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Mandriva doesn't load


yossarian
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Hi everyone,

 

First of all, I'm not sure this topic belongs to this forum, so if this subject is irrelevant to the forum, I will appreciate it if you can point me to a place where I can get help, and I apologize in advance.

 

I've been running Mandirva on my PC for about three months now. Lately I upgraded to Mandriva 2007.1. I also update automatically every auto-update notification.

 

After a power supply break yesterday, I restarted my computer after about a week it ran with no interference. To my surprise, the OS didn't fully load. It was stuck in the presentation of the Gnome loading screen. After a few trials, it stopped loading at all: after typing the username and the password I get a black screen, and then back to the username screen again.

 

I tried to think what I did on the last days that could cause such a crash, and two things came to my mind:

1. I enabled the system sounds from the System->Preferences menu (I'm a bit skeptical about the relevancy of this issue, but I try to share as much information as I can, I'm no expert and I want to give you as full picture as I can).

2. I downloaded some updates and installed them.

 

After realizing that I can't log in, I came to this site, having a good experience with some of the people here. I saw this message on the board, so I followed Adam's instructions and tried to update from safe mode:

 

For anyone who got caught by this, the following should fix it:

 

urpmi.update -a

urpmi x11-server-common x11-server-xorg compiz

 

assuming your updates mirror is up to date. If that command asks you any questions or gives you any warnings, cancel (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

 

The fixed packages are available and versioned 1.2.0-9.2mdv2007.1. The broken packages were versioned 1.2.0-9.1mdv2007.1 . Note the difference: 9.1 = broken, 9.2 = fixed. When updating, ensure you're getting the 9.2 versions. If you are, then you're fine.

 

When I updated through urpmi I got a message that version 1.2.0-9.2mdv2007.1 is already installed. After reboot I saw the problem hasn't been solved.

 

Does anyone have an idea what I did wrong, and how I can fix it? I will appreciate your help very much, you are my only hope!

Edited by yossarian
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Maybe the update process killed some file permissions. Press CTRL+ALT+F1. Log in as root. Then run

chown -R username:username /home/username

which will restore the permissions for the account you specify. If that does not help, set up a new account and check if you can log into that one. In case the new account works, then the problem is probably caused by some broken config files like /.kde or .gconf. Rename those and you should be fine.

In case that this doesn't fix it, check if the x-server is working correctly. For setting up X again, run

XFdrake

from the command line as root. Check the x-server, using the "startx" command. If this still does not work, report back the messages you get.

 

Good luck. :)

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When I tried the chown command I got the message:

 

chown: 'user:user': invalid group

 

where 'user' stands for my username, of course. As far as I remember, my group's name is the same as my user name. Is there a way to check it out?

 

After that, when I ran XFdrake, I got a screen where I could choose the driver and set some settings for the display, but there was no command line where I could type startx, so I guess I didn't understand you correctly; I will be grateful if you can provide some more detailed instructions. Anyway, I chose again the driver, and also disabled the composite function. So now I can pass the login screen, but again I get stuck with the menu and the Gnome loading screen, and nothing works right (for example, the windows have no borders).

 

So what do I do next?

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As far as I remember, my group's name is the same as my user name.
Correct, unless you specified another usergroupname when you set up the user accounts. You can check the user accounts groups by running "mcc" from the command line as root. It owns an ncurses based tool for setting up and managing user accounts.

 

As I said, check if you can login with a new user-account.

 

About startx: When you have set up the x-server with XFdrake, you need to exit the tool, so that you are dropped again to the command-line. then type

 

/etc/init.d/dm stop

 

for stopping the graphical display manager. Now type

 

startx

 

when you get a loading screen, everything should be set up okay. Now log out again and launch from the command line

 

/etc/init.d/dm start

 

and press alt+ctrl+f7 if you are not automatically launched back to the login manager.

 

About the broken windows etc: remove or rename all hidden folders in you home directoy (like e.g. .gconf .gnome .gnome2 ...)

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Thanks. I must go to work now, but I'm going to try it all when I come back at night and report back. Regarding the user, I don't believe it will help, because exactly the same thing happens when I try to log in as root or as another user I defined on my computer. Still, I'm going to try it. And about the broken windows, it is just an example: I can't close windows, I can't shutdown or log out, and in short, nothing works right.

 

I'll come back later (about very long 11 hours) to report.

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Boy oh boy... nothing worked. :sad:

 

I defined a new user - same problem appeared. I did what you said about the startx, and it didn't help either. I didn't get any messages, just the system still doesn't work.

 

Any more ideas? Do I have any hope, or will I have to reinstall Mandriva? I really hope to avoid it, I put a lot of time and effort to get to the configuration I like.

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Okay, something apparently really got broken by the power outage. Try to get a look at /var/look/messages and check near the end of the file if there are some pointers as to what might have caused the system-crash/freeze.

 

We can try to locate the package that has messed up your system and we could try to remove the broken desktop packages and readd them later, but that would be a nice amount of work. Reinstalling would be the faster way to fix it, that's for sure. It is up to you if you want to dig deeper and have only a 50-50 chance of finding out what went wrong and then again a 50-50 chance of fixing the system or to reinstall. If you need the box for work, I recommend a reinstallation. If you want to learn about it, then examine the box further until we all run out of ideas.

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So you think the power outage caused all this mess? Up until now I was sure it was the X.org update.

