[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 11:58:51AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 08:26:20AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > > On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 11:18:40AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 08:03:58AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 08:52:08AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > But only after you have finished
> > > > > > > investigating what is causing the badness in the current install.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > If I knew how to do this (besides a few variations on rebooting and
> > > > > > fsck) I wouldn't be considering a reinstall.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I assume that all your efforts so far are producing no results.... Do
> > > > > you have any older kernels on the etch system that you can try? Maybe
> > > > > there's a kernel bug that you're hitting (some random combination of
> > > > > kernel version and hardware). If you can boot an older kernel that
> > > > > might help. If you don't have one, and want to try, you could chroot
> > > > > into the system and install an older kernel maybe (from debian
> > > > > snapshots?). I only suggest this because I had a booting problem after
> > > > > a kernel upgrade on an older machine (300 mhz celeron). I just went
> > > > > back to an old kernel and stayed there.
> > > > >
> > > > > Anyway. I'm concerned that you've got some problem that will come back
> > > > > after the reinstall. Or maybe, by reinstalling, you'll leapfrog the
> > > > > problem, I suppose. Regardless, if you can't figure out what the
> > > > > problem is you may have trouble avoiding it in the future.
> > > > >
> > > > > Just a hunch, did you change kernel architecture? to the wrong one
> > > > > accidently perhaps?
> > > >
> > > > I reran lilo on the sarge system.
> > > > Rebooted to etch.
> > > > It got a lot firther than last time, but after a while reached the
> > > > black
> > > > screen of death.
> > > >
> > > > Rebooted to etch in maintenance mode.
> > > > Got to maintenance mode. Didn't know what else to do, do did
> > > > dpkg-reconfigure xserger-xorg (or was it xorg-server?)
> > > >
> > > > Accepted all the defaults (probably taken from my old cofig file)
> > > >
> > > > checked the dates on /etc/X11/xorg*
> > > >
> > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls -l /etc/X11/xorg.conf*
> > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3177 2006-09-15 06:32 /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3079 2006-07-02 12:42 /etc/X11/xorg.conf~
> > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3473 2006-06-07 18:38
> > > > /etc/X11/xorg.conf.200606071838
> > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$
> > > >
> > > > All old dates, so presumably nothing was actually changed.
> > > >
> > > > rebooted into etch, trying to see what was on the screen immediately
> > > > before the black screen of death.
> > > > Saw it was starting gdm.
> > > > Then the screen went black, and then almost immediately X and gdm
> > > > started coming up.
> > > >
> > > > Now mailing this from ssh within a terminal window within icewm within
> > > > gdm.
> > > >
> > > > Whatever was wrong? Or is this a fluke? I'll try rebooting again and
> > > > see if success is consistent.
> > >
> > > well, that's all good news. sounds like lilo got borked there and that
> > > was your problem. THe X problem was surely unrelated, but may have
> > > come from the same upgrade. I have to say, it must be nice to have two
> > > installs on the same machine as it makes diagnosing really easy... I
> > > may look into it: just a minimal install of sarge on a small partition
> > > just so that I have something bootable and usable if I bork my sid
> > > system.
> > >
> > > As far as the X problem, who knows. its a finicky thing sometimes,
> > > right?
> > >
> >
> > It survived another reboot. I'll tentatively consider it fixed.
>
> Four more reboots, one successful.
> It seems to ba a problem starting gdm.
> It tell sme it's starting gdm,
> then that it'snot starting kdm because it's not the default,
> then that it's not starting (presumably another *dm) because it's
> not the default
>
> then the black screen of death, preventing me from reading which other
> *dm it was considering.
> Could it be that the *dm is interfering with gdm starting up?
> Maybe it's whatever it does *after* trying its hand with the *dm'a
> that is the culprit? Anyone know what that is?
> Should I try making another *dm the default?
> Should I try purging the other *dm's?
> Should I try purging gdm?
> Should I try running a general update of everything just in case?
My suggestion:
First try stoping the *dm services:
/etc/init.d/gdm stop
/etc/init.d/kdm stop
....
Use startx (as user) to verify that X is working ok
Purge all *dm except gdm. If still not working then purge gdm and
install again.
HTH,
Andrei
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)
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