I'm taking a Linux Class at my Community College. We are using OpenSuSE 10.2. I tried to get it installed at home but it doesn't install. When I tried the "installation" it doesn't work. I treid the "Safe Install" and it goes through and stops at "failure unknown" I've tried reinstalling and get to the same part and it won't finish.

I've tried 6 different distros and none will install. Kubuntu will install but the screen is distorted (the edge of the window is curved like an s).

I really need SuSE to install so I can do Home work.

I have an ECS Motherboard running an Althlon XP 2400+, two Maxtor HD's, Asus ATI 128mb Radeon Video Card, 512mb Kingston RAM, DVD-RW and CD-Rom Drives.
Running Win XP (I have vista but it's just sitting in the shelf because I don't even want to open up a post asking about getting Vista and SuSE running if I can't get XP and SuSE).

A few years a go when I first tried Linux all the distros worked.
Now when I need one, it doesn't. What can I do to get SuSE up and running? Any Ideas? Thank you,
Chris.

First give us more info, how are you trying to install and with what (cds or dvd or internet installation)? If using cds or dvd is your bios set to boot your cd/dvd drive? If yes to these questions tell us how far the installation proceeds or the message you get from the start.

I would add this question:

Where did you get the cd? Did you download and burn it yourself, or was it provided by the school? In either case, having that much difficulty installing, I'd have to suspect a corrupted image. Try downloading and burning again (don't forget to check the md5sum to verify the download).

Another useful yet time-consuming option would be to run memtest. Most of the distro installation disks come with that test. Run it & see your RAM is working good. (But since you are saying that XP runs fine, I would assume your memory is OK.)
Continue with bigrigdriver's suggestion, if that fails too, most likely your DVD/CD drives have some problem - lens cleaning etc. needed.

It appears you have a lot of questions to reply happydog500. Here is another one: how much free space do you have on the hard disk?

bigrigdriver I may be assuming to much:
Quote: I've tried 6 different distros and none will install. Kubuntu will install but the screen is distorted (the edge of the window is curved like an s). I presume at least one of the disks is a good one. I guess they could have all come from one source.

They all came from different sources. I tried two form school and burned one myself (SuSE). The other CD's work on my friends computer. The Live CD's that don't work on mine work on other computers.

I install from CDs. BIOS is set to boot from CD first. Most distros start to install but fail after they get going when all the words scroll.

Four when they start up the screen goes blank and they stop.

I did forget to mention I have a Compro TV Tunner card.

I have two displays on my video card. One ("1") I see on my computer and the "2" I have hooked up to my TV. I record TV on HD and watch it on my TV. When the screen goes blank, I turned on the TV and I can see the screen on TV (distro froze), not on the monitor.

That is on the distros that go blank. SuSE doens't go blank. It stops at, "task_out_iutr: status=0x58 {DriveReady SeekComplete Datarequest} faild upcode was: unknown."

Does this tell what cold be wrong? Strange that I have a computer that won't run any Linux.

I thought I was unsing the same computer as a few years a go when several Linux distros installed. After thinking about it, I realized I changed my MB and CPU, put eveything on the new ECS board. Sholuldn't be a problem tho.

There is a SuSE install fest in my state (150 miles) but it isn't for a couple months. I wanted this up and running before then to do homework.

Thanks to you at the linux community for helping, keep the suggestions comming. I/we need to get Linux going. Thank you,
Chris.

From the Google Search I found there are problems installing the Compro TV card in linux causing the screen to freeze. Try to remove the card and see if the distro will install. You also didn't mention the make and model of your video card. Some of the higher end video cards give some problems also.

Just for clairity,

During the install, you've past the point of choosing software components to install and all hardware detection (anything not showing up?).

2. The harddrive space for linux has been alloted and formatted (you've shrunk the windows partition). What file system chosen? Along this line, in Win you turned off its swap and ran defrag yes?

install fails during file xfer or after first install-reboot? Or do you not even get to the point of doing any of the above?

I know, I know, nothing but questions and no answers. Yet.

I gave a very detailed answer with some other stuff that might help yesterday. I come back now and my post isn't here.

I have two HD. One is for OS/Programs, the other is for Media (audio, TV shows I haven't got around to putting on DVD yet). I had the OS allready partitioned with Windows getting 25 and a free 15 (app.) I installed Linux to the open free space with ext3 I think. I let SuSE do the install. I did a couple times myself but got the same thing.

I'm a defrag nut. I keep mine defragged all the time.

I will try again without my TV Tunner Card and post back when it stops. I need to focus on going to class to take my first test. It's 1/3 of my grade. Only have a half hour.

A few years a go they installed with my TV Card. Chris.

I had one not long ago that the previous owner had tried to install a bunch of different distros. I had to use cfdisk to delete the existing partitions and start over again. Suse installed without a problem from there.

I went home and tried another with my TV Tuner Card out. I first got to a place farther then I was when it stops at boot up. Here is the last thing it said before stopping;

initializing virtual console...

Found a Linux Console terminal on /dev/tty (124 columns X 44 lines)

Creating universally unique ID.

Starting D-Bus daemon

Loading CPUFreq medules (cpu Freq not supported)

After that it just sits there. I first thought it got farther then it did before since I was past it. This was when I was (re)installling. When it booted up after the install, I got to the same place I stopped last time (Befroe what I just posted).

If at all possible, it would be good to see /var/log/boot.msg that would shows us something.
Looking at mine, at about that point, is where the ACPI daemon starts, which you can stop by putting acpi=off or noacpi in your boot options. This is usually a bigger problem on laptops and thats basically all i run Linux on(haven't done a desktop since suse 6.1).

just a thought.

Can I get the log if I can't get into SuSE? How?