no login after live upgrade 12.3->13.1 - "Oh no! something has gone wrong" - no way out.

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Did a live upgrade from an up-to-date 12.3 Gnome to 13.1 following the instructions here

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade

exactly.

The machine eventually puts up a white screen with a “sad-terminal” icon and the message “Oh no! something has gone wrong” with a button marked “Log out”. There is no mouse support and hitting return on the keyboard to activate the button simply makes the screen go black. No further interaction is possible and nothing on the white screen explains the nature of the problem.

As my live upgrade is “officially supported” - what is the officially supported way of fixing what appears to be a savagely broken Gnome desktop ?

2

On 2014-03-29 13:46, bergrat wrote:
>
> Did a live upgrade from an up-to-date 12.3 Gnome to 13.1 following the
> instructions here
>
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade
>
> exactly.
>
> The machine eventually puts up a white screen with a “sad-terminal” icon
> and the message “Oh no! something has gone wrong” with a button marked
> “Log out”. There is no mouse support and hitting return on the keyboard
> to activate the button simply makes the screen go black. No further
> interaction is possible and nothing on the white screen explains the
> nature of the problem.
>
> As my live upgrade is “officially supported” - what is the officially
> supported way of fixing what appears to be a savagely broken Gnome
> desktop ?

Well, the first thing is to try a boot to text mode. On the grub 2
display, press ‘e’ to access the editor, then add a single “3” at the
end of the kernel line. You identify the line because it starts with the
word “linux”.

If you can login there, I would try to replace the login manager
(display manager, is the official name) from gdm to an alternative. I
think that’s the one that fails. Or search the logs to find out why it
failed. Probably graphics drivers - did you use proprietary graphics
drivers before?

Another procedure, is to force an “offline upgrade” on top. You have to
download the full 13.1 DVD, boot it, and in the menu choose “upgrade”
instead of “install”. This will effectively downgrade what was upgraded
by the dup to more recent versions from the “update” repo, and will also
replace packages you installed from packman or any other repo. But it
can also solve many problems, it often leaves your system in a working
state.

Offline upgrade
method

If you have questions about that doc, ask. I wrote it, and I know it is
incomplete.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

3

Yup - from the nVidia repo. I wondered whether it was necessary to do an update install from the 13.1 nVidia repo before first re-boot, but the official documentation simply says to add back in the 13.1 3rd party repos , **not **do any installs.

Search for updated openSUSE 13.1 compatible third-party repositories that you used before if you still need them and add them.

If I had ignored that (bad && incomplete) advice and had upgraded my graphics drivers *before *first boot, perhaps this problem wouldn’t have occurred.

4

On 2014-03-29 14:36, bergrat wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2633784 Wrote:

>> Probably graphics drivers - did you use proprietary graphics
>> drivers before?
>
> Yup - from the nVidia repo. I wondered whether it was necessary to do an
> update install from the 13.1 nVidia repo before first re-boot, but the
> official documentation simply says to add back in the 13.1 3rd party
> repos , *not *do any installs.

It does not say “not to do any install” :slight_smile:

>> Search for updated openSUSE 13.1 compatible third-party repositories
>> that you used before if you still need them and add them.
>>
>
> If I had ignored that (bad && incomplete) advice and had upgraded my
> graphics drivers -before -first boot, perhaps this problem wouldn’t have
> occurred.

Well, obviously, just adding a repo doesn’t install anything from them.
You have to select what you want to install from each additional repo,
and actually install anything else you need or want. :slight_smile:

That was a misunderstanding on your part. The text could be more clear,
yes, that wiki page would benefit from more work (please have a peep at
the other link I posted: although incomplete, it is way more intensive
and detailed)

Arguably, I’d say to boot first, and install extra packages later. BUT,
graphic drivers may be an exception.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

5

Ok, I’ve done the ‘3 on the end of the grub line starting with linux’ and now have a console I can log into, but doing a

sudo zypper ref

just says all the repos are up to date, and

sudo zypper install x11-video-nvidiaG03

just says

Nothing to do

so it looks like the driver for 12.3 and 13.1 are the same and my Gnome problem is more complex. Yes, the repo now points to ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/13.1/

There seems to be some nasty stuff in my ~/.xsession-errors


tail ~/.xsession-errors
cat: /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers.SuSEconfig: No such file or directory
Installing new /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers
cp: cannot stat */etc/X11/xdm/Xservers.SuSEconfig*: No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove */var/adm/SuSEconfig/md5//etc/X11/xdm/Xservers*: Permission denied
/etc/X11/xdm/SuSEconfig.xdm: line 52: /var/adm/SuSEconfig/md5//etc/X11/xdm/Xservers: Permission denied
ln: cannot remove */var/lib/X11/X*: Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file */etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config.SuSEconfig*: Permission denied
sed: couldn't open temporary file /etc/X11/xdm/sedSxXOp0: Permission denied
No changes for /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config

but none of that is related to the upgrade, because the timestamp is dated Mar 20 - a full week before I did the upgrade.

