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ksmserver segfault [SOLVED]

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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ckosloff
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ksmserver segfault [SOLVED]

#1 Post by ckosloff »

I just upgraded my main computer form stretch to buster, which resulted in inability to logon to my desktop (KDE), because of the abve mentioned segfault in ksmserver.
I am looking into two solutions, both depend on being able to log into terminal without going through desktop.
1.
Insist with dist-upgrade until bug is solved.
2.
Load an alternative desktop (xfce), from terminal

So, basically I need help on launching a terminal if desktop is unusable.

Thank you,
Last edited by ckosloff on 2019-07-20 12:25, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#2 Post by Dai_trying »

Can you Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or other F keys) to get another tty open?

Segfault
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Re: ksmserver segfault

#3 Post by Segfault »

So, basically I need help on launching a terminal if desktop is unusable.
Basically, put 'exec xterm' into your ~/.xinitrc and run startx.

However, somehow I think this is not what you are looking for. :roll:

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GarryRicketson
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Re: ksmserver segfault

#4 Post by GarryRicketson »

There should be options in the login screen, where you can select which DE or WM you want, this does depend what display manager you are using, with lightgdm it is up in the upper right corner, a little wrench like thing.
You can also disable or not use a display manager ,
from: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -using-gui Fake display manager

There's a way to specifically avoid starting a display manager on Debian. The scripts that start display managers at boot time check if they are the default display manager, to ensure that only one display manager will be run. So set a fictitious default display manager. Make sure that /etc/X11/default-display-manager exists but doesn't contain the name of a display manager (e.g. make it empty).
If you do disable the display manager, you can still use 'startx', and start XFCE4 or a WM ,whatever,...What segfault says, is correct, but the same I am not sure if that is what you are looking for,
So, basically I need help on launching a terminal if desktop is unusable
The ctrl+alt+f1 (2,3,4,etc) is ok , if all you want is a terminal, but you probably will not be able to run 'startx' and start another DE or WM from another tty.
I believe for KDE, the display manager is KDM, and looking at one image,(older) there is a cog wheel, clearly labelled, it says "session type", that would be where you could select
a different DE, the other image, newer, is much different, and no text, to identify the options, just a arrow pointing down, a power "button", and another arrow thing, horrible the way modern DE,and display managers do things, but sorry , that is another topic, if you move your mouse around and play the "clicky dicky,click the icon" game, one of them should give you a menu where you can select Xfce, if it is installed.
Below might give some idea, :
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/choose-sw ... -managers/

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#5 Post by ckosloff »

Dai_trying wrote:Can you Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or other F keys) to get another tty open?
Yes, thank you, I had forgotten that key combination.

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ckosloff
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Re: ksmserver segfault

#6 Post by ckosloff »

There is no responsive button in KDE after the segfault.
Will try all tomorrow, too late now.

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ckosloff
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Re: ksmserver segfault

#7 Post by ckosloff »

SOL completely.
I did manage to launch alternative terminal and shutdown sddm and the failed instance of KDE desktop.
Dist-upgrade did not fix anything, reported everything up to date, just some packages to be removed by autoremove.
So I decided to fire up smxi and install xfce.
Rebooting system only showed black screen, startx did not launch.
During install I was offered the choice to use sddm or lightdm, chose sddm, but would like to revert to lightdm, I know there is a file that can be edited to do that, but I forgot where it is.
Please help.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#8 Post by Hallvor »

Try

Code: Select all

# dpkg-reconfigure sddm
or

Code: Select all

# dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
[HowTo] Install and configure Debian bookworm
Debian 12 | KDE Plasma | ThinkPad T440s | 4 × Intel® Core™ i7-4600U CPU @ 2.10GHz | 12 GiB RAM | Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 4400 | 1 TB SSD

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#9 Post by GarryRicketson »

Yup, that is what it says in the link I posted earlier as well :
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/choose-sw ... -managers/
For Debian:

The procedure is similar to Ubuntu: replace the path to your old display manager to the new one in /etc/X11/default-display-manager. You have to edit the file as root. Alternatively, run

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure yourdisplaymanager 
and choose the new display manager.
.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#10 Post by giaur »

I think you are lost, this happens sometimes after large upgrade. Better reinstall system, I don't think you can fix it, since all desktop environments don't work.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#11 Post by ckosloff »

I am thinking of reinstalling system, will wait till Saturday for official release of buster, right now it is RC3.
Will try to fix in the meantime.
Thank you.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#12 Post by GarryRicketson »

https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/
Debian 10.0 was released July 6th, 2019.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#13 Post by ckosloff »

Do you mean that buster is the new stable now?
I thought that release was next Saturday, not realizing that July 6th. is also a Saturday.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#14 Post by None1975 »

ckosloff wrote:Do you mean that buster is the new stable now?
Yes, it is. And Stretch is oldstable.
OS: Debian 12.4 Bookworm / DE: Enlightenment
Debian Wiki | DontBreakDebian, My config files on github

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#15 Post by ckosloff »

On another note, i wiped clean the system partition, formatted to ext4, set bootable flag, mount point to / all from install CD.
The problem is I cannot install nvidia driver because it conflicts with nouveau.
Tried

Code: Select all

apt purge nouveau 
but apt could not find package nouveau.
New question: how to remove package nouveau?

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#16 Post by Dai_trying »

As I recall the nouveau driver gets blacklisted when nvidia-driver gets installed so no need to remove it.

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Re: ksmserver segfault

#17 Post by ckosloff »

Here is what I did to fix: since I had to get some work done and got tired of fiddling around with an unusable computer. I decided to reinstall system.
This is not much of a problem for me because:
/home is a separate partition from system so many of my settings are already there, and,
All my data is stored on a different physical drive.
So I fired up a buster CD in another computer and reinstalled, it worked.

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