apt-get upgrade made huge changes to system

bb · 09-29-2003, 01:20 AM

I installed Knoppix 3.2 to the hard drive in the summer, and recently did a full apt-get upgrade; as far as I can recall, I didn't change the sources.list file (though I may have added some local Debian mirrors).

I had in the last few months installed a number of additional packages, and a new kernel (2.4.22).

The upgrade did not go well. Many changes seem to have been made to the system, and many of the settings I had adjusted seem to have been overwritten or replaced. Also, at boot the system is now trying to install a number of modules it didn't try before (ISDN is one in particular I noticed). Custom changes I had made to /etc/inittab, /etc/init.d/rc.d, /etc/init./rcS.d (for kernel-patch-lpp) were lost. It seems the upgrade

After mucking about for a while I did manage to get the system to boot properly, except for two issues:

1. Boot time is now much longer. I am guessing this is because of the attempts to load modules that don't exist in my recompiled kernel

2. KDM does not start automatically, though it tries to. The last message at boot is "Starting KDE", but then it goes straight to a console. Typing "kdm" at the console will then start KDE without problems.

3. Some console programs run as root use German (i.e. modconf)

Before I start mucking about with the module directories and startup scripts, does anyone have any suggestions/thoughts/comments about this? Anyone else have the same problems? Might I better off to clean off the hard drive and do a fresh instal (I can reinstall the few extra programs without too much hassle)?

B

**Dave_Bechtel** · 10-02-2003, 08:10 AM

Re: 1. Check /etc/modules and comment '#' out the ones you don't need
2. Check /etc/inittab for kdm and doublecheck ' whereis kdm '

--If all else fails, you *should* reinstall, but back up 1st. Are you sure you didn't do dist-upgrade by mistake?

--In future, when upgrade asks if you want to replace a file that has been modified with the maintainer's updated version, ALWAYS do a 'D'iff on it 1st. You can safely say No in some cases.

Originally Posted by bb

I installed Knoppix 3.2 to the hard drive in the summer, and recently did a full apt-get upgrade; as far as I can recall, I didn't change the sources.list file (though I may have added some local Debian mirrors).

I had in the last few months installed a number of additional packages, and a new kernel (2.4.22).

The upgrade did not go well. Many changes seem to have been made to the system, and many of the settings I had adjusted seem to have been overwritten or replaced. Also, at boot the system is now trying to install a number of modules it didn't try before (ISDN is one in particular I noticed). Custom changes I had made to /etc/inittab, /etc/init.d/rc.d, /etc/init./rcS.d (for kernel-patch-lpp) were lost. It seems the upgrade

After mucking about for a while I did manage to get the system to boot properly, except for two issues:

1. Boot time is now much longer. I am guessing this is because of the attempts to load modules that don't exist in my recompiled kernel

2. KDM does not start automatically, though it tries to. The last message at boot is "Starting KDE", but then it goes straight to a console. Typing "kdm" at the console will then start KDE without problems.

3. Some console programs run as root use German (i.e. modconf)

Before I start mucking about with the module directories and startup scripts, does anyone have any suggestions/thoughts/comments about this? Anyone else have the same problems? Might I better off to clean off the hard drive and do a fresh instal (I can reinstall the few extra programs without too much hassle)?

B

bb · 10-06-2003, 03:43 AM

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

Re: 1. Check /etc/modules and comment '#' out the ones you don't need
2. Check /etc/inittab for kdm and doublecheck ' whereis kdm

Will try this out, thanks.

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

--If all else fails, you *should* reinstall, but back up 1st. Are you sure you didn't do dist-upgrade by mistake?

I think that I probably did a dist-upgrade. I am guessing from my experience that this is a bad idea on a system originally installed from Knoppix?

Thanks for your reply,

BB

**Paradox** · 10-20-2003, 04:15 PM

I recently did an apt-get upgrade on a 9-22-2003 Knoppix installation.

Seemed to go all right, but over the last few days I've noticed two changes, one trivial, one kind of disturbing.

Trivial, but annoying: The GUI Logon Menu is in.. well, maybe it's German, though it looks like something else entirely. How can I change the Logon menu language?

Kind of disturbing: My KDE environment runs great. But when I , for example, Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a console, it repeats
"sr0: CD-ROM not detected. Make sure there is a disk in the drive."
over and over. If I put in any CD, it stops and allows me to logon and it act normally (unless I try to remove the CD, then it starts up again).

I assume it's been reset somehow, and is looking for the Knoppix CD. How can I stop that?

Thank you in advance for any help.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 10-20-2003, 04:53 PM

--That is some Utterly Weird behavior you got there. I'd DL the 9-24 rev and reinstall, after backing up of course. See this thread ( http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...ghlight=#25532 ) for some reinstall tips.

--Did the apt-get update ask if it could modify any files? Sometimes it comes up with a prompt (default is No, and you can hit D to see the differences between your file and the maintainer's new file.) If in doubt, always use D, and sometimes it's OK to say No. (I think some package modified your default language. No idea about the cdrom error, altho you should check /etc/fstab and see if it has ' auto ' or something weird in there for that line.)

Originally Posted by Paradox

I recently did an apt-get upgrade on a 9-22-2003 Knoppix installation.

Seemed to go all right, but over the last few days I've noticed two changes, one trivial, one kind of disturbing.

Trivial, but annoying: The GUI Logon Menu is in.. well, maybe it's German, though it looks like something else entirely. How can I change the Logon menu language?

Kind of disturbing: My KDE environment runs great. But when I , for example, Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a console, it repeats
"sr0: CD-ROM not detected. Make sure there is a disk in the drive."
over and over. If I put in any CD, it stops and allows me to logon and it act normally (unless I try to remove the CD, then it starts up again).

I assume it's been reset somehow, and is looking for the Knoppix CD. How can I stop that?

Thank you in advance for any help.

**Paradox** · 10-20-2003, 11:14 PM

For various reasons (including using this experience as a learning tool), I'd rather try to fix my problems then simply re-install.

I'm gonna try googling for more information regarding the CD-ROM issue-- I checked and it's not a problem in my fstab file.

Does anyone know a file I can edit to fix the language problem, though?

and yeah.. the CD-ROM problem is still there. I rarely if ever go to console, but... that can't be good behavior. Any more advice?

**Paradox** · 10-21-2003, 05:47 AM

Someone figured out the problem on LinuxQuestions.org, I'm paraphrasing it here in case it happens to someone else.

If it does, go to /etc/modules

comment out autofs

Reboot, and it should be fine.

Edit: The above is not accurate. Apologies, I was as confused myself... In actuality, the problem was the KsCD program running in my system tray. Quit that, and the problem goes away. Oops.[/b]

**RockMumbles** · 10-21-2003, 05:47 AM

You could manually fix your german console problems by looking here:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=310#1067

and/or ...

I would recommend installing the localepurge package. Selecting the locale(s) you wish to use when you set it up, after that whenever you install a package it will purge all unnecessary locale files from your system, then no unwanted locales can be used.

HTH

~rock