Unable to boot to /home after login

Hello everyone, using 12.3 32bit version.

I am unable to boot to my home directory after logjn where it stays idle showi g the opensuse screen. I noticed there are 3 kernels displayed on the splash screen 3.7.10-pae , default, and desktop. Everything went awry when I rebooted after installing a program which stated it neexex to update the kernel (pae I assume).

I have the rescue cd if its needed and would appreciate any help on the matter.

One possibility comes to mind.

Perhaps you have a separate “/boot”. And, with three kernels, it is possibly out of space so that the “initrd” did not build correctly when you added extra kernels.

(added) You say you have the rescue CD. Booting that to look around would also work.

If you are not sure, then boot the rescue CD, open a terminal and use “su” to become root. Then run


# fdisk -l

and post the results here. You can copy/paste the command output to a file that you save on a USB, and later post from there.

I’m guessing that you installed with the live KDE or live Gnome image. So you probably still have that live media. Are you able to boot it, mount partitions and look around to see if “/boot” is out of space?

(If you don’t know how, it’s okay to ask for further help).

I thought I had added this. Boot your rescue CD, and look around from there. Post the output of “fdisk -l” (run that as root)

Thanks for the reply. Funny I was trying to figure out how to PM u or Robin lista for help before I made this thread.


                           Start.             End.                 Blocks.           ID.   System
/dev/sda1   *   2048.      321535.              159744.            83.   Linux
/dev/sda2.       321536.   976773119.     488225792.      8e.    Linux LVM


Sorry for the errors I’m typing this from my phone.

It’s a bit hard to read, but I could work it out.

It looks as if you have installed in an LVM. Is that an encrypted LVM?

Presumably, “/dev/sda1” is mounted as “/boot”.

With three kernels (default, desktop and pae), and with probably two versions of each kernel, you have very likely run out of space on “/boot”. It looks to be 160M.

When I was running 12.3, and using only the desktop kernel, I ran out of space on a 100M “/boot”.

I am assuming that you installed 32-bit (there isn’t a PAE kernel for 64-bit). And you probably have 4G or more of memory, and needed the desktop and/or pae kernel to be able to access that memory.

You are going to need to go into rescue mode to fix this. I’m hoping that your rescue CD ls also 32-bit.

The general procedure for rescue mode is described in my blog post Rescuing Susie. However, I was solving a slightly different problem, so we will have to do it a little differently. I suggest you start by reading that.

My tentative suggestion is that you should delete the default kernel and the pae kernel, and keep only the desktop kernel. That will still give access to all of your memory. And it will free up the needed space for “/boot”. Once we have freed up space, you will need to run “mkinitrd” to rebuild the “initrd” files.

Here’s a simpler step that you might want to try first:

  1. Boot your rescue disk.
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
  1. Use “ls -l” to list the “initrd” files in “/mnt” (really your “/boot”)
  2. Find the oldest of those “initrd” files (using the file date).
  3. Write down the details of that oldest initrd. In particular, write down the kernel version number and whether default, desktop or pae.
  4. At the grub screen, attempt to boot the kernel corresponding to that oldest “initrd”. You might have to explore the grub menu.

The idea here is that the oldest “initrd” is the one most likely to be correct. If you are able to boot with that, then it will be easier to fix your system from the inside when it is running. In particular, that will be easier than rescue mode.

I’ll wait your response, and then we can go on from there.

After using your advice I see that in /mnt using “ls -l” desktop kernel is the oldest. Can I not remove these files ising the rescue disksimilar to in terminal when booted normally (probably a stupid question).

Thanks for the help.

Maybe I shouldn’t have bit using the recovery disk I deleted everything pertaining to default & pae. Using ls -l it now displays:



Initrd -> initrd-3.7.10-1.28-default

Vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.28-default


Both of these are highligbted in red ( desktop files still remain). When I try to boot normally it is looking for the pae kernel to boot which I then use Advance Options. Using the the desktop kernel (or recovery option) to boot everything loads to the login afterwhich nothing loads except Teamviewer app and default desktop wallpaper.

It is encrypted by the way (LVM).

Yes, you can remove them manually. But that might confuse your system. Your RPM database won’t match what is present. But it is okay as a temporary solution. You can fix the rest later, once you are up and running.

