Opensuse-migration-tool broke my Linux system

English Install/Boot/Login
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I tried to upgrade my laptop running openSuse Leap 15.6 to Tumbleweed using the opensuse-migration-tool .
I could launch the process, but in the middle of the install process, my screen suddenly went black, only the mouse pointer remained visible. I was surprised and logged into a virtual terminal as root, but I could not see any more processes related to the opensuse-migration-tool.
So I rebooted the laptop, only to find out that the system was pretty much shot. Broken networking, broken zypper, impossible to log in using the X11 display manager.
The kernel was in place, I could boot to a text terminal as root, but all other system settings were gone. (My data was still intact) Yast would start, but any settings change only resulted in an error message.
My only option was to upgrade the existing system with Tumbleweed from a USB stick which fixed the system.
IMHO opensuse-migration-tool is broken.

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Provide logs for the dev so that a potential issue can get fixed. Your description is unclear in the point if you did a complete new install (no logs left), or used the update function from the USB stick (logs available).

As the opensuse-migration-tool only performs a zypper dup after adding the correct repos of the target system (and some small scripts), it is unlikely that the tool is broken. It sounds like you performed the upgrade from a running GUI session and the session crashed. Upgrades are better performed from a TTY.

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I did an upgrade, not a new install. What logs are you interested in - journalctl? I checked those logs after the reboot into the broken system and I could not see any error messages related to my upgrade there.

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Well, if opensuse-migration-tool crashes my X11 session, and then I cannot tell what it is doing, then I would say this quite some design flaw. And if this leads me to an early reboot and a broken system, doubly so.
If opensuse-migration-tool is only safe to use in runlevel 1 or without X11, then the docs should mention that, which they don’t (https://github.com/openSUSE/opensuse-migration-tool , https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade)

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As explained, it uses a simple zypper dup. Upgrade instructions for Tumbleweed recommends to use zypper dup inside a screen, tmux or terminal session. See wiki. One of several articles:
https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Migrate_Leap_to_Tumbleweed#Running_the_upgrade

You might want to open an issue at github, to add this recommendation to the opensuse-migration-tool description.

Round about 2 years ago or so, several users here were affected by an upgrade issue due to performing a zypper dup of Tumbleweed in a graphical session. The graphical session crashed and left the system in an undefined state. Users which performed the upgrade in a TTY session had no issues.

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I already did just now: https://github.com/openSUSE/opensuse-migration-tool/issues/97

As explained, it uses a simple zypper dup. Upgrade instructions for Tumbleweed recommends to use zypper dup inside a screen, tmux or terminal session.

I wasn’t upgrading Tumbleweed, I was upgrading from Leap to Tumbleweed, so I don’t see how upgrading instructions for Tumbleweed would apply here.

And pointing to implementation details (e.g. zypper dup) - you really ask a user to first inspect the source code of opensuse-migration-tool , then do some research on potential issues with the commands during execution and then they need to deduct that you maybe should not run in in a X11 session? Is that really your suggestion?

1 Like
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Please read the linked wiki article. It is named “Migrate Leap to Tumbleweed”.

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Pragmatic Programmer:
I deeply sympathize. I have been working on upgrading from Leap 15.6 to Leap 16.0 and hit severe problems.
Based upon my experience, you need to do this:

  1. Solidly back up the repositories in the Leap 15.6 version. They will be hammered and left in disarray during the attempt to upgrade using the opensuse-migration-tool should things not be right.
  2. Learn how to do the snapper snapshots, so you have a safe snapshot to go back to. This saved my neck at least twice.
  3. It is worth your while to examine both the boot log and the zypper update log, to discern what could have possibly gone wrong, should things fail.
  4. I know you feel very strong about this, I did too, but the opensuse-migration-tool should be run only in CLI runlevel 3 and NEVER in a graphic environment. I think the tool is okay.
  5. Make sure that ALL your files (the whole disk) is backed up first before attempting ANY upgrade.
    I complete believe your frustration. Try not to lash out, but use this as an opportunity to learn about upgrades.
    - Randall