[SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

phonky · 2014-05-27 22:33:16

I messed up my X installation.
I have tried the whole day and I can't get it to work.
I am writing from another computer but I desperately need to get the other one working again.

I would like to avoid to have to re-install everything if possible.

I posted some info about my messed up X installation in the following thread,
as I have an ATI card and hoped I could somehow get the drivers to work there

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p1419617

After endless trying, I would like to ask the following question:
Is it possible to kind of set the kernel to a clean installation where no
video drivers are interfering?

So that I can start installing video drivers again and get my X back.
Possibly without having to reinstall arch again...

I hope my request is understandable and clear.
Otherwise I am happy to provide details.

Thank you

Last edited by phonky (2014-05-28 15:48:50)

ewaller · 2014-05-27 23:37:03

Did you use Pacman to install everything? Or did you use do something such as make, tar. or cp by hand?

If you only used pacman, yes. Pacman -R <packageName> will do the job. There is a log of what you have installed in /var/log/pacman.log. Just remove the offending packages.

phonky · 2014-05-27 23:56:24

Thanks ewaller for chiming in.

Yes, I used pacman to install everything.

However, I tried several times uninstalling everything with pacman -R - no joy.
I even removed xorg-server, xorg-server-common, lightdm and xf86-video-ati (the driver for my card),
and even re-installed linux (the package) - it still somehow wants to load fglrx,
and I have no idea why.

So not sure what else I can do...

jasonwryan · 2014-05-28 00:05:48

Look through pacman's log and you shell history file: then reverse the changes that you made.

ANOKNUSA · 2014-05-28 01:23:27

Did you create an X configuration file in /etc/X11? For the record, removing packages with 'pacman -R' without any other flags will leave configuration files behind, so that uninstalling and reinstalling will just restore the system to its previous state.

ewaller · 2014-05-28 02:51:29

Let's take a different tack. Can you boot the system and get to a console? If you boot to a blank screen, you might have to Type Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get to a console from which you can log in. If you cannot do that, we will have to get in using a chroot environment. Then, send your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to pastebin.com and post the link here. You can do that from the console (without X) using a utility such as wgetpaste (which you will have to install using Pacman). Also, you might want to pastebin the output of lspci -nn and provide us that link as well.

Rather than using a shotgun, let's use a scalpel.

phonky · 2014-05-28 12:20:53

ewaller, thanks so much.

I actually have been able to solve my original problem,
the thread is here:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 2#p1418722
I solved it with a solution which was not in the wiki.

It has been interesting though to follow this route of getting a kernel back,
learned quite a bit with this process as well.

Now do you want me to mark this thread as solved as well?
I didn't really solve my problem through this thread,
but the thread does have answers on how to get a kernel back...

ewaller · 2014-05-28 14:44:42

phonky wrote:

Now do you want me to mark this thread as solved as well?
I didn't really solve my problem through this thread,
but the thread does have answers on how to get a kernel back...

Yes, if you consider solved, go ahead and edit your first post and prepend [SOLVED] to the thread title.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-05-27 22:33:16

[SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#2 2014-05-27 23:37:03

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#3 2014-05-27 23:56:24

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#4 2014-05-28 00:05:48

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#5 2014-05-28 01:23:27

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#6 2014-05-28 02:51:29

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#7 2014-05-28 12:20:53

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

#8 2014-05-28 14:44:42

Re: [SOLVED] Messed up my X installation - can I get a clean kernel back?

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