 

I looked at the var/log/messages file. I didn't understand a thing of it, for me those are thousands of technical messages. I tried to focus on the times I did a login and had this problem, and couldn't find anything exceptional, though, again, I'm only a newbie. Would it be rude if I uploaded this file to the site and asked you to take a look at it? I will totally understand if you tell me I ask a too much, so I will appreciate it if you pointed me to a forum where they wouldn't mind. And if you wouldn't mind, it's even better.

 

I really don't want to re-install Mandriva. It took me a long time to get to the configuration I like. I install from the live CD, so the configuration is going to be lost in the installation. Besides, if it was caused by the package update, I'm afraid it's going to happen again.

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Well, you can attach the file. If you do so, then please also add /var/log/dmesg. If you have trouble uploading, then you can copy the contents to pastebin ( http://pastebin.com/ ) and put the link for your entry here. I will take a look at the files.

 

I doubt that the problem is only related to a broken X package. As you said, the problems started after the power outage. ;) It is possible that this caused a corrupt file somewhere because the system was not shut down cleanly. I admit that it is hard to troubleshoot your problem, but as you are willing to fix it, we (or I) will try my best to help you. But I cannot guarantee that it can be fixed.

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OK, hereby attached the two files. I had to add a .txt suffix so the site will allow me to upload the file, so please rename them back before you open them. The power outage occurred on Wednesday the 30th, in the afternoon, and on the evening I first saw the problem (the computer was shut down until I came back home). I'm aware that the chance are not so high. Anyway, I appreciate your help very much.

 

If I need to start thinking about re-installation, I have a few questions. I know that if one installs from the DVD he has an option of upgrading from prior releases. Is there a chance that such an installation can fix the problem without deleting the whole configuration? and is the DV version complete? for example, I know that the full CD's installation didn't contain proprietary drivers, so I couldn't run the 3-D effects (I'm a very shallow person, I'm aware to that). Is the DVD version the same?

messages.txt

dmesg.txt

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I have the same problem, yossarian! Yesterday I did some updating of the software sources and did some updating of files. I am using (as my sig says) a 64 bit system and that may cause some problems, but this is really something else...

 

What I had: 3D with compiz. Now I got the same log in screen as you do - I didn't even get the black screen at first as you described. The other difference is that I'm using KDE in stead of Gnome. And I've always had autologin specified for my username with KDE (it still is on, mind you).

 

Today, when booting up my system after work, I ended up with exactly the same log-in screen as you did. Well, when I tried to log in, it just started to load KDE, but then all of a sudden the screen turned black and then one or two seconds later I was back at the log in screen. I did try with a number of different window managers (KDE, Gnome, Ice, drak3d), but nothing helped (the phrase "blue screen" is starting to ring a bell...).

 

I have managed to get 2-D back though... But this is a temporary way around the problem: I hit Ctrl+Alt+F6 (if I remember the F-key right) and was brought to a "no-Xorg-world". Then I just logged in with my regular user name and password. I typed kde, but it said something about a session with Xorg already running. If I was not, I should remove this /tmp/.X0-lock... (I do not remember what the temp file was named - I'm sorry). I typed su with password and rm'ed the Xorg file. Then exited root-status and typed kde. It worked; I'm now in 2D KDE world...

 

But there is some other session running in the background and something is still broken. I can only get "End current session" -option when loggin out and the system crashes if I try to enter Beryl config (in GUI) or in MCC try to enter 3D settings.

 

I didn't experience any power outages. But I did do some upgrading - also a few new items (eventually) from "_testing" sources from smart-urpmi (here: http://www.mandrivauser.de/smarturpmi/).

 

Any suggestions how to get the updates downgraded or any solution to this problem. The one suggested in the "bad X.org" message didn't help.

Edited by dude67
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Yossarian, in your "messages" file are tons of errors reported, from the kernel (probs with NTFS) to msec and other serious security warnings and tons of config files that got changed but should never have been (not only desktop but also base-system packages!). My honest recommendation: Do a clean reinstall.

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You see, now I fell reprimanded :embarassed:. But the teacher, I didn't do anything!

 

Seriously: What did I do wrong? I'm afraid I'll repeat the same mistakes. All I did was installing a few programs (Thunderbird, Lyx) through the mcc, mounting my windows partition through the fstab, and getting the automatic updates after synchronizing through the urpmi. what will prevent it from happening next time?

 

Anyway, arctic - I'd like to thank you for your time and advice. I really appreciate it. The community here is very supportive and warm, and it is a pleasure to get your help.

 

dude - from the correspondence up till now you have probably understood it by yourself that I'm not an expert. If I were you, I would hand around until someone would help me. There are some terrific people here.

 

BTW - is there a point asking in other forums?

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I don't think that you did anything wrong, if you installed packages from trusted repositories. The problem really seems to be the power outage. If a system gets shut down by cutting power, the computer is not able to write files to the harddrive and this can cause corrupted files later. It does not happen very often but can happen now and then if e.g. a cron-job was running ans was aborted in the middle of the work. I managed to kill a SUSE system some years ago by accidently cutting power while Yast was working (I tripped over the cable). The results were also corrupted config files and (even worse) a corrupted harddrive that I had to reformat afterwards.

 

from the correspondence up till now you have probably understood it by yourself that I'm not an expert
I am no expert either. :P

 

The only way to really prevent such a situation again in the future would be to have an emergency power supply unit that will allow the system to shut down cleanly. But those are very expensive afaik.

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In yossarian's case this may be the case, but I have a similar problem and have always shut down the PC properly (no power outages).

 

Is there a way to see, what packages I have recently updated so I may uninstall them one by one to see if that would help.

 

Is there a way to kill other X-org sessions that are active?

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