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Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

[Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Thinking everything would be fine ie: being stable and all, I followed the instructions here:

https://devuan.org/os/documentation/dev … e-to-ascii

Everything went smoothly, did not see any warnings.

Now, on reboot, I am completely locked out of my Devuan rig. (writing from my PCLinuxOS drive) as the keyboard does not respond as it is not active (no leds light up), so there's no F1 or anything else.

Short of doing the old MS trick (ie: reinstall from CD), is there a way out of this situation?

Thanks in advance.

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2018-06-18 17:17:23)

devuser

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 176  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Not sure if i can help much but a couple general questions: At what point the keyboard doesn't respond? In GUI? Can you still login to a text console? Also what kind of keyboard is it? Does it maybe need some non-free package (the instructions don't have non-free enabled which i figure you might have had before upgrading)? Said PCLinuxOS drive is in the same PC as the Devuan one (as in same keybaord, same port)?

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Not sure if i can help much ...

No problem, thanks you for answering.  =-)

At what point the keyboard doesn't respond?

At the very start, when the login manager shows up.

Can you still login to a text console?

As the keyboard is non responsive, F1 or any other input is not an option.

Also what kind of keyboard is it?

Same as I was using with Jesse, same as the one I use with PCLinux, all the same rig just on different drives for each.

Does it maybe need some non-free package ...

No ...
It's a (ancient to some) very sturdy and dependable Wise USB keyboard salvaged from somewhere when I got my (also ancient to some) Sun workstation.
Has a PS2 plug on the side for the Wise optical mouse.
It all worked perfectly well with Jesse from the out-of-the-box install.

The only non-free I needed to install in Jesse were the drivers for my two Nvidia cards (I use three monitors).
No way the Devuan free drivers would work.

Maybe that's the catch - but I *do* see all three monitors lioke before, it's just the kb that does not respond.

Thanks for your input.

A.

msi

Member

Registered: 2017-02-04

Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Does the keyboard respond when you boot the system in recovery mode?

What login manager are you trying to use?

Last edited by msi (2018-06-12 15:20:17)

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,336  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Have you read the Release notes?  I suspect something is amiss with the backend combo needed for your setup.

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Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Does the keyboard respond when you boot the system in recovery mode?

I boot devuan from the grub in my PCLinuxOS setup.
ie: the default boot is PCLinux, the second options in the list is Devuan (for the time being, till things smooth out)

Can't see how to get into recovery mode, the keyboard is not responsive.

What login manager are you trying to use?

My Devuan installation is the *default* Jesse using SLiM and XFCE.

Thanks for your input.

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Have you read the Release notes?

Yes, didn't see anything which would raise a flag.
But I'm not that proficient Linux-wise ...  8^/

I suspect something is amiss with the backend combo needed for your setup.

It has the default SLiM and XFCE combination.
Is anything else missing?

What was in Jesse was working without any problems so I expected that if anything was missing, it would either get installed or reconfigured.
I'm not complaining but as it is a default Jesse (SLiM and XFCE) installation upgrade I expected no major hickups save maybe the Nvidia drivers acting up.

Thanks for your input.

A.

msi

Member

Registered: 2017-02-04

Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Can't see how to get into recovery mode, the keyboard is not responsive.

When the GRUB menu shows up, select Devuan, but don't hit Return. Type e instead. Now you should see a bunch of text containing a line somewhere reading somehting like:

linux   /vmlinuz-4.9.0-6-686-pae root=UUID=810cd705-55b6-4ce2-a414-76e16ce125f4 ro  quiet

It may be wrapped if it's too long to fit the screen. Anyway, navigate to the end of that line, then insert 1. Then hit F10 to boot. The boot process should pause at a certain point and you should be asked to enter your root password for manitenance (or type Ctrl+D to continue). Enter your root password and hit Return. There you are in runlevel 1 or "recovery mode". You won't have to change that GRUB configuration back because it's not permanent.

I'm not complaining but as it is a default Jesse (SLiM and XFCE) installation upgrade I expected no major hickups save maybe the Nvidia drivers acting up.

What do you mean by "upgrade"?

Last edited by msi (2018-06-12 20:39:15)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

When the GRUB menu shows up, select Devuan, but don't hit Return. Type e instead. Now you should see a bunch of text containing a line somewhere reading somehting like:

linux   /vmlinuz-4.9.0-6-686-pae root=UUID=810cd705-55b6-4ce2-a414-76e16ce125f4 ro  quiet

... navigate to the end of that line, then insert 1. Then hit F10 to boot.
... process should pause at a certain point and you should be asked to enter your root password ...
... are in 1 or "recovery mode".
You won't have to change that GRUB configuration back because it's not permanent.

OK.
Thanks a lot.  8^)

In contrast to what I was used to with MS OSs, I've never had to do go to recovery mode with my Linux installations.
It's actually the first time.

I'll try it and report back on how the Kb behaves.

What do you mean by "upgrade"?

This:
https://devuan.org/os/documentation/dev … e-to-ascii

"This document shows how to upgrade from Devuan Jessie to Devuan Ascii. It assumes a working Devuan Jessie system is already installed and should not be used for migrations."

