LMDE BREAKAGES - tracking TESTING

[sidneyk]

An update to my earlier post concerning the udev packages version 167.1. Earlier today I enabled the experimental repo and also had the unstable repo enabled and issued the command: sudo apt-get -t experimental upgrade gnome-shell thinking that it would only bring in upgraded packages from experimental for gnome-shell. There were a good list of packages to upgrade and I wasn't careful to look through all of them as close as I should have perhaps. I had the udev packages ignored in mint-update, but apparently that doesn't carry over to apt. I was watching the progression of the upgrades and noticed that some packages were being pulled in from unstable and then saw one of the udev packages coming through. I thought sure my system would be broke again. Then I saw the other udev packages come through and just let it keep going. Everything installed and was finished and I was ready to face a non-working system when I rebooted. But this time, everything seems to have worked fine and with the nvidia drivers in place. I rebooted back to find gnome-shell still working and didn't see the earlier error messages during boot. The version numbers were still at 167.1 on the udev packages, but this time there was no problem. So, I'm scratching my head, because at this point I don't know if it was some other package that udev was conflicting with instead of the nvidia drivers or if the issue was fixed without a version number change or if it was just the order of things being applied. Just thought I would share my experience on this since I was warning people off of udev earlier.

[mads]

There were a good list of packages to upgrade and I wasn't careful to look through all of them as close as I should have perhaps.

Check out "history.log" in "/var/log/apt" folder.

[GeneC]

sidneyk wrote:
I had previously installed the base LMDE system from the DVD, rebooted and installed all updates for testing using sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade, rebooting, then installed nvidia drivers and got them working.................................................. I changed my repos to point to unstable and did the same routine, sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and rebooted and everything worked fine seemingly. I then added the experimental repo and did sudo apt-get -t experimental install gnome-shell ..................................... I tried to do a sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and it completely broke the system. .............................................I would get to the login screen where my mouse would be frozen and no keyboard response and by all appearances the system was completely locked up..................................... After researching this a bit I discovered that this was a bug in the new udev packages from unstable (version 167.1).

An update to my earlier post concerning the udev packages version 167.1. ............................................The version numbers were still at 167.1 on the udev packages, but this time there was no problem. So, I'm scratching my head, because at this point I don't know if it was some other package that udev was conflicting with instead of the nvidia drivers or if the issue was fixed without a version number change or if it was just the order of things being applied. Just thought I would share my experience on this since I was warning people off of udev earlier.

If your tracking SID (as I am) perhaps you should be following the Aptosid forum.
http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1093

and AntiX (SID upgraders) forums
http://antix.freeforums.org/sid-upgraders-f5.html

The "bug" (Udev upgrade) was discussed there early on, and a fix found rather quickly.
It may be confusing to lots of members to discuss LMDE tracking SID on this thread?
Dont want to mess up a good thing. Perhaps starting a new thread with LMDE tracking SID would be a better way to go.
This is "zerozero's" thread, perhaps he has an opinion on this?

EDIT:
I started a new thread here. Specifically for LMDE (non-standard) BREAKAGES. Hope it helps out.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=70230

[zerozero]

hehehe GeneC i just start it it's not mine

but you have a point there, LMDE is by default tracking testing, so it may be confusing to mix in here sid's and experimental info, even if in a way they are related and can be useful later on, like this udev bug;

my main lmde system, the one i use in the lappy, is also tracking sid, so your suggestion is most welcome, go ahead and i will join you

[GeneC]

Hey "zerozero"

OK! When I find that I have some specific problems with my LMDE tracking SID install. I will start a thread specific to that, and we who are tracking "SID" in LMDE can use it for our benefit without confusing LMDE tracking the default "Testing". There have been two or three "bugs" related to SID that have caused problems in the last 5 or 6 weeks that I have been tracking SID, but all were resolved quickly. Following the Aptosid, AntiX, and Debian main forums is almost a must. I should say that tracking SID is worthwhile and much less trouble than anticipated. But getting to know how to use "Clonezilla" is a must. When it breaks, your back up and running in 10 minutes.

Thanks for starting this thread. I know its a lot of work for you!

[tjweaver]

But getting to know how to use "Clonezilla" is a must. When it breaks, your back up and running in 10 minutes.

Would you or anyone else care to post a short tutorial or a list of best practices for using clonezilla with lmde? I've run it once and successfully made an image (I think) but that was awhile ago now. I've had a couple small breakages since then but have been able to resolve them w/o having to go back to my now aging clonezilla image. Is there a way to add incremental updates to an existing image or is it best to just create a new image each time. Its kind of a bummer to have to do it from a live cd with the system shut down everytime Is there a better way? I know this isn't an actual breakage post here so i hope i'm not too off topic.

[GeneC]

But getting to know how to use "Clonezilla" is a must. When it breaks, your back up and running in 10 minutes.

Would you or anyone else care to post a short tutorial or a list of best practices for using clonezilla with lmde? I've run it once and successfully made an image (I think) but that was awhile ago now. I've had a couple small breakages since then but have been able to resolve them w/o having to go back to my now aging clonezilla image. Is there a way to add incremental updates to an existing image or is it best to just create a new image each time. Its kind of a bummer to have to do it from a live cd with the system shut down everytime Is there a better way? I know this isn't an actual breakage post here so i hope i'm not too off topic.

