Newbie needs help: repairing Suse 11.1 and updating to 11.2

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi, I’m a Suse newbie and Windows-User.

I recently installed Suse 11.1 from the Live CD on an older PC. Suddenly, when booting up yesterday, the system announced corrupted IPtables and didn’t load KDE. After login, I tried commands like KDE, run KDE but the bash didn’t understand the commands.

So I booted from the live CD, but I can’t find an option in the install menu to repair the existing installation. The help in the boot-up screen claims there should be an install option, but it doesn’t show it at that point, only after KDE has started from the Live CD.

Since I’ve already made some changes (newer firefox, downloaded thunderbird etc.), I would like to keep and repair the current installation, instead of a new installation.

I don’t however understand enough about the automatic partitions I’m being offered in the installation menu to know what to choose to keep the existing files. I did choose the offered automatic partitions the first time, and have now several partitions, home swap and so on.

Second question: While 11.1 was still running nicely, I could not find the option to upgrade to 11.2 in the Yast menu (I don’t know any batch commands, so I only use Yast for installation). Looking at the download sites on opensuse on the internet, I saw an update option, but when I tried to add that URL to the Yast repository, it somehow didn’t work. I also didn’t see a nicely packed .rpm or similar update package.

Third problem: I downloaded a newer version of Firefox and Thunderbird and after some tries got Yast software repositories to install them. But the Avira antivir tar.gz package I downloaded, did not appear on the Yast repository manager. Doubleclicking to Ark didn’t work, and when I went to console and tried to run the install file in the zipped package, it wanted parameters, and I didn’t know what to answer.

So any simple answers to the above problems would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

#2

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noname blue wrote:
>
> Hi, I’m a Suse newbie and Windows-User.
>
> I recently installed Suse 11.1 from the Live CD on an older PC.
> Suddenly, when booting up yesterday, the system announced corrupted
> IPtables and didn’t load KDE. After login, I tried commands like KDE,
> run KDE but the bash didn’t understand the commands.
Try startx or kdm as root and see what happen

> I don’t however understand enough about the automatic partitions I’m
> being offered in the installation menu to know what to choose to keep
> the existing files. I did choose the offered automatic partitions the
> first time, and have now several partitions, home swap and so on.
Yes, the swap partition is used for GNU/Linux as the virtual memory of
windows, the home is used as Documents and settings and / for the
system, that allows you to reinstall the system and do not loose the
users accounts data, and if you choose during the installation to use an
old installation you can get the users ready

> Second question: While 11.1 was still running nicely, I could not find
> the option to upgrade to 11.2 in the Yast menu (I don’t know any batch
> commands, so I only use Yast for installation). Looking at the download
> sites on opensuse on the internet, I saw an update option, but when I
> tried to add that URL to the Yast repository, it somehow didn’t work. I
> also didn’t see a nicely packed .rpm or similar update package.
as root:
1- Go to /etc/zypp/repos.d (cd /etc/zypp/repos.d)
2- Edit the oss, non-oss and update files with extension repo and change
11.1 to 11.2
3- from a konsole and as root do: zypper dup -l
4- accept the zypper changes and wait (DON’T REBOOT OR HALT THE PC
DURING THE PROCESS, see that zypper delete the kernel first)
5- make mkinitrd as root from a konsole to enable the bootsplash, this
is because zypper install the kernel before the new bootsplash theme

> Third problem: I downloaded a newer version of Firefox and Thunderbird
> and after some tries got Yast software repositories to install them. But
> the Avira antivir tar.gz package I downloaded, did not appear on the
> Yast repository manager. Doubleclicking to Ark didn’t work, and when I
> went to console and tried to run the install file in the zipped package,
> it wanted parameters, and I didn’t know what to answer.
as root from a konsole type zypper in antivir antivir-gui
antivir-avguard, also you can make this from YaST -> software management

Good luck

VampirD

General Failure is the supreme commander of the Microsoft army.
All operation made by this army ends on him.
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#3

Was it a corrupt file system? Were you taken into single-user maintenance mode?

So I booted from the live CD, but I can’t find an option in the install menu to repair the existing installation. The help in the boot-up screen claims there should be an install option, but it doesn’t show it at that point, only after KDE has started from the Live CD.

Live CD has limitted space. Basically you can check the file systems aren’t corrupt and do automatic repair yourself,

Since I’ve already made some changes (newer firefox, downloaded thunderbird etc.), I would like to keep and repair the current installation, instead of a new installation.

I don’t however understand enough about the automatic partitions I’m being offered in the installation menu to know what to choose to keep the existing files. I did choose the offered automatic partitions the first time, and have now several partitions, home swap and so on.

Get root promt in terminal window by running su, Live CD doesn’t have a password (don’t think). Run fdisk -l and then fsck -p on the Linux partitions, ignoring Linux swap & any Windows ones.

Second question: While 11.1 was still running nicely, I could not find the option to upgrade to 11.2 in the Yast menu (I don’t know any batch commands, so I only use Yast for installation).

Couple of options, you can download DVD or Net Install CD and do upgrade with them.

Or you can try installing the tool “Wagon” which is meant to provide GUI upgrade, but it was available only late and wasn’t as well tested as CLI method.

First make backup! There’s a small chance 11.2-GM won’t run well on your PC, so it can be worth trying it out first with Live CD. You can only update, if your 11.1 system is working properly.

  1. Disable all repositories except for 11.1 ones, oss, non-oss & updates. Yes even Packman!

  2. Now, do Update All unconditionally to get consistent 11.1 system.

Hopefully it only does a few updates, doesn’t downgrade too much nor remove too many packages due to conflicts.

