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[solved] Black screen after upgrading to testing

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alete
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Joined: 2017-05-19 16:42

[solved] Black screen after upgrading to testing

#1 Post by alete »

Hello everyone. I'm starting in this wonderful linux world, with debian, off course. But I already screwed it up.

what I had:
-a debian stable version with MATE working like a charm.

what I did:
- replaced "stable" or "Jessie" with "testing" in /etc/apt/sources.list
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get upgrade
something like 235MB were downloaded and a lot of packages updated, I went AFK for a while and when I got back:
Image
this happened. A black screen, but when I moved the mouse or pressed a key, the image came out for an instant.
I waited a while and then just turn the machine off from the case button.

the result:
now, when debian boots, the user login prompt appears, it looks just fine, but after I enter my credentials, nothing happens, just black screen and pointer. ctrl+alt+f1 takes me to tty, system is working, but I have no clue how to fix (or even what did I break)

* as a side note, grub now looks awfull, it had a nice splash and graphics, now it's blue and white (like non-graphical debian installation).

Any advice will be appreciated. :)
Last edited by alete on 2017-05-26 13:38, edited 2 times in total.

milomak
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#2 Post by milomak »

so to help you on your journey, do you realise that you left out the most important information about your problem?

i would guess that even under windows, you wouldn't expect all graphics cards to behave the same?
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arochester
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#3 Post by arochester »

You might look here: https://journalxtra.com/linux/desktop-r ... ktop-back/

Scroll down to: Solution Seven: switch to a basic graphics driver

If you get things back you can maybe install your proprietary graphics driver again.

alete
Posts: 19
Joined: 2017-05-19 16:42

Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#4 Post by alete »

milomak wrote:so to help you on your journey, do you realise that you left out the most important information about your problem?

i would guess that even under windows, you wouldn't expect all graphics cards to behave the same?
No, I didn't realize, other way I would provided it. I actually wasn't sure that the problem is with graphical drivers since I can see the MATE login window without any problem.

Windows never gave me a black screen after an update (luckiest man in the world, maybe?)

alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#5 Post by alete »

arochester wrote:You might look here: https://journalxtra.com/linux/desktop-r ... ktop-back/

Scroll down to: Solution Seven: switch to a basic graphics driver

If you get things back you can maybe install your proprietary graphics driver again.
Excelent guide, thank you very much!

But I still have a question. What exactly happened? how is that updating packages broke something (what exactly?)

Thank you again.

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stevepusser
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#6 Post by stevepusser »

Did you upgrade the kernel? That won't happen with the command you gave--it's a different package from the stock Jessie kernel, not an upgrade. (unless you have the kernel metapackage installed).

This can make a big difference, since the free xorg graphics drivers have one part built into the kernel, and the other part outside.

Even more things can go wrong with the proprietary drivers.
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milomak
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#7 Post by milomak »

alete wrote: But I still have a question. What exactly happened? how is that updating packages broke something (what exactly?)

Thank you again.
you switched from stable to testing

if you do not know what you are doing with such a switch, things can and will break
Desktop: A320M-A PRO MAX, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GALAX GeForce RTX™ 2060 Super EX (1-Click OC) - Sid, Win10, Arch Linux, Gentoo, Solus
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alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#8 Post by alete »

milomak wrote: you switched from stable to testing
if you do not know what you are doing with such a switch, things can and will break
Very helpful, that explains it all. I couldn't have realized it alone. Thank you.

alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#9 Post by alete »

stevepusser wrote:Did you upgrade the kernel? That won't happen with the command you gave--it's a different package from the stock Jessie kernel, not an upgrade. (unless you have the kernel metapackage installed).

This can make a big difference, since the free xorg graphics drivers have one part built into the kernel, and the other part outside.

Even more things can go wrong with the proprietary drivers.
Not that I'm aware. I don't even know how to update the kernel.

dcihon
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#10 Post by dcihon »

I would like to chime in here:
A certain level of knowledge is expected here if you decide to use debian "testing".
Please read the following:
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... ng.en.html

alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#11 Post by alete »

dcihon wrote:I would like to chime in here:
A certain level of knowledge is expected here if you decide to use debian "testing".
Please read the following:
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... ng.en.html
Good call. Actually I decided to switch to testing because I read somewhere that it wasn't a big deal, and I was trying to apt-get install something that apparently is available in testing and not in stable. Off course that I regret now.

Anyway, I won't be around that PC until monday, I hope I can revert the process somehow.

Thanks for your time and replies.

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debiman
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#12 Post by debiman »

reverting the process is practically impossible, esp. for a user with your level of expertise.

but maybe testing can be ok for you.

you should

- upgrade the kernel as was suggested. inform yourself what is considered the standard kernel for debian testing.

- fix your graphics (it runs in 2 modes - 1 when you boot the system, 2 when you start a gui). let's start by providing the output of this command:

Code: Select all

lspci -k | grep -iEA5 'vga|3d|display'

alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#13 Post by alete »

Good news, everybody.
Today I turned the PC on, logged into debian, then I started a tty and ran sudo apt-get update and system said that some packages were uncompleted or something like that, I can't remember, but it suggested to do dpkg --configure -a , so I did. It finished well, and then I ran sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. It downloaded 800mb, installed for a while (like 20 min) and after that, system boot normally.

Thank you all for your help :)

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stevepusser
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#14 Post by stevepusser »

Yes, I should have caught that that 235 MB do was far too small for a complete upgrade. What kernel are you now running?

Code: Select all

uname -r
Stretch has a 4.9 series kernel.

Steve (having trouble building Debian Nvidia drivers on a freakin' 4.11 Liquorix kernel) (Edit: Fixed it! No duct tape, either)
MX Linux packager and developer

alete
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Re: Black screen after upgrading to testing

#15 Post by alete »

stevepusser wrote:Yes, I should have caught that that 235 MB do was far too small for a complete upgrade. What kernel are you now running?

Code: Select all

uname -r
Stretch has a 4.9 series kernel.

Steve (having trouble building Debian Nvidia drivers on a freakin' 4.11 Liquorix kernel) (Edit: Fixed it! No duct tape, either)
Hi, sorry for the delay.
Currently running: 4.9.0-3-amd64

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sunrat
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Re: [solved] Black screen after upgrading to testing

#16 Post by sunrat »

Changing sources from "stable" to "testing" then doing upgrade but not dist-upgrade is like building half a boat then launching it. Won't go well.
Now to avoid further surprises, change sources from "testing" to "stretch".
Also learn about system backups so you can recover from mishaps like this in case you can't fix it.
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

alete
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Re: [solved] Black screen after upgrading to testing

#17 Post by alete »

sunrat wrote:Changing sources from "stable" to "testing" then doing upgrade but not dist-upgrade is like building half a boat then launching it. Won't go well.
Best reply in the whole thread. I don't know if you noticed that nobody mentioned it before. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for confirming it. (I learned from it in the worst way)
sunrat wrote:Now to avoid further surprises, change sources from "testing" to "stretch".
good call, thanks.
sunrat wrote:Also learn about system backups so you can recover from mishaps like this in case you can't fix it.
Also a very good advice. Thank you.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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