[SOLVED] unusable GUI after booting with live Debian USB

[stevesr0]

Hi all,

I downloaded the iso for what I thought was a live version of debian 10.9 and booted it on my computer. After it ran a long time, a screen came up and I explored it for a while before trying to shut it down. After choosing logout to shut down, the screen went blank except for two rectangles. After a few minutes, I shut off the power.

Since this, when I boot into the linux distro on this machine, after log in it just displays a window saying my window manager is not usable. After a few seconds I note that either the fan or the disk is running loudly, so I shut the computer down to avoid possible heat damage.

The windows install on a separate hard drive on the same machine is working fine.

When I boot with a live distro, I can see that the files still exist on the drive.

I am not sure what was mangled on the ssd with the linux distro and I would appreciate any advice about how I can diagnose this and fix.

I realize this isn't providing a bunch of useful technical details; be happy to provide them if people suggest what...

Thanks in advance.

stevesr0

[p.H]

I downloaded the iso for what I thought was a live version of debian 10.9

What was it actually ? What is the file name ?

[stevesr0]

Hi,

I just checked and it WAS a live version - 10.9.0 amd64 xfce 2.3 gb.

Because my existing Linux install of Antix Linux (the current stable version 17.4), which is a systemd free derivative of Debian, was messed up after I booted from it and it refused to shut down, I assumed it had done something that a live version wouldn’t do.

I am left uncertain that the Debian iso did the damage; I was hoping that someone has had a similar experience and might have figured out what went wrong and how to fix it.

My backup plan is to do a fresh install in another partition and then transfer the data files from that partition to the new install.

Appreciate any wisdom on relation of this problem to trying a live distro…

Thanks.

stevesr0

[p.H]

In the live session, did you mount any of the installed filesystems, browse or write on it ?

Before reinstalling, I would
- check the free space in the installed filesystems,
- try to open a session with another user (create one if needed) to check whether the problem is system-wide or user-specific.

[stevesr0]

It has been fixed!

In the Antix linux forum, someone pointed out to me that I would see the currently selected window manager and could change it from the login screen before logging in. When I did that (using the F1 key) and changed to the window manager that I had been using, everything launched ok. Working with it since then, no great fan noise or any obvious problem.

P.S. I don't know how a "minimalist" window manager became selected, nor why it doesn't support a mouse to change the window manager or do anything else after login. Don't see why booting the live Debian usb would cause that.

Thanks for responses.

stevesr0