Hello,

I'm kinda new to the world of Linux - I've not even managed to install it yet. I've tried a couple of live CDs, which worked fine, so I bought SUSE 9.2 with the intention of dual booting for now.

It's turned up today, so I've tried to install it. The first few screens are fine, but as soon as it tries to start YaST it all goes a bit wrong! The mouse pointer and text are pretty big, the colours are all weird and it's all pretty illegible.

I'm not sure what I need to do... Maybe this is a bad sign, and it's only going to go down hill from here!

Any help would be much appreciated

PC details:
Dell 2350
Windows XP (SP2)
60GB HD, 512MB RAM
Intel graphics card

I'm not sure about the monitor model, or if this affects anything, but it's a Dell flatscreen, 17".

This is probably going to be a monitor/graphics card configuration problem with the installer. Most usually, this means that the wrong monitor (LCD) was detected, and it's trying to drive it out of its specifications — for example, by specifying a graphics mode that's too big for the refresh rate.

All is not lost. Insert disk one and boot off it. When you are prompted to (shortly after the BIOS memory check), start the install with vgalo or text. This should clear the problem.

You can also get more debugging information by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 through Ctrl+Alt+F7 to switch between the various install screens.

Hope that helps,

— Robert J. Lee

Thanks a lot for getting back to me.

I did try a few of the other install options, but they all resulted in the same thing.

I didn't try the text install as I doubted whether the GUI would be ok once everything was installed if YaST wont run right now.

Any ideas? If you reckon everything should be ok graphics-wise when I've installed, I'll give text only a go!

right at the start of the install, you can hit f2 to select the screen size for the install, you may want to try a different setting to get you through the install. you'll do the actuall xserver configuration after the packages are installed so you'll have a chance to set it properly then.

I tried all the options offered on F2, and also ACPI disabled install! YaST is just refusing to come up looking anything like normal, although it has managed a different colour on each try I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be pink though!

Like I said, if YaST looks messy now, how will KDE or (whatever I decide to use) work once I've installed? I don't want to partition mt HD and install SUSE only to find I can't use it.

Edit: I guess if I do a text install I can configure anything that doesn't work display-wise later...?

I don't want to be stuck with Windows forever... If I manage to get SUSE installed, my modem will be the next problem but I'll cross that bridge when (or if) I get to it!

Just because YaST doesn't detect your display properly to run the installer doesn't mean that it will get it wrong when you install the system.

I would advise that you perform a text-based install, and try and set the graphics driver to a generic VESA driver; this has the best chance of working.

It's a lot easier to fix the monitor and graphics card configuration after the install; yast will let you configure and tweak a lot of different options with the graphics card, monitor and so on at this point; the installer can just autodetect/guess and then hope.

If necessary, you can also use xf86config or even hand-edit /etc/x11/XF86Config; however, you need to install the system to a read/write device in order to do this.

Ok, thanks rjlee. I'll give that a go and see how it works. I've had a good look about and stuff, and my graphics card is supported. I've also tested the CD on another PC and it works fine, so no problems there either!

I'll give text based install a shot and see how it works out! Lol I might be back...and on another PC if this screws up


Thanks a lot for your help everyone!

Hi,

Just to save you sometime, I have tried every single possible configuration but to no avail. I am also having problem with the bootloader (GRUB) after I installed SUSE 9.2 in text mode. GRUB hangs at begining.

If you ever come across a viable solution please let me know.

Good luck.

Maher

On my Toshiba A75 Satellite, the SUSE 9.2 Installer picked the wrong screen resolution (VGA 800x600), so after the final reboot, I signed on with my just-created userid/password, started up /system/configuration/SaX2, selected the "color and resolution" link, then "properties", then "resolutions for 16-bit colors", and selected XGA 1024x768. SaX2 will (wrongly) say it can't do this, but will then allow you to test it & then set it to this mode. Catch 22 -- YAST cannot be used, because in VGA mode the "SAVE CONFIGURATION" is off the screen and can't be hit.
Regards,
Moonrover

You can always use keyboard shortcuts to press the button, even if you can't see it. Use tab to switch between controls and Enter to activate the button, or just hit Alt+S (note that S is underlined in "Save Configuration").

This works for all KDE and Gnome applications, and most other apps too. Very few programs actually need a mouse at all.