I’ve been using openSUSE 11.0 for about 1 week now (new to linux). I use Virtualbox 1.5 and wanted to upgrade to the latest version (2.2 I think) so I added the repository from opensuse.org and hit the upgrade button in Yast. It said that it needed to redo the architecture of some libraries for the upgrade, so I clicked okay.
Then, the first thing Yast did was delete several pacakges (some starting “lib”) and then started to download the first package to update. It failed.
I exited the program and then nothing in my Gnome start menu worked. I did a alt + F2 to run the terminal and it said the program was not found. I couldn’t start any programs but my file browser worked. Finally I did ctrl + alt + F1 (or esc) and it brought me to a terminal saying “Login:”. I typed “root” and immediately got 5-6 errors.
Errors: init: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
Final error said I had to wait 5 minutes. Restarted the computer and won’t boot. I get the same errors.
In the end, I tried the “repair mode” from my openSUSE DVD and after scanning for errors it said I was missing about 8 “basic packages” (linux32 is one of them, cup another) but couldn’t download them because it wants to get the packages from the internet and not the DVD (no option to browse) and my ethernet card isn’t activated.
So… any ideas? I guess I’m sort of new to linux and had no idea upgrading a package could kill my entire system.
To do that, pause the boot, then select the default and press backspace to clear all boot arguments and just type the number : 3
(hit enter)
Login as username and your password, then go su and enter root password.
Hit enter a couple of time to make sure you are at the prompt. Now try running yast, just type: yast
(it’s a basic form, so keyboard navigated) Try a system wide update.
If yast is no go, see if zypper works. Type:
zypper ref
That should refresh your repo’s if you have internet.
Did what you said, booted runlevel 3. Tons of text goes across the screen and then it stops. Here’s the output I can see on my screen after it stops:
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute "/bin/sh"cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: cannot execute “/bin/sh”
INIT: Id “2” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id “3” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id “4” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id “5” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id “6” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id “1” respawing too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel
usb 2-1.1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
usb 2-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=413c, idProduct=2002
usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 2-1.1: Product: Dell USB Keyboard Hub
Then it waits for the 5 minutes and repeats the same errors (minus the usb information) and waits for 5 minutes…
It’s not pretty. You are either going to have to re-install (you can keep all your user files by not formatting /home)
OR try this: kinda radical
Boot with the DVD select Installation, then repair installed system (this way it should only use the dvd)
Thing is you will have a load of package conflicts/errors because the DVD only understands packages on the DVD and you have installed all sorts. But what you need to do is identify all the packages that you have added and want to keep and LOCK them Do Not Modify. Work through the whole list.
You should end up with all packages being re-installed except the ones you Lock, like maybe multi-media stuff from Packman.
It’s a long while since I did this for anyone so it’s a little fuzzy.
I think I need to reinstall. I tried the radical method and then selected repair from within there and it only used the DVD, found the missing base packages and “repaired” them but said the versions were likely to be different and in the end I got the same errors.
Nice to see though that I can reinstall without losing my data. I just hope I don’t see this sort of error again and I’ll be twice as careful when updating dependencies.