Cannot build symbol table - disabling symbol lookups

There have been a few similar posts, but this seems, to me, to be altogether different since this error is affecting my system quite adversely. Many important functions fail after an update from the openSuSE repositories (3rd time in as many days) and I have to reinstall the system from scratch. This most recent time, I disabled all experimental repos, in an attempt to prevent this from occurring again, but it happened nonetheless.

The main things that I have noticed are failing: alsa and networkmanager (oddly I can still use ifup).

This, which I’ve read about for other installations, didn’t help at all:

depmod -aeF /boot/System.map-2.6.27.21-0.1-default

Following is some output…

head /var/log/boot.msg:
Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.27.21-0.1-default
Cannot find map file.
No module symbols loaded - kernel modules not enabled.

Cannot build symbol table - disabling symbol lookups
klogd 1.4.1, log source = ksyslog started.
ksymoops -Vklom
ksymoops 2.4.11 on x86_64 2.6.27.21-0.1-default.  Options used
     -V (specified)
     -k lom (specified)
     -l /proc/modules (default)
     -o /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-0.1-default/ (default)
     -m /boot/System.map-2.6.27.21-0.1-default (default)

Error (regular_file): read_ksyms stat lom failed
ksymoops: No such file or directory
No modules in ksyms, skipping objects
No ksyms, skipping lsmod
Reading Oops report from the terminal
lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
st                     39068  0
ide_disk               14664  0
ide_cd_mod             33952  0
nvidia               8113032  29
af_packet              20232  0
rfkill_input            5704  0
ip6t_LOG                7180  7
xt_tcpudp               3608  2
xt_pkttype              2152  3
ipt_LOG                 6812  8
xt_limit                3180  15
snd_pcm_oss            48528  0
snd_mixer_oss          16808  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq                61504  0
binfmt_misc            10084  1
snd_seq_device          8604  1 snd_seq
ip6t_REJECT             6024  3
nf_conntrack_ipv6      24696  4
ip6table_raw            2456  1
xt_NOTRACK              2152  4
ipt_REJECT              3480  3
xt_state                2568  8
iptable_raw             2760  1
iptable_filter          3400  1
ip6table_mangle         3128  0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns     2840  0
nf_conntrack_ipv4      12792  4
nf_conntrack           80496  5 nf_conntrack_ipv6,xt_NOTRACK,xt_state,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables              19464  2 iptable_raw,iptable_filter
ip6table_filter         3240  1
ip6_tables             21048  4 ip6t_LOG,ip6table_raw,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
x_tables               23376  11 ip6t_LOG,xt_tcpudp,xt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,xt_limit,ip6t_REJECT,xt_NOTRACK,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,ip_tables,ip6_tables
ipv6                  292328  23 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6,ip6table_mangle
cpufreq_conservative     8384  0
cpufreq_userspace       4204  0
cpufreq_powersave       2248  0
powernow_k8            14220  1
fuse                   57840  1
loop                   16660  0
dm_mod                 73952  0
arc4                    2216  2
ecb                     3464  2
crypto_blkcipher       19372  1 ecb
b43                   135080  0
rfkill                 10948  3 rfkill_input,b43
mac80211              241184  1 b43
cfg80211               28136  1 mac80211
led_class               5008  1 b43
input_polldev           4664  1 b43
video                  24316  5
snd_hda_intel         548980  0
usbhid                 52512  0
output                  3672  1 video
rtc_cmos               13000  0
i2c_nforce2             8608  0
battery                13856  0
snd_pcm                91984  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel
ac                      5776  0
ssb                    45052  1 b43
hid                    41136  1 usbhid
button                  8328  0
rtc_core               21396  1 rtc_cmos
snd_timer              24968  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
i2c_core               35312  2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
rtc_lib                 3560  1 rtc_core
sr_mod                 15940  0
snd_page_alloc          9800  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
pcmcia                 38288  2 b43,ssb
joydev                 11392  0
pcspkr                  3064  0
k8temp                  5160  0
sg                     35376  0
cdrom                  36184  2 ide_cd_mod,sr_mod
snd_hwdep               9072  1 snd_hda_intel
wmi                     8160  0
forcedeth              56408  0
pcmcia_core            39140  3 b43,ssb,pcmcia
ff_memless              8752  1 usbhid
snd                    73560  8 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore               8368  1 snd
ehci_hcd               54164  0
ohci_hcd               35204  0
sd_mod                 35272  5
crc_t10dif              2152  1 sd_mod
usbcore               195712  4 usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
edd                    10272  0
ext3                  140696  3
mbcache                 9484  1 ext3
jbd                    61688  1 ext3
fan                     6016  0
ide_pci_generic         4652  0
amd74xx                 7136  0
ide_core              115068  4 ide_disk,ide_cd_mod,ide_pci_generic,amd74xx
ata_generic             6044  0
sata_nv                26800  4
pata_amd               13692  0
libata                183184  3 ata_generic,sata_nv,pata_amd
scsi_mod              178632  5 st,sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
dock                   14164  1 libata
thermal                24408  0
processor              49104  4 powernow_k8,thermal
thermal_sys            14368  4 video,fan,thermal,processor
hwmon                   3720  2 k8temp,thermal_sys

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Alright, after spending some more time on this, it appears as though there is something wrong with user permissions, as I can play sound as root. I didn’t try networkmanager, but I’m willing to assume that it would work.

An example of what happens if I try to run an audio program as a regular user. You can see they fail outright.

alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: Permission denied
amarok
virtual bool Phonon::Gstreamer::AudioOutput::setOutputDevice(const Phonon::AudioOutputDevice&) "HDA NVidia (CONEXANT Analog)"
virtual bool Phonon::Gstreamer::AudioOutput::setOutputDevice(const Phonon::AudioOutputDevice&) ("x-phonon:CARD=0,DEV=0", "plughw:CARD=0,DEV=0")
virtual bool Phonon::Gstreamer::AudioOutput::setOutputDevice(const Phonon::AudioOutputDevice&) setProperty(device, "x-phonon:CARD=0,DEV=0" ) failed
virtual bool Phonon::Gstreamer::AudioOutput::setOutputDevice(const Phonon::AudioOutputDevice&) setProperty(device, "plughw:CARD=0,DEV=0" ) failed
virtual bool Phonon::Gstreamer::AudioOutput::setOutputDevice(const Phonon::AudioOutputDevice&) "default"

I suppose, in light of these developments, that this thread is probably mis-categorized… I think I’ll see if I can make heads or tails of anything in apparmor that could fix this.

Again, any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

A final update (8:00 am, computer working well enough, probably time for a rest)…

I disabled apparmor, to no avail; then I added my regular user to all the groups on the system, and was able to run alsa applications again yet remain unable to control networkmanager.

It seems as though one of the recent updates has (seriously?) affected the way permissions and kernel modules interact.

If anyone knows more about this, I’d sure like to hear about it so I can get networkmanager up and running again.

Thanks (and sorry for the diatribe).