Problems with KDE 4.9 Beta Updates

[shailesh_paranjpe]

I recently visited KDE website and found that KDE 4.9 Beta 2 is released. For experimentation, I included the Beta 2 ppa Backports to repositories and it (perhaps, I am not sure) installed the new KDE beta version. Although I am not a novice Kubuntu user, still not very expert, therefore, I think I made a mistake by installing Beta. Ever since installation, strange things are happening to my previously stable 64 bit precise installation on HP Pavilion DV6. Some previously installed softwares (e.g. Digikam, Synaptik touchpad management) are no longer existing (I am not able to install them also from repos due to dependency problems).
After running Muon update manager, it shows "A new version of Kubuntu is available" (Does it mean new KDE version? Is it because of including kde beta ppa?) but upon clicking on "Upgrade" tab, nothing happens.
I thought that this might be happening due to inclusion of KDE Beta ppa and so I remove that ppa and ran muon S/W again. But it is still showing New Version is available and nothing happens after clicking "Upgrade" tab.

Trying "Sudo apt-get update && Sudo apt-get upgrade" in terminal, it does not show any new thing to be installed. I am confused with all this and just trying to figure out if I can roll back from the KDE 4.9 Beta 2 (If it has already installed) to what ever old stable KDE version I had. If so how to do that... Please guide.

[whatthefunk]

I did something very similar a couple days ago and used ppa-purge to revert back to my old install. You can download ppa-purge from the repositories. After install run the program like this:
sudo ppa-purge ppa:ppa_name
Where ppa_name is the name of the ppa.

[OneLine]

...if I can roll back from the KDE 4.9 Beta 2 (If it has already installed) to what ever old stable KDE version I had. If so how to do that... Please guide.

Package: ppa-purge

Description: disables a PPA and reverts to official packages
This program disables a PPA from your Software Sources and reverts your
system back to the official Ubuntu packages. You can use this to return your
system to normal after testing a new version from a PPA.

After the installation of the ppa-purge the manual page is available:

man ppa-purge

ppa-purge(1) ppa-purge(1)

NAME
ppa-purge - disables a PPA and reverts to official packages

SYNOPSIS
ppa-purge [-h | [-d <distribution>] [-s <host>] [-p <ppaname>] <ppa:<ppaowner[/ppaname>]>]

DESCRIPTION
This script provides a bash shell script capable of automatically downgrading all packages in a given
PPA back to the ubuntu versions.

You have to run it using root privileges because of the package manager.

OPTIONS
-h Display usage help.

-p PPA name
Name of the PPA to be reset, the default value is ppa.

-s PPA host
Address of the repository server, the default value is ppa.launchpad.net.
...

or the help

ppa-purge -help

Usage: sudo ppa-purge [options] <ppapaowner>[/ppaname]

ppa-purge will reset all packages from a PPA to the standard
versions released for your distribution.

Options:
-p [ppaname] PPA name to be disabled (default: ppa)
-s [host] Repository server (default: ppa.launchpad.net)
-d [distribution] Override the default distribution choice.
-y Pass -y --force-yes to apt-get or -y to aptitude
-i Reverse preference of apt-get upon aptitude.
-h Display this help text

Example usage commands:
sudo ppa-purge xorg-edgers
will remove https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

sudo ppa-purge -p xorg-testing sarvatt
will remove https://launchpad.net/~sarvatt/+archive/xorg-testing

sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
will remove https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

Notice: If ppa-purge fails for some reason and you wish to try again,
(For example: you left synaptic open while attempting to run it) simply
uncomment the PPA from your sources, run apt-get update and try again.

With the Kubuntu Beta Backports / https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/beta

sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/beta

[shailesh_paranjpe]

Thanks, I tried the down grade. But something went seriously wrong. Therefore, after installation and restarting the machine, gui is not losing. It shows during booting "starting k display manager" twice. The first time it shows ok, the second line (in between these two, there are other lines as well) showing "starting k display manager"shows fail. The system does not boot at all after this. Even command line is not accessible. P lease advise. Thanks...

[OneLine]

Have you tried with the recovery mode ?



What was the output ?
Did you get the "Recovery Menu" ?

