I’m reaching the end of my rope with openSuSE 13.1. (I reminisce back the days of openSuSE 11.x, when things just basically WORKED).
I decided to revisit openSuSE 13.1 today, after taking a break from it for a month.
I booted up just fine, everything was as I left it a month ago.
I spy a nagging little icon telling me I have 2 “important” updates. (My innards tense up with fear, as I recall the last time I “updated”, things didn’t go smoothly).
SO… I UPDATED!! (big mistake).
The updates completed. I rebooted, everything shut down as usual.
so…
I restart the PC, the boot process begins…
AND…
I GET A BLACK SCREEN with the work “GRUB” in the upper left hand corner with a blinking cursor… AND NOTHING ELSE!
Now what the bloody blazes am I supposed to do? Read 1000 or so MAN pages to figure out how to rescue the system ??? (not bloody likely. I’ve put enough time, at my billable hourly rate, to buy 5 copies of another proprietary OS!!).
Not only can’t I boot into openSuSE, but I can’t boot into my other dual-boot distro either!
openSusE’s boot loader was at the helm.
What’s wrong with this picture ??? Is this just openSuSE “business as usual” ?
I took a 5 year hiatus from openSuSE only to come back and experience, what I call, “reverse evolution” with 13.1
Not at all what I expected. openSuSE 11.x was great!
Short of wiping my HDD clean and reinstalling my other distro (because I refuse to go through this nonsense again),
what other solution is there?
A VERY disappointed,
Brickheap.
PS - I don’t know what the updates were, I can’t get a screen shot, my system is 7 yrs. old and runs everything else just fine.
They need to that screwy “updater”. It’s an achilles heel of openSuSE.
PS - I don’t know what the updates were, I can’t get a screen shot, my system is 7 yrs. old and runs everything else just fine.
They need to that screwy “updater”. It’s an achilles heel of openSuSE.
I would argue that most experienced users don’t use it. (I only ever update manually with zypper and apper is disabled.)
I do, but before I came back to read replies, I d/l’d “boot-repair-cd” at http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/ which fixed the problem. (It rebuilt the GRUB using the other distro’s GRUB that I dual boot to).
I’d like to have seen how to fix it from the install DVD. I’d prefer not to use 3rd party solutions, but I needed to fix it quickly.
I do, but before I came back to read replies, I d/l’d “boot-repair-cd” at http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/ which fixed the problem.
It rebuilt the GRUB using the other distro’s GRUB that I dual boot to, which I thought was interesting.
I’d like to have seen how to fix it from the install DVD. I’d prefer not to use 3rd party solutions, but I needed to fix it quickly.
Now the apper is telling me I have another 192 updates. - heh.
I made a typo in my original post, that was too late to edit, but I mean’t that “they should **remove **apper from openSuSe”.
How exactly would I do that? I haven’t used zypper, but I’ve seen it referenced. Even a link to a reference to its use would help (and any other newbie happening upon this posting).
I’ve got to uninstall apper… asap!
Thanks,
Brickheap.
*Side note: (I’m a former IT guy, and can usually dig myself out of predicaments, even in Linux sometimes, however, I’m in the position now where my mailbox and voicemail are filling up with questions about “what Linux distro should I try”, from clients,friends,former co-workers…etc, who are being forced out of Windows XP, and refusing to “upgrade” to Windows 8" . They know I’ve been trying out about 25 different distro’s over the last 4 months, so I’m going through the motions that most newcomers to Linux would do with a newly installed system. They wouldn’t know of things such as zypper. I’m not trying to “save the world” or “force feed” any particular distro, but I would like to point them in the direction of something that won’t immediately frustrate them to the point of throwing in the towel. They aren’t the type to even think to ask a forum question, much less register TO ask one. heh!
I’ve had luck with a few of them, linking the right distro to the right person, because I know them).
Remove that apper. It is a stupid waste of time for me, having to uninstall or deactivate it together with a few other junk packages.
However, at some moment you have to do an update. Here you would have likely encountered the same boot issue.
I am curious to know why do they resist upgrading to Windows 8? Can’t they upgrade to Windows 7 or wait until Windows 8.1? Is it about unwillingness to spend $100? Don’t they remember that Windows XP was once an upgrade?
However, at some moment you have to do an update. Here you would have likely encountered the same boot issue.
I can’t completely recall what happened last month, but apper had a higher count of updates than YaST did, which was confusing, and because YaST wouldn’t update because apper was open, I used apper, and had issues. So, it’s hard to say if the same thing would have happened exactly the same way.
I am curious to know why do they resist upgrading to Windows 8? Can’t they upgrade to Windows 7 or wait until Windows 8.1? Is it about unwillingness to spend $100? Don’t they remember that Windows XP was once an upgrade?
The cost is higher than just the OS. Support for Office 2003 is ending on 4/8/14. In addition, there’s the cost of AV software and replacing incompatible graphics cards (as I’ve found) in Win 7/8, that worked perfectly in WinXP.
In some cases, they run small business and refuse to purchase new hardware to accommodate Windows 8.
Some have moved to Android/iPad but want to use their aging desktops/large LED’s for light office applications, publication, printing, which any of the open source office suites can provide at no additional cost.
