Need Help With Upgrading Siid Version

[rossi]

Hello Everyone,

I wrote about this topic here previously and am confused about the next step.

This is where I am now:

Thu Jul 07 09:57:10 [rossi@debian ~]$lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Release: unstable
Codename: sid

hu Jul 07 09:57:10 [rossi@debian ~]$lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Release: unstable
Codename: sid

When I boot my system, there are two choices

5.18.0-2-amd64 This kernel seems frozen to upgrades. And I followed the previous advice from the experts here to look up the bugs, and follow the trail. I did that and it seems like the LightDM bug is still there. If I try to boot from this kernel, I receive the error "[FAILED] to start the Display Manager". And the boot process freezes.

OK. I now close turn off the machine and boot the 5.18.0-2-amd64 kernel again as root with no display manager and then try to configure a different display manager: dpkg-reconfigure gdm3. On reboot, I don't get the same error, but the system hangs. Are there any other bugs that I should be tracking?

5.16.0-5-amd This kernel boots but I wanna keep up with current kernel updates.

An another thing happened. When I boot the 5.16.0-5 kernel, the display manager is now gnm3! Why is that? I thought I booted the 5.18.0-2 kernel and was making modifications to that one!

Can you please help me with a clarification as to why I do not see the kernel being upgraded so that I can boot it. I want to move forward and use the most current kernel with all the requisite updates. I understand that I missing something important in the process. The procedure: apt-get update ---> apt-get upgrade ---> apt-get dist-upgrade (I don't do this anymore for fear of unintended consequences) is not working for me.

I really could use help and thanks so much for your attention to this.

Kind regards,

Angelo

[NorthEast]

I now close turn off the machine and boot the 5.18.0-2-amd64 kernel again as root with no display manager and then try to configure a different display manager: dpkg-reconfigure gdm3.

You could consider booting to a text prompt and then starting your desktop environment by-passing the display manager. May have to await display manager fixes. 5.18.0-2-amd64 works fine here from text prompt to window manager.

[rossi]

Dear NorthEast,

Thanks so much for your response. I did try booting into a text prompt, and it worked. I should have tried that earlier, duh!

I have another question. If you think I should post it separately, I will. In any case I downloaded debian-live-11.3.0-amd64-xfce+nonfree.iso and copied it to a USB stick. I thought I did it correctly. But, when I boot it, I just get a grub> prompt and nothing else. I performed the same procedure with a Linux "SystemResue - System Tools" and this booted to a complete Linux system when I booted from that USB stick. I expected the same thing with the debian-live-11.3.0-amd64-xfce+nonfree.iso, but it did'nt happen. Can you provide any insight to problem why I don't get a live Debian operating system?

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Angelo

[NorthEast]

Sounds like the iso on the usb might be corrupted. That's usually the reason in my experience that these boot ups fail. Some recommended means of "burning" the usb are described here:
https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
Personally I use something like:

Code: Select all

dd if=<file.iso> of=/dev/sd<x> bs=4M status=progress; sync

On checking that the iso is good, you could have a look at this:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... out-errors
and
https://www.debian.org/CD/verify

[rossi]

One correct command is:

sudo dd if=debian-live-11.3.0-amd64-xfce+nonfree.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress; sync

It helps if one uses of=/dev/sdb AND NOT /dev/sdb1 .

Thanks for being so responsive.

Regards,

Angelo

[NorthEast]

It helps if one uses of=/dev/sdb AND NOT /dev/sdb1

Yes, of course. /dev/sd<x>, refers to the whole disk, for example /dev/sda, whereas /dev/sda1 would be the first partition on that disk.