new 5.9 kernel boots to black screen with cursor showing but "crashed"?? 5.8 kernel is OK???

[non_space]

Folks:

I see there have been a few posts about "zypper dup -l" causing problems, today I ran that command in newish Sys76 Gazelle in TW . . . there was a four choice option involving packages that "couldn't be upgraded" and a package that was going to "upgrade, except it needed the other package before it could upgrade" . . . I didn't write anything down at the time because usually these problems resolve themselves . . . but one of the packages was "python3xxxxxxx"??? Also saw that a new kernel 5.9xxx was in the list of upgrades.

I usually select "go with package maintainers choice" rather than "stay with the old" . . . but out of the four options I didn't see that, so I went with "1 . . . because it was first. I was "in a hurry" and didn't have time to do research, etc. I ran it through and then shut down. When I returned home I booted the laptop , "welcome to grub" and TW is first up, unit usually boots quickly, but I looked over to a black screen with a "cursor is over link" looking cursor. I moved the mouse and it returned to default mouse and it moused around, but no GUI. Shut down, selected "advanced options" and rebooted into 5.9 "recovery" ran thru the dmesg . . . and back into black screen, this time the mouse cursor was there, but mousing the mouse did nothing. Since I have more time in ubuntu I tried to run "sudo zypper -f install" in a TTY, but that command wasn't accepted, and I tried to install "synaptic" so I could "fix broken packages, but it didn't allow that to happen . . . .

I rebooted again, this time picked the old kernel, 5.8xxxx and back into working GUI . . . so apparently the "package dependency" problems aren't happening in the old kernel??? Question is "What happened?" Is this a "kernel not compatible with new machine issue?" Or, package dependency problem where the "wrong choice" resulted in busted video operation, providing black screen . . . in 5.9 kernel, but in 5.8 it's fine?? Which is the Yast app that "fixes broken packages" as the olde synaptic will sometimes handle???

[non_space]

OK, maybe problem is solved . . . found YAst Software Management in the 5.8 kernel GUI, it found two packages to upgrade, "sof-firmware" and "ucode-intel" . . . ran those through. Shut down. Rebooted back into black screen!!!??? Got to a TTY to try to run zypper, "nothing to do" . . . exiting TTY went to black, then went to GUI log in . . . .

Checked "uname -r" and it shows 5.9.1.1??? kernel . . . so I guess we are back to "normal" . . . . Thanks for the bandwidth.

[non_space]

Following up on this post, I would be happy to hear what the command is to run to get zypper to "fix install" or "fix broken packages"??? Something that will get zypper to repair an upgrade that goes sideways???

[non_space]

Got another clue . . . ran another "dup -l" and restarted, get the "tumbleweed" splash . . . then back into black with the vert mouse cursor . . . which I think is the log in window showing that the password is to be typed in . . . . I typed my password into the black void . . . and that logged me in . . . to a GUI.

Or like going to TTY and then exiting via f7 key gets to the log in window . . . otherwise it's black screen, not the what, the "plymouth" window???

[tsu2]

Next time you boot to a black screen, wait 120 seconds before doing anything.
When a system boots up, it will arrieve at what will look like a text login screen and sometimes pause there for a time before continueing on. If that's what's happening in the background while you're staring at a black screen, eventually your system will continue to the graphical login (which may be skipped if you have auto login enabled).

TSU

[Knurpht]

Either a bug ( then report it at bugzilla.opensuse.org ) or ....... you have been using YaST Software Manager or 'zypper up' instead of the documented 'zypper dup'.

[non_space]

Next time you boot to a black screen, wait 120 seconds before doing anything.
When a system boots up, it will arrieve at what will look like a text login screen and sometimes pause there for a time before continueing on. If that's what's happening in the background while you're staring at a black screen, eventually your system will continue to the graphical login (which may be skipped if you have auto login enabled).

TSU

@tsu2:

Thanks for the reply . . . I wasn't in a hurry, and problem happened, seemed to be fixed, and then with the second zypper . . . returned again. Now that I know the "log in" is "there" . . . just buried visually by a bunch of blackness, it's not as dramatic . . . but seems to be a problem. Autologin is not enabled.

Either a bug ( then report it at bugzilla.opensuse.org ) or ....... you have been using YaST Software Manager or 'zypper up' instead of the documented 'zypper dup'.