Equivalent to CLI “zypper ref && zypper dup” ]

  1. Following Release Notes - will need a lot of space free in /var (> 1GB)

Update
System Upgrade with zypper
If you update with zypper dup, packages might get restarted during the update process. It can happen that the restart does not succeed before you adjust the config files. This is especially critical if your system relies on services needed for downloading the update packages, e.g. a local proxy (squid) on the machine you update.
Set commit.downloadMode = DownloadInAdvance in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf so that everything is downloaded first, before the packages get installed. The download transaction needs a huge amount of space on the /var partition to store all the software packages.

  1. YaST->Repository Manager Change the repo’s so that 11.1 is replaced by 11.2.

Perform a Refresh.

  1. Now in Root console (best to logout of GUI, CNTRL-ALT-1 become root, and change to runlevel 3 with “init 3” at # prompt).

zypper dup

This should take a while, tell you about a huge amount of package changes, hit return, if you’re still up for it, and cross your fingers.

#4

dumb question, I know, but how do I change to root in the console? In my old Suse 8.0 KDE (3.5?), there was a seperate menu entry to run console as root, but I can’t find that in the KDE on the live CD. So when I start console, what command do I use to change to root?

1- Go to /etc/zypp/repos.d (cd /etc/zypp/repos.d)
2- Edit the oss, non-oss and update files with extension repo and change 11.1 to 11.2

Sorry, you lost me there. Edit oss how? In the console?

3- from a konsole and as root do: zypper dup -l
4- accept the zypper changes and wait (DON’T REBOOT OR HALT THE PC DURING THE PROCESS, see that zypper delete the kernel first)
5- make mkinitrd as root from a konsole to enable the bootsplash, this is because zypper install the kernel before the new bootsplash theme

You mean, the konsole command is “make mkinitrd” ? Any qualifiers?

as root from a konsole type zypper in antivir antivir-gui
antivir-avguard, also you can make this from YaST -> software management

Where in Yast- software management? I didn’t see any command options or zypper there.

So the exact console command is “zypper antivir antivir-gui antivir-avguard” without any additional qualifiers? (Because zypper cares about this?)

Good luck

Thanks!

#5

The long messages I get during start-up stopped with “corrupted IP-tables” and then the system went to the Linux login, instead of proceeding to the KDE surface.

Live CD has limited space. Basically you can check the file systems aren’t corrupt and do automatic repair yourself,

Get root prompt in terminal window by running su, Live CD doesn’t have a password (don’t think).

Sorry, a bit too fast. su= super user= root? How do I get there when I start console - type “su”?

Run fdisk -l and then fsck -p on the Linux partitions, ignoring Linux swap & any Windows ones.

You mean, I use the “cd …” command to get to one of the Linux partitions, then use “run fdisk -l” and “run fsck -p”, and change to the next partition, except for swap? Do I understand this right?

Couple of options, you can download DVD or Net Install CD and do upgrade with them.

So in addition to the live CD I already have, I have to download and burn the Net Install CD also?

Or you can try installing the tool “Wagon” which is meant to provide GUI upgrade, but it was available only late and wasn’t as well tested as CLI method.

Hm, that doesn’t sound so good, I prefer well tested tools.

First make backup! There’s a small chance 11.2-GM won’t run well on your PC, so it can be worth trying it out first with Live CD. You can only update, if your 11.1 system is working properly.

Is there a simple command on the console level or in Yast for backup? I saw (now, after it’s already broken - but I didn’t expect the system to corrupt after a couple of weeks only! Not fair!) that there is some backup option in Yast, but with a lot of options, so I’m not sure yet what would be the best configuration.

Update

System Upgrade with zypper
If you update with zypper dup, packages might get restarted during the update process. It can happen that the restart does not succeed before you adjust the config files. This is especially critical if your system relies on services needed for downloading the update packages, e.g. a local proxy (squid) on the machine you update.

So this is less safe than using Yast, if I understand you correctly? Or do I have to do this before using Yast? Sorry, I’m a bit confused now.

#6

If you have a corrupted disk (corrupted IP-tables message) STOP. To see if there is damage to the files system boot from CD/DVD select install then repair then run the disk check option.

You must either correct the damage or install a fresh OS and reformat root partition.

You can correct the damage but in most cases you will lose some files. Though the pieces will generally be in Lost&found stitching them back together can be more then a challenge. Also corrupted file system can be an indication of a disk going bad.

Do NOT upgrade until you know that your hardware and file system is in good shape

#7

Right! su - Google Search

No, you are seeing if you can repair the filesystems from CLI using Live CD, I assume you can read about the command to piece together the missing details which would take a lot of typing and be hard to follow if I tried to cover all the possibilities.

If there’s real trouble you will see tons of errors and lots of deletions etc. But you do back up important stuff don’t you :slight_smile:

No, you options; you can do Online Live upgrade, or upgrade with DVD or Net Install CD; I don’t think the Live CD has full installer and repo on it to upgrade.

Is there a simple command on the console level or in Yast for backup? I saw (now, after it’s already broken - but I didn’t expect the system to corrupt after a couple of weeks only!

touches wood I have not seen fs corruption for long time, but you just installed new OS on new hardware, and you have errors.

The probability of corruption is now high enough to want to rule it out.

So this is less safe than using Yast, if I understand you correctly? Or do I have to do this before using Yast? Sorry, I’m a bit confused now.

If you use YaST like the other responder suggested, it will do same as suggestions you get from posters such as myself, but we won’t know what went wrong, just that it got fixed, most likely.

After you check your filesystems and find them clean, and you may try ‘fsck -n’ if you want a long slow thorough check and feel wimpish about the possibility of automatic deletions. It would be possible to check for badblocks, querying the disk with SMART feature is possible, or you can scan for bad blocks with badblocks(8).

If your system is borked it’s too late to run YaST backup, until you’ve fixed it. The Live CD YaST will just backup the CD installation which is not what you want.