Thanks for your input.

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2018-06-12 22:28:45)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

I'll try it and report back on how the Kb behaves.

I did as per your instrucions and was able to log into recovery mode, with what would seem to be a fully working keyboard.
So I suspect there is an issue with SLiM, maybe caused by something else (?) eg: XOrg conf, Nvidia drivers ...

I guess I may be able to find a clue to whatever is happening in dmesg or one of the log files.
I'll have a look - any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

A.

devuser

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 176  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

A quick search yielded nothing really relevant but there was an interesting Debian bug report from an user who found his keyboard broken after logging out of his xsession. He found "paused 1" messages relating to the input devices in Xorg.log. Might be worth checking for that. Sadly the report doesn't list any solution. The user just switched from slim to lightdm.

Beyond that it might be an idea to try narrowing the problem down. I'd try disabling slim (i guess this should work: update-rc.d slim disable) and see if your keyboard works after a normal boot. If it does try startx. If it still works clearly slim is the culprit.

msi

Member

Registered: 2017-02-04

Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

OK.
Thanks a lot.  8^)

Normally, you would have an entry for booting into runlevel 1 in your GRUB boot menu as well. But from your description it seemed like it's not there on your system.

In contrast to what I was used to with MS OSs, I've never had to do go to recovery mode with my Linux installations.
It's actually the first time.

It's actually called "single-user mode". Ubuntu calls it "recovery mode"... (mea culpa)

Beyond that it might be an idea to try narrowing the problem down. I'd try disabling slim (i guess this should work: update-rc.d slim disable) and see if your keyboard works after a normal boot. If it does try startx. If it still works clearly slim is the culprit.

I would have suggested the same. However, you might want to do yourself the favor of reading the section on "Starting X from a console (TTY)" in the ASCII release notes before you use startx to start X.

Last edited by msi (2018-06-13 00:05:48)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

... try narrowing the problem down. I'd try disabling slim ...
... if your keyboard works after a normal boot.
If it does try startx. If it still works clearly slim is the culprit.

I did as you suggested.
I was able to start the X server and got my full desktop across the three monitors (so it would seem that it is not a Nvidia non-free driver issue) but the Kb was as unresponsive as before.

I have a gut feeling (?) that this is something related to Xorg.conf.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks for your input.

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

... have an entry for booting into runlevel 1 in your GRUB boot menu as well.

I'll have a look - never had to use it before.

... might want to do yourself the favor of reading the section on "Starting X from a console (TTY)" in the ASCII release notes before you use startx to start X.

Too late ...   8^D LoL

I was able to start X, got the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse (it's plugged into the USB Kb).
So the problem persists.  =^/

Thanks for your input.

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2018-06-13 21:21:46)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Hello:
I was able to start X, got the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse (it's plugged into the USB Kb).
So the problem persists.  =^/

Anyone?

I tried using a different mouse directly connected to a USB port (instead of a PS2 connected to a port on the Kb) but still no dice.
Is there any way I can get out of this problem without having to do a full reinstall?
That's the MS way out...

I was wondering about using a live Jese/Ascii *.iso to boot and do an update to see if that fixes anything or change repos to Jesse and then do an update to see if I can get to where I started from ie: a healthy and perfectly working Jesse installtion 8^/.

Or try to do the same things from the terminal, but I'd need some instructions.

Thanks in advance.

A.

devuser

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 176  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Hello:
I was able to start X, got the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse (it's plugged into the USB Kb).
So the problem persists.  =^/

Anyone?

Sorry, i am pretty much at loss here as i've never seen something like this before. The only thing i can recommend is checking Xorg.log for anything suspicious in relation the input devices. Maybe the "paused" message i mentioned earlier or if there is any indication of failure to detect the mouse/keyboard. Another thing that comes to mind is if you maybe have an actual X config that might be broken (outdated?) for some reason? This seemingly being related to X in general makes me think it has be somehow fixable by adjusting the config.

Plentyn

Member

Registered: 2017-07-14

Posts: 23  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

Hello:
I was able to start X, got the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse (it's plugged into the USB Kb).
So the problem persists.  =^/

Anyone?

I tried using a different mouse directly connected to a USB port (instead of a PS2 connected to a port on the Kb) but still no dice.
Is there any way I can get out of this problem without having to do a full reinstall?

It looks like your X is having some Problem either with this USB device or with USB in general.

* can you try another USB keyboard?
* can you try a PS2 keyboard?
* can you have a close look into /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? If nothing springs to your eye make it available to us?
* do you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf or other config files as referenced from /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? If yes make it/them available, too...

msi

Member

Registered: 2017-02-04

Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

I was able to start X, got the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse (it's plugged into the USB Kb).
So the problem persists.  =^/

Anyone?

How about reading those ASCII release notes?

