[SOLVED] Post Install Config Problems

bbatten · 2017-07-02 23:24:04

I upgraded my Wheezy installation to Devuan Jessie using the instructions at
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/2 … 10.en.html
with these package sources:

deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie main contrib non-free
deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie-security main contrib non-free

The configuration I'm trying to upgrade is Debian Wheezy. I have no Debian kernel packages. I download kernels from kernel.org and build from source. Network-manager is not installed. I use a custom network configuration and wicd instead. My boot manager is lilo. Grub is not installed.

I used a terminal window from my xfce desktop to do the installation, which at first appeared successful, but which I soon discovered has the following problem areas:

initramfs-tools emits bug message
xfce only has 1280x1024 resolution
network-manager ends up being installed

Cumulatively, these resulted in an unusable desktop and a non-functioning local network configuration serious enough that I needed to drop back to a backup disk image of Wheezy. Here's what I know about these problems:

initramfs-tools emits bug message

When initramfs-tools setup started, these messages were issued:

Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.120+deb8u3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.11.4
mkinitramfs: failed to determine device for /
mkinitramfs: workaround is MODULES=most, check:
grep -r MODULES /etc/initramfs-tools/
Error please report bug on initramfs-tools
Include the output of 'mount' and 'cat /proc/mounts'
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.11.4 with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-18+deb8u9) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.11.4 with 1.

I tried unsuccessfully (pilot error suspected) to use reportbug to report it.

Trying to install initramfs-tools separately resulted in this error:

"E: Internal Error, No file name for initramfs-tools:amd64"

First, I don't have kernel 4.11.4 installed. I do have 4.11.7 installed. Second, why is initramfs-tools being run in the first place? I haven't called out for any kernel packages to be installed, so the boot configuration is unchanged.

xfce only has 1280x1024 resolution

Xfce4 gets upgraded from 4.8 to 4.10 (good). When I logged into my upgaded xfce4 desktop, I found that it was set at 1280x1024. My display has 1920x1080 capability, which was being used prior to the upgrade. Running 'xfce4-display-settings' did not offer the option of 1920x1080. Furthermore, I found that my displays.xml file had been modified to change name="Default" with Resolution of 1920x1080 to name="active" (I think), then *append* a name="Default" set of properties with a max Resolution of 1280x1024. Running "xfce4-display-settings" did not allow me to increase the resolution above 1280x1024, even though the former "Default" Resolution continued show as 1920x1280.

My understanding is the it is conventional *not* to modify user specified settings. Getting back to a full display capability is something I need to be able to do before entering the fray once more.

network-manager ends up being installed

I don't know why this happened, but this and network-manager-gnome were both installed. My understanding is that 'upgrade' installs newest versions of currently installed packages while 'dist-upgrade' also installs dependencies. Doesn't seem that either of these should end up installing a package that's not currently installed.

Anyway, I need to know how to keep Network Manager out of my system in order to be able to proceed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Last edited by bbatten (2017-09-17 22:28:01)

PeteGozz · 2017-07-03 06:25:23

bbatten wrote:

network-manager ends up being installed
I don't know why this happened, but this and network-manager-gnome were both installed. My understanding is that 'upgrade' installs newest versions of currently installed packages while 'dist-upgrade' also installs dependencies. Doesn't seem that either of these should end up installing a package that's not currently installed.

dist-upgrade WILL install extra packages.

I'm guessing but its possibly because xfce => task-*-desktop (something) pulls it in.
network-manager has a long rev depends list.

apt-cache showpkg network-manager-gnome

(there is probably a more elegant method)

If you can purge it without uninstalling half your system
then do that and try:
(you don't really need most desktop meta-packages any more)

/etc/apt/preferences.d/network-messwithya

that looks something like this:

Package: network-manager
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -15

Package: network-manager
Pin: release o=Devuan
Pin-Priority: -10

test with

$ apt-cache policy network-manager
it *should* report no candidates
e.g.

