (hd1,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc9 hdb=ide-scsi vga=791
initrd (hd1,8)/boot/initrd
title SuSE8.0
kernel (hd1,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc5 hdb=ide-scsi vga=791
initrd (hd1,4)/boot/initrd
title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1
title failsafe
kernel (hd1,8)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hdc9 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd1,8)/boot/initrd.shipped


And my /etc/grub.conf:


root (hd1,8)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd1,8)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit



John

my /boot/grub/menu.lst:
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd
title windows
root (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1
title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hda2 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.shipped

and my grub.conf:
root (hd0,1)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,1)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit

NOTE: Sorry about thread title being misleading. I fixed the CDRW issue myself.

They look remarkably similar...

So, the next step would be to install the grub loader.

http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/gnu/gru...r/grub_15.html

Basically you would run:

"grub-install /dev/hda"



I was wondering


John

Thanks but I don't know if I want to risk messing things up to where I have to reinstall again for the 20th time in 2 weeks. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a serious problem.

Okay I lied. I just installed it and no errors were reported, yet nothing is different.

Looky what I found:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/33627
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/36295

The important thing is this:

For SuSE, the would be "SPLASH=yes"


And in our neck of the woods no less.


John