If you have a Core 2 Duo/Quad capable motherboard and are getting an error message about the OpenSUSE installer not being able to find the CD/DVD after you have already booted from it, the problem is likely with your IDE controller. In some modern motherboards, the parallel ATA controller has been taken out of the chipset and moved to a third-party drive controller. That third party driver is produced by JMicron, and this problem most famously occurs in the Asus P5B motherboard, though other brands and models can be affected as well. In my case it was the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 board.
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode
First, it will help to do a quick work around in your BIOS. Press the Del, F1, or F2 key to get into your system BIOS just after powering it on. Proceed to the “Integrated Peripherals” section. Under “Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode”, set it to AHCI mode, then save and exit the BIOS setup utility. The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is an interface specification that allows the storage driver to enable advanced Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queuing and hot plug. Here is a list of Intel chipsets that support AHCI.
Load the Kernel module drivers
Now boot from the openSUSE CD 1 or DVD. You’ll should still get the same message, but now you’re set to work around it:
- Press Enter to get past the error message, then choose your language in the following screen. That will bring you to the main menu.
- Use the down arrow key to select the Kernel Modules option and press Enter.
- In the next screen press Enter again to select the default option for IDE/RAID/SCSI Modules.
- In the long list that follows, find both the JMicron and the Generic IDE drivers, select them, press Enter, then press Enter again when you’re asked for special options to pass to them. You will have to do this twice, one time for each driver.
- When you return to the kernel module screen, use the Tab or arrow keys to select Back, and press Enter.That should put you back into the Main Menu.
- Now select the option for Start Installation or System and press Enter, then select Start Installation or Update and press Enter.
- And lastly select the CD-ROM as the source and press Enter. The normal graphical installation procedure should now commence.
If the above does not work, write down the installation source mirror addresses from the openSUSE website and use it to install openSUSE over FTP. The only difference in the procedure will be to change the above instructions to select FTP instead of CD-ROM as the source. Good-luck!
WARNING. If you are a Windows user, you can’t just jump into the BIOS and enable AHCI. It changes the way the bus communicates and it will cause a “Blue Screen of Death”. You’ll need to reinstall if you want to use AHCI
Stumble it!