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I am not a debian/linux expert and looking for help because I screwed
up the X server and cannot open an X session. I originally installed
Debian early in 2003 and have done several upgrades/dist-upgrades since
then. I am running woody/unstable and kernel 2.6.8. I had been using
kdm to login to fluxbox, KDE or another window manager.

I have not done any upgrade/dist-upgrade for probably close to a year.
I did an upgrade and dist-upgrade over the weekend and after a reboot
cannot connect to the X server. The boot process drops me into the
console. During the installation of the new files I choose the default
and did not change any configuration files. If as user I try startx I
get command not found. Locate cannot find startx.

In searching around for a solution I came across the release notes for
Debian 3..1 (sarge) and have tried to follow those instructions but no
success.I also had done the dist-upgrade while in an X session managed
by kdm, which I now realize is a no-no.

I am at a loss how to connect ot the X server and use kdm again.

Here are some of the things I have done trying to solve the problem:

installed aptitude (aptitude install aptitude).
aptitude -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade (no files needed)
dpkg --audit (no files listed)
I don't have /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/README.Debian-upgrade.gz as
stated in the release notes.
I came to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that I should not have
both xserver-xfree86 and xserver-xorg configured, and purge/removed
xfree86. I did dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
dpkg -l says xserver-xorg is 6.9.0dfsg.1-4; gcc 4.0.2-2; udev 0.084-4

getconfig says;
Version 1.0
Xorg Version: .
23 built-in rules
Evaluated 23 rules with 0 errors
Weight of result is 0
Here is a copy of sources.list;
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 r1 _Woody_ - Official i386 Binary-1
(20021218)]/ unstable
contrib main non-US/contrib non-US/main
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r1 Update CD 20030109: i386]/ woody
contrib main non-US/co
ntrib non-US/main non-US/non-free non-free
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 r1 _Woody_ - Official i386 Binary-3
(20021218)]/ unstable
contrib main non-US/contrib non-US/main
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 r1 _Woody_ - Official i386 Binary-2
(20021218)]/ unstable
contrib main non-US/contrib non-US/main
deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/debian/ unstable
main non-free contrib
deb http://nisamox.fciencias.unam.mx/debian/ unstable main non-free
contrib
#deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main
contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

I would appreciate any advice.

Jerry

Hello

jturba@gmail.com (<jturba@gmail.com>) wrote:

> I am not a debian/linux expert and looking for help because I screwed
> up the X server and cannot open an X session. I originally installed
> Debian early in 2003 and have done several upgrades/dist-upgrades
> since then. I am running woody/unstable and kernel 2.6.8.

No, you aren't. Woody is the current old stable distribution, Sarge is
the stable release, etch is testing and SID is unstable. I assume you
are running unstable with an outdated Sarge kernel, but you should run
and post apt-cache policy libc6 and cat /etc/debian_version.

> I had been using kdm to login to fluxbox, KDE or another window
> manager.
>
> I have not done any upgrade/dist-upgrade for probably close to a year.

Well, that is very bad. That means your system is full of well-known
security holes.

> I did an upgrade and dist-upgrade over the weekend and after a reboot
> cannot connect to the X server. The boot process drops me into the
> console. During the installation of the new files I choose the default
> and did not change any configuration files. If as user I try startx I
> get command not found. Locate cannot find startx.

Probably parts of your X window system were deinstalled. Some time ago
XFree86 was removed from Testing/Unstable and replaced by Xorg.
Reinstall the x-window-system-core package. By the way, if you use
Testing/Unstable, install apt-listchanges and /read/ what changes are
being made to your system when you upgrade. If you don't want to do
that, stick with Stable.

> In searching around for a solution I came across the release notes for
> Debian 3..1 (sarge) and have tried to follow those instructions but no
> success.I also had done the dist-upgrade while in an X session managed
> by kdm, which I now realize is a no-no.

It is not that bad as long as you do not allow your login manager to be
restarted while your libc6 is upgraded - because that would kill your X
session and apt-get as well.

> I am at a loss how to connect ot the X server and use kdm again.
>
> Here are some of the things I have done trying to solve the problem:
>
> installed aptitude (aptitude install aptitude).
> aptitude -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade (no files needed)
> dpkg --audit (no files listed)
> I don't have /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/README.Debian-upgrade.gz as
> stated in the release notes.

