After update: no login possible

[jensnolte]

Hi there,

a couple of weeks ago, I installed Kubuntu Natty alpha 2 on my playing partition. I was actually quite happy with it and did not encounter any major issues. On Feb. 25, there were some packages updated. Since then, no login is possible any more:

Originally, I had auto login to KDE enabled. After KDE is started, the KDE starting process stops suddenly with the following error message:

"Cannot open ConsoleKit session: Unable to open session: The permission of the Setuidhelper is not correct."
There is an OK button which I cannot click since the keyboard and mouse do not work at this point.

First, I tried to boot the system in natty safemode. However, the computer stops booting there after the message
[DRM] Initialized Radeon 2.8.8 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor
However, I never tried the safe mode before so I actually cannot say if it is the same problm as above, or something else.

Then, I booted my productive system again and manually disabled auto login in /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc. However, this did not really help: After a reboot KDM starts and shows me the login window, but I cannot login because the keyboard does not work :-(

Any hints how to get Natty working again without a complete reinstall?

Regards,

Jens

[dibl]

Re: After update: no login possible

Originally, I had auto login to KDE enabled.

Not a good idea on a testing/pre-release system -- as you now know. It is to be expected that you might need to choose a console login session, rather than run KDE, if there are broken video packages.

But you say you have no keyboard function, at the point where KDM fails? Did you try Ctrl-Alt-F1?

The error that you see when attempting a boot in recovery console is probably the same thing that is causing the KDM failure. I'm not proficient with ATI graphics -- it sounds like a problem with a kernel module or setting, but I'm guessing.

If the problem with the ATI graphics is fixed (which I know nothing about), then you could chroot into the 11.04 installation from a Live CD session, and run updates, and it would be fixed. The problem being, is it fixed? I think you'll have to research it first.

[jensnolte]

Re: After update: no login possible

But you say you have no keyboard function, at the point where KDM fails? Did you try Ctrl-Alt-F1?

Yes, I did. But unfortunately it does not work at this point. The keyboard works with Grub (i.e.I can still select any OS in the list), but not when KDM is up. I am not sure if it is really an issue with the video driver, since I would expect a blank screen or something like that.

If the problem with the ATI graphics is fixed (which I know nothing about), then you could chroot into the 11.04 installation from a Live CD session, and run updates, and it would be fixed. The problem being, is it fixed? I think you'll have to research it first.

I think the easiest way is to wait for the next alpha or beta live CD and see what happens. It's just on my play partition anyway.

Regards,

Jens

[GreyGeek]

Re: After update: no login possible

I downloaded the Natty daily builds yesterday and tried them both on my wife's Acer one. Using the wubi.exe and installing Natty 64bit the process failed on the final reboot with a "can't load wubuilder" (or something similar). The 32bit Natty failed the same way.

So, I tried to run them as a LiveCD and both hung on the desktop icon, before the desktop would even show.

[jensnolte]

[SOLVED] Re: After update: no login possible

Hi everybody,

out of curiosity I just chrooted into the Natty installation from my productive system. I then did a "apt-get update" in the console. I got a whole lot of error messages stating "permission denied" and similar. However, after that action, I could log into the Natty system after a reboot. I then used "dpkg --configure -a", which apparently fixed some half done installations, and after that another "apt-get update", which installed quite a lot of other packages.

After that, both the normal natty installation and the recovery console are behaving normally again.

Unfortunately, I have no clue what caused the issue and what fixed it eventually, so I can't create any value add for improving Natty with that event. Anyway, thanks dibi for the hint with the chroot action.

Regards,

Jens

[doctordruidphd]

Re: After update: no login possible

There have been several xorg updates, and the process of upgrading xorg is ongoing. This is probably why your keyboard worked in grub but not once xorg gets loaded.
Glad it's working now.
Same problem happened to me with dhcp/networking, and a new set of updates fixed it.

[dibl]

Re: [SOLVED] Re: After update: no login possible

I then used "dpkg --configure -a", which apparently fixed some half done installations, and after that another "apt-get update", which installed quite a lot of other packages.

Sorry to be slow to respond -- glad that a chroot worked to upgrade it.

Note that apt-get "upgrade" only installs new versions of existing files. For a developmental version such as 11.04, you should use "dist-upgrade", so that any new packages will also be picked up.

[Jonas]

Re: [SOLVED] Re: After update: no login possible

I then used "dpkg --configure -a", which apparently fixed some half done installations, and after that another "apt-get update", which installed quite a lot of other packages.

Sorry to be slow to respond -- glad that a chroot worked to upgrade it.

Note that apt-get "upgrade" only installs new versions of existing files. For a developmental version such as 11.04, you should use "dist-upgrade", so that any new packages will also be picked up.

My best advice to add to this is to install aptitude and use it with simulate .. I learned the hard way with other release(s) pre testing ... -s is my savior (I'm sure apt-get have the same feature, but I never learned it/remember to use it)

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude -s dist-upgrade

This is in the lines of what commands I can keep in my head simulating the upgrade process, any unmet dependencies and other thingys that'll break the system will most likely (edit; /hopefully) show.