Boot issue

[andreasj64]

I ugraded from the 7.04 (or whatever it was) to the 8.10 online, and everything seems to be fine, but...

I get to the login screen, type my password, the KDE screen comes up. I see the hard drive pic fade in, then the icons to the right start to fade in, and then they stop, and remain blurred. It just sits there. Hard drive light goes dead, etc. Won't boot into the system.

Any ideas?

[toad]

Re: Boot issue

It is quite likely that your hard disk somehow or other got stuffed up to the max. Please do a

df -h

It'll tell you whether you have any free space left on your device. If you find that 100% of your / is used a

sudo apt-get clean

will help you along.

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

37gb free

The machine does lock up, but the mouse still works. Failsafe mode brings me back to the log-in window. After a couple of tries on that, the screen just goes blank, and doesn't return to the log in screen. I can alt crtl f1 in this state, or f7 back to the blank screen. loading straight in though does not behave in the same manner. It simply locks up, and goes dead. cannot use ctrl alt f1 or anything. Have to shut it down manually.

[dibl]

Re: Boot issue

Have to shut it down manually.

Just to be sure it's not a video display problem, the next time you get it locked up this way, try holding down Ctrl-Alt-SysRq and pressing R S E I U B in sequence. If it does do a shutdown/restart, then it is not actually locked, but the video I/O is hung. That would be an X configuration problem.

[toad]

Re: Boot issue

So space does not seem to be the issue

Do you use the same /home? I assume so...

If so, move your old ~/.kde to ~./kde.bak - reason being that 8.04 used ~/.kde for KDE3 and 8.10 uses the same directory for KDE4.

Sounds as though you are comfortable enough on the CLI to achieve this feat, otherwise just ask

Oh, and let us know how you get on.

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

it's a video issue i'm pretty sure. i actually hit ctrl alt f1 real quick before if locked on the kde screen, and when i returned a moment later with ctrl alt f7, it teased me with the desktop. i could move around a bit, while it was still starting up actually. hit the menu button, and browsed programs and everything. it was actually working, then it went dead.

how do I resolve this issue?

[dibl]

Re: Boot issue

If you can choose "Recovery Mode" from the boot menu, then you want to choose "Fix X" from the recovery options menu. Then after it runs it routine, you can either choose "Resume normal boot" or if it drops you to the command line, if it is a # prompt you can do

/etc/init.d/kdm start

or if it is a $ prompt you can do

startx

[toad]

Re: Boot issue

@ dibl

Good stuff, you're following developments closely and, as always, hand out expert advice! Out of interest, how is the ~/.kde issue between KDE3x and KDE4 handled for updates - any ideas?

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

by the way, the sequence you had me try did not work. don't know if it means anything or not. sure would have been easier to do with a third hand...

[dibl]

Re: Boot issue

sure would have been easier to do with a third hand...

Heh heh heh -- yes, at least three hands are needed for that maneuver!

But it's odd that it didn't work -- that's a pretty universal (if not well-known) emergency restart procedure. I wonder if your keyboard is being disconnected too. Weird!

@toad, here's the tricky part -- in summary:

7.10 used .kde
8.04 used .kde, but then added .kde4 for the KDE4 stuff
8.10 is back to .kde (for KDE 4.1)

Under this arrangement, how people are going to manage a trouble-free upgrade from 8.04, I have no clue! Personally 8.04 ended up such a kluge on my rig that I was happy to install 8.10 Alpha 6, and I haven't looked back.

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

okay, i tried it, but it didn't do anything.

i can switch over to the cli, and then come back giving it enough time to finish the kde screen, and actually use the desktop for a moment. if i come back to soon, it hangs on the kde screen. eventually the desktop locks up though. weird...

any sugestions?

[toad]

Re: Boot issue

@toad, here's the tricky part -- in summary:

7.10 used .kde
8.04 used .kde, but then added .kde4 for the KDE4 stuff
8.10 is back to .kde (for KDE 4.1)

Under this arrangement, how people are going to manage a trouble-free upgrade from 8.04, I have no clue!

My thinking exactly... andreasj64 - have you tried moving your ~./kde to ~/.kde.bak? Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I didn't gather it from your answers...

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

you may be right, but i'm not exactly sure of the procedure. the whole reason i ugraded to begin with was an error i was getting. the error was a mime error, where it couldn't find the octet stream. this was related to kdpf, where i deleted the pdf file association. this error infiiltrated my browsers, dolphin, and mail, possibly more. i know my last default usage is still trying to come up, because the mozilla firefox browser is trying to open. how would i deleted firefox from the cli?

[toad]

Re: Boot issue

Okay, by _moving_ your ~/.kde directory to ~/.kde.bak you would be getting rid of that behaviour without risking anything. To do so type the following in any tty below 7 (CTRL+ALT+F1-6):

mv ~/.kde ~/.kde.bak

Now go back to tty7 (CTRL+ALT+F7) and try to login.

What does the box do?

[andreasj64]

Re: Boot issue

it behaved a little differently. the icons to the right of the hard drive were no longer fading in, but if i went out, and came back, they came in. i got to the desktop once again, but it locked. it also locked on the kde screen if i looked at it too long. any other suggestion? how much ram does my video card need? it's built in to the motherboard, and i have it set to 128mb.