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General Support - Upgrade X issue

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 04:43 Uhr
Titel: Upgrade X issue

Sorry for this long letter. Probably too much information, and then there surely be something important I left out. Anyhow...

I friend gave me her computer to do some stuff on. I noticed that she had not updated in a long time. In fact one of the repositories was pointing to the wrong place. After doing: apt-get update. I then did apt-get upgrade. A long list of packages to be upgraded showed as well as a long list of packages that were being held back.
Everything seemed fine after that upgrade. I didn't reboot or anything.
Then I went through dselect immediately it picked up all the packages being held back. I had to resolve a few dependency issues, but I finally got all the packages upgraded.

Then, I reboot!

X doesn't want to work. It was only then I remember that xserver had gone through a major change (from xfree86 to xorg).

I should note at this point that she has a PCI nvidia card.

I recall that the main errors had to do with the modules for "mouse" and something like "speed" not being there. But also there was an error about nvidia and gxl.

After much work, I decided to pop in the latest Kanotix CD. I then took it's /etc/X11 directory and copied it to another computer. Then after rebooting into the computer, I first tried just using that saved X11 directory. Didn't work. I tried working on a combination of the old X11 and the "new". Nothing work. In fact a new error had to do with a missing "nv" module.

In the end I decided to remove all xserver packages. I even removed the X11 directory and reinstalled all the xserver packages.

Nonetheless still not working. Many of the same errors.

Can anyone give me some advice on what approach I might take to get X11 back up?

Thanks.

Curtis

h2 - 28.06.2006, 05:08 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

did you keep the old xorg file?

If you didn't, you're pretty much out of luck I think.

Old installs require a series of fixes to be run, but if you changed xorg.conf and can't restore the original you may not be able to fix the stuff at all.

this script:
http://techpatterns.com/forums/about736.html

will take any kanotix from 2005-4 up to full upgrade, but it won't undo the stuff you did to try to fix it, so I have my doubts that it would work.

If you did keep a copy of xorg.conf, then restore the copy, then run that script, and see if it can get it running, my guess, again, is that it can't.

If this is a pre 2005-4 release then my script will not work and should not be used, and your install is probably completely hopeless I'd guess.

piper - 28.06.2006, 05:20 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

Wait

You never said what distro you were using !!!!

cavaughan hat folgendes geschrieben::

X doesn't want to work. It was only then I remember that xserver had gone through a major change (from xfree86 to xorg). Curtis

Is this Debian Sarge, Red Hat, Mandrake, old Kanotix, more info

h2 - 28.06.2006, 05:21 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

piper: a shrewd, keen question, biting to the core of the matter, LOL....

I'll assume it's kanotix though since he is posting on a kanotix forum. If it's not kanotix then the poster is on his own I think.

PS: script now features happy colors that make it easier to see what's going on

piper - 28.06.2006, 05:43 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

happy happy Smilie

I am too old to assume Smilie

Maybe i am too tired and should go to bed

2radical - 28.06.2006, 05:59 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

Your printer probably won't work

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 06:03 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

Oh no. It's definitely Kanotix. I wouldn't have posted here otherwise.

h2 - 28.06.2006, 06:15 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

2radical has been having printer problems and is not happy. I, on the other hand, swore off printers 2 years ago, and am happy.

piper - 28.06.2006, 06:41 Uhr
Titel: RE: Upgrade X issue

cavaughan

I did have to ask, xfree was a long time ago Smilie

better safe than sorry

FantaC - 28.06.2006, 13:26 Uhr
Titel: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

piper hat folgendes geschrieben::

Maybe i am too tired and should go to bed

You did tell me you were going to have an early night, so we could dream together, don't want you tired when I get there. Winken

gs - 28.06.2006, 14:54 Uhr
Titel: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

@cavaughan: seems to me that the best solution would be an update-install using either Kanotix-2005-04-CD or, more recent, Kanotix-Easter-rc4.
This will install a "new" Kanotix and preserve your home etc.

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 16:11 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

That last suggestion sounds great! I will give it a go if h2's script does work.
BTW, when I run the Kanotic CD should I let it boot up into the GUI or enter certain parameters from the start up screen for doing the "update-install"?

