Was doing updates - after reboot, I couldn't boot the GUI anymore. Was it a kernel update?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Opensuse 13.2 x64

3.16.7-21-desktop

The software update program widget I had on the panel in the lower right corner was showing that there were like 200 updates available. So I decided to do about 20 updates at a time then reboot and then do 20 more updates, just to be safe.

Do I really need to do it that way, or just install all 200 updates in one shot?

Anyhow, here is what happened to me. After about 20 updates, I rebooted the machine and it dropped me into a terminal instead of the GUI at boot. I did a google search to find out why, and some site said to type this:


startx

After I did, it said there was a problem with the configuration, and it would not start the GUI. Then I saw somewhere on a site that said the kernel may have been updated, in which case you will have to re-install your graphics card drivers. Luckily, I had the Nvidia Geforce drivers located in my home directory. So I did this to re install them:


su
sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-xxx.xxx.run

It said that a driver was already installed and that it would remove them and then re install, so I picked yes to do it. It did it, and then after the re install was done, I did this:


startx

And finally, it booted the GUI. Except I had to re install my desktop theme and re do my panel and set the desktop to render in OpenGL 2.0 and all was normal again. Being a Linux newbie, I’m not sure if a kernel update is what happened. Curious if the kernel does get updated sometimes through the updates that become available, I went here to the repository site for Opensuse to see the kernel version rpm there:


http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/oss/suse/x86_64/

And looked at the rpm file “kernel-desktop-3.16.6-2.1.x86_64.rpm”. My current version says that it is “3.16.7-21-desktop” which I’m pretty sure a kernel update is what happened.

Now, before this happened, I never really looked at my kernel version before. So I don’t know what it was. Being a Linux newbie, can you tell me if kernels do get updated at times? Or, does it only get updated with a new version release of Opensuse? Like I said, it seems pretty obvious the kernel did update, but I’m not totally for sure. As I’m still learning these things as I become more familiar with Linux.

Also, is there a way I can tell? Look up somewhere in Opensuse that would tell me if the kernel was updated?

Thanks!

2

yes, at the gui level open up -YaST2 --Software Management then select ‘Extras’ from the top bar,
from the pull down menu select item ‘Show History’, the ‘Package History’ panel is then shown for all changes since the last clean install

have fun

3

And there it was! I looked at the update history for today and saw -> kernel-desktop 3.16.7

And now I know, there was a kernel update that made me have to re compile and install the graphics driver again. Cool!

Thank you keelambert!

4

Secret68 wrote:

>
> keellambert;2708527 Wrote:
>> yes, at the gui level open up -YaST2 --Software Management then select
>> ‘Extras’ from the top bar,
>> from the pull down menu select item ‘Show History’, the ‘Package
>> History’ panel is then shown for all changes since the last clean
>> install
>>
>
> And there it was! I looked at the update history for today and saw →
> kernel-desktop 3.16.7
>
> And now I know, there was a kernel update that made me have to re
> compile and install the graphics driver again. Cool!
>
> Thank you keelambert!
>
>

You can use the Open suse repo for the nVidia kernel module, in
Yast>software repositories “add” then choose the community repositories
there you will find a nVidia repo, eneble and then pick the right ones for
your kernel an ie. desktop or default, more than likely desktop.

Have a look through a couple of the previous posts here to get the right
names as I am not a nvidia user so would not like to point you a wrong
version.

HTH

–
Mark
Nullus in verba
Caveat emptor
Nil illigitimi carborundum