[root@lenny]: /etc/apt/preferences.d$ apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
     1.8.0-5 -10
        500 http://au.mirror.devuan.org/merged ceres/main i386 Packages
     1.6.2-3 -10
        500 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged ascii/main i386 Packages
     0.9.10.0-7+devuan1 -10
        990 http://packages.devuan.org/devuan jessie/main i386 Packages
        990 http://auto.mirror.devuan.org/merged jessie/main i386 Packages

Then when I try to install:

[root@lenny]: /etc/apt/preferences.d$ apt-get install network-manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package network-manager is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

You _may_ have to do the same for gnome-network-manager
OR try a regex match

i.e. /network-manager/ *should* match any version.

(and if I were you I would do something similar for grub)

Last edited by PeteGozz (2017-07-03 07:18:45)

PeteGozz · 2017-07-03 06:58:10

bbatten wrote:

initramfs-tools emits bug message

This _may_ be as simple as /var/lib/initramfs-tools/ uuid records
not being cleaned up
by kernel installs/upgrades
(as you roll your own)

I have been caught by that.

ls /var/lib/initramfs-tools/
ls /boot/init*

maybe a hand run:

1 [root@lenny]: /etc/apt/preferences.d$ update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.11.6-lenny
I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/sda3
I: (UUID=9e5238ff-0ece-4e6e-9039-e8952c42b3aa)
I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.

Which brings me to :

bbatten wrote:

Second, why is initramfs-tools being run in the first place? I

It will also be called whenever anything needs a:
kernel __module__ new OR updated (say ext* at least )
certainly md or btrfs
or a new blockdev label or uuid
anything that may upset grubs world. (yeah I know)
X nonsense like vid drivers and evdev
Or firmware updates. Busybox uclib etc.

On random Tuesdays Full Moons ...

A lot has happened since wheezy so
I am surprised you only got this many issues !

bbatten · 2017-07-05 20:09:56

Hi PeteGozz,

Thanks for the feedback. Any ideas, pointers, tips on how I can fix up my xfce install?

Thanks,

golinux · 2017-07-05 21:30:12

bbatten wrote:

Hi PeteGozz,
Thanks for the feedback. Any ideas, pointers, tips on how I can fix up my xfce install?
Thanks,

If you're referring to the resolution issue, try xrandr. Actually lxrandr has a nice gui selector.

miroR · 2017-07-06 10:33:07

I'm 1) a little uncomfortable browsing, have only text browser Lynx,
2) work to do compiling Palemoon on my not-so-usual-setup system

But just this error:

"E: Internal Error, No file name for initramfs-tools:amd64"

I had it, even though because of 1) above it may not show, just last night. That will solve once you, possibly (I don't guarrantie it!) install the <whatever the package that did not install properly> with

dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/<that-full-name-binary>

. Duckduckgo.com for it...

miroR · 2017-07-06 10:34:55

I mean I had it in my somewhat concurrent topic of the title "...broken packages... (Beware of Debian Stretch)"

bbatten · 2017-07-28 18:18:57

Well, thanks to Pete Gozz, golinux, and miroR, items one and three in my original post are good enough. For item two - the display resolution, I'm starting a separate thread in the "Desktop and MultiMedia" section.

miroR · 2017-07-29 21:54:53

bbatten wrote:

Well, thanks to Pete Gozz, golinux, and miroR

It's always a pleasure when one can be at least somewhat useful...

For item two - the display resolution, I'm starting a separate thread in the "Desktop and MultiMedia" section.

I read that other topic, don't have any clues...
Just, my best monitor currently is max 1024x768
Ah, never mind.

bbatten · 2017-09-17 22:27:19

initramfs-tools emits bug message

I was eventually able to make this work by

clearing out /var/lib/initramfs-tools per PeteGozz. (Didn't even know that was there. No idea why I needed to clean it out, but it did remove cruft.)
using "update-initramfs -k 4.12.0 -ut". Did not work without the -t parameter, even after emptying /var/lib/initramfs-tools. After doing this once, I was able to delete the -t parameter

This has the feeling that perhaps consistency checks have become a little too strict, and might be relaxed to accept a wider variety of invocations while still producing valid results.

xfce only has 1280x1024 resolution

See [SOLVED] XFCE (Really Xorg) Max Resolution Problem

network-manager ends up being installed

Probably pilot error. Somewhere along the line in later installation attempts, network-manager did not end up being installed, even after removing the hold suggested by PeteGozz.

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#1 2017-07-02 23:24:04