[shailesh_paranjpe]

In older version like 11.04 etc., I used to see this display of recovery. But in latest precise, I don't see this and I don't remember how to open these Grub options. Please advise about that. Thanks.

[shailesh_paranjpe]

Trees I could figure out how to get to recovery window. After trying recovery with network enabled, it shows no new files to be installed or repaired. Therefore no immediate recovery is possible. For information, during booting everything else shows ok except kdisplay manager which shows fail, therefore the problem lies there. Any clues to resolve? Looks like I will have to reinstall entire Kubuntu for one small problem...

[Fintan]

I have had this problem before (a long time ago ).
Try going back into recovery mode (root network) and doing this:

sudo [I]apt[/I]-[I]get install kubuntu[/I]-[I]desktop[/I]

In recovery mode you can probably leave the "sudo" away.

Providing you have completely purged the beta PPA and all other non-standard PPA's/Repos, this should reinstall the standard kubuntu desktop from the standard repos and you should be good to go.

It is easier than a complete reinstall.

Hope this helps

Edit:
you may want to run:

sudo apt-get autoclean

first to clean up any residual downloads not needed any more. again you can probably drop the "sudo" when in recovery/root mode.

[shailesh_paranjpe]

Thanks a lot fintan,
With your help I could reinstall the Kubuntu desktop and get the gui going, but shortly after login, I am getting a warning as "could not quit D-bus, can you call qdbus?" there is only OK option to this, after clicking ok, the display completely disappears (perhaps display drivers fail). Therefore I can't proceed from this point. Any advice would be helpful.... Thanks

[shailesh_paranjpe]

Update on the issue: With the help of some googling, I could locate that the application "qdbus" installation was needed. However, dependency problems prevented me from installing this. Post this, I had to uninstall the dependencies with higher version than default kubuntu stable version. The system shaded about 800 MB worth applications including VLC, all KDE applicaions, Kubuntu Desktop and even propriatory AMD Display Drivers during this uninstall!! Subsequently, I could install qdbus and reinstall all applications again to get Kubuntu going. The system is up now working.... However, I noticed that during original downgrade from Beta to stable, several dependencies for applications like VLC etc. were not downgraded. Due to this, there were still Beta versions of them sitting there. Therefore, instead while installing stable kubuntu- Desktop, the system uninstalled VLC!! Even now, I can see several libraries and application files that are showing higher versions than default Kubuntu Stable. But they will not downgrade during downgrading attempt. On running Muon package manager, it gives me a warning that I am holding broken packages. But running "dpkg --reconfigure -a" and "apt-get install -f" does not show any packages to be repaired or reinstalled!

Surprisingly, although I have removed all the kubuntu ppas from repository, muon manager still shows "A New version of Kubuntu is available", which upon clicking DOES NOTHING!! Any ideas
Thanks everyone for the help...

[Fintan]

Glad that helped

However, I noticed that during original downgrade from Beta to stable, several dependencies for applications like VLC etc. were not downgraded. Due to this, there were still Beta versions of them sitting there.

This will happen when "upgrading" to a Beta DT. And, as you have noticed is not an easy thing to remedy.

Surprisingly, although I have removed all the kubuntu ppas from repository, muon manager still shows "A New version of Kubuntu is available", which upon clicking DOES NOTHING!! Any ideas

I haven't really played with muon a lot but I would just open a Konsole and do:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and see what that generates.

Edit:
Also did you do:

sudo apt-get autoclean

?

If not do that first.

[shailesh_paranjpe]

Another Update and Problem faced: As soon as a video application starts running a video (Checked with VLC, Dragon Player both), X crashes. the console shows segmentation fault, therefore I cant play video files. I tried to search this issue by googling, but none of the links available give a proper guideline.... Can some one please advise..... Thanks

[shailesh_paranjpe]

@ Fintan: Thanks Fintan, I had done Autoclean already, it cleaned something the first time I did it, but seems nothing to clean now if I run it again. The update & upgrade from synaptic shows 0 upgraded, 0 new installed, 0 removed...But update manager still shows a new version available....!!!
Any way, I am presently much more concerned with the problem of X server crashing on running a video... any clue on that & I'll be very thankful...