no GUI after dist-upgrade from stable to testing [solved]

[linux001]

I decided to upgrade from squeeze to wheezy. When I did so, everything went smoothly until the very end when I received the following error message:

/var/cache/apt/archives/libsane-hpaio_3.11.12-2_amd64.deb

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I don't know what this means or how to resolve it, assuming it needs resolved. Is it something I should be concerned about? Thank you.

[linux001]

It may be pertinent to add that after restarting my computer, I can no longer run Debian. When I choose to run Debian, I am faced with a blank screen with a blinking underscore in the top left corner. The keyboard accepts no input, and my only recourse is to press the power button, which sends via INIT a term signal to all processes and shuts down the computer. My Windows partition still works wonderfully.

[dilberts_left_nut]

That's just the generic message saying something went wrong during the run.
The actual error message will be back up the list somewhere (or in the aptitude or dpkg logs in /var/log/).
For a start, I would jusrt run 'aptitude update' and 'aptitude upgrade' again and see if is complains further.

[linux001]

Hello, thank you very much for your reply. Please see my update. I suppose I should try booting into Debian via recovery mode for starters?

[dilberts_left_nut]

It may be pertinent to add that after restarting my computer, I can no longer run Debian. When I choose to run Debian, I am faced with a blank screen with a blinking underscore in the top left corner. The keyboard accepts no input, and my only recourse is to press the power button, which sends via INIT a term signal to all processes and shuts down the computer. My Windows partition still works wonderfully.

That's not completely unexpected when upgrading to testing, depending on your video hardware and method of proprietary driver installation.
Try Ctrl-Alt-F2 to change to a VT.
If that won't work, reboot into single user mode.
issue

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update-rc.d gdm3 disable

to prevent your non-funtional dm from running at boot.
Then reboot as normal.

Login as root and try completing the upgrade.

Post any specific errors and details of your hardware (from lspci).

[linux001]

Thanks again. Running a VT failed, but after issuing the command you advised in single user mode, I received the following output:

update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script 'gdm3' overwrites defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (0 1 2 3 4 5 6) of script 'gdm3' overwrites defaults (0 1 6)

I will reboot and try to complete upgrade by issuing
apt-get dist-upgrade

I'm typing this on a phone, so I cannot copy lspci, but will link to a previous post of mine that contains my lspci output.

[linux001]

So after trying to complete the upgrade, I received a train of errors that is too long to type on a 3.5 inch touchscreen. Can I mail this to myself somehow using mail CLI? The gist of the messages is that A depends on B ver 2, but B ver 1 is installed. Shall I try apt-get -f dist-upgrade as it suggests?

[linux001]

Here, by the way, is a copy of my lspci dump:

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00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b4)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 8 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
03:00.0 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e823 (rev 04)
08:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000

[dilberts_left_nut]

You shouldn't be getting get dependency issues, assuming your system was in a sane state prior to upgrading.
Check your sources.list closely first, also anything in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
Remove (comment out) anything non-standard and make sure you only have one line pointing to wheezy.
Definitely do an 'aptitude update' to sanitize you package lists prior to anything else.
See if you can follow the chain of dependency errors basck to a problematic package.
You can also remove anything that's giving trouble (or even all non-essential packages), finish the upgrade, then add the packages back after, your configs shouldn't be touched.

edit: you may be unable to remove stuff due to the incomplete process, so the -f (force) option might be necessary just to get it going again.

As for your lspci, I haven't used Intel graphics, but I think it should just work without proprietary drivers, so that may not be part of the problem.

[linux001]

Hello. Here are some error messages that occur when I run apt-get update:

Err http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates/main amd64 Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 199.6.12.70 80]
Err http://ftp.us.debian.org wheezy-updates/contribu amd64 Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 199.6.12.70 80]
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/w ... ackages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 199.6.12.70 80]
W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/w ... ackages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 199.6.12.70 80]

I guess I should just drop wheezy-updates from my apt-get file? I initially just changed all occurrences of squeeze to wheezy.

[linux001]

If I run apt-get -f dist-upgrade, I am told

E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages
E: Unable to correct dependencies

(this is preceded by the laundry list of A depends on B, but "it is not installable")

What's next?

[linux001]

I realize my error:

Having read this (http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/) before I started:

Please note that security updates for “testing” distribution are not yet managed by the security team. Hence, “testing” does not get security updates in a timely manner. You are encouraged to switch your sources.list entries from testing to squeeze for the time being if you need security support.

I changed updates from wheezy to squeeze, in accordance with the advice. However, I think I changed the wrong updates (there is squeeze-updates and squeeze/updates). I think therefore I got a mixed system from the apt-get dist-upgrade. Any means of resolution?

[dilberts_left_nut]

Ok, it looks like you are not resolving ftp.us.debian.org!
Does it have internet connectivity?
Can you ping anything, google or such?

If yes, remove EVERY line in your sources.list except a single entry pointing to a working mirror and 'wheezy main contrib non-free' (to cover all bases.

Then run 'aptitude' and see if you can find some resolution that will work.

If no, your networking will need fixing before continuing...

[linux001]

Thanks, I think the internet connection is working. I am able to ping servers. If I remove all sources except a single one pointing to wheezy, then I just get all the dependency errors, even using the -f flag.

[dilberts_left_nut]

So you have a working mirror & have updated your package list from the wheezy repo only?

What does aptitude do when you start it up?
It should bitch profusely about broken packages and start offering solutions.

If you can't make any headway with aptitude or can't remove anything becuase dpkg is in the middle of a shitstorm of broken and partly configured packages, then your alternatives are either a long and involved course in dpkg and manual fiddling with package lists, or a quick and painless reinstall.

[linux001]

Hello, I only know how to use apt-get, but I will try running aptitude. I'm currently trying to figure out how to mail myself the output of apt-get dist-upgrade so I can post it here.

Does the quick and painless reinstall erase all config files?

[dilberts_left_nut]

Yes.
You can, however, back them up if you wish.

As for the outputs, can you not just save them to your windows partition the read/upload them from there?
(you would need to have ntfs-3g installed already though ...)

.. or to a usb stick?

[linux001]

Oh, good idea.. I can just write to a usb stick through /dev ?

[dilberts_left_nut]

If it doesn't automount under /media/something then make a dir, say /mnt/usb and do

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mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb

sdX being the designation of your usb, as reported by dmesg or such.

[linux001]

I did finally get the output of apt-get dist-upgrade posted here:

http://sprunge.us/gAhR

Any suggestions based on these error messages? I get the same results when using the -f flag.