Thanks

piper - 28.06.2006, 16:13 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Hi cavaughan Smilie

A very good read

How can I install Kanotix to my hard drive?

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 18:07 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

BTW, after doing h2's script, I'm now back to the errors for starting X that I had at first.

That is: it's complaining that there is no module for "mouse" nor for "speedo".
Specifically: No Input driver matching `mouse'
But modconf shows the necessary mouse protocol.

Now if I go to xorg.conf I see that the PS/2 mouse (which is what I am using) is pointing to /dev/psaux. However, i know that my mouse seems to be at /dev/input/mouse
But I'm not sure that that matters at this point.

If you think I'm just as good off doing the "update-install" and not worrying about all the stuff I just wrote about, then I will proceed with that.

Thanks

piper - 28.06.2006, 18:38 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Actually I would do a fresh install of easter rc 4, but that is just my opinion Smilie

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 18:42 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Being impatient and having looked at how to update Kanotix with the CD, I have proceeded on with those instructions. Hope this works!

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 18:44 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Well, I would do it, but it's not my computer. It's a friends and I don't want to lose anything she may have on there. I realize I could do a backup, but ....

piper - 28.06.2006, 18:45 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Good luck, Smilie

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 18:56 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

UH OH!
So, it was copying whatever it needed to copy prior to deleting the root dir. It finished that and then appeared to be doing absolutely nothing.
I tried launching and terminal to see what it was doing, if anything. Unable to do that, I wanted to switch to a terminal screen "Alt+Ctrl+F1-6". Now the thing is frozen. I don't think it's doing anything.
So, now the question may become, what do I do to make sure I have her data and install a fresh copy. I could remove the HD, but it in another Linux comp and hopefully copy the data off. Or could I again start from the CD and try upgrading?

piper - 28.06.2006, 19:07 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Are you sure it is frozen ? I only used the update program once to check it out and see if it works (it did) but it did take a while to finish, longer than a fresh install. That was a while ago. I don't know if at this time the data is lost or not Traurig

, You might want to put in the CD and see if you can see her data, after you wait a little bit to make sure it is frozen or still updating, I am not that familiar with the updating thing as I have only used it once, maybe someone else will come along and give their opinion.

h2 - 28.06.2006, 19:16 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

and that is the answer to why you should keep /home on another partition.

By the way, you still didn't post what kanotix version this was to begin with unless I missed it somewhere.

As I said, pre 2005-4 versions cannot safely be upgraded.

I'm not surprised the install script didn't work, you did too many guess type things before checking here, very little can be done in those cases, which is why piper's rates go to $75 an hour if you tried fixing it yourself, LOL...

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 19:17 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Well, it's still sitting there, but there is no drive activity. That's what worries me. I'll let it sit a little longer, but then ---- I don't know...

cavaughan - 28.06.2006, 19:25 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Waited long enough. So I rebooted with the CD. I see that it's created an entirely new root structure and that all the saved information is in the directory /kanotix-upgrade
So, what the best procedure to continue?
I'm thinking I'm going to scp all the upgrade info to a server and just do a fresh install.

piper - 28.06.2006, 19:31 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

Are you saying that it did indeed save her stuff ? or did I misunderstand.

If that is the case, I would do what you said (server) and do a fresh install of easter rc4, because that way you know doing a dist-upgrade will be much smoother as rc4 is the most recent.

gs - 28.06.2006, 20:16 Uhr
Titel: RE: Re: RE: Upgrade X issue

@cavaughan: I have done update-installs more than a dozen times - no problem, /root and /home has always been preserved without any extra doings -
I follow the link to FAQ which Piper has given, i.e. boot the Kanotix-CD, click the fish symbol next to K-Menu, choose kanotix-installer and then you are offered the option "update an existing Kanotix-Hd-Installation". Click on it, in the next menu select the partition your "old" install resides, select the place for Grub, click Enter and you will be offered a console where you have to type "Yes".....and everything goes by itself - takes about 10 minutes on my PC
I f I where to save data from my old partition I would also boot the lifeCD. You can then mount your partitions and copy any data you want to another partition or another drive.......
good luck, whatever you will do...