X11 damaged after update

linefader · 2019-03-21 10:44:49

Hello, somehow, the installation of the last update (via pacman -Syu) damaged my X11

I did not do updates for some time, but yesterday I did and pacman first asked me three or four times, if I want to replace something (lib..) with something else (lib..) and I answered Y to all questions without thinking a lot about them, since I thought, it might be the best to have the latest version of everything and replacing something, I did no not even know I had, shouldn't bother me.

However, after installing a few hundred packages, I rebooted the system and X11 is not working anymore. i.e. the laptop freezes, once the target graphical interface is reached. I can still login with ctrl+alt+f2, but when I type startx, systemctrl start lightdm (my preferred login manager) or startxfce4 (preferred Window manager), the screen goes black.

When I run systemctl start gdm, GDM comes up and I can login and use GNOME. The other available display managers are GNOME on Xorg, Weston and Xfce. Weston is also working, but when I click on any of the others, the screen goes black again.

I guess, the reason is that the update corrupted my Xorg (required by Xfce) while GNOME and Weston can use Wayland.

In my .local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log there is a "fatal server error .. xinit giving up".

What is the best way to repair this?

Should I try to ..
1) .. revert the update done by pacman (even if essential libs have been replaced)
2) .. uninstall Xorg+XFCE and reinstall just these components with pacman (how to?)
3) .. repair the config in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
4) .. post more information ?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Last edited by linefader (2019-03-21 13:27:40)

WorMzy · 2019-03-21 11:06:41

Please post the actual logs not just hints about what they said.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

Mod note: moving to NC.

linefader · 2019-03-21 13:24:21

I'ld like to post my complete Xorg.0.log and the pacman.log, but after doing another pacman -Syu, I cannot even boot the system anymore.
All I get is the message "error loading vmlinuz-linux" and then the system goes back into the boot loader and then back to the error message ...
I guess, the only way out, is to boot from a stick, back up the home directory and re-install Arch.
Or can I repair the broken kernel after booting from a stick?

WorMzy · 2019-03-21 13:29:41

Without any logs it's impossible for us to know what has happened, but this is starting to sound like a hardware failure. Boot a liveCD and check the health of your disks.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

Use a pastebin to upload logs from the liveCD.

piratebill · 2019-03-22 20:50:57

If you are an intel user, it could be this bug: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=244624.

Last edited by piratebill (2019-03-22 20:52:16)

linefader · 2019-03-25 10:08:41

Hello, I have an Intel i7 CPU.

I tried to start from a freshly installed system again, i.e. I re-installed Arch from a USB stick, installed X, XFCE + every other software I need and after that, I restored my home directory from my backup and for a few hours everything was fine ...

Then, I did it again: sudo pacman -Syu + reboot .. and I ran into trouble with X11 again:
After the reboot, X11 did not come up (failed to load module i915) and also the network was broken (ip link did not even show me the interface).

I found out that the reason was, that pacman -Syu did not properly update the kernel: It tried to update from version 5.0.3 to 5.0.4 but
pacman -Qi linux was still showing 5.0.3 while uname -a told me, I was already running 5.0.4
Probably my fstab was incorrect and the boot device was not properly mounted (during the re-installation, I tried to follow the instructions for UEFI-systems from archlinux.org but I could not follow every step since my partition table looks slightly different).

Anyway, after finding out, that a mismatch between kernel and modules is the reason, I downgraded the kernel to 5.0.3 (from the pacman cache using pacman -U).

After downgrading and rebooting, the network works again and X is also back.
Unfortunately (as a result of all the up- and downgrades), it is still a mess: Now, mouse and keyboard do not work anymore, but I can still login remotely via ssh from another computer and get things fixed.

