SUSE 9.0 install won't boot

[MarcD]

I have been running SUSE 8.1 successfully for a long time. But when I tried to do the auto update to the new kernel back in Nov, it refused to boot, and I had to return to the original installation.

Now tried to install SUSE 9.0 and got the same behavior, will not boot. Hangs up on sound card start-up, and boot never completes. I tried the usual fail-safe boot parameters such as nodma, noapic, noacpi, etc.

The odd thing is that the kernel of SUSE9.0 is 2.4.21 which is the same as Knoppix 3.2, which works successfully on this system. So it seems not likely to be the kernel itself, but maybe the SUSE hardware detection, or SUSE config files.

How to debug this problem, given that Knoppix will boot up AOK??

Hardware: Dell Optiplex GX1, PIII 500 MHZ, 384 MB memory, 10G and 40G disks, CD/DVD. BIOS is updated to latest version (A10 I think).

Thanks for your help, Marc D.

[Bowtie]

Some of the obvious things to check would be that PnP is disabled in you bios. Try doing the install with the acpi disabled and see if that helps. I don't really know what makes it kind of quircky. I've loaded it on most of my systems here with no problems, but a buddy of mine can't get it to install on any of his....LOL Make sure you have the onboard sound disabled if you are using a PCI sound card. If you are using the onboard, just watch and make sure it is using the right module for it.