Fatal mistakes in open-SUSE 11.1 Live CD
If you want to run the openSUSE Live CD, you must think about it twice. Because a critical mistake can ruin your PC. There is a configuration file “/etc/sysconfig/clock”, who sets the Hardware clock when the PC is rebooted or halts. The trouble is that some old motherboards do not update correctly (or the opeSUSE’s code is wrong). This “default” configuration can ruin the hardware and affect to other systems.
Yeah, your BIOS configuration becomes shit after you run openSUSE Live CD 11.1. This trouble has occurred on my Intel motherboard D865PERL. The trouble dissappear when you turns off this setting.
In the “/etc”sysconfig/clock” file, set the “SYSTOHC = no”.
More issues arise if you have a multi-boot system, with the hardware clock set to UTC. So, the changes made in openSUSE will change the clock in the other OSs. very bad, very bad. If you run a PC with hardware clock set to UTC, be carefull when use openSUSE 11.1 live CD.
I trust you have opened a bugzilla ticket yes?????
What a joke. The time setting is harmless ! Just change it back if for some reason your PC was wrong.
[...] interestingly, this Vista-themed blog claims that the OpenSUSE 11.1 Live CD can damage hardware. Is this true? Can anybody verify or [...]
Not yet, until i have time to do it. (I’m sorry)
I agree with you, but only in the case that the machine stores jokes. I think (IMHO) that openSUSE must establish in the forefront of the web page, that this “live-CD” changes the hardware clock. (and that in some rare cases, the BIOS can be corrupted). -bad checksum on boot-
The vista-theme is to perceive my disappointment with some linux distros, and since is a good wordpress-theme (I use the OS that works for each task) . Debian and the security packages, and now openSUSE modifies the hardware clock, without warning or some advice.
Vista works fine on the same PC, unbelievable (since is a Microsoft product); a D865PERL Intel motherboard, P-IV HT 3Ghz, 4GB RAM, running a RHEL-5 clone, openBSD and Vista Ultimate.
[...] so, is not a matter of an OSs war[...] is a real issue on “some hardware” with this openSUSE live-CD, maybe the password protected BIOS?
True. Asus MB, (p5xx-vm) 2 OSs, xp+suse11.1. I’m at GMT +2. Suse modifies bios clock +2 hours every time I ran it.
Otherwise no harm done.
Thanks for the tip, I’ve been searching for it.
Actually, the clock issue is a problem (LiveCD or Installed) for some ppl and making the change (set “SYSTOHC = no” in the /etc/sysconfig/clock file) that Marco provided does work.
However, Marco is incorrect about SUSE “ruining the hardware” or even about the “CMOS info becoming shit.”
For the few ppl affected, the time is changed in the other OS’s on a multi-boot system because SUSE is changing the hardware clock.
The machine dies about 12 hours (or more), after reading the processor and motherboard documentation, a possibility is that the RAM was corrupted too (one cannot adjust RAM slightly) since the wrong-update in the CMOS “disturb” other hardware or the ability of to identify it. So, only after a total discharge of the “capacitors” the machine was able to run again. These, are only suppositions -or superstitions-.
So, if the machine dies suddenly after running SUSE Live 11.1, give it a chance in the “styx” maybe “Charon” can return the MB to you.
It has long been looking for this information, Thank you for your work.