Suse Linux 10 - trouble with booting into failsafe mode.

[Peter Swinkels]

Hello,

I have a strange problem with Suse Linux 10 on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. Each time I try to boot using the failsafe option, the system will hang after having displayed the following line of text:

"PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly."

The fact that it can't find any PS/2 ports is no surprise since the laptop has no PS/2 ports. The command it uses to boot into failsafe mode is as follows:

"kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume selinux=0 nsmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3"

Since I'm fairly new to Linux I can only make partial sense out of the above and have no idea of how to solve this problem. Fortunately Suse Linux boots fine when I boot it normally.

Any help with solving this problem would be appreciated.

[CodeRoot]

It might be worthwhile to tinker around with any BIOS "Plug and Play" setting(s)...

Do you have an "OS is 'Plug and Play' capable" setting? If you do, what is the current setting?

[Peter Swinkels]

No, unfortunately I can't find any setting that looks like what you are referring to.

[CodeRoot]

You can get several hits if you google the phrase (all or part of it) "PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly." - you might want to thin it out by including additional [single] words like suse, laptop, boot, hang, etc...

[Peter Swinkels]

Did you get any useful hits with those keywords? I did a search and I got hits alright, but nothing that looked useful. I could try again.

Edit:
I found lots of results, but nothing of use. What I find strange is that when booting normally, everything is alright but when using failsafe (of all things you would expect failsafe to always work), the systems hangs. Does any one know what tells the system to start probing for those ports and how to disable it?

[CodeRoot]

Did you get any useful hits with those keywords?

No - I did not look at them all -- but, I thought I would let you do that...

[oldcpu]

You could try a more pragmatic trial and error approach.

Take a look at the boot codes that FailSafe mode uses. Write them down.

Then boot to the regular mode. If it boots OK, then reboot, but add one of the Fail Safe parameters to the grub "options menu", each time you reboot. Eventually you will discover which Fail Safe Boot Code causes the problem.

This may take a couple of hours, but it will help narrow down to the boot code(s) that are causing the problem.

[Peter Swinkels]

Okay, the "acpi=off" switch is the cause of the system freezing. Now I have to figure out how to either remove that option permanently or what (if any) BIOS setting will need to be changed...

[devils casper]

Now I have to figure out how to either remove that option permanently

edit /boot/grub/menu.lst file and remove or add option.

[Peter Swinkels]

Okay, the problem has been solved. But, what does ACPI have to do with not being able to find PS/2 ports (which the computer really doesn't have in this case)?