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[Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

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este.el.paz
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[Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#1 Post by este.el.paz »

Folks:

Running a Bookworm distro on my '20 Sys76 Gazelle with two other distros. Recently I tried to boot into Bookworm and it went through the dmesg stuff and then went to a black screen with a single flashing cursor upper left corner. If I click return then it will ask for my root password and gives me a "root" TTY. I was at work on a wifi connection and tried to run "dpkg-reconfigure gdm3" to see if it would show choices of display manager (assuming that no log in window is due to no display manager?)

It cam back "gdm is not installed." So I ran the install command and it showed 177 "failed to download" lines. I tried a similar type of command on the home ethernet and got the same "this ain't happenin'" kind of responses. This lead me to figure that Bookworm is "locked" so nothing can be installed to fix the system??? Zat what's going on? Problem is, somewhere in what might have been the previous apt dist-upgrade something was wiped to clear "X" and then nothing is working via TTY either??

Is this something that will change soon, OR would changing the /etc/apt/sources.list from "bookworm" to "trixie" get me out of this conundrum?

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#2 Post by arochester »

then went to a black screen with a single flashing cursor upper left corner.
Your computer has an Nvidia card. You have not installed the Nvidia firmware, so you get a flashing cursor.

Look at https://lescahiersdudebutant.arpinux.or ... figuration and, perhaps, https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... led-system

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#3 Post by este.el.paz »

arochester wrote: 2023-02-03 10:38
then went to a black screen with a single flashing cursor upper left corner.
Your computer has an Nvidia card. You have not installed the Nvidia firmware, so you get a flashing cursor.

Look at https://lescahiersdudebutant.arpinux.or ... figuration and, perhaps, https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... led-system
@arochester

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the machine does have an nvidia card, but, this is not a fresh install. For most of my linux installs I use "default" or "nouveau" for the video, and I checked lsmod yesterday and "nouveau" was showing all over the place.

Bookworm was running fine until a few days back. Question is, let's say suddenly Bookworm decided to "switch itself to proprietary nvidia drivers" why doesn't the single user allow any packages to be installed?? In this case, trying to install gdm3 shows 177 packages to install, asks me whether I want to install, and then when I click "y" . . . it runs through the whole list of packages, but each of them errors out??

I ran various "recovery" and "-f install" variations to no avail???? Bookworm's "X" has "fallen and it can't get up"??? :shock: :roll:


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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#5 Post by este.el.paz »

arochester wrote: 2023-02-03 16:01 Have you had a recent Kernel update?
@arochester

I would assume so . . . I run a number of multi-boot machines, too many to keep a diary on what's happening with one system. Generally Bookworm has been very stable, runs good, not too much breakage, etc.

Over in several of my openSUSE TW installs there was a recent "nvidia-G06 xxxx" package that seemed to override old nvidia hardware drivers that did something similar to X . . . . In the case of my '20 Gazelle I wouldn't have worried about whatever nvidia would do . . . like in the Pop_OS install on their machine nvidia software is endemic to their OS, and Pop! is running fine on the same machine.

But, in Bookworm . . . I never installed nvidia stuff, because they don't keep pace with new upgrades in linux . . . . : - 0

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#6 Post by este.el.paz »

For a comparison . . . I also have a Bookworm install in my '12 Mac Pro . . . booted up in it now, running fine. I can see these words that I'm typing, etc.

In that same machine I also have a Sid install . . . unfortunately Sid has lost track of where it is and doesn't get to a GUI.

I'll be running an apt on this Bookworm in a few minutes . . . rotating back to it to see if it also loses X or marches onward . . . ??

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#7 Post by este.el.paz »

Yep. Back in Bookworm on the older computer . . . typing in the GUI . . . display manager operational . . . X operational, etc. I was able to run a bunch of upgrades, whereas over on the Gaz15 Bookworm isn't "allowing" upgrades??? in the TTY.