@Knurpht:

Thanks also for the reply . . . I'm leaning with "bug" or the two packages interdependency issue that showed up in zypper dup -l (as mentioned) . . . . When I switched over to Yast it found the two other packages to upgrade, that was what seemed to fix the problem, but then runing "dup -l" again then found the new "12 packages" and then brought the problem back.

Asking again for what would be the zypper command to "fix install" via the TTY. Other question, generally I haven't been running "dup -l" in a TTY, but is that something that is "required" or "recommended"??? In a little while I'm going to try to run ***dup -l*** in my MacPro edition of TW, we'll see if the scenario repeats in an older machine . . . .

[non_space]

OK . . . running zypper over in the MacPro brings a similar error, but seems like the "options" are a tad bit different than in the Sys76 laptop . . . .

Problem: mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch requires python3-xdg, but this requirement cannot be provided
  deleted providers: python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
not installable providers: python3-xdg-4.0.1-1.1.noarch[download.opensuse.org-oss]
 Solution 1: Following actions will be done:
  deinstallation of mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch
  deinstallation of mate-panel-branding-openSUSE-42.1-4.44.noarch
  deinstallation of mate-menu-lang-20.04.1-2.1.noarch
 Solution 2: deinstallation of python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
 Solution 3: keep obsolete python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
 Solution 4: break mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch by ignoring some of its dependencies

Choose from above solutions by number or cancel [1/2/3/4/c/d/?] (c):

Any sage advice on which would be the best path forward???

[Gene_S]

OK . . . running zypper over in the MacPro brings a similar error, but seems like the "options" are a tad bit different than in the Sys76 laptop . . . .

Problem: mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch requires python3-xdg, but this requirement cannot be provided
  deleted providers: python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
not installable providers: python3-xdg-4.0.1-1.1.noarch[download.opensuse.org-oss]
 Solution 1: Following actions will be done:
  deinstallation of mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch
  deinstallation of mate-panel-branding-openSUSE-42.1-4.44.noarch
  deinstallation of mate-menu-lang-20.04.1-2.1.noarch
 Solution 2: deinstallation of python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
 Solution 3: keep obsolete python3-pyxdg-0.26-6.2.noarch
 Solution 4: break mate-menu-20.04.1-2.1.noarch by ignoring some of its dependencies

Choose from above solutions by number or cancel [1/2/3/4/c/d/?] (c):

Any sage advice on which would be the best path forward???

Perhaps this thread could be split out as it's a different problem from the OP. I was getting this error as well, so I locked python3-pyxdg, then did the "sudo zypper dup" command and successfully updated. Now I see this:

> zypp-locks                                                                           
 lsp-plugins-common: up-to-date
 lv2-lsp-plugins: up-to-date
 pulseeffects: up-to-date
 python3-pyxdg: out-of-date (version 0.26-6.2 installed)

A little package searching reveals there are two packages supplying python3-xdg, but only one can be installed at a time. On my system, mate was installed on 2020-05-06 and I see this:

> zypp-hist | grep python3-pyxdg
2020-05-06 09:29:50 | install | python3-pyxdg | 0.26-5.3
2020-07-30 12:28:48 | install | python3-pyxdg | 0.26-6.1
2020-08-29 14:01:37 | install | python3-pyxdg | 0.26-6.2

It looks like mate installed python3-pyxdg, and it's been updated twice since then. I think mate-menu needs to be rebuilt for the new version of python3-pyxdg, but I'm not sure how to make that happen.

Gene

[non_space]

@Gene_S:

Thanks for stopping by . . . it does seem like MATE has created some kind of conflict in its packaging . . . I think they do have a "forum" of a sort, but doesn't seem to be over-active from my experience . . . . Might have to look around for that site again . . . been there before . . . .

I did try to run your "zypp-hist" command, but my console is rejecting that, saying "command not found" . . . but I do try to avoid "locking" packages if at all possible, because in my case I'm in "rolling" . . . so always a new series of packages coming down the tubes . . . .

Seems like maybe in my case, going with #3 option, "keep the obsolete pythonxxxxxx" package might match what you did, without locking . . . and then see if and when MATE gets around to repairing the situation???????