Arch Linux

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

[SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

I have been told that suspend problems on my laptop are probably due to the 2.6.35 kernel, so I tried to upgrade to 2.6.36. I looked around the wiki and news for any indication kernel upgrades were a special consideration, but all I saw were warnings that it could cause problems and not to do it without good reason, so I went ahead and upgraded the kernel itself.

When I rebooted, my wifi, ethernet, and xorg were all broken. I figure I should have done an entire system upgrade at once, but modprobing my ethernet driver does not work to bring it up. I then tried to downgrade back to 2.6.35 but get a "failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)" error. Downgrading with -Ud doesn't change this. The fallback kernel produces the same behavior.

Could someone tell me what I've done to my system and how I might recover it?

Last edited by Don Coyote (2011-02-26 01:19:11)

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

Well, this doesn't help now, but yes, you should have done an entire system upgrade. That's the only way to upgrade an Arch system.

pacman -U should work with the last 2.6.35package - post the entire output, not a single line, so that people who might be inclined to help you can see what you're seeing.

FYI there is no fallback kernel. There is a fallback initramfs image, generated by mkinitcpio at the same time as the default one.

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

After the "(conflicting files)" error it shows this line repeated:
kernel26: /lib/modules/2.6.35-ARCH/modules.* exists in filesystem
with the following modules on each line (at *):
alias
alias.bin
ccwmap
dep
dep.bin
devname
ieee1394map
inputmap
isapnpmap
ofmap
pcimap
seriomap
softdep
symbols
symbols.bin
usbmap

tavianator

Member

From: Waterloo, ON, Canada

Registered: 2007-08-21

Posts: 858

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

Looks like something broke during the upgrade -- those files should belong to the kernel package.  pacman -Uf will help here.

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

I was able to use the -force to downgrade to a functional, networked desktop and then did an -Syu. The results look pretty similar to the kernel-only upgrade with errors trying to start Xorg and no wifi or ethernet obtainable.

The key error data I'm seeing trying to startx seems to be:
FATAL: Module i915 not found.
(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

It would be a major task to post an entire actual error dump since the laptop is on offline and this desktop only has enough USB ports functioning to plug my keyboard and mouse in. I looked at the Intel driver wiki and tried to enable KMS, with no results. I also backed up xorg.conf and tried startx without it. This gave me my Xfce desktop as I had last used it, but locked up the system and required a hard reboot.

I see I could play with grub modeset and/or downgrade Xorg, but with the network interfaces also down it seems like I have more of a systemic problem. Is there a core configuration file I sould be looking at? (BTW, the top of my login screen still says 2.6.35 although pacman -Q confirms I'm at 2.6.36.2-1)

I don't think I ever did a system upgrade as part of my install, and this thinkpad has had very little plug and play functionality, so I have done too much configuration file work to have a clear idea of what might have broken. Would it be simpler to do an install from scratch and go through all of the configuring after a system upgrade than to recover what I have?

Last edited by Don Coyote (2010-12-17 21:17:22)

skunktrader

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-02-14

Posts: 1,543

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

If (when) you reinstall, try to remember to do a full upgrade before you start configuring your system.  Pay particular attention to merging all the .pacnew files else critical parts of the system (like pacman) may not function correctly.

You might also want to check that the mirror you are using is up to date to make sure that your system is really up to date

Last edited by skunktrader (2010-12-17 22:26:57)

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

Neither Arch, nor any other system, is designed for ala carte kernel upgrades without significant user intervention. In the future, performing pacman -Syu about weekly should keep your system both current and quite manageable.

---

Amiga 1000 restomod
IBM PCjr restomod
C=64 restodmod
Sauengard

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

Downgrading the kernel back to 2.35 restored my system to all of its previous functionality. I'm guessing I'll do better dealing without suspend until the next kernel upgrade and give it a try then...

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

If you'd want to solve this, starting with the i915 module not being found issue, could you post the output of

updatedb
locate i915
p -Ql intel-dri

If you are happy running the .35 kernel, you can just mark this thread as solved and ignore my suggestion

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

I would like to work at what I can, but am leaving town next week so I need the laptop functional then.

after installing mlocate, those commands yield:

# updatedb
# locate i915
/lib/modules/2.6.35-ARCH/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915
/lib/modules/2.6.35-ARCH/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko
/usr/include/libdrm/i915_drm.h
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i915_dri.so
/usr/src/linux-2.6.36-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915
/usr/src/linux-2.6.36-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.36-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915/kms.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.36-ARCH/include/drm/i915_drm.h
# pacman -Ql intel-dri
intel-dri /usr/
intel-dri /usr/lib/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i810_dri.so
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i915_dri.so
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i965_dri.so

I notice the drivers are under a 2.6.35 directory. I don't recall installing any drivers on my own so I'm not sure why pacman wouldn't have upgraded them with the rest of the system...

Last edited by Don Coyote (2010-12-24 22:14:54)

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

I noticed the 6.37 kernel is packaged and now have some time to devote to this again. I did a system upgrade and am getting the same results reported above:

FATAL: Module i915 not found.
(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

I ran the commands Ramses suggested and get the same result, with the exception of the kernel version and the i915.ko.gz file. Would this mean pacman didn't fully unzip a needed driver? I tried gzip -d on it but startx still gives the same message.

# updatedb
# locate i915
/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915
/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz
/usr/include/libdrm/i915_drm.h
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i915_dri.so
/usr/src/linux-2.6.37-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915
/usr/src/linux-2.6.37-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.37-ARCH/include/config/drm/i915/kms.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.37-ARCH/include/drm/i915_drm.h
# pacman -Ql intel-dri
intel-dri /usr/
intel-dri /usr/lib/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i810_dri.so
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i915_dri.so
intel-dri /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/i965_dri.so

I've lost recollection of most of my research on this, I'd appreciate any tips on where to start looking for a solution.

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

I figured the problem with the video out. I had my /boot partition listed as ext2 in fstab from a previous install attempt and had since created the partitoin as ext4. Apparently there was something in the Grub config files that the kernel needed to work with the i915 module. I changed fstab, rebooted, downgraded the kernel, upgraded it, and after rebooting again xfce is up and running.

Wifi is giving me nothing however, will check it with ethernet later...

Don Coyote

Member

From: Great Lakes Region

Registered: 2010-09-06

Posts: 109

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Upgrade Washout

Ethernet was working, just had to use yaourt to update my realtek driver. Out of curiosity, should I have been able to update that wifi AUR package after the kernel rebuild but before rebooting?

Marking resolved, the Arch experience continues to impress me thoroughly...