Etch and Sarge X-server failures on two different boxes the same day
A few weeks ago I installed Etch RC1 on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 P2 laptop.
The installation itself went without hitch, and I set about customizing
it to my taste and installing various applications. For example I
replaced Gnome with KDE, as I had been using KDE since I converted to
Linux and don't want at this stage to lean a new desktop environment.
Then, on 6 February -- completely out of the blue -- I booted the
computer, which I had set to log on automatically to my user. Instead
however of seeing the KDE desktop, I got an xterm screen, which I
assumed was a fail-safe xterm session. When I tried to use it, it did
not respond; the machine hung. I was however able to log in, both as
root and my user, on the ordinary terminals, ctl-alt-F1 to F6.
It seems to me that the xserver-xorg is broken somehow. I tried
aptitude from the command line but could find no broken packages. The
only configuration option I know about is "dkpg-reconfigure
xserver-xorg" which was of no help.
Another change I noticed that on this fatal boot-up, both the
avahi-daemon, whatever that is, and the HP linux printing and imaging
system failed to load.
To make matters worse, an hour later I booted my desktop and met
with the same result: a fail-safe terminal emulator and a hung machine.
This failure happened to a P4 box on which I had installed Sarge and KDE
in June 2005 when Sarge first came out. Other than a few glitches
encountered on initial installation, it has worked perfectly ever since.
In this case I was also able to access the box from a native terminal,
and so was able to write to zip750 disks all my document files.
Again I used aptitude from the command line and also found no broken
packages, this time the x-server being xfree86 rather than xorg. I did
however discover that aptitude wanted to upgrade xserver-xfree86 to
xserver-xfree86-dbg and also upgrade some of the dependencies. Two
lines of the syslog read as follows:
Feb 8 09:04:41 localhost kdm_greet[2943]: Can't open default user face
Feb 8 09:04:47 localhost kdm: :0[2948]: Session
"/etc/kde3/kdm/Xsession" execution failed: Permission denied
Unfortunately however I was unable to do any upgrades, because on this
boot-up the the operating system -- for the first time ever -- was
unable to connect to the LAN.
As always, the NIC was detected and the driver installed. It could not
connect to the network. The system tried to connect to the network five
times, each time reporting "Network is down", when I knew it was not.
My first instinct was to check the hardware. The card was properly
seated in the mainboard, and all the cables and connections worked with
another computer and the print server. I swapped the NIC with another
one of the same make and model from another desktop. The one swapped to
that other desktop worked. The desktop previously reporting "network is
down" still so reports with the swapped NIC which had worked before in
the other desktop.
The LAN, by the way, is restricted to our residence where only two
desktops, one laptop, a print server and a gateway-switch are connected
to it. This installation is only ever used by my spouse and me.
It is particularly serious that both my previously operational computers
failed at the same time. Fortunately I had a third desktop, on which no
operating system had been installed. My first task was to install Etch
RC1 on it so I had access to the web and could send and receive e-mails
and install my document files on it. The necessity to make these
installations accounts for the delay in reporting my problem to the
Debian user list.
My first priority is to get the laptop with Etch on it working again, as
I am departing a week hence on an extended trip where I will need it.
But I would like to get the desktop with Sarge working again too. I
will be grateful to anybody who can tell me how to do so.
Regards,
Ken Heard
Reply to: