Yesterday I went to boot my laptop, and it stopped halfway through. After pressing the escape key to see what was going on, I find that it is hung on a line stating something about the ReiserFS and some kind of activity log. A short search on the web reveals I need to reboot with ACMPI=off or something like that, and once again my system was willing to boot. I promptly shut down properly, and boot again before I get lulled into thinking anything is fixed. It does seem to be working.
Now my mouse doesn’t work. For whatever reason, the system boots without a mouse driver. I can install one after the fact, but as anyone who’s tried it knows, operating a windowed operating system without a mouse is like spreading peanut butter with a Twinkie. I know there is a setting in an rc file somewhere that will fix this. The question is whether I risk breaking something else to fix this, or just go through another install – after all, I’ve haven’t had much time to get anything on the machine to lose.
I’m guessing that these problems are the result of running YOU – Yast Online Update. One of the secret pleasures of Linux is that every name is either a nutty acronym or has some kind of historical significance. Or is just silly. Anyway, I don’t recall what Yast stands for, but it is the program that is similar to Control Panel & System Device Manager combined. By entering Yast, and tabbing and arrow-keying and entering I can get to a place where I can select that I have a Microsoft Intellimouse USB, and all is well. At least until the next reboot. So, I figure an hour to reinstall, another hour of getting a few things set the way a like them versus 4 to 6 hours learning and fixing….hmmm…
On the plus side, my Windows installation is also acting funky. My wife’s computer has no trouble whatsoever with the new router. Mine decides it doesn’t like the WEP settings. Either that, or it doesn’t like mixed mode – 802.11b and 802.11g at the same time. I’m not sure I’ll go to the trouble to figure out which it is. It’s stuff like this that makes a guy wonder if an OS is capable of being jealous and acting out of spite.
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Steve, though you may have gotten the answer already, check this out the next time you need to use Yast2 (whether you have use of a mouse or not)…
Fire up a terminal. Konsole would be fine, if you’re using KDE.
Maximize the terminal window.
Type: “su -” and hit enter. Type in your ‘root’ password when prompted. Inside this terminal, you’re now running as root (so be careful).
Now, type “yast2″. A non-graphical version of Yast2 will launch inside the terminal. You navigate by using your tab key. The selected option will be hightlighted in the terminal. No mouse required.
Another trick. After your system boots but before you log in to your graphical desktop, press “CTRL” + “ALT” + “F1″. This takes you out of your X session to a Linux terminal session. With SuSE, you may have to hit ‘ENTER’ after the “CTRL” + “ALT” + “F1″ but it shouldn’t be necessary.
Log in as your regular user then follow the “su -” instructions above to launch Yast2.
To return to X, log out and then press “alt” + “F7″.
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