Beware of Asus M2N-E SLI v. 1201 BIOS with Suse 10.3; creates need for boot editing.

DeekBeek · 02-26-2008, 12:47 PM

I just flashed the BIOS on my Asus M2N-E SLI mobo to version 1201 (barely posted at their website a day). Now, I can't boot OpenSUSE 10.3 without keying down the boot menu to failsafe, and placing "irqpoll" (without the quotation marks) and nothing else on that line. This information displayed for me, mixed in a slew of other stuff, when I first booted with plain failsafe mode. My regular openSUSE 10.3 menu selection just produces a black screen; no hard disk light activity (I have a dual-boot splash menu for Linux and Windows XP).
I can tell that this "irqpoll" option requires editing in Yast Control Center/System/Bootloader, but I don't know exactly how to enter it right. The last time I edited under Bootloader, I made my installation unusable.

Micro420 · 02-26-2008, 02:04 PM

you should put this in the HCL to let users know about this potential problem

linuxbeliever · 02-26-2008, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeekBeek

I just flashed the BIOS on my Asus M2N-E SLI mobo to version 1201 (barely posted at their website a day). Now, I can't boot OpenSUSE 10.3 without keying down the boot menu to failsafe, and placing "irqpoll" (without the quotation marks) and nothing else on that line. This information displayed for me, mixed in a slew of other stuff, when I first booted with plain failsafe mode. My regular openSUSE 10.3 menu selection just produces a black screen; no hard disk light activity (I have a dual-boot splash menu for Linux and Windows XP).
I can tell that this "irqpoll" option requires editing in Yast Control Center/System/Bootloader, but I don't know exactly how to enter it right. The last time I edited under Bootloader, I made my installation unusable.

By default your kernel should be selected when you enter into the bootloader, when you see this window select edit at the bottom when the window appears, type your command where it says optional kernel command line parameter put it before showopts command, and click ok at the lower right of the window; and reboot. That, should do it. Good luck!

DeekBeek · 02-27-2008, 10:53 AM

I can't make heads or tails out of what linuxbeliever says. The boot loader settings section under Yast has a section management tab, listing editable code of selections on my boot splash menu. I don't understand the syntax, which is why I'm afraid of it. My distro is 10.3, which may be different. Good thought, Micro420.

Micro420 · 02-27-2008, 09:49 PM

linuxbeliever is saying to amend the line on GRUB to add the 'irqpoll'. You can test the changes before actually making a permanent change to GRUB. Then if it works, then go ahead and edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst and add the 'irqpoll' option (maybe YaST can do this for you?). This way you won't have to manually keep typing it in when you boot up your computer.

Do not fear the bootloader (GRUB)!

DeekBeek · 04-20-2008, 08:21 AM

I finally did edit menu.lst (which has to be done as root), because that is the only way I could add the irqpoll option, apparently. Trying to do the same under Yast made my machine unbootable, on an earlier try. I spent some time with the 1102 BIOS re-installed, then put 1201 back. My first section of menu.lst (the "l" in ".lst" is a small L, not a 1) now looks like:

Code:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD3200AAKS-_WD-WCARW0298705-part2 vga=0x317 irqpoll resume=/dev/sdb5 splash=silent showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

As for placing info about the Asus M2N-E SLI in the HCL, I checked out the editing templates at the Suse/Novell portal, and gave up.