Other’s simply don’t like Windows 8, or feel affronted that M$ is trying to “force” the Metro desktop on them (similar to how people felt about the Unity desktop in Ubuntu). And some, simply can’t afford to.
AFAIK Win7 stopped retail sales last year (except pre-installed OEM).
Apper shows updates from all repos (the equivalent to “zypper up”), whereas YaST->Online Update only shows patches from the official update repo (“zypper patch”).
That’s why there’s a difference in the update count.
If you would remove all extra repositories, they would show the same updates. Or you can set the option “HidePackages=true” in /etc/PackageKit/ZYpp.conf, then Apper should show only the patches from the update repo as well.
And your problem was definitely not caused by Apper. Apper does nothing else than “zypper up”, and it especially doesn’t (re)install the bootloader. So the same would have happened if you had installed the updates any other way.
Probably your grub2 config is wrong. Check in YaST->System->Boot Loader.
PS: Apper works just fine nowadays. The only problem it has IMHO is that you cannot resolve dependency conflicts manually, but that’s partly because of its (or PackageKit’s) design as a cross-distribution tool I’d say.
Yes, Apper blocks YaST, and the reverse is true also. But that’s a limitation of the underlying stack (libzypp). If you have one YaST->Software Management window open, you cannot open another one as well. And zypper will also block YaST (and Apper/PackageKit).
It is entirely likely that you would have run into the same problem if you had used “Yast online update” instead of “apper”. As far as I know, both use the same backend.
There was probably a grub2 update, and something went wrong.
Indeed, and hence I do not subscribe to the things v re. Apper and the update plasmoid. I’ve been using both for over a year now and have not run into issues I didn’t have in Yast’s software manager too. Since the new school year started in September my wife uses the updater too, and where she had other issues, none in the Apper / packagekit area. IMHO they’re mature and stable.
On 2014-02-02 15:06, Knurpht wrote:
>
> nrickert;2621520 Wrote:
>> Just a caution.
>>
>> It is entirely likely that you would have run into the same problem if
>> you had used “Yast online update” instead of “apper”. As far as I know,
>> both use the same backend.
>>
>> There was probably a grub2 update, and something went wrong.
>
> Indeed, and hence I do not subscribe to the things v re. Apper and the
> update plasmoid. I’ve been using both for over a year now and have not
> run into issues I didn’t have in Yast’s software manager too. Since the
> new school year started in September my wife uses the updater too, and
> where she had other issues, none in the Apper / packagekit area. IMHO
> they’re mature and stable.
I agree.
It would also be interesting to learn what repositories brickheap is
using. Ie, the output of “zypper lr --details”.
Absolutely correct. I have been letting Apper run the additional updates, with several extra repositories, on all my PCs running openSUSE since v12.1 and have had absolutely NO problems because of it. I always scan the list before applying the updates, but rarely have deselected anything.
Also, if the problem was caused by a Grub2 update (which I sincerely doubt, unless you have an oddball disk layout), the update would have been applied by YaST Updates, rather than by Apper. Also, I always do a system backupbefore applying any updates or significant system changes (a good idea to remember in the future), so I can get back up and running right away if anything should go wrong.
In your case, I would do as Carlos requests, give the output (between CODE tags) as he suggested.
I would also give the output of your partitioning scheme here.
without knowing just what had a update …
It could be anything
for example :
I am using the current NVIDIA.run driver
if there was to be a kernel update then i would ONLY get a text only boot
the same applies for the ATI/AMD.bin driver
it is a GOOD idea to KNOW , YES KNOW what is being INSTALLED .
the typical linux user is not a lemming ( 1985 apple ad ) .
have a read through the end of
“/var/log/zypper.log”
and
“/var/log/zypp/history”
that “black” screen could be the ATI card ?
that is if you have a ati 3d card ?
now apper is disabled on my set up
it is way TOO much like “windows update” ( do get me started on that )
i like to know WHEN and WHAT is being updated !
That way it i am in the middle of a big project i can WAIT until i am done with the project if it might mess things up
Now most of the third party repos i do not have much problems with
– BUT i do set the priorities !!! ( just like i do with rhel and “yum-priorities” )
Ok. Thanks for the added level of understanding. A layer of the onion has been peeled back.
If grub2 is corrupted then it should still be in the corrupted state it was left in. Because, when I utilized a 3rd party tool to repair grub it chose to fix the grub of Lubuntu, rather than the grub2 of openSuSe, even though openSuSE’s bootloader was previously the “active” one. Now, Lubuntu’s grub is the active one.
Looking at the Boot Loader in YaST , the only thing I question is the code inserted under
If “-part1” references the 1st phsyical partition, then it’s wrong, because the 1st partition is the swap partition.
(some 1st partitions start at zero, in which case the 2nd would be 1). I don’t know how openSuSE/Boot Loader labels these.
The boot should be the 2nd partition as shown below, using fdisk.
linux-oucb:~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 30.8 GB, 30750031872 bytes, 60058656 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00e100e1
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 3067903 1532928 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 3067904 26234879 11583488 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 26234880 43274239 8519680 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 43276286 60057599 8390657 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 43276288 60057599 8390656 83 Linux
