need explanation of Mint Debian behavior during Terminal ex

[SolaRoe]

My first post-install Debian update crashed and I had to hard reboot. Following that, I had to excecute --configure -a in order for my OS to work properly. I've attached what I could capture of the terminal log in case someone wants to glance at it (warning: it's 10 pages!) and let me know what in hell my OS was up to. Thanks to everyone for their help.

EDIT: On post preview I don't see the log file attached. If it isn't, maybe someone can tell me how to attach it.

[zerozero]

the forum doesn't accept .txt extensions
if is really too long you can gzip it and attach it. or rename it to odt but this way some of the formatting may be lost.

[SolaRoe]

Here's the log file. Thanks again for all help.

log file 3nov12 658pm.odt

partial .odt capture file from Mint Debian terminal

(28.47 KiB) Downloaded 19 times

EDIT: Why doesn't the forum accept .txt files? I would think they'd be the most space-efficient.

[zerozero]

on that log i don't see anything unusual.
well, yes, there's one error there but it's harmless

Code: Select all

dkms.conf: Error! No 'BUILT_MODULE_NAME' directive specified for record #0.
Error! Bad conf file.
File:
does not represent a valid dkms.conf file.

and it's related with ndiswrapper-dkms here

now interesting was to know why it crashed and when

update crashed and I had to hard reboot.

[SolaRoe]

Is there a link to an explanation why the forum doesn't accept .txt files? Surely they save the most server space because they're so tiny.

The link you provided shows a conversation that reads like academically reconstructed spoken Sanskrit to me, as I'm quite a newb at Linux, but I still enjoyed reading it. I gather the issue was a kernel upgrade.

What happened is that I installed LM Debian and then did the update through the update manager. At some point the black text scroller below the update manager expanded to full screen and froze for a full 15 minutes (I checked with my stopwatch) before I had to use the reset button on the front of my desktop. LM Debian rebooted fine, and the update manager had the checkmark in it showing that all updates had completed, but when I tried to run either of the package managers I was told to open terminal and run "[something] -configure -a" (sorry, I don't remember the something) which was a typo in the error message because it should have been "--configure" rather than "-configure". Once I figured it out, I ran --configure -a and the log file I showed you is the last part of what I captured from my terminal window and saved to an .odt file. I was unable to capture the entire log file as I didn't know how to scroll back any farther than I already had (and if you can tell me how to scroll back farther in terminal, it would be appreciated). So I guess I need to know where to look for the native system log file that would report why the black window showing the progress of the update manager updates expanded to full screen and froze. I imagine the log file is buried somewhere among the 100,000 individual files that are part of the LM Debian system. I am daunted by the prospect of having to search for it. Please help.

Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon Dual Core x64 2.4 GHz 4600+
2 GB DDR3 dual channel RAM (forget the manufacturer and model)
320 GB 7200 RPM SATA HD with four OSs installed on six partitions (incl. one extended partition and three logical ones, a swap file, Mint Debian, and Mint Maya; the three primary partitions are Win XP Pro SP3, Win 7 Home Premium SP1, and one reserved for Win 8 that I can download and install about two hours from now)
250 GB 72000 RPM SATA HD with one primary partition for data backup and Acronis True Image boot partition backups (although I plan to create special True Image restore partitions on it at some point)
Nvidia 8400GS video card (yes, a s***ty 32-bit video card, but I'm planning to upgrade soon)
LG MDisc DVD-RW drive (cost only $20 at a local store)
Lloyd's 22" LCD TV set as monitor (yes, it eats butt, but I plan to upgrade to an actual monitor with better than 1160x768 resolution and off-center HDMI display correction if I can find one, so I can switch to HDMI instead of having to use standard video interface)
HP Deskjet F4280 All-In-One printer/copier/scanner through rear USB
cheap non-branded Chinese webcam through front USB (it works fine; cost me 1c on eBay with $15 shipping and took six weeks to arrive)
Logitech K260 wireless keyboard and mouse combo through rear USB adapter
Edifier desktop speakers
Microsoft headset with mic (cost only $15 on sale at the Canadian version of Radio Shack, which is called The Source)
Genius desktop microphone

Thanks again for your interest and help.