Hi!

Sure wish I could help you more, but am very new at this. I learned Clonezilla through "trial and error" . It seems confusing at first, because there are so many options, but I find that the default is all that is needed. After several clones, and reinstalls, it now takes no longer than about 10 minutes, from the time I grab the clonezilla CD to reboot into restored system. Its pretty amazing really.
In comparison, a fresh install with updates, and setting all your software, and new software et. takes me HOURS.

I clone once a week. Never had a clone or re-install fail.

I did find this tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/free_imaging_software.html
Credit due to Dedoimendo!

[sgosnell]

The thing about Sid is that things break, but are almost always quickly fixed, usually much quicker than things are fixed in Testing. I often see apt refusing to do an upgrade because of dependency problems, wait a day or two, and the upgrade goes fine. So far I've always been able to get a working system one way or another, without reinstalling or using clonezilla. I may break down and install it someday, but so far so good.

[aljoriz]

I use a zte mobile broadband usb dongle, when I right click on the Network Manager Applet there is a text that says 'enable mobile broadband' but I can't click on it to enable it.

I am not sure if the recent update for usb-modeswitch and usb-modeswitch data caused this (and I am not sure as to what date since I have re-installed and did a sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade)

add I also applied what merlwiz79 suggested using this code on sudo root terminal:

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sudo gconftool-2 --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type string --set /apps/notification-daemon/theme slider

[viking777]

Right click the tray icon then select 'Edit Connections' go to the Mobile broadband tab then click 'Add' It will ask you several questions. Usually the default answers will be quite OK unless you know something different about your connection. When that process has finished you left click the tray icon and under 'Available' you should see the name of your newly created connection. Click on this and it should connect (well mine does anyway and I don't even use it any more).

[aljoriz]

^ I was referring to the right click options of the networkmanager applet and not the left click options but thank you.

You pointed out that despite the 'mobile broadband' options not being 'ON' (as it is not checked) you can still access the mobile broadband connection. Thank you again

[craig10x]

After doing the updates this evening (April 11th) apparently one of the updates was a newer version of the kernel (2.6.38-2) i am running 64 bit version of LMDE...
This update apparently broke my touchpad...i find that when i try to move my mouse around, where as before it was nice and smooth, it is now very erratic and hard to control...Anyone else experience this?

I don't know what to do now to correct this...any ideas?
I did try re-booting and restarting a few times, but it did not help....

Makes it very hard to use my laptop now...and it doesn't appear that any setting changes had been made to my touchpad in the control center...
It's one thing for an application to break (like what happened with VLC that time)...but this is really discouraging me from continuing using LMDE...i am very tempted to go back to main edition..getting a bit tired of worrying about breaking things when doing updates...I thought these things were supposed to be tested well in sid before they bring them into testing...makes me wonder if this rolling distro idea is so great after all

[Jilted]

My LMDE broke after the latest update, I can't boot with the new kernel, 2.6.38. I'm at work so don't have time to troubleshoot (yeah I know, update my work laptop @ working hours is not the smartest thing to do ) No problems boot from the old kernel though. Any one else with the same problem?

[amina]

@craig10x, there was an update for xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, maybe that could be the cause of the touchpad misbehaviour?

I cannot try, because all the updates beginning with xserver-xorg want to remove my video driver (xserver-xorg-video-intel) which I do not find a good idea (once I did it manually, and no GUI after that...). Anybody any experience with Intel card?

[aljoriz]

I'm a total newbie on linux and I just have to ask:

1. Is xorg related to the kernel? if the kernel is updated would it affect the xorg and break it?

[amina]

I am not an expert either, but according to my understanding:
No, you can select the kernel updates (level 5) and leave out the updates with xorg in their name (level 4). This what I am doing right now, we'll see the results

[sidneyk]

I have been using the 2.6.38 kernel for almost a month now without any kernel related problems. I think it is faster than the last one. I've had a few other problems. but no kernel issues.

[viking777]

I just completed the large kernel/graphics update successfully (although I don't have much time to check things right now). I did notice a couple of warnings about ati though (I use nvidia). If you are an ati user then maybe this is a good time to update that clonezilla image (before you update! ).

Mintupdate should presumably give you those warnings anyway nowadays but just in case it doesn't (I did my update in synaptic) I post due warning here.

[viking777]

I cannot try, because all the updates beginning with xserver-xorg want to remove my video driver (xserver-xorg-video-intel)

That is strange amina. xserver-xorg-video-intel has been updated on my machine, but certainly not removed - maybe because I don't use it?
Perhaps you would be better doing your update in a non graphical environment. That is not quite so easy in Mint because it doesn't use run level 3, but if you do ctl/alt/f1 followed by

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sudo etc/init.d/gdm stop

followed by

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sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -s dist-upgrade

then see what it says it is going to do. (the -s switch is a simulation mode - it tells you what it is going to do without doing it. It shouldn't really be necessary but I just put it in to provide extra 'cover' against accidents).

[aljoriz]

Just did a dist-upgrade and before I rebooted I backed up my files just in case.

I think borking xorg due to the update will only affect does who have installed the proprietary driver, correct me if I am wrong I think the drivers have some settings to do with the kernel but these are pure conjecture on part of a newbie like me.