The System Hangs During Installation or in Operation

Support knowledgebase (wessels_noapic)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.3
Kernel: Version 2.4.10

Symptom

  1. YaST2 aborts installation after lilo has been installed.
  2. The system completely freezes after you switch to the text console
  3. The text console's screen saver cannot be disabled. The screen remains black.
  4. You obtain a black screen when you start invoking SaX(2).
  5. The system crashes when you log out from KDE.
  6. The system hangs in case of multiple and simultaneous hardware access

Cause

The cause is a start option.

Solution

Before the installation

Select the option Installation - Safe Settings from the YaST2 installation menu or add the option noapic to menu item Installation. The following entries should be displayed in the prompt line:


linux noapic 

or

linux disableapic

The installation process should be carried on as usual.

After the installation

Edit the file /etc/lilo.conf as root. Open the file through an editor of your choice (e.g. vi, emacs, pico...) and search for the following line:


append="enableapic vga=0x0317"

and change it into


append="noapic vga=0x0317"

Then execute the command


lilo

It is possible that the option noapic does not solve the problem on some boards. Please insert in this case disableapic instead of noapic in the respective lines and restart (CTRL+ALT+DEL) the system after this. If you use a boot floppy disk, please make sure that

your floppy disk drive is specified:

 
boot=/dev/fd0
 

in line

 
boot=/dev/xxxx
 

and that a diskette is in the floppy disk drive when invoking the command lilo.

Modification with YaST2

Reboot your computer and select in the first selection mask:

Installation - Safe Settings

YaST2 is started for the installation. Please select language, time zone, and keyboard layout in the respective dialogs. In the mask Install SuSE Linux select:

Boot installed system

YaST2 recognizes that the installation is uncomplete and continues from the point where the installation was interrupted. Finish now the installation.

After the installation has been successfully completed, login as a normal user in the graphical login mask. Once your desktop is displayed, start YaST2 and open the following dialog:

  1. Click under "Sections" on the entry "linux".
  2. Click on the button "Edit".
  3. Click on the button "Expert settings...".
  4. Select the line with the expression "append".
  5. Click on the button "Edit".
  6. Replace "enableapic" with "disableapic".
  7. Click on the button "OK".
  8. Click on the button "Next".
  9. Click on the button "Next" again.
  10. Click on the button "Finish".
  11. Answer the confirmation question with "Yes".

Now you can leave YaST2 and should not encounter any further difficulties when booting your Linux system.


Keywords: INSTALLATION, NOAPIC, ENABLEAPIC, ABORT, YAST2, CD1, DISABLEAPIC, SAX2, CRASH, BLACK, TEXT CONSOLE

Categories: Installation

SDB-wessels_noapic, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 13. Nov 2001
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 26. Mär 2002 by glazzar (sdb_gen 1.40.0)