Hints & Tips for S.u.S.E. Linux

Systems with 1GB (or more) RAM

Attempts to install with 1GB or more RAM fail. The message VFS: Insert Root floppy and press Enter is displayed on the system console. If the system memory is later increased to 1GB or more, the system PANICs at boot time, with the message: VFS: Cannot open root device 08:21 kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:21 A solution is to install the system with less than 1GB RAM, and, after installation, to add the line "append mem=xxx" to the file /etc/lilo.conf before installing the extra memory. The xxx refers to the target memory size. Please refer to your S.u.S.E. documentation for full details. This problem has been reported to S.u.S.E.

System Disk Partitioning

Users may find that the default partition size for the /boot filesystem is too small to allow a kernel to be built. If this problem is encountered, the solution is for the user to manually partition the system disk, and choose values for the /boot filesystem greater than those provided as default.

System Disk Selection

The installation process limits the number of disks on to which installation may take place to eight. The 8 disks offered in the installation list are the first 8 disks seen on all the SCSI controllers. This may pose a problem if the required disk is not on the offered list. The user should limit the number of disks at installation time to be 8 or less.

Using both On-Board SCSI Adapters and additional SCSI/RAID Adapter(s)

Several problems have been found on systems that have disks fitted to BOTH the on-board SCSI adapter and an additional SCSI/RAID adapter. The installation of Linux appears successful, but when the system is rebooted, either some disks are no longer available, or the system fails to boot. Until these problems are resolved users are recommended to restrict usage to a SINGLE adapter.

Using Large Numbers of Hard Disks

There appears to be a problem accessing large numbers of hard disk drives. On a system fitted with 14 (fourteen) hard drives only the first twelve (12) could be accessed. Users are therefore not recommended to use more than 12 (twelve) hard drives.

Multiprocessor [SMP] Kernel

There does not appear to be an option at installation time to create a multi-processor kernel. Users are expected to generate one after installation by recompiling the kernel, making sure that the SMP option is selected during the make menuconfig stage. Users should also use the options for building a large kernel image (i.e. use make bzImage and make bzlilo) - see also 'System Disk Partitioning' above.

Generating an SMP Kernel

If the system disk is connected to a RAID controller, and there are other disks conected to the on-board SCSI controller channel(s), attempts to reload after building a new SMP kernel fail. This does not happen if all disks are connected to the RAID controller.

Using the dd utility with the SLR QIC Tape Drive

Users are NOT recommended to use the dd command in conjunction with the SLR QIC Tape Drive.

Wrong number of CPUs Listed [L8i]

The /proc/cpuinfo file gives the wrong number of CPUs in the system - it includes disk backplanes as CPUs. The correct information is available in the KDE Control Center under processor information.

Installation on C800i with dual 700MHz Coppermine processors

When the operating system is installed on C800i servers using dual 700MHz Coppermine processors, the OS reports zero bytes cache for both processors, even though the BIOS reports 256KB. This problem does not exist on 600MHz processors. The BIOS version used was BIOS vR03-D4 F0.