No. The release notes are for Sarge. You don't use Sarge.

> I came to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that I should not have
> both xserver-xfree86 and xserver-xorg configured, and purge/removed
> xfree86. I did dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
> dpkg -l says xserver-xorg is 6.9.0dfsg.1-4; gcc 4.0.2-2; udev 0.084-4

Right. That was the first step. You still probably need to reinstall
more of X (x-window-system-core). After that, run startx and, if it
fails, the X log. Look out for those files beginning with (EE). If you
use additional X/Kernel drivers like those from ATI/Nvidia, reinstall
them. You need the up-to-date drivers for Xorg 6.9.

Also upgrade to the latest kernel (2.6.15, search for linux-image). Your
udev won't work properly with kernel 2.6.8, or anything older that
2.6.13.

> deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/debian/ unstable
> main non-free contrib
> deb http://nisamox.fciencias.unam.mx/debian/ unstable main non-free
> contrib
> #deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main
> contrib non-free

This can be removed permanently. The non-US branch is dead.

> deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

This won't help you when you use unstable. You can remove it as well.

best regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674 ICQ #17079270
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps-sarge.html

Andreas thanks for the advice.

apt-cache policy libc6

libc6:
Installed: 2.3.6-1
Candidate: 2.3.6-1
Version table:
*** 2.3.6-1 0
990 http://mirrors.usc.edu unstable/main Packages
990 http://nisamox.fciencias.unam.mx unstable/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

cat /etc/debian_version
testing/unstable
root@main.jerrysdomain.com:~ 503 #

Security;
I was under the belief that I should apt-get update/upgrade with only
the security line uncommented to get useful security updates. Is your
point that there is no need to run the security upgrades if I am
running unstable? There are no security upgrades available? How do I
get security upgrades while running unstable?

I guess I am confused by the naming conventions. I thought that by
using unstable (not Woody/Sid) in sources.list I would isolate myself
from the names and adhere to the unstable branch.

I will install apt-listchanges, x-window-system-core, and upgrade to
the 2.6.15 kernel. After that I will dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and
try startx again.

According to debian_version I am running testing/unstable. Is that a
good situation? Does that cause problems, would I be better off running
unstable? If my source.list is unstable how did I draw in testing?

Again thanks for your help. I will report back after I finish my to-do
list.

Jerry

Hello

jturba@gmail.com (<jturba@gmail.com>) wrote:

> Security;
> I was under the belief that I should apt-get update/upgrade with only
> the security line uncommented to get useful security updates. Is your
> point that there is no need to run the security upgrades if I am
> running unstable? There are no security upgrades available? How do I
> get security upgrades while running unstable?

You get security fixes in unstable as soon as upstream fixes the problem
in their code, and the Debian package maintainer packages the new
version and makes an upload to unstable. There is no support for
unstable from the Debian security team. Uncommenting all other lines
does not work at all - because you use unstable, your packages have
higher versions of those in stable and those in the stable security
archive.

> I guess I am confused by the naming conventions. I thought that by
> using unstable (not Woody/Sid) in sources.list I would isolate myself
> from the names and adhere to the unstable branch.

Yes, that is true. You can also use sid unstead - unstable always uses
the same codename. You should however comment out or remove the
stable/woody entries and run apt-get update, then aptitude. Check in
the section of installed but outdated/locally created packages. Maybe
you have some stuff installed from Woody that has been removed from
Debian by now - you won't get any updates/fixes for those packages
anymore.

> I will install apt-listchanges, x-window-system-core, and upgrade to
> the 2.6.15 kernel. After that I will dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and
> try startx again.

Good idea.

> According to debian_version I am running testing/unstable. Is that a
> good situation? Does that cause problems, would I be better off
> running unstable? If my source.list is unstable how did I draw in
> testing?