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 286  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

OK, reboot into rescue mode, then fire up aptitude:

aptitude

Use the / key to bring up a search box and find the package x11-xkb-tools. If it has an i in front, it's installed. If that's the case, purge it (Shift+-) then re-install the package. It'll probably throw up a bunch of errors when purging, remove all packages that rely on it too (they'll be re-installed when you install the package)

HTH!

Last edited by Dutch_Master (2018-06-17 19:31:33)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

It looks like your X is having some Problem either with this USB device or with USB in general.

That's one possibility that has come to mind.

* can you try another USB keyboard?

The keyboard is the same I use in the same box that other OSs run in, just on different disks.
Works perfectly well.

* can you try a PS2 keyboard?

Nope ...
My box does not have a PS2 port.  =-'

* can you have a close look into /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? If nothing springs to your eye make it available to us?

I've had a look ...
I'll post it tomorrow morning.

* do you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf or other config files as referenced from /var/log/Xorg.0.log ? If yes make it/them available, too...

When I installed Devuan Jesse I had to install the non-free Nvidia drivers to make my two Nvidia cards drive the three monitors.
If I recall correctly, I tried using the same xorg.conf file I was using with PCLinuxOS which worked.

I'll check and see if that is as I remember and then post it along with the log.

Thanks a lot for your input.

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

How about reading those ASCII release notes?

I have read them.
But have not been able to identify anything specific that would help me solve this.
At least not with my level of exposure to Linux.

Perhaps you could point out anything I may have (surely) missed?

Thanks in advance.

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

OK, reboot into rescue mode, then fire up aptitude:

aptitude

Ok.

Use the / key to bring up a search box and find the package x11-xkb-tools. If it has an i in front, it's installed. If that's the case, purge it (Shift+-) then re-install the package. It'll probably throw up a bunch of errors when purging, remove all packages that rely on it too (they'll be re-installed when you install the package)

Ok.

One question ...
Purging the packages will require downloading them again?
If so, will the wireless network be up when I log into rescue mode?

Could this be done with a live Jesse or Ascii CD?

HTH!

Hopefully ...   8^)

Thanks for your input.

A.

devuser

Member

Registered: 2018-04-30

Posts: 176  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Purging the packages will require downloading them again?

Usually not as they will be stored in /var/cache/apt/archives but of course if there is an update available apt will want to download that. There might be some other cases where removed packages need to be redownloaded to but generally it should just get previously installed packages from the disk cache.

If so, will the wireless network be up when I log into rescue mode?

I don't really know since i seldom use rescue mode. In any case you should be able to bring up the interface using "ifconfig wlan0 up" and if that isn't enough to get a connection either manually configure it or run "dhclient wlan0" to acquire an IP using DHCP if your network uses that.

Could this be done with a live Jesse or Ascii CD?

I guess you could do that. You'd have to mount your disk and chroot (after mount binding /dev /proc /sys /tmp) to it to be able to use apt-get though.

msi

Member

Registered: 2017-02-04

Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

How about reading those ASCII release notes?

I have read them.
But have not been able to identify anything specific that would help me solve this.
At least not with my level of exposure to Linux.

Perhaps you could point out anything I may have (surely) missed?

Well, you wrote that using startx, you get "the full desktop but still no Kb or mouse". This could simply be because the Xserver freezes on start-up and may have nothing to do with your keyboard and mouse at all. You need to read the section "Starting X from a console (TTY)".

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,583  

Re: [Solved] Ascii upgrade (also) messed up this Devuan Jessie

Hello:

OK, reboot into rescue mode, then fire up aptitude:

aptitude

Ok.

I started there and saw that x11-xkb-tools was not installed.
Assuming x11-xkb-tools should be there (and maybe other missing configuration files) and that an update would install whatever was needed, I exited aptitude and decided to try apt-get update.

I first checked that the /etc/apt/sources.list was this one and that everything else was remmed out:

deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ascii main
deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ascii-updates main
deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ascii-security main
deb http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ascii-backports main

Then I did apt-get update and got a warning about dpkg having been interrupted which got fixed with the instructions on the screen with ...

dpkg --configure -a

... and then ran apt-get update again.

It started to do its work but complained about /etc/pam.d/login having been modified and asking about which version to keep.
I guessed that that could have been the glitch that affected my kb/mouse (?) so I kept the existing script version (default option) and continued.
If that one did not work, I could try the new version which obviously was not an option if I accepted the new one from the start.

When it was done (it was a lot) I exited, rebooted and got my desktop, this time with working kb and mouse.  =^ )

Once there, I started SPM and updated everything again.
Then for safe measure, I did the same through apt.

Now, it seems everything is well again:

root@devuan:/home/groucho# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
root@devuan:/home/groucho#

root@devuan:/home/groucho# uname -a
Linux devuan 3.16.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.51-3+deb8u1 (2018-01-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@devuan:/home/groucho# 

groucho@devuan:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Devuan
Description:	Devuan GNU/Linux 2.0 (ascii)
Release:	2.0
Codename:	ascii
groucho@devuan:~$ 

A big thank you to all of those who pitched in to help.
Really appreciated your input.

That said, it I think I have to brush up and deepen my command line skills.

Best,

A.