I'm having a problem getting SUSE 10.0 to install on my brother's
computer (he's 8000 km away from me, so this is all done via the phone
:-P ).

Hardware:
-----------------
Motherboard = MSI 865 PE Neo2
RAM = 1 GB (2 x 512 MB Kingston)
Video = MSI nVidia FX5200
Sound = SB Audugy
Modem = Motorolla (hardware, not Winmodem)
Hard drives
   = 2xsamsung 80GB on IDE1/2, liteon combo and liteon DVD-RW on IDE3/4
   = 2x SATA drives (1st is 160 GB, 2nd is 400 GB)

WinXP Pro is installedon 400 GB SATA drive and it is normally set to
be the primary...

For the initial install, the 2 SATA drives were physically unplugged
(power only). and SUSE was installed on the first 80 GB IDE drive. 
The second 80GB IDE drive is unformatted and unpartitioned at this
point.  (because this is just a test install for someone who is brand
new to Linux we decided that Linux should run on it's own without
knowing about or talking to the WinXP install... thus the Windows/SATA
drives were removed from the equation).

The SUSE installer worked OK, but when the comptuer did it's initial
reboot during the install, we only got a black screen immediately
after the normal Grub menu.  Unplugged the data cables from the SATA
drives and tried again.  This time it worked, and SUSE was able to
boot and finish installing.

Shut down SUSE, plugged the data and power back in for the SATA
drives, and returned to working in Windows.

When time came again to experiment with Linux on this comptuer, the
boot order was changed in the BIOS so that the IDE 1 drive was checked
first and booted using GRUB.  GRUB came up with it's normal boot menu,
and normal boot to Linux is selected... and promptly gave only a black
screen - no X cursor, no "Loading Linux" screen... left for 10 minutes
just in case it was stuck on something... still nothing (exactly as
happened during the install).

We thought this might be due to the SATA drives, so shut down, and
physically unplugged the data and power cables from the SATA drives
and attempted to boot again.  Still got the black screen immediately
after selecting SUSE 10 in the GRUB menu (this means that we can't
even get to a Linux terminal at this point).

OK, so maybe something went wrong in the install... re-installed SUSE
10 (SATA data and power were disconnected).  The initial reboot
worked, and SUSE 10.0 finished installing, and worked fine for the
entire session... Shut down, and plugged in the SATA cables and
returned to Windows.

Tried rebooting back to Linux (with SATA plugged in, and IDE1 set as
primary boot).  GRUB came up, and SUSE 10 is selected.  Immediately we
get a black screen.  Unplugging the SATA cables does not help.

OK, so decided to install with the SATA drives as part of the
available hardware - as in allowing SUSE to be aware of the Windows
install.  The first part of the install went fine, and the installer
was able to find the Windows partitions on the SATA drives, mount
points were identified etc.  Then the initial reboot happened, GRUB
was shown, SUSE10.0 selected , and black screen.

Rebooted, Grub came up, select Windows in the Grub menu... and it
failed... cannot boot to Windows either.

Went back into the BIOS, reset the primary boot drive from the IDE1 to
the SATA drive that has Windows installed.

This is where we're stuck now.  Windows is working fine, but nothing
we do seems to work to keep Linux bootable.

What might be the problem?  Anyone have any suggestions wherre we can
go with this?  This is the first time I've ever encountered a problem
like this...

C.

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