Unstable and Testing always tell you they are testing/unstable. This
allows the packages with /etc/issue (the file with the version) to
migrate from unstable to testing without any changes. Only when Testing
is frozen to prepare a new stable release, this is changes in Testing.

best regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674 ICQ #17079270
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps-sarge.html

I installed x-window-system-core and reconfigured xserver-xorg. I also
did apt-get install kde (3 more MB downloaded and 160 MB installed from
archive), and apt-get install fluxbox (no download but reinstalled).
dpkg -l said both were not installed

Now if user does startx it goes to the gray screen with the black X for
1 second and back to the console. Here is the result of startx 2>
xstart_capture;

xauth: creating new authority file /home/jerry/.serverauth.1941


XFree86 Version 3.3.6a / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6300)
Release Date: xx November 2000
If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is
newer
than the above date, look for a newer version before reporting
problems. (see http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ)
Operating System: Linux 2.4.13 i686 [ELF]
Configured drivers:
SVGA: server for SVGA graphics adaptors (Patchlevel 1):
NV1, STG2000, RIVA 128, RIVA TNT, RIVA TNT2, RIVA ULTRA TNT2,
RIVA VANTA, RIVA ULTRA VANTA, RIVA INTEGRATED, GeForce 256,
GeForce DDR, Quadro, GeForce2 GTS, GeForce2 GTS (rev1),
GeForce2 Ultra, Quadro 2 Pro, GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 MX DDR,
Quadro 2 MXR, ET4000, ET4000W32, ET4000W32i, ET4000W32i_rev_b,
ET4000W32i_rev_c, ET4000W32p, ET4000W32p_rev_a, ET4000W32p_rev_b,
ET4000W32p_rev_c, ET4000W32p_rev_d, ET6000, ET6100, et3000,
pvga1,
wd90c00, wd90c10, wd90c30, wd90c24, wd90c31, wd90c33, gvga, r128,
ati,
sis86c201, sis86c202, sis86c205, sis86c215, sis86c225, sis5597,
sis5598, sis6326, sis530, sis620, sis300, sis630, sis540,
tvga8200lx,
tvga8800cs, tvga8900b, tvga8900c, tvga8900cl, tvga8900d,
tvga9000,
tvga9000i, tvga9100b, tvga9200cxr, tgui9400cxi, tgui9420,
tgui9420dgi,
tgui9430dgi, tgui9440agi, cyber9320, tgui9660, tgui9680,
tgui9682,
tgui9685, cyber9382, cyber9385, cyber9388, cyber9397, cyber9520,
cyber9525, 3dimage975, 3dimage985, cyber9397dvd, blade3d,
cyberblade,
clgd5420, clgd5422, clgd5424, clgd5426, clgd5428, clgd5429,
clgd5430,
clgd5434, clgd5436, clgd5446, clgd5480, clgd5462, clgd5464,
clgd5465,
clgd6205, clgd6215, clgd6225, clgd6235, clgd7541, clgd7542,
clgd7543,
clgd7548, clgd7555, clgd7556, ncr77c22, ncr77c22e, cpq_avga,
mga2064w,
mga1064sg, mga2164w, mga2164w AGP, mgag200, mgag100, mgag400,
oti067,
oti077, oti087, oti037c, al2101, ali2228, ali2301, ali2302,
ali2308,
ali2401, cl6410, cl6412, cl6420, cl6440, video7, ark1000vl,
ark1000pv,
ark2000pv, ark2000mt, mx, realtek, s3_savage, s3_virge, AP6422,
AT24,
AT3D, s3_svga, NM2070, NM2090, NM2093, NM2097, NM2160, NM2200,
ct65520, ct65525, ct65530, ct65535, ct65540, ct65545, ct65546,
ct65548, ct65550, ct65554, ct65555, ct68554, ct69000, ct64200,
ct64300, mediagx, V1000, V2100, V2200, p9100, spc8110, i740,
i740_pci,
Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3, smi, generic
(using VT number 7)