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#8 Post by este.el.paz »

Good times. Back over in the Gaz15 edition of Bookworm . . . even in "recovery" boots to black screen and flashing cursor . . . got to a TTY and ran "journalctl -xb" to view the logs . . . . 3113 lines of data showed a few errors in the kernel, like:

Code: Select all

x86/cpu: SGx disabled by BIO
MMIO stale data cpu bug present and SMT on, data leak possible
hpet_acpi_add: no address or irqs on _CRS
firmware failed to load i915
lightdm "failed"
unit run-credentials systemd "dead state"
So, based upon the "lightdm failed" I tried to"#systemctl start lightdm" which continued to "fail." Then in desperation I ran "apt install gdm3" and that actually now "worked" as it gave me the option to select either lightdm or gdm for my display manager--I chose "gdm" and rebooted . . . back into the black screen with the flashing cursor.

The "failed to load i915" is I believe one of the video driver options that show up in lsmod, along with nouveau . . . neither of them seem to be working??

Seems like apt has busted itself down in the Gaz15, but over on the '12 Mac Pro, bookworm seems operational; that machine also has an Nvidia card, but I am not using proprietary in that system either . . . and the system is so far operational. Here in the Gaz15 it is TTY only. :shock: :cry: :roll:

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#9 Post by NorthEast »

You could try and have X use the basic vesa driver instead nouveau by adding nomodeset to the kernel command line.

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#10 Post by este.el.paz »

NorthEast wrote: 2023-02-06 03:44 You could try and have X use the basic vesa driver instead nouveau by adding nomodeset to the kernel command line.
@NorthEast

This is like in the olden days of PPC linux where we had to add "nomodeset" to everything to get it to boot and run, it's been so long I've forgotten how. We also had to build the Xorg.conf file completely in the black . . . because until we did that . . . no "X" . . . ??? The excuse then was there were so few PPC users of linux . . . .

This is for a '20 linux based machine that was running Bookworm just fine up until . . . it wasn't?? A series of "odd" behaviors, like, going from not being able to use the TTY to upgrade packages, to now being able to, but not able to find "X" anywhere???

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#11 Post by NorthEast »

Yes, vesa was a bit of a kneejerk. If you have aptitude installed, or can get it up, I would have a look at what fixes aptitude proposes for some of the issues.

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#12 Post by este.el.paz »

NorthEast wrote: 2023-02-07 01:37 Yes, vesa was a bit of a kneejerk. If you have aptitude installed, or can get it up, I would have a look at what fixes aptitude proposes for some of the issues.
@NorthEast

Thanks for the reminder on "aptitude" . . . I did install that on one of my Debian systems . . . Sid has also lost track of himself, so not sure which one might have it.

This is another one of those, "we used to use 'apt-get' and then we could use 'apt' . . . which is so much faster to type out."

Next thing we'll be going back to snail mail . . . so much more reliable and can contain so much more data??? :P

Bit busy today, might not be able to mess with the missing X problem . . . .

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#13 Post by este.el.paz »

Latest update:

Managed to get Bookworm upgraded via TTY connected to ethernet, ran 172 packages through using "aptitude." When I tried to use aptitude to "autoremove" it says, "this aptitude does not have super cow powers," . . . but it seemed to have them for the 172 package dist-upgrade??

On reboot a brief dmesg window flashed something like "SGX disabled by BIOS" . . . but this is an EFI booted linux machine . . . and back to the flashing black cursor, upper left corner.

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#14 Post by sunrat »

apt has super cow powers:

Code: Select all

$ apt moo
“ computer users can be divided into 2 categories:
Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
Remember to BACKUP!

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#15 Post by este.el.paz »

sunrat wrote: 2023-02-14 22:17 apt has super cow powers:

Code: Select all

$ apt moo
LOL . . . yes it does . . . that's what I did to get the autoremove to run through . . . .

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#16 Post by este.el.paz »

Latest update:

I installed "sddm" last night in a last ditch effort to try to get the display manager log in window to show up, but on reboot it seemed to show more data in the dmesg, but it ended the same place as before. This time there was an error, "unable to load firmware rtl_nc/rt18411.2.fw(2)" . . . something like that. I took a photo of the last few lines if evidence is required. Shut it down and went to sleep it off.

About out of time for this install, doesn't seem like there are any suggestions on how to get past the TTY/emergency window . . . I'll try to file a bug report on it. Does Debian use Launchpad or does it use Bugzilla or it doesn't have any options for testing ???

System was running fine until a couple weeks back, essentially box stock Bookworm install on '20 System76 laptop.

