No GUI after I cancelled updates

[cbordeau]

Hi Folks
I'm trying to figure something out with my Debian 7.5 installation.
I've been traditionally a Windows user until I installed Debian 7.5 6 weeks ago to support a Mahara/Eportfolio project.
So far so good!

Last week I had a big list of updates that I cancelled part way through because they were taking a long time and my Eportfolio
site was down during the process.
I figured I would revisit the updates at a less busy site for my users.

After I rebooted I seem to be stuck in a screensaver (I have a black screen and I'm able to move a small graphic with my mouse)and I'm unable to login. However my Eportfolio site is running fine and is accessible.

Does anyone know what I can do? I'm kind of stuck

Thanks a bunch.

[dasein]

Last week I had a big list of updates...

Mixing repos, no doubt. Stable doesn't get "a big list of updates"

Post your sources.list

[cbordeau]

I would like to grab the sources list( and this will show lack of Linux experience ) but I can't log into the box.
I've only ever accessed via the GUI login

[M51]

You can boot from a live USB and view the file from there.

[steve_v]

You have tried Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get a text mode console haven't you?
If your httpd is running, it sounds like it's just X that's broken. Hard to tell however as 'black screen and small graphic' isn't too descriptive. Is it a mouse pointer? A blinking cursor?
Tried logging in via SSH?
How about single user / 'rescue' mode?
Magic SysRq SAK? - this will kill everything, but _should_ get you a console even if things are truly borked.
Where there's a shell there's a way.

[vbrummond]

You can also boot into recovery mode from grub, I believe. If dropped to a console you can use cat or less to view a file, and ls to view a directory.

So try:

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cat /etc/apt/sources.list

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ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

[cbordeau]

I haven't tried Ctrl+Alt+F1, I didn't know it existed until now. I've had about 3 weeks of Linux exposure and haven't really touched it other than updates since I got Mahara running.

Thanks a bunch everyone.....This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for.
I'll try these things today.

Cheers

[cbordeau]

As advertised the recovery console worked like champ.
Here is my sources list

//ftp.au.debian.org/debian wheezy main contrib non-free
//ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
//security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

Should I run updates from the console to fix my GUI?

You guys are great by the way, thanks for the help
Clint

[vbrummond]

Plug in an ethernet and try running:

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dhclient eth0

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apt-get update

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dpkg --configure -a

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apt-get -f install

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apt-get upgrade

If you ever get a message asking you to type "yes do as I say", do not do it. Post here instead.

[cbordeau]

Thanks......Will do