[zerozero]

ok, first things first:
- you installed the 2012.04 iso and in august UP5 was released (read here what are UP and the rationale behind them)
this means that right after installation you have a huge update to make (it went without major issues as far as i can see - apart from that odd freeze).
until the end of the year we will have UP6 (and refreshed installation isos) but as far as you keep updating and don't have any major issues you don't have to reinstall.

now the rest:

and if you can tell me how to scroll back farther in terminal, it would be appreciated

the terminal is set-up to 512 lines of text but you can in edit > profiles > edit > scrolling > tick unlimited;

I imagine the log file is buried somewhere among the 100,000 individual files that are part of the LM Debian system.

try to navigate to var/log/apt and look for term.log file (or in the terminal cat /var/log/apt/term.log)

[Mr. P.]

A new edition of LM Debian is a great idea. Hope it happens soon. I just downloaded and installed. What an ordeal. 1300 some odd updates which were updates on updates so had to be monitored (and couldn't run unattended to finish). The 10 minute install went to 5 hours!

This distribution might be the cat's pajamas, but in present form, it is anything but. This definately needs revision if the Mint team expects people to actually use it.

Additionaly I think the Cinnamon logon is dependent on PAE (saw some updates rolling across the screen about PAE). When I finished the whole process Cinnamon would log on in a nonfunctional state (dissappointing). If Cinnamon in this distribution is dependent on PAE, a statement beforehand would be nice. If not, it would be nice to know how to get it running on an older Dell 8600 if that's possible (equipement might be too out of date).

[zerozero]

Additionaly I think the Cinnamon logon is dependent on PAE (saw some updates rolling across the screen about PAE). When I finished the whole process Cinnamon would log on in a nonfunctional state (dissappointing). If Cinnamon in this distribution is dependent on PAE, a statement beforehand would be nice. If not, it would be nice to know how to get it running on an older Dell 8600 if that's possible (equipement might be too out of date).

the 32bit isos are actually i486 kernel (meaning that they are not pae), pae kernel is available is the repos and is recommended for post-installation in most new cpu's.

the pae kernel is not installable unless the user decides to do so, what leaves the errors you see/saw as strange.

the above is similar on the 2 isos (cinnamon/mate and xfce)

[Mr. P.]

Gee, that's great. So if Cinnamon runs on anything why not on my old laptop? This isn't really a big issue for me as I am content with the Mate desktop version. I am composing this on the Mint 13 Mate edition on the other laptop which is also just peachy.

Thanks for you comments, zerozero. I'll look forward to the revised edition of LM Debian. My experience with it so far is "clean and fast in Mate".
Mr. P.

[zerozero]

So if Cinnamon runs on anything why not on my old laptop?

cinnamon requires good 3D acceleration to run meaning that without a fairly good graphics card or the right driver for it you are out of luck; while mate runs on anything.
we can see a bit further if you share the output of the following terminal command

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx

[Mr. P.]

Found the following:

perry@dell8600:~$ inxi -Gx
Graphics: Card NVIDIA NV34M [GeForce FX Go5200 64M] X.Org 1.12.1.902 Res: 1280x800@60.1hz
GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on NV34 GLX Version 1.5 Mesa 8.0.3 Direct Rendering Yes
perry@dell8600:~$ inxi -Gx

Always interested to know what all that means. If you have any comments, love to hear them.
Perry

[Mr. P.]

Hmm...
Trying to get Nvidia drivers to load and configure automatically. Some difficulty starting LM Debian. Have to scroll around in the initial configuration screens at start to go to what I suppose is an earlier configuration or I don't seem to have a video driver loaded.
Right now I have:

perry@dell8600:~$ inxi -Gx
Graphics: Card NVIDIA NV34M [GeForce FX Go5200 64M] X.Org 1.12.1.902 Res: 1280x800@60.1hz
GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on NV34 GLX Version 1.4 (1.5 Mesa 8.0.3) Direct Rendering No

If I go to Nividia control panel I get:

'You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server.'

I am a bit at a loss as to how to get this to work. Do I need an additional package to get the X configuration to configure itself? I don't know how to get the 'nvidia-xconfig' running with the terminal. Haven't been doing this stuff long enough to have and idea of what I'm doing.

[zerozero]

hi,
how did you tried to install the drivers? the only reliable way is using this guide viewtopic.php?f=191&t=82424 but you should be aware that your card is almost not supported anymore; the GeForce FX Go5200 is an ancient card and the only working drivers for it are the 96.legacy

this means 2 things:
1- that probably you are better off with the open source drivers;
2- that if you want to risk the installation you have to follow the 3rd set of instructions on the 2nd post on the topic i linked above (for ancient cards) and always after installation and before reboot run sudo nvidia-xconfig)

[KBