OpenSUSE Install :: Fresh Install 11.4 Blocks At Splash Screen On Reboot

I ordered a SuSE 11.4 installation DVD from an online Linux Distro distributer that I've used before with no problems. I did this rather than burn my own DVD from the website. I thought that I might perform a fresh install of SuSE 11.4 on this Dell 1420 Laptop that is currently running Ubuntu 11.04.

Note, this is a completely fresh install, not a side-by-side installation with Ubuntu; I followed the installation sequence that completely repartitions the entire disk for SuSE, and accepted all of the suggested options regarding logon, etc.

Everything goes well ... sort of. The first install didn't reboot correctly, i.e., the set-up that is supposed to run after the initial install never happened and I had to manually power-down the machine and restart from the "safe mode." Needless to say, that didn't work as expected. So, I re-install, from scratch, trying different options: for instance, instead of LVM, I decide to have an un-encrypted partition scheme and accept the "obvious" options ... thinking that the LVM options interacted badly with the install. Eventually I get the installation to proceed correctly, or so it appears: it goes though the entire sequence, including the re-boot, building the default image, etc.

I test this image by removing the DVD, power-cycling the machine, and all looks good, so I begin the process of installing software updates, etc. Being paranoid, I re-boot the machine, and all restarts correctly, etc.

Now here's the annoying thing. The next day, I power the machine on, and it locks at the splash screen. By the way, these are the exact symptoms that I experienced with the bogus/incomplete installations. The boot sequence proceeds up to the splash screen and waits forever.

So, in sum: I spent inordinate amounts of time attempting to install this software, carefully following the instructions provided by the installer. In every instance, after leaving the machine off for a day or so and rebooting, I am met with a splash screen that sits forever. Needless to say, I am extremely reluctant to repeat another day of software installation to only have to re-start with no assurances of success. Either I go back to ugly Ubuntu (which has always worked out of the box, by the way), or I look at other options. I was hoping to use SuSE, but I really don't care which distro is on that machine as long as it works and it provides TeX, R, Emacs, Scheme, and a few other software packages that I'm sure are of no interest to your customer base.