Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

rbit · 2021-12-23 20:02:45

I have 1 desktop that won't properly boot chimaera. This is a machine I used once a week.
It ran beowulf fine (I may just go back to that).
I updated the apt sources to chimaera, did the upgrade and dist-upgrade successfully. Rebooted into chimaera okay.
Some time later (the next week?) it wouldn't complete the boot -- it would go so far and then reboot itself (stuck in a reboot-loop).
I was able to boot into an older kernel, and it started up okay.
The following week, same problem. Only the older kernel wouldn't complete its boot either. I went to recovery mode, and was able to log in, exited and GUI started up fine.
The following week, nothing I did was successful. Even "recovery mode" does not complete far enough to get me to login -- it reboots and reboots and reboots! I let it continue this for over a half hour before shutting it down.

I've replaced this desktop with another one, so a fix is not something that is urgent or even necessary. I have noticed, in attempts to get it working, that it will successfully boot jessie desktop-live USB; but will not even boot up from chimaera desktop-live USB (it does the reboot thing).
Perhaps there is some incompatible hardware ... but if that's the case I am confused why it initially worked after the dist-upgrade. Should I just go back to beowulf?
I don't even know where to start looking for the cause ... syslog ? kern.log ? record a video of the boot to get the last message before it reboots ?
The chimaera desktop-live USB does work on other hardware so I don't think that it is a problem, either.

An old inxi output (showing the correct hardware at least; other info may be outdated)

System:
  Host: fcc-audio Kernel: 5.8.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.12.4 tk: Gtk 2.24.32 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 
  dm: SLiM 1.3.6 Distro: Devuan GNU/Linux 3 (beowulf) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: FM2-A55M-E33 (MS-7721) v: 2.0 serial: N/A 
  BIOS: American Megatrends v: 11.6 date: 02/12/2015 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD A10-6800K APU with Radeon HD Graphics 
  bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Piledriver rev: 1 L1 cache: 192 KiB 
  L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 32736 
  Speed: 1993 MHz min/max: 2000/4100 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1996 2: 1996 3: 2092 4: 2044 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Richland [Radeon HD 8670D] vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:990c 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1024x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.8.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) 
  v: 4.3 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Trinity HDMI Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 chip ID: 1002:9902 
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 01:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 88.98 GiB used: 22.56 GiB (25.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD800JD-60LSA5 
  size: 74.53 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: WD-XXXXXXXXXXXX rev: 1E03 
  temp: 35 C scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: TransMemory 
  size: 14.45 GiB serial: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 21.88 GiB used: 8.81 GiB (40.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /boot size: 938.0 MiB used: 177.7 MiB (18.9%) fs: ext2 
  dev: /dev/sda1 
  ID-3: /home size: 41.92 GiB used: 6.25 GiB (14.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
  ID-4: swap-1 size: 8.41 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 10.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 162 Uptime: 1h 48m Memory: 7.06 GiB used: 725.2 MiB (10.0%) 
  Init: SysVinit v: 2.93 runlevel: 2 default: 2 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 
  alt: 6/8 Shell: bash (sudo) v: 5.0.3 running in: xfce4-terminal 
  inxi: 3.0.32

Head_on_a_Stick · 2021-12-23 21:13:04

An intermittent problem would suggest a hardware failure, especially if a live ISO also fails.

Perhaps check if the various components are seated correctly in the motherboard.

rbit · 2022-03-18 20:40:54

Apologies for the late response. It was, apparently, a hardware problem after all, although I'm not sure exactly what. Something with the CPU or motherboard (I didn't have a spare of either that I could interchange and narrow down the problem).

fsmithred · 2022-03-18 23:07:07

How much memory does it have? If it's in the inxi output, I'm missing it.

There's a big difference in mem requirements between jessie and chimaera. It keeps going up with each release. Run memtest86+ overnight to see if there's bad RAM.

Nili · 2022-03-19 10:01:30

- Inxi says Memory: 7.06 GiB used: 725.2 MiB (10.0%) which seems absolutely fine in terms of memory space and loads.

Very straight from Jessie to Chimaera also onwards there is a lot of difference on memory consums, the latters consumes many more ram due to kernel that is hungrier than early versions.

- The System Temperatures: cpu: 10.8 C
Seems to me somewhat low, only if the system is in a room cold enough, positive thing to say, or the measurement is not so accurate.
10.8C it does not sound very normal to me for an uptime: 1h 48m. Yes my initial temperature it is so, but after 1 hour of work it would go 20 and above.

CPU and Memory test from Bios would have been the first step and HDD checkup (smartctl/disks/gsmartcontrol) the second part imo.

fsmithred · 2022-03-19 13:12:58

Thanks, nili. I should remember to search the page for words. 7G is more than enough, assuming it's all working.

The only time I ever had a cpu running at 11C was with the computer on a hardwood floor, in the winter with sub-freezing temperatures, and the windows in the apartment below me were open. My floor was very cold.

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#1 2021-12-23 20:02:45

Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

#2 2021-12-23 21:13:04

Re: Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

#3 2022-03-18 20:40:54

Re: Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

#4 2022-03-18 23:07:07

Re: Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

#5 2022-03-19 10:01:30

Re: Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

#6 2022-03-19 13:12:58

Re: Upgraded to chimaera; now cannot boot

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