[PLUG] New computer

[John Jason Jordan]

On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:37:29 -0800
Tomas <tomas.kuchta.lists at gmail.com> dijo:

>If this is still relevant, unresolved, understanding you Ubuntu or
>whatever the distro you want as requirement.

Still unresolved. Ultimately I want Xubuntu 18.04, but since it is not
released yet my current plan is to install 17.10 and then do a
dist-upgrade in a couple months. But right now I just want to get
*something* that will boot.

The OpenSUSE that you installed will not boot. It starts, and then
hangs. I burned the ISO to a DVD and tried to use it to reinstall. It
got as far as 
>>>OpenSUSE Leap 42.2 installation programv5.0.87
starting udev...
And then it hangs.
For the version you installed there are other options, including a
recovery mode. I tried it but it hung on:
32.9125001 ata10.00: status: { DRDY }
32.9125091 ata10: hard resetting link

I have also tried Xubuntu 17.10, 17.04, 16.04, and they all hang.

I tried Knoppix 7.7 and it starts, but then hangs on 'Starting dbus...'

>Try to walk through this list in order:
>1. Is your bios up to date? If not, update it first.
>   That often helps with new shiny things PC.

The BIOS has a flash utility that will go out to the internet and flash
the BIOS. I used it and t finished saying '"The BIOS is up to date."
But it made no difference, still can't get anything to boot.

>2. Unless you have done something to the bios settings, boot
>   priorities or started another installation, you should be
>   able to get the openSuse installation going.

It hangs. See above comment.

>   - I would walk back the bios changes you might have made
>   and get that going for piece of mind and to become familiar
>   with the bios settings - particularly related to UEFI and
>   various legacy settings.
>   It is not given that disabling UEFI makes magically things work.
>   These days UEFI is more reliable than disabling it because
>   MS Win needs it, and needs it in locked down state.
>   - UEFI typically depends on number of bios settings - and often
>   the PC does not boot until the only combination is right.
>   - You can always use the "Reset CMOS" jumper to set BIOS to
>   defaults, if there is no Bios way resetting it to defaults.

This computer will never boot any version of Windows, so that is
irrelevant.  
Your comment about resetting the BIOS is something I had not yet tried,
so just now I did it. And I know it was successful because I got a
different start screen. But I still can't get anything to boot.

>3. Another thing is to try, after you are back to default bios
>   settings would be to choose the SSD as boot in the boot menu (F11).
>   Bios sometimes sets the last used boot device as default for
>   the next boot.

This BIOS has an option to get the list of drives and what is on them
by pressing F11 when it boots. I can select either optical drive or the
SSD, and the SSD shows OpenSUSE twice - once as 'secure boot' and the
other blank. No matter, neither will boot. If there is a bootable USB
stick that will also appear in the list. 

>4. Failing all the above, try to make yourself opensuse 42.3 usb boot
>   stick. It just worked, so the chances are that it will just work
>   again. It would not achieve your favorite distro setup, but it
>   could take you to the right track and turn the brick to useful
>   device until you have new Ubuntu in a few months.

I already tried that, except I burned it to a DVD because I'm running
out of USB sticks. And I used 42.2 because I already had it downloaded.
It hangs like everything else.

There is a glimmer of hope: You installed Leap 42.3, so it must have
booted from your USB stick. As far as I know that is the only time when
any distro has actually booted. Somehow I need to get back to the state
it was in when you did that, but clearing the CMOS didn't do it. 

It's my bedtime. Maybe in the morning I'll think of something else. In
the meantime, thanks for the suggestions.