Chapter 9. Common Problems and Their Solutions

SUSE LINUX Documentation Part IV. Troubleshooting / Chapter 9. Common Problems and Their Solutions
	Part IV. Troubleshooting		9.2. Installation Problems

Table of Contents

9.1. Finding Information
9.2. Installation Problems
9.3. Boot Problems
9.4. Login Problems
9.5. Network Problems
9.6. Data Problems
9.7. Support for SUSE Linux

This chapter offers a range of common problems that can arise with SUSE Linux, with an intention of covering as many of the various types of potential problems as possible. That way, even if your precise situation is not listed here, there might be one similar enough to offer hints as to the solution.

9.1. Finding Information

Linux logs things in a fair amount of detail. This means that when things do go wrong, there is usually some information about what happened. Even if the logs do not tell you why (although they do, sometimes), you can at least get a head start on figuring it out. There are several places to look when you have problems with a SUSE Linux system, most of which are standard to Linux systems in general and some of which are peculiar to SUSE Linux systems.

The following is a list of the most commonly checked log files and what they typically contain.

Log File	Description
`/var/log/boot.msg`	Messages from the kernel during the boot process.
`/var/log/mail.*`	Messages from the mail system.
`/var/log/messages`	Ongoing messages from the kernel and system log daemon when running.
`/var/log/SaX.log`	Hardware messages from the SaX display and KVM system.
`/home/user/.xsession-errors`	Messages from the desktop applications currently running. Replace `user` with the actual username.
`/var/log/warn`	All messages from the kernel and system log daemon assigned WARNING level or higher.
`/var/log/wtmp`	Binary file containing user login records for the current machine session. View it with last.
`/var/log/Xorg.*.log`	Various start-up and runtime logs from the X Window system. It is useful for debugging failed X start-ups.
`/var/log/YaST2/`	Directory containing YaST's actions and their results.
`/var/log/samba/`	Directory containing Samba server and client log messages.

Linux comes with a number of tools for system analysis and monitoring. See Chapter 25, System Monitoring Utilities (↑Reference) for a selection of the most important ones used in system diagnostics.

Each scenario included in the following begins with a header describing the problem followed by a paragraph or two offering suggested solutions, available references for more detailed solutions, and cross-references to other scenarios that might be related.