New install of OpenSuSE 13.1 64B desktop fails to boot after upgrades, pdc_cbbainfafid_part7

English Install/Boot/Login
1

The new install of OpenSuSE 13.1 64b desktop fails to boot after upgrades and does not reach the login screen. Pressing the esc key displays the error as: /dev/mapper/pdc_cbbainfafid_part7 not found.

Since the new kernel upgrade earlier this month, the system became highly unstable, with frequent system freezes. I re-installed OpenSuSE 13.1 and allowed all the upgrades. YAST installs about 160 upgrades in two stages. Stage 1 involves 2 upgrades. Stage 2 involves the remainder. Stage 1 proceeds just fine and reboots properly. After performing the second stage of upgrades, the system fails to reboot, and freezes at the not found message indicated above.

I suspect there is something seriously wrong with the latest desktop Kernel upgrade that was released earlier this month. I re-installed OpenSuSE 13.1 to a netbook, allowed all the upgrades and it works just fine. The desktop upgrade doesn’t work at all. Before rebooting, YAST software management shows the original and upgrades kernels are BOTH present on the desktop machine. How did this get past software testing?

Just a side note, OpenSuSE 13.1 is one of the worst releases of Linux in recent memory. The gold master desktop release will just randomly freeze. When it freezes, the mouse may still move the cursor, but the system is unresponsive. Many times, even the clock freezes as well. This is not the only thing wrong.

The OS was released with known defects. The release note indicates it was released even though a major feature, the bluetooth interface, was broken. (Side note: If you ever work for an organization that releases a product with a major feature broken, reconsider your employment. Your job will soon be eliminated by competition, or replaced by a robot. You definitely do not have a long term career with this employer.) Heck, I can’t even get Samba to work with a config file that worked with OpenSUSE 12.2

Apparently, OpenSuSE’s release cycle of popping out a new baby per the human, nine month gestational cycle results in troublesome, premature birth that fails to thrive. I’ve been on the OpenSuSE Linux train now for about 15 years. While I’n not ready to jump, I don’t understand why a product with this level of maturity looks like a train wreck. What the heck happened?

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I agree with you that it’s bad. I have had so many problems with 13.1 that I’m finished with it. For instance, the numlock key gets inverted when I leave the system alone overnight while powered up. This issue had been reported back in 2008 and still exists. This confuses me, because the LED for numlock goes dark, so I think that it’s actually off. So I have to guess which state it’s in. But of course, people are going to comment that it’s related to my hardware and usage patterns. Yeah, It certainly is all my fault. The problem with FOSS, is that developers aren’t normally getting paid to write code, and devs have to eat too. Therefore, bugs sit for years and years and years, and sometimes never get fixed. People are never going to donate money in the amount to FOSS projects as compared to paying for similar closed source software. And then there’s the Linux fragmentation, where you have a gazillion different distros, different package management systems (.rpm, .deb, etc.,), tons of different filesystems, lack of documentation, a multi-layer hodge-podge mess audio stack which is pretty much still broken (PulseAudio is complete ****), and the list goes on. If you want to read the entire list, go here:

http://linuxfonts.narod.ru/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html

The bottom line is that Linux is not ready for the desktop, and it’s got so many problems where some could have been avoided. Developers think they know best in terms of how a user should use their system, and that just isn’t so. I absolutely hate Gnome 3.x, as it’s the stupidest UI I have ever seen. But then there’s KDE, which has plasmoids that leak memory, and has a bunch of different desktop layouts that the average user doesn’t need. By default it won’t let you put anything on the desktop, which is completely stupid. Newspaper layout? Grid layout? Who the hell would ever want that, besides a few people? Obviously we have a situation here where the developer’s mindset is foisting features on the average user. For as long as things continue at this rate, Linux is never going to gain widespread usage outside of server use and for people who hate Microsoft and are afraid of backdoors, and have a pragmatic ideology against closed software. And in that sense, I agree with those people because I don’t like Windows either. But if nobody speaks out about the Linux desktop’s shortcomings, nothing is going to change. It’s going to be a hobby toy OS for the desktop, and run servers. The question is, what do you want it to be?