If you do it that way, then delete “initrd” files and “vmlinuz” files for the kernels that you don’t want.

When you boot to that stage, can you use CTRL-ALT-F1 (or perhaps CTRL-ALT-F2) to get to a login prompt?

If you are able to login there, then login as root and run


# mkinitrd

then reboot and see if things work a little better.

If you cannot get to a root prompt, then we will need to go into rescue mode.

I’ll fill in the details for rescue mode, if it turns out that we need that. Waiting for your next response.

Well progress is being made but still having the end result. Normal startup no longer shows the other two kernels (default & pae). When desktop kernel is selected for boot and decrypting the LVM it takes me to the login screen, as normal, where it hangs on the default homescreen still. The TeamViewer Wine application appears on the screen but nothing else. Same result choosing kernel recovery option as well.

At this stage, I’m not sure what is wrong.

If you successfully ran “mkinitrd”, then that part of the problem is solved. So there’s another problem.

I’m guessing that some other software was messed up at the same time.

Again, you can login as root at the command line. They run yast. You should get a somewhat crude text version.

Hmm, maybe at the login screen, you can try selecting to login to “icewm” instead of KDE (or Gnome or whatever you use). That might give you a limited GUI which will be easier to use than the command line.

If you can get into Yast software manager, then here’s the plan:

Remove the kernels that you deleted (so that they are not reinstalled). You can do this by searching for “kernel”, and deleting pae and default kernel packages.

Then you might need to reinstall your usual desktop, as a was of repairing any breakage.

It is possible to do that with command line yast, but using Yast from within “icewm” will be more congenial if you can manage it.

As for reinstalling the desktop – I’m not quite sure. But then I don’t think you have told us which desktop you are using.

Well everything is back up and running, lol. At the login screen I used Alt+Ctrl+F2 to get a command prompt and decided to enter



startx


Everything started normally. Evidently that is tied to the problem.

Edit:
After using the command above it seems that I have lost my original /home folder. Also, most of the applications I have downloaded are gone as well.

I rebooted the system and at the command prompt login I used my user name/password instead of ‘root’ and received this errror with startx:



:~>  startx

Hostname: Name or service not known
Xauth: file /home/fisk/.serverauth.3124 does not exist
/usr/bin/startx: line 199: /dev/null: permission denied

Fatal server error:
Cannot move old log file "/var/log/Xorg.1.log" to "var/log/Xorg.1.log.old "

(EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
At http blah blah

(EE)

[1]+  Stopped.     /usr/bin/startx ${1+"$@"} 2>&1  |  tee $ HOME/.xsession-errors


On 2014-04-11 19:56, fisk king1 wrote:

> Edit:
> After using the command above it seems that I have lost my original
> /home folder. Also, most of the applications I have downloaded are
> gone as well.

Probably because you logged in as root. He uses a different “home”.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

On 2014-04-11 20:26, fisk king1 wrote:
>
> I rebooted the system and at the command prompt login I used my user
> name/password instead of ‘root’ and received this errror with startx:

Of course, startx does not work as user, and this is intentional. You
have to do some changes if you insist on using it. Read the local
permission file.

And even after that, there are certain desktop functionality that will
not work.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

Is there anything I can do/check as to why my regular system will not boot?

On 2014-04-13 16:26, fisk king1 wrote:
>
> Is there anything I can do/check as to why my regular system will not
> boot?

You will have to state what is the current status. There are many
messages and I’m lost.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

Sorry I haven’t been back sooner to respond.

When I boot into the encrypted partition I receive this error which scrolls down the screen:



failed to execute usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBnode.sh' 'usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBnode.sh --remove 0 0: no such file

kvm: disabled by bios

Sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present


I removed virtualbox with Yast but I still have the 60-vboxdrv.rules.rpmsave in /etc/udev/rules.d but every line in the file has been commented ( ## ). I even tried removing the file to /trash and rebooting but still receive the same error when I boot. Not sure if this is the reason I cannot boot into my /home but I can successfully login into root at the login screen.

root’s home is not in /home it is in /root

Sorry for being confusing. At the login screen I can login into root and everything boots up fine. When I log into my normal user account it stalls at the openSuse default home screen.