[Solved] Upgrade issues

tacosdebirria · May 26, 2015, 04:46:40 PM

So, since i don't know where this should go (since i have no clue at all to who or exactly where it should go to) i'm going to post it here, and, if an admin wants to move, feel free to do so.

Anyway, starting with my situation.
I decided to upgrade the apps of my system (Using synaptic.)
I'm using Sparky Linux Gameover (the latest version, don't know which one.)
And well, while upgrading my power went out, and the upgrade didn't finished properly. I went back and tried to reboot my pc after my power came back, and there it was, a blank screen with a flashing underscore. It was happening in the same place where the login window should appear. (So the system could boot until one point but it kept trying to load something.)
I was able to get in to the tty console and i did some research on the web, it seems it was something about my display drivers being the wrong ones, and so i went and uninstalled the whole thing (x-server, xorg, nvidia drivers, etc.) and re-installed them again. That did not fixed the issue.
After the next reboot i kept getting the same issue: the blank screen with the blinking underscore.

And so, after researching a little bit more, i ended finding out another solution, it was just starting Debian using another Kernel. I did that, i selected another kernel and the system boot up properly.

The new Kernel i'm using is this one: 3.16.0-4-586
I don't know what was the kernel i was using before, when i found out about i will update this post.

Anyway, so, my issue is, does anyone know what exactly was the problem i had (and that i still have when i try to use my OS using the default kernel.), and if you know what it was, can i have a solution for it? Do you recommend me re-installing my Sparkylinux? what exactly should i do now?

Cheers.

*Solution*:

Quote from: tacosdebirria on June 11, 2015, 03:32:35 PM
...
I re-installed completely the 4.x kernels and that fixed the issue. No black screen, no underscore that kept blinking. I was able to log in to my computer again.
...

Yup, that was the solution: Re-installing the 4.x kernels completely.

pavroo · May 26, 2015, 08:15:48 PM

After loosing the power, the package manager did not finish installing new versions of the packages.
Many of them were broken so it is the main problem why you coudn't log in (in my way).
If the system works now, there is no reason to reinstall it.
Simply check and install all the updates (if any) again:

Code Select

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install -f

tacosdebirria · May 28, 2015, 01:44:28 PM

Oh yes, that was the first thing i tried to do after i was able to log back in to my computer, but, as stated before, i can't log-in using the latest kernel that i have installed (4.0.0-1-586), its still showing me a black screen with a blinking underscore.
After i tried doing the "sudo apt-get update" (using the 3.16.0-4-586 Kernel) it did not told me that some packages where broken or something like that, it was as if i have ran the command and it did not found updates (which i don't see it being strange considering it just upgraded all the available packages...)
And so, i also did the dist-upgrade as you recommended, and found that: "sparky-artwork" and "xfce4-panel" are packages that are not neccesary anymore and that they can be removed. I don't know if that has anything to do with my issue, but, considering it says xfce4-panel i don't feel confident about it.

Also, i was wondering something, if i update my kernel, ¿could that fix the issue, or at least give me another option to boot?; ¿wouldn't upgrading my kernel leave my computer unstable?
¿Instead of trying to fix this (which can be a little bit dangerous), should i just keep using the kernel 3.16... until i decide to upgrade to another version of the OS?

pavroo · May 28, 2015, 02:16:45 PM

Aahh...
You can't boot the system using the new kernel (after broken upgrading) you have installled manually.
Reinstall/upgrade kernel 4.0 - there is newer version in Sid repos 4.0.0-2
Refresh grub list:

Code Select

sudo update-grub
Then reboot.

You are using LXDE desktop so if the upgrade removed xfce4-power-manager or so (other xfce4 elements), you can remove xfce4-panel as well.

tacosdebirria · May 29, 2015, 02:21:07 PM

Well then. I shall upgrade my Kernel and see if that helps. But, before i do that, i'm going to get another Sparkylive USB, just in case... :P
I will report back and let you know if that fixed the issue.
Also, thanks for the help.

tacosdebirria · June 03, 2015, 01:27:34 PM

(Hopefully this doesn't count as flooding.)

So i installed the new kernel 4.0.0.2-586 and it still doesn't work. The same issue: a black screen with a blinking underscore.
So, pretty much 3.16.0-4-586 is the only kernel that for some reason works, and i don't really mind using it.
I''m gonna go ahead and reinstall the whole 4.+ kernels and see if that does something, if it doesn't work, then i'm just gonna leave this issue as open and see if someone ever gets a solution for it.

pavroo · June 03, 2015, 11:57:03 PM

It looks like for me, that the new kernel is missing a driver for your graphic card or is not loaded or something else?

tacosdebirria · June 11, 2015, 03:32:35 PM

(Late reply, i'm sorry.)

I finally fixed this issue. (I wasn't able to get an Internet connection so i wasn't able to do this until yesterday): I re-installed completely the 4.x kernels and that fixed the issue. No black screen, no underscore that kept blinking. I was able to log in to my computer again.
Thanks pavroo for your help and your tips.

Quote from: pavroo on June 03, 2015, 11:57:03 PM
It looks like for me, that the new kernel is missing a driver for your graphic card or is not loaded or something else?

I only re-installed the kernel, no drivers where touched, so, maybe there was a corrupted file or a broken configuration at the base of the 4.x kernels that was just being replicated over the new installations? I don't know. Although is weird that this wasn't fixed the first time i re-installed the 4.0.0-1 kernel. So, maybe there was a file that was not part of the 4.0.0-1 kernel but part of an older release that wasn't deleted/upgraded? i see this last option as the only and correct answer, considering that all of this happened because i was upgrading my system, the power went out (meaning that the upgrade did not finished properly) and my computer started having issues after that. So yeah, i think the mystery was solved? Yeah... maybe... We'll see :)
Thanks again for everything @pavroo

*I already updated the thread title and marked it as "solved"*