Symptoms
Post update with a NVidia driver change Debian Jessie Cinnamon falls into error loop asking user to run in fallback mode or reset.
- System would boot to graphical login
- Following login see the desktop background color but no icons, menus or applets appear
- Some time passes and an error message appears:
- Cinnamon just crashed. Your are currently running in Fallback Mode. Do you want to restart Cinnamon?
- Selecting Yes results in the same message almost instantaneously
- Selecting No results in a blank background, no headers, menus etc but the ability to right click to create new folders
- Note using ctrl+alt+F1 to get to alternate console for login
- Reviewed boot log; noted that had modules not loading error
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systemctl status systemd-modules-load journalctl _PID=1400 -l
- Clear errors pointed at issue with video driver causing modules to not load
- Purge and Reinstall NVidia Driver (just reinstall didn't seem to work for me)
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apt-get purge nvidia. aptitude install nvidia-detect nvidia-detect aptitude install nvidia-driver
- Reboot and check (same symptoms with Cinnamon but no longer see modules errors)
- Dug through Xorg.0.log but no obvious signal of why cinnamon was bad
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grep nvidia /var/log/Xorg.0.log
- No clear lightdm error log entries for Cinnamon
- Looked at cinnamon configuration but all web references pointed at applets being the problem, of which I have none
- At this point I was down to 3 clear options (revert to nouveau, reinstalling cinnamon, switching to Mint and starting over).
- Revert to Nouveau by Uninstalling NVidia Proprietary Driver
- Note the Debian Wiki for Nouveau fallback from a bad NVidia install indicates a need to install xserver but the identified packages do not exist and the step is unnecessary.
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apt-get purge nvidia.
- After restarting it works. No more Cinnamon fallback loop error with a non-functional desktop.
- I don't remember at this point what forced me stop using Nouveau so we'll see when that issue crops back up if I take the plunge and just switch this machine to Mint for faster updates.