[Solved] Latest update broke X

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 16:57:44

Hi all,

I have a Thinkpad X61 with an Intel GM965/GM960 integrated graphics controller. After my most recent update, when I try to log in the X server crashes. Here are the warnings and errors from Xorg.0.log (not the full log):

(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpi.socket) (No such file or directory)
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module modesetting
(EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module fbdev
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module vesa
(EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)

Intel: waited 2020 ms for i915.ko driver to load
(EE) No devices detected.
(EE) Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found (EE)

Any idea what happened? I vaguely remember having to set "nomodesetting" when I originally installed Arch over a year ago, but things have been working fine since then.

Thanks in advance,

Lefty

Last edited by LeftyAce (2014-10-16 19:37:45)

drcouzelis · 2014-10-16 17:14:49

What packages did you update?

Does X work if you downgrade those packages?

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 18:56:57

Thanks for the reply, drcouzelis. Quite a few packages were updated. I was going to copy pacman.log onto a USB drive so I could post the contents w/o retyping it, but I get this error trying to mount my USB:

mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'

I saw this in the past when I didn't reboot after a kernel update, but I have rebooted multiple times trying to track down the X problem...is this another symptom of the same problem? Or something new?

Scimmia · 2014-10-16 19:03:33

What's the output of `pacman -Q linux` and 'uname -a`?

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 19:06:46

 # pacman -Q linux
linux 3.16.4-1

#uname -a
Linux lefty-laptop 3.16.3-1-ARCH ...

That mis-match in kernel versions looks like a problem...

Scimmia · 2014-10-16 19:10:45

yep, it is a problem. Your bootloader is still finding an old version of the kernel, but the modules for that kernel no longer exist. Most often happens when you upgrade without having /boot mounted.

drcouzelis · 2014-10-16 19:13:23

Good catch, Scimmia. The kernel issue sounds like the bigger problem and possibly the cause of the issue with X (can't find the kernel modules for the video card).

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 19:17:14

That would make sense. My /boot partition is on an external usb drive, and I'm usually good about mounting it before running pacman, but it's possible I messed up.

How can I fix it? In order to access a working computer I'm where I can't get an ethernet connection for the laptop, and netctl-auto seems to be broken. Presumably re-installing from pacman's cache would do the trick (As long as I mount /boot first :-D

I tried running pacman -Su, and it says "nothing to do." How can I force it to reinstall?

Last edited by LeftyAce (2014-10-16 19:17:34)

Scimmia · 2014-10-16 19:22:10

I would suggest reinstalling the old version from your cache:

pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/<filename>

That should give you the modules to be able to mount /boot, then you can upgrade again. There's going to be extra crap in the /boot directory on your root partition that you should clear out as well; just unmount the /boot partition then clear it out.

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 19:24:10

Oops, I did something else, and fixed it:

I ran pacman -S linux, and that did the trick.

Thanks so much for your help!

As far as causing the initial problem, I know for sure I didn't unmount /boot after running the update, I just powered off the machine. I thought that would cleanly unmount everything, but maybe that's wrong? Or it's possible I screwed up and never mounted it in the first place.

How hard would it be to write my own wrapper around pacman so it checked whether /boot was mounted before proceeding? I have such a check for my backup script, but for pacman I'd want it to pass all command line arguments through to pacman after the check is done...

Last edited by LeftyAce (2014-10-16 19:24:47)

Scimmia · 2014-10-16 19:28:26

I'm surprised just reinstalling the newer kernel worked. How did you update the kernel image if you couldn't mount /boot?

As for a wrapper, it should be pretty straight forward. `pacman $@` should pass all command line parameters to pacman.

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 19:33:28

I could mount /boot (it's ext2), I just couldn't mount fat32 partitions. Not sure why that was. Since my functioning computer was windows, I needed fat32 to get logfiles to you guys.

Scimmia · 2014-10-16 19:34:10

ah, ok, then that makes sense.

LeftyAce · 2014-10-16 19:37:32

And thanks for the tip about pacman -$@. I now have a wrapper that should keep my from shooting myself in the foot like this again :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-16 16:57:44

[Solved] Latest update broke X

#2 2014-10-16 17:14:49

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#3 2014-10-16 18:56:57

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#4 2014-10-16 19:03:33

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#5 2014-10-16 19:06:46

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#6 2014-10-16 19:10:45

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#7 2014-10-16 19:13:23

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#8 2014-10-16 19:17:14

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#9 2014-10-16 19:22:10

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#10 2014-10-16 19:24:10

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#11 2014-10-16 19:28:26

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#12 2014-10-16 19:33:28

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#13 2014-10-16 19:34:10

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

#14 2014-10-16 19:37:32

Re: [Solved] Latest update broke X

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