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#17 Post by Aki »

Hello,

According to your first post, this [1] should be you computer. It's a hybrid graphic computer (Intel® Iris Xe Graphics + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 3050 Ti or 3060).

You are using Debian Bookworm.

The Intel® Iris Xe Graphics is documented as "switchable", therefore it could be useful to verify in the BIOS/firmware if it is active: it could advisable to do it.

According to your previous posts, you cannot start the graphic environment, nor with Intel® Iris Xe Graphics or NVIDIA GeForce. If the Intel® Iris Xe Graphics is activated, it probably does not start because its firmware is missing (as you reported in a previous post).

Furthermore, you are having troubles updating / upgrading your installation. You have to use the wired network interface because the wifi interface misses firmware files.

You could try this (with the network cable connected):
1) boot your computer without activating the graphical environment; you can do it adding the following kernel option directly in the grub configuration at the grub prompt (see attached image):

Code: Select all

systemd.unit= multi-user.target
2) check your /etc/apt/sources.list; the Debian project has added a new section for non-free-firmware (few weeks ago), therefore it has modified this way:

Code: Select all

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
3) update your system according to the new configuration and get a log of your configuration and commands (with the following commands, the log will stored in the file named log.txt):

Code: Select all

script log.txt
cat /etc/apt/sources.list
apt update
apt install firmware-linux-free firmware-realtek
apt upgrade
exit
4) if you wish, install the sshd server: it will come in handy later when you want to access the console remotely using another computer (If you are having trouble with direct entry) :

Code: Select all

apt install ssh
5) reboot to verify if the graphical environment works with the Intel® Iris Xe Graphics

Hope that helps.
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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#18 Post by este.el.paz »

@Aki

Thanks for the detailed response . . . I will check into it when I get a free moment. One immediate response is that although this machine does have Nvidia graphics card I have found proprietary drivers to be problematic with frequent upgrading, so I use default or nouveau . . . .
Furthermore, you are having troubles updating / upgrading your installation. You have to use the wired network interface because the wifi interface misses firmware files.
This is also interesting to see, in that I have tried to upgrade via the TTY and wifi and nothing was working, I guess Bookworm doesn't connect to wifi automatically or in a TTY . . . .

But, I have run several upgrades via ethernet and I did see some "not found" in a couple of the sources list . . . so if these two new items are new in the last few weeks that might explain the "why is this happening?" question.

I'll post back when I have made my attempt to follow your instructions . . . .

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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#19 Post by sunrat »

este.el.paz wrote: 2023-02-15 20:29 @Aki

Thanks for the detailed response . . . I will check into it when I get a free moment. One immediate response is that although this machine does have Nvidia graphics card I have found proprietary drivers to be problematic with frequent upgrading, so I use default or nouveau . . . .
Nouveau pretty much doesn't support any functions of 30xx series cards yet. See https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/FeatureMatrix.html

Install nvidia-driver packages and you will also need firmware-misc-nonfree.
The main issue with upgrading drivers in Testing and Sid is that occasionally a new kernel will be upgraded for which the nvidia drivers have not been upgraded to build. The only solution then is to keep using an older kernel until they catch up.
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Those who have lost data
...and those who have not lost data YET ”
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Re: [Testing - Bookworm] Loses "X" or display manager & can't get up?

#20 Post by este.el.paz »

sunrat wrote: 2023-02-15 21:11
Nouveau pretty much doesn't support any functions of 30xx series cards yet. See https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/FeatureMatrix.html

Install nvidia-driver packages and you will also need firmware-misc-nonfree.
The main issue with upgrading drivers in Testing and Sid is that occasionally a new kernel will be upgraded for which the nvidia drivers have not been upgraded to build. The only solution then is to keep using an older kernel until they catch up.
@sunrat

Cool. I really don't need the full monty on the nvidia card . . . I'm a pretty basic user of graphics, not doing gaming stuff, or videos . . . mostly posting on linux forums to be able to keep the system going.

So, yes, the problem with proprietary is they don't keep pace with the cutting edge linux updates . . . nouveau was doing everything I needed the system to do for Boowkorm, up until recently . . . . Now not getting to the log in page, etc.

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