Incomplete installation, KDE broken

[arist]

Trying to install Oneiric on an HP Mini netbook that worked well with Karmic. Using USB stick, md5sum for the .iso checks out. Live version of Oneiric works perfectly on the Mini, even wireless. Installation almost finishes, then at "Restoring previously installed packages... 90%" the screen goes black. I wait for activity to cease with the USB drive and HDD, hit Enter, they are active for a minute or so (still no screen), then the wifi is switched off and no more activity. I've left it for a couple of hours to make sure that the installation is dead. I turn off the power, then on, it boots into Grub2 with the usual choices. The login screen comes up, I log in, and then I get this error:
"We are sorry, KDE Daemon closed unexpectedly." "Details: Executable: kdeinit4 PID: 1509 Signal: Segmentation fault (11)".
I close the dialog and get a black screen with functioning mouse cursor. ctl-alt-delete brings up the Kubuntu shutdown dialog. I click on Restart, wifi is switched off (and cannot be switched on by hardware) and screen goes black, no input or output possible. Not even alt-sysreq keys do anything. Power-down is the only option.

I tried logging in to a Failsafe session, that just came back to the login screen. Logging into KDE Plasma session (failsafe) brings up the same error dialog, closing that leaves the Oxygen wallpaper where right-clicking does nothing, but ctl-alt-sysreq brings up the Kubuntu shutdown screen, and clicking Shutdown does power-off in an orderly way.

I've repeated the install process with exactly the same result.

I really need this netbook to work now, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[SteveRiley]

Which HP Mini do you have? I've successfully run Lucid, Maveric, Natty, and Oneiric on my Mini 2140.

You might be encountering a hardware compatibility problem. FWIW, you might try the Precise alpha.

[james147]

Try updating via command line.

Connect a enthernet cable
Press alt+ctrl+F1 to switch to a tty and login
Run "ping -c 4 8.8.8.8" to check you have networking
If you do then run this:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

If enough of the system was installed in the first place (which is likely if you got to the login screen) then hopefully that will install the rest.

[arist]

Which HP Mini do you have? I've successfully run Lucid, Maveric, Natty, and Oneiric on my Mini 2140.

You might be encountering a hardware compatibility problem. FWIW, you might try the Precise alpha.

It's a 1035R. It ran Karmic and the live Oneiric fine.

Try updating via command line.

Connect a enthernet cable
Press alt+ctrl+F1 to switch to a tty and login
Run "ping -c 4 8.8.8.8" to check you have networking

"The network is unavailable."

I've made some small progress. Ran the install with the nomode (?) option (I'm at work so this is from memory), and had it format the root partition (/home is a separate partition). It completed the installation, announced it was going to reboot, and hung as before. Powered down, booted into login screen, logged in, same kdeinit4 crash. Got it to shutdown, then booted to recovery mode, hoping to rename the .kde4 folder. Turns out that /home is completely empty. I don't understand how it's possible to login when there's no home directory for the user. Now I worry that the /home partition has been obliterated.

Next I will try installing from a different USB stick, then try to install Natty.

[Teunis]

(I have a mini 1000 with a working 11.10 install)

An other option is to install the server version (without desktop), log in and install the kde-plasma-desktop via apt-get.

steveriley's suggestion to try the 12.04 Alpha is a good one, it works remarkably well.

[arist]

I couldn't get Oneiric past the KDE crash at login, even with apt-get update and dist-upgrade (it wouldn't install kubuntu-desktop, saying the current version was already there.) Got the same kdeinit4 crash at the same point with a Natty install. Successfully installed Lucid, then tried to do a network upgrade to Maverick. Rebooted into Maverick, exact same KDE crash. Was there some major change in KDE between Lucid and Maverick?

I despair of ever upgrading the Mini.

I couldn't get Oneiric past the KDE crash at login, even with apt-get update and dist-upgrade (it wouldn't install kubuntu-desktop, saying the current version was already there.) Got the same kdeinit4 crash at the same point with a Natty install. Successfully installed Lucid, then tried to do a network upgrade to Maverick. Rebooted into Maverick, exact same KDE crash. Was there some major change in KDE between Lucid and Maverick?

I despair of ever upgrading the Mini.

[SteveRiley]

Did you try Teunis's route? That could be an interesting experiment, build up from base. I've documented one possible step-by-step procedure in a how-to.

[SteveRiley]

Um, did you intend to repeat your previous post?

[SecretCode]

Um, did you intend to repeat your previous post?

See arist's avatar ... he's doomed to roll the same post, I mean rock, up the same hill forever

[SecretCode]

Got it to shutdown, then booted to recovery mode, hoping to rename the .kde4 folder. Turns out that /home is completely empty. I don't understand how it's possible to login when there's no home directory for the user. Now I worry that the /home partition has been obliterated.

The first thing that occurs to me is that /home has just lost its mapping to your separate partition. Check /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab, df, etc.

[arist]

don't see a way to delete a duplicate post. I'll try the alternate CD, then the server. /home is still intact.

[Snowhog]

don't see a way to delete a duplicate post. I'll try the alternate CD, then the server. /home is still intact.

Taken care of (I merged the two). You can edit the post to remove the duplication if you want.

[arist]

I successfully installed Mint 12 (the Gnome desktop), renamed the .kde directory, then painstakingly installed Kubuntu Oneiric from the alternate CD. Still hangs when rebooting, and I somehow lost window title bars, but I'll figure those out. Apparently the problem stemmed from having a separate /home partition, which preserved the KDE settings from Karmic. Somewhere Dibl has described a way of preserving personal data in a separate partition without messing up an upgrade by using symlinks. It would be good if he were to put a detailed procedure in his FAQ.

[Teunis]

To prevent too much old fluff getting in the way of an update or new install using an existing /home it's generally sufficient to rename the old .kde to something like /.kde-old.
When you later miss certain old configurations you can individually copy them to the new .kde.
And yes, you can do an install in a small single partition and then link the old /home (partition) to the new /home (directory), just a simple drag and drop with Dolphin.
But make sure the old /home partition is set up in fstab so it's up and running with the rest of the system!