6

I have a question related to the part I have underlined. Does this mean that, where I have made choices for packages from non-OSS repos, they will be reverted to versions from the same repo OR ( and this is what is worrying me) will it revert those packages to versions available from within the OSS repos ?

I don’t want to get all my specific package repository choices trashed and replaced by defaults by this method !!!:open_mouth:

7

Depend in what repos you have active. But for a online update should only have the 3 basic openSUSE repos for the version you are moving to and no others

If you can get to command line you can use (as root) yast to add the NVIDIA repo and install the nvidia drivers

8

[SOLVED]

the kernel module nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop was still at its 12.3 version. I should have realised that this component **must **require updating - I was only trying to update the X driver - which is the same in 12.3 as 13.1

I just did

zypper lu

to confirm an update was available, then

zypper update

to compile/install the new module. The other components

zypper search -s nvidia

did not change. The live update guide is misleading - it should clearly state that the nVidia graphics drivers need to be updated *before *the first re-boot.

Thanks for the help - I would never have found that ‘3’ trick - I was expecting a menu option for a console.

9

On 2014-03-29 22:16, bergrat wrote:
>
> [SOLVED]
>
> the kernel module nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop was still at its 12.3
> version.

Ah.

> did not change. The live update guide is misleading - it should clearly
> state that the nVidia graphics drivers need to be updated -before -the
> first re-boot.

Yes, it should. I suggest you either add a comment on the comment link
of the page, or directly edit the page - but as it needs to be reviewed
and authorized, people will not see it.

So you could do both things.

> Thanks for the help - I would never have found that ‘3’ trick - I was
> expecting a menu option for a console.

Not a bad idea.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

10

On 2014-03-29 19:06, bergrat wrote:

> I have a question related to the part I have underlined.

Hum. As I’m accessing the forum via nntp, I can not see the underline.
I’ll have to look on the web side. Wait …] Ah, I see.

> Does this mean
> that, where I have made choices for packages from non-OSS repos, they
> will be reverted to versions from the same repo OR ( and this is what
> is worrying me) will it revert those packages to versions available from
> within the OSS repos ?

They are replaced with the versions contained on the DVD.⁽¹⁾

> I don’t want to get all my specific package repository choices trashed
> and replaced by defaults by this method !!!:open_mouth:

Yes, they are, which is why this method repairs many problems. It leaves
the system in a default state that should work.

(1) If at the start of the procedure, you tell it to activate online
repositories, it will use the online repos instead of the DVD. In the
case when the same package and version is available both online and on
the DVD, it uses the online version.

In my case, this is a disaster, because my internet connection is slow.
I would rather it used the DVD version when it exists, and only if
missing, used the online version. But I have found no way to achieve this.

And by online repos, it means only the default, official repos: oss,
non-oss, updates, non-oss updates. Only those.

It is possible to add some extra repos, with a trick, but the results
are not good.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

11

On 2014-03-29 18:56, bergrat wrote:

> just says all the repos are up to date, and
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> sudo zypper install x11-video-nvidiaG03
> --------------------

Maybe you have to use upgrade, not install: it is already installed.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

12

NVIDIA repo has to be active

13

In which case, the semantics of zypper are broken. When asking to re-install a package, when a newer version is available, the answer ‘Nothing to do’ is unhelpful and wrong. The ‘thing to do’ is to mention that a newer version is available and offer to install it.

14

it was. As I said, I followed the instructions on the live upgrade page to the letter.

15

But “zypper in” is not asking to re-install a package. It is asking to install a not yet installed package.
To re-install a package use the -f option.
From “zypper help in”:

-f, --force                 Install even if the item is already installed (reinstall),

                            downgraded or changes vendor or architecture.
16

On 2014-04-02 21:36, bergrat wrote:

>
> In which case, the semantics of zypper are broken. When asking to
> re-install a package, when a newer version is available, the answer
> ‘Nothing to do’ is unhelpful and wrong. The ‘thing to do’ is to mention
> that a newer version is available and offer to install it.

No, I don’t think so. It does exactly what you ask. Install that? It is
already installed, nothing to do, about what you asked me to do. Ask me
something different, the answer may be different, or not.

:stuck_out_tongue:

You have to learn to speak computerese :slight_smile:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)