XF86Config: /etc/X11/XF86Config
(**) stands for supplied, (--) stands for probed/default values
(--) no ModulePath specified using default: /usr/X11R6/lib/modules
pex5.so: Unknown error loading module
xie.so: Unknown error loading module
(**) XKB: rules: "xfree86"
(**) XKB: model: "pc104"
(**) XKB: layout: "us"
(**) Mouse: type: PS/2, device: /dev/psaux, buttons: 5
(**) Mouse: 3 button emulation (timeout: 50ms)
(**) Mouse: zaxismapping: (-)4 (+)5
(**) SVGA: Graphics device ID: "GenericMatrox 400"
(**) SVGA: Monitor ID: "Generic Monitor"
(--) SVGA: Mode "640x350" needs vert refresh rate of 85.08 Hz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "640x400" needs vert refresh rate of 85.08 Hz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "720x400" needs vert refresh rate of 85.04 Hz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "640x480" needs vert refresh rate of 85.01 Hz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "800x600" needs vert refresh rate of 85.14 Hz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1024x768" needs vert refresh rate of 86.96 Hz.
Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1024x768" needs hsync freq of 60.06 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1024x768" needs hsync freq of 68.68 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1152x864" needs hsync freq of 67.50 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1280x960" needs hsync freq of 85.94 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1280x1024" needs hsync freq of 63.98 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1280x1024" needs hsync freq of 79.98 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1280x1024" needs hsync freq of 91.15 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1600x1200" needs hsync freq of 75.00 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1600x1200" needs hsync freq of 81.25 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1600x1200" needs hsync freq of 87.50 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1600x1200" needs hsync freq of 93.75 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1600x1200" needs hsync freq of 106.25 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1792x1344" needs hsync freq of 83.66 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1792x1344" needs hsync freq of 106.27 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1856x1392" needs hsync freq of 86.35 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1856x1392" needs hsync freq of 112.50 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1920x1440" needs hsync freq of 90.00 kHz. Deleted.
(--) SVGA: Mode "1920x1440" needs hsync freq of 112.50 kHz. Deleted.
Warning: The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
Warning: The directory "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(**) FontPath set to
"unix/:7100,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
(--) SVGA: PCI: Matrox MGA G400 AGP rev 4, Memory @ 0xf2000000,
0xfe000000, MMIO @ 0xfe8fc000
(--) SVGA: Linear framebuffer at 0xF2000000
(--) SVGA: MMIO registers at 0xFE8FC000
(--) SVGA: Video BIOS info block at 0x000c7a80
(--) SVGA: Video BIOS info block not detected!
(--) SVGA: detected an SGRAM card
(--) SVGA: chipset: mgag400
(**) SVGA: videoram: 16000k
(**) SVGA: Option "dac_8_bit"
(**) SVGA: Using 32 bpp, Depth 24, Color weight: 888
(--) SVGA: Maximum allowed dot-clock: 300.000 MHz
(--) SVGA: There is no mode definition named "1152x864"
(--) SVGA: Removing mode "1152x864" from list of valid modes.
(**) SVGA: Mode "1024x768": mode clock = 75.000
(**) SVGA: Mode "800x600": mode clock = 49.500
(**) SVGA: Mode "640x480": mode clock = 31.500
(--) SVGA: Virtual resolution set to 1024x768
(--) SVGA: Using hardware cursor
(--) SVGA: PLL reference freq: 27.050 MHz
(--) SVGA: Read OPTION 0x50044120
(--) SVGA: Using XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture)
(--) SVGA: XAA: Solid filled rectangles
(--) SVGA: XAA: Screen-to-screen copy
(--) SVGA: XAA: 8x8 color expand pattern fill
(--) SVGA: XAA: CPU to screen color expansion (TE/NonTE imagetext,
TE/NonTE polytext)
(--) SVGA: XAA: Using 8 128x128 areas for pixmap caching
(--) SVGA: XAA: Caching tiles and stipples
(--) SVGA: XAA: General lines and segments
(--) SVGA: XAA: Dashed lines and segments

waiting for X server to shut down

If user runs startkde;

xsetroot: unable to open display ''
xset: unable to open display ""
xsetroot: unable to open display ''
startkde: Starting up...
ksplash: cannot connect to X server
kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
ksmserver: cannot connect to X server
ERROR: Couldn't attach to DCOP server!
startkde: Shutting down...
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.

When I saw the error "not able to attach to DCOP server" i saw that the
link was broken (red in color) and deleted it.
/home/jerry/.DCOPserver_debian -> /home/jerry/.DCOPserver_debian_:0.
I don't know how to recreate it if it is needed.

"/etc/init.d/kdm start" says kdm already running.

I created a new user to see if he had any problem. He can do startx and
KDE starts up.
If the new user runs "fluxbox" the result is;
Warning: Failed to open file(/usr/share/fluxbox/nls/en_US/fluxbox.cat)
for translation, using default messages.
Error: Couldn't connect to XServer


I would also like to get KDM back as a way to select which window
system to use since I use fluxbox 95% of the time.

I installed linux-image-2.6.15-1-686. I am having a problem getting
initrd.img to work. I haven't used it before, but that can wait till
later.

Thanks again for the suggestions

Jerry