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[Solved] Failed Installation.

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Jonners59
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[Solved] Failed Installation.

#1 Post by Jonners59 »

I'm having an issue with a newly installed and set-up Guest Debian 11 OS on a VirtualBox VM. After installing and setting up. Ran Synaptic to add a couple of apps and then the updates and recommended stuff. The Synaptic ended with a "Failed" install alert and a comment to run a command manually to fix, but the command wouldn't copy and paste and was lost when I exited Synaptic. After a reboot (probably not a good idea) I can not log in. After the username and password, it opens the desktop, and I get the message "Xsession: Warning: Unable to write to /temp X session may exit with an error.". Select "OKAY" and it goes back to the login screen, and just repeats no matter which desktop version I choose.

Any ideas or help, please?
Last edited by Jonners59 on 2023-02-14 15:11, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#2 Post by kent_dorfman766 »

may or may not be related to your problem but I've run into significant problems over the past couple of years reliably using synaptic as sudo synaptic, with eerily similar problems as you describe. seems the "root is bad" script kiddy devs go out of their way to break once established and trusted use paradigms.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#3 Post by Jonners59 »

kent_dorfman766 wrote: 2023-01-21 03:58 may or may not be related to your problem but I've run into significant problems over the past couple of years reliably using synaptic as sudo synaptic, with eerily similar problems as you describe. seems the "root is bad" script kiddy devs go out of their way to break once established and trusted use paradigms.
Not had that before. Always have issues with the Software store(s). They're awful, but never synaptic. Anyway. Need to get out of this mess, Can't launch anything and being in a Guest drive, I can't even access the file system.

So reading this https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/new ... ite-to-tmp it seems to be a partition that is full. Interesting as I allowed 20G and the Host says only 7Gb in use and this will be a skinny build, so I can only assume Synaptic failing has filled a directory, probably "tmp".

Booting into recovery does not work either, it states "Failed to open system journal, no space left.". Which implies a similar conclusion. So I can't get into anything to even make changes. I need help.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#4 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

If you search

Code: Select all

Xsession: Warning: Unable to write to /temp X session may exit with an error.
You will see several results that suggest the answer, including one from this forum. Two are marked [Solved] (always good to check first).

They suggest that the file system (or parts of it /tmp, /root) may be full.

Been a while since I played with a VM, but I seem to remember you have to allocate virtual disk space to the installation? How much did you allocate? It may not have been enough.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#5 Post by steve_v »

Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 09:07being in a Guest drive, I can't even access the file system.
Boot the VM from a livecd. As an added bonus, you could use such to resize the filesystem while you're at it.
Alternatively, libvirt / libguestfs and co. can deal with virtualbox disk images. Gory details out-of-scope for this thread.
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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#6 Post by kalle123 »

As it is a 'newly installed and set-up Guest Debian 11 OS on a VirtualBox VM', I would install the guest again and make a snapshot of the guest after first startup. Then you can modify the guest as wished, but if there are any issues, you always can revert to the snapshot. I hold here several vbox guests, WIN 10, bullseye, bookworm ... and the first thing, always a snapshoot. And with time and modifications, it gets snapshot1, snapshot2 .....

br - KH

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#7 Post by Jonners59 »

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 2023-01-21 09:39 If you search

Code: Select all

Xsession: Warning: Unable to write to /temp X session may exit with an error.
You will see several results that suggest the answer, including one from this forum. Two are marked [Solved] (always good to check first).

They suggest that the file system (or parts of it /tmp, /root) may be full.

Been a while since I played with a VM, but I seem to remember you have to allocate virtual disk space to the installation? How much did you allocate? It may not have been enough.
Hiya
Yes, I did do a search and found the same conclusion, see above, that "a" directory, particularly "tmp" was full, and probably due to the failed synaptic. I allocated a dynamic 20Gb even though the recommendation was only 7Gb. Interestingly the VM states only 7Gb is used of the 20...

I somehow managed to get into the boot cmd line and have tried to do as per one solution (solved) blogged, and ran "sudo apt-get autoclean&& apt-get autoremove". That threw up another code, the one I think synaptic threw up, "sudo dpkg --configure -a". I ran that too and that came back with error "failed to write status database record about 'alsa-utils' to 'var/lib/dpkg/status/ : No space left on device".

So it seems the capacity issue is far wider. I now need to list the directors and their sizes to find the culprit(s).