My Xorg.0.log shows that it is missing input drivers for mouse/keyboard etc: http://sprunge.us/OJ7k6s
My fstab is actually completely lost: http://sprunge.us/NEQPDT

Of course, I ran genfstab during the installation (I also adapted the generated /etc/fstab and, accrodingly to archlinux.org, I set the discard option for my SSD), but now, the /etc/fstab is gone (probably, it is still on my unmounted boot partition). My partition table looks like this: http://sprunge.us/YdRx2h

So, for now, how can I
1) re-activate the input device drivers, such that I can use the mouse and the keyboard of the computer again?
2) fix my (or build a new) fstab that matches my partition table?
3) finally upgrade to kernel 5.0.4 with X and network working?

Do you agree to proceed in that order or would you recommend to, somehow, solve all problems at once?

Many thanks in advance!

p.s. let me know, if you need to see more logs

Last edited by linefader (2019-03-25 10:11:16)

newbie1962 · 2019-03-25 10:32:42

Downgrade to xfdesktop, check in / var / log / pacman if you've updated to the latest version of xfdesktop that's the problem.
Best regards

linefader · 2019-03-25 12:51:03

I have xfdesktop installed: Version 4.13.3 which was not updated since the installation and, therefore, cannot be downgraded.
I tried to remove it (pacman -R) but this did not help: Indeed, the desktop wallpaper was gone after rebooting, but still no mouse/keyboard ..

I am also posting my pacman.log, if this tells you anything: http://sprunge.us/7MiNfa

I am pretty sure, it's an issue with my file tree (/etc/fstab should not be empty - where is the fstab which I edited during the installation?).

I've just mounted my /dev/sda1 manually (to /efi). Indeed this is a directory that contains more files than my boot directory.

/boot looks like this: http://sprunge.us/gIB6CK
and /efi looks like this: http://sprunge.us/RxG2Pe

Should I re-mount efi to boot? I am a bit afraid of ending up with a non-bootable system again ..

archimboldo · 2019-03-25 13:43:47

linefader wrote:

I have xfdesktop installed: Version 4.13.3 which was not updated since the installation and, therefore, cannot be downgraded.

https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/x/xfdesktop/

linefader · 2019-03-25 14:57:36

Thanks for the link with the xfdesktop packages. I re-installed the latest version (4.13.3) and the wallpaper came back, but I still don't see an issue with this package.

In the meanwhile, I managed to solve my most urgent problems with this laptop: I re-installed xf86-input-evdev and xf86-input-synaptics and now I can use mouse, touchpad and keyboard again.

This means, I now have X11 up and running, xfce + lightdm etc., i.e. I can work with my laptop again.

But I am running Kernel 5.0.3 and I am pretty sure, once I update to 5.0.4, pacman will destroy X11 and all the fixed input device drivers and network setup again.

I think, the file tree of this laptop is still not clean: my /etc/fstab only contains comments and mount | grep sda shows me

/dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime)

shouldn't I see my boot partition (sda1) and swap partition (sda2) somewhere?

Should I open a new thread, since the current problem (an un-updatable system) is only indirectly related to X11 (however, pacman -Syu will most likely still damage my X11).

cirrus · 2019-03-25 17:19:56

Edit your /etc/fstab accordingly having it mount the /boot partition. genfstab is flaky and IIRC the installation guide prompts us to check it is correct before moving to next step.

Last edited by cirrus (2019-03-25 17:22:27)

Arch Linux

#1 2019-03-21 10:44:49

X11 damaged after update

#2 2019-03-21 11:06:41

Re: X11 damaged after update

#3 2019-03-21 13:24:21

Re: X11 damaged after update

#4 2019-03-21 13:29:41

Re: X11 damaged after update

#5 2019-03-22 20:50:57

Re: X11 damaged after update

#6 2019-03-25 10:08:41

Re: X11 damaged after update

#7 2019-03-25 10:32:42

Re: X11 damaged after update

#8 2019-03-25 12:51:03

Re: X11 damaged after update

#9 2019-03-25 13:43:47

Re: X11 damaged after update

#10 2019-03-25 14:57:36

Re: X11 damaged after update

#11 2019-03-25 17:19:56

Re: X11 damaged after update

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