Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

qltng · 2016-08-08 00:22:24

I recently purchased a new SSD and wanted to move my root partition over to it. So I did the following:

Created three new partitions on my SSD - one for /, one for /boot and one for swap space.
Used dd to clone / and /boot.
Used tune2fs to assign new UUIDs to the new partitions.
Mounted the new partitions (the new / and /boot) into a chroot jail and ran grub-install. I double checked that all the UUIDs in the grub config files pointed to the new partitions.
Edited the fstab in the new / partition to use the correct partitions.
Rebooted and pointed my BIOs to the new SSD.

...and then it all went wrong. When I boot into my new SSD, it appears to boot fine until XFCE starts. Then I just get a black screen with a cursor that flashes on and off.

If I edit the boot entry in grub and add systemd.unit=multi-user.target, I can boot into a non-graphical shell without any issues. I also still have the old root partition on my old device, which I can boot into both normally and graphically without any problems.

Running journalctl --boot=-1 gives me the following (I'm just including the information I think is relevant as I'm having to type it out by hand on another machine :s - I can get more if people need it)

NVRM: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel
...
NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter probed!
NVRM: NVIDIA init module failed!

...

kernel: lightdm-gtk-gre: segfault
...
lightdm: pam_unix(lightdm-greeter:session): session closed for user lightdm
...
lightdm:  ** lightdm: CRITICAL **: session_get_login1_session_id: assertion 'session != NULL' failed

...then there's a core dump for light-dm-gtk-gre.

I've looked for similar problems online and the only suggestion I could find was to clear caches in ~/.config, ~/.cache and /var/cache/lightdm/dmrc/. I've done all of this and nothing has worked so far.

Does anyone know what this problem might be? I'm guessing that something in my XFCE config or NVIDIA drivers are still pointing to the old devices, but I'm not too hot on graphical configuration so I've no idea what to look for or how to fix it. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by qltng (2016-08-08 23:25:46)

whites11 · 2016-08-08 06:40:46

First of all, you should never put a swap partition on an SSD because it shortens a lot the hard disk's life!

That said have you tried with a brand new user account? Does it work?
Alternatively, have you tried a different DE to check if that's a driver problem or a DE one?

qltng · 2016-08-08 07:34:55

Thanks - I'll remove the swap partition. Sorry, noob question: what's a DE?

qltng · 2016-08-08 07:34:56

Thanks - I'll remove the swap partition. Sorry, noob question: what's a DE?

qltng · 2016-08-08 08:33:51

Forgot to add, the problem starts before I even get a login screen, so I don't think it's linked to user accounts. I'll give it a try anyway though.

whites11 · 2016-08-08 12:02:31

DE stands for desktop environment.
Check https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/de … nvironment

dockland · 2016-08-08 12:46:18

whites11 wrote:

First of all, you should never put a swap partition on an SSD because it shortens a lot the hard disk's life!
That said have you tried with a brand new user account? Does it work?
Alternatively, have you tried a different DE to check if that's a driver problem or a DE one?

How much will swap shorten a SSD life? I think his SSD will survive the other hardware even with swap enabled and active.
swap is mandatory if i want to suspend.
Just set swappiness to a lower number if you dont have lots of RAM.

R00KIE · 2016-08-08 14:05:56

If you have enough ram, having swap on your ssd is not going to hurt. Even if you are short on ram you can think about it this way, you bough an ssd because of the speed advantage, make use of it.

You are most probably going to want to buy a new bigger ssd before the one you have now is going to give you trouble or reach the rated amount of writes, also modern ssds have much better wear leveling than the first and second generation ssds. I'd say you should be more concerned about having good backups than being concerned about wear, specially because ssds can lose data after a sudden power loss, even if new.

qltng · 2016-08-08 18:12:10

Well, I was preparing to install a different DE and started by running pacman -Syu before installing KDE. My packages were quite out of date as there was no room on my old SSD for any more updates (hence buying a bigger one). Since so many things had been updated, I thought I'd just try rebooting again one last time before I did anything more drastic.

As if by magic, it successfully booted into XFCE. Because I'd moved my old XFCE config it defaulted to an appearance reminiscent of my old Amiga 600+, but that was soon remedied by moving the old config back.

TL;DR it was fixed with a package update. I've no idea what the problem was exactly and I've learned nothing (except what DE stands for ), meaning this problem is now solved... in the worst possible way.

Edit: and thanks to all about the interesting notes on swap partitions on an SSD. Since I store any data of importance on separate HDDs and only use the SSD for the OS, I think I'll leave the swap partition on the SSD. It also means I can get some space back on one of my HDDs where the old swap was.

Last edited by qltng (2016-08-08 18:14:18)

R00KIE · 2016-08-08 19:08:36

If your problem is solved edit your first post and [SOLVED] to the title.

qltng wrote:

My packages were quite out of date as there was no room on my old SSD for any more updates (hence buying a bigger one).

Don't forget to clean your pacman cache every once in a while.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-08-08 00:22:24

Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#2 2016-08-08 06:40:46

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#3 2016-08-08 07:34:55

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#4 2016-08-08 07:34:56

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#5 2016-08-08 08:33:51

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#6 2016-08-08 12:02:31

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#7 2016-08-08 12:46:18

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#8 2016-08-08 14:05:56

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#9 2016-08-08 18:12:10

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

#10 2016-08-08 19:08:36

Re: Cloned root partition to new SSD, can't boot into graphical [SOLVED]

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