I am with you on your frustration, and agree that openSUSE 13.1 sucks. But, you can’t really blame Novell entireley, because a lot of its problems are related to software that many Linux distros include.

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On 2014-02-11 06:56, pirithous wrote:
> I am with you on your frustration, and agree that openSUSE 13.1 sucks.

It doesn’t for me. It is very good. But this is a technical forum, not
soapbox. And you two are talking rant. Rants should be moved out of this
forum (to soapbox).

Or does the OP has a request for help here? We’d be happy to try to
help, but no rants, please.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

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On 2014-02-11, Parthenolide <Parthenolide@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> The new install of OpenSuSE 13.1 64b desktop fails to boot after
> upgrades and does not reach the login screen. Pressing the esc key
> displays the error as: /dev/mapper/pdc_cbbainfafid_part7 not found.
>

Rants aside (and assuming you still want help), can you boot in safe mode?

5

Sorry about the rant. I was attempting to post while at work when the computer froze (again), so I had way to much time when I was posting at home.

I didn’t try booting in safe mode. This is something I will try when the problem recurs.

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I was able to get all the upgrades installed and it boots normally.
However, I was unable to accomplish this by simply letting yast online update or apper select the files and run the upgrade automatically. Instead, I installed the upgrades manually. That is, I selected a small section of upgrades and rebooted after each section installed. I started with the kernels, then did Java, LibreOffice, samba, yast, etc. My guess is that is some hidden dependency error, and breaking up the upgrade into smaller chunks works around this error.

Thanks.

7

It is not unusual, in my experiences, that a lot of updating at once can cause an unpredictable collision or crash of some sort. This seems to hold in any operating system I have worked with in the past, not just Linux.

What I can say is that I have found it happens least often in Linux.

When I install a version of openSUSE that has been out for quite awhile, for example, I never let it do any of the updates during the install process.

I then do a version of updating somewhat like you did, part at a time, but only after first backing up.

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Most obvious reason would be not enough disk space allocated to allow all the downloads and installs. In general all the packages are down loaded then installed. This may take up a bit of space and if you have not allocated enough for / then there could be problems. The RPMS are erased after the install free space thus freeing space for the next batch.

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Gogalthorp suggests that I didn’t allocate enough memory. Really? I let the installer select all the memory it wanted. I have two 500Gbit HDs set up as RAID 1 (mirror). The user data maybe takes 80G. Really? I didn’t allocate enough memory? I think something else is occurring.

Recall. When I allowed the system to install all the upgrades automatically, it did so, without error. It worked just fine, until I rebooted. Then it failed to reboot. I repeated this about 3 times, and lost about half a day of my life that I will never get back waiting for the system to upgrade, again, and again, and again. Once, after I allowed the system to upgrade automatically, I looked at yast software management and noticed there were **two **versions of the desktop kernel installed simultaneously.

I don’t think this is a memory allocation error. I think, then something else is wrong. My hunch is something in the routine that determines package dependencies is experiencing something akin to thread lock. Just a hunch.

10

You may optionally try zypper verify before rebooting

*zypper ve*
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On 2014-02-14 08:46, Parthenolide wrote:
>
> Gogalthorp suggests that I didn’t allocate enough memory. Really? I let
> the installer select all the memory it wanted. I have two 500Gbit HDs
> set up as RAID 1 (mirror). The user data maybe takes 80G. Really? I
> didn’t allocate enough memory? I think something else is occurring.

You can show us the output of “df -h”. We are not saying you did
anything wrong,.

> allowed the system to upgrade automatically, I looked at yast software
> management and noticed there were *two *versions of the desktop kernel
> installed simultaneously.

which is intentional and correct.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

12

I just suggested that is one possibility. I have no way to know what you have set up. You may have 500 gig but how much is allocated to the root file system (/)

Could be something else. Not enough space is certainly the first thing you would look for. There should be no problem installing hundreds of updates if enough space is available. Maybe you have something else wrong and the logs are filling the available space. We can’t look over your shoulder to see so you have to tell us.