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#8 Post by Jonners59 »

steve_v wrote: 2023-01-21 09:43
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 09:07being in a Guest drive, I can't even access the file system.
Boot the VM from a livecd. As an added bonus, you could use such to resize the filesystem while you're at it.
Alternatively, libvirt / libguestfs and co. can deal with virtualbox disk images. Gory details out-of-scope for this thread.
That sounds like my next best bet to try - liveCD. I have 20 on a dynamic and increased it to 40 but still fails. need to change the actual directories within the build, as you say using a livecd.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#9 Post by Jonners59 »

kalle123 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:26 As it is a 'newly installed and set-up Guest Debian 11 OS on a VirtualBox VM', I would install the guest again and make a snapshot of the guest after first startup. Then you can modify the guest as wished, but if there are any issues, you always can revert to the snapshot. I hold here several vbox guests, WIN 10, bullseye, bookworm ... and the first thing, always a snapshoot. And with time and modifications, it gets snapshot1, snapshot2 .....

br - KH
Yup, normally, me too, but, you know what it's like.. after a week of frustration fixing, best-laid plans... I'm going to try a LiveCD to enlarge the directories and see where that takes me, 1st.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#10 Post by steve_v »

Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:26dynamic 20Gb
Is only the maximum size the virtual disk can expand to, you still need to partition and format appropriately to make use of that space.

Again, boot the VM from a livecd (perferrably one including e.g. gparted) and find out what size the guest filesystem really is.
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:26I have 20 on a dynamic and increased it to 40 but still fails.
That is not particularly surprising, see above.
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:30change the actual directories within the build, as you say using a livecd.
s/directories within the build/partition layout of the virtual disk/g
FTFY.
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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#11 Post by Jonners59 »

steve_v wrote: 2023-01-21 11:37
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:26dynamic 20Gb
Is only the maximum size the virtual disk can expand to, you still need to partition and format appropriately to make use of that space.

Again, boot the VM from a livecd (perferrably one including e.g. gparted) and find out what size the guest filesystem really is.
Agree and understand. Hence it is now 40. Am, as stated now using a LiveCD to do, or try to do just that. This install used the Debian recommend, auto install. I didn't change any settings, and am not expecting to save or add much to it. 20 should have been enough and the install should have capitalised on the space available.
steve_v wrote: 2023-01-21 11:37
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:26I have 20 on a dynamic and increased it to 40 but still fails.
That is not particularly surprising, see above.
steve_v wrote: 2023-01-21 11:37
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 11:30change the actual directories within the build, as you say using a livecd.
s/directories within the build/partition layout of the virtual disk/g
FTFY.
whatever, gparted allows. Will see in a mo, I hope. Still loading the Try...


QUICK update. Live installer failed. No idea why. Will try one more time then it's back to rebuilding again. GGGRRR

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#12 Post by Jonners59 »

THANKS, GUYS

Finally got it to work after a number of tries. Needed an Ubuntu 20.10 CD to make it work.

the auto installation had oddly created an extension partition immediately after the /, so it was buffered up with no room to grow with SWAP and HOME inside it. So I made a new SWAP at the end of the new expandable 40Gb and made it larger to 4Gb. I then deleted the old one. I extended the extension almost up to the new SWAP and then moved the HOME further up and made it larger to 15Gb. I then shrank the extension to make more room for / and increased / to 15Gb too. I then booted into the new setup and all worked fine. I then went in to fstab, sudo gedit /etc/fstab and changed the UUID (found in GParted partition information) to the new one. All is now rosy.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#13 Post by steve_v »

Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 14:27the auto installation had oddly
IME "odd" is quite often an understatement when it comes to "automatic" partitioning decisions... Which is why I always partition manually, or at least inspect the installers proposed layout before proceeding.
It's not as big a deal as it used to be now that we have things like gparted, but still, a few seconds in the installer can save hours later on.
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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#14 Post by Jonners59 »

steve_v wrote: 2023-01-21 17:02
Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-21 14:27the auto installation had oddly
IME "odd" is quite often an understatement when it comes to "automatic" partitioning decisions... Which is why I always partition manually, or at least inspect the installers proposed layout before proceeding.
It's not as big a deal as it used to be now that we have things like gparted, but still, a few seconds in the installer can save hours later on.
Absolutely. I always do a manual, but for this, I wanted minimal installation and fuss, so tried it. Can't understand why they make the auto partitioning so badly or even bother given the grief/it doesn't work. Anyway, lesson learned, never again.

Oh, and PS: No LiveCD/try on the Debian install, only installation options, so had to use Ubuntu.

Thanks again.

Now how to change this to Solved.

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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#15 Post by steve_v »

Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-22 09:47PS: No LiveCD/try on the Debian install, only installation options, so had to use Ubuntu.
Yeah, one can of course drop out of the installer to a shell, but the included tools are fairly limited. That's why I said "a livecd" rather than "the install media" :P
Really though, anything that has the tools you prefer should work. I tend to use UBCD, Parted Magic, or Gparted Live (whichever I have on hand) for this kind of thing.
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Re: [Installation] Failed Installation.

#16 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Jonners59 wrote: 2023-01-22 09:47
Now how to change this to Solved.
Edit the title in your original post and add [Solved].

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