I run a dual-boot Debian system -- one partition is sarge; the other is etch. The idea was that users would have a stable platform available if they wished, for mission-critical work, but have access to (relatively) recent software for the proce of a reboot.
This etch had been ailing for quite a long while now. The xfree -> xorg upgrade went flawlessly, but a few weeks after that, after a routine general upgrade (which upgraded xorg) X ceased to function properly. It would crash when switching virtual consoles, unpredictably. Everything fine as long as no one switched virtual consoles, of course. Switching to a text console would work (before the crash) but switching between X consoles or from text to an X console was fraught with peril. There was a suspicion that the problem was set up by logging out from X and switching to another console before the original one had manages to present a new login screen -- then switching back to the original X later would present you with a dead machine. This suspicion, however, was nevre tested consistently. The system was still somewhat usable. I occasionally upgraded it in case this was a bug that would be fixed. IN any case, we still had sarge as a fall-back in case of real trouble. sometime later, etch could no longer start X successfully -- it ould fail, unable to access the AGP device. The X log made it look as if it was the actual AGP interface on the motherboard that was inaccessible, not the ATI card I had plugged into it. Upgradein udev seemed to cure this problem, but now X would crash during startup. Last Friday I performed another upgrade. Now etch won't boot at all: RAMDISK: Conplressed image found at block 0 input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /calss/input/input0 invalid argument format (err=1) VFS: Cannot open root device "304" or unknown-block(3, 4) Pleas append a correct "root=" boot option Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3, 4) I am tempted to pronounce this etch installation dead and reinstall from scratch. I'm also reluctant to do this, becase of Debian's reputation as being the system that never needs to be reinstalled. Sarge, of course, continues to soldier on without any problems at all (except for application obsolescence -- but that's spec) Or should I do something radical to get current software, such as installing gentoo on the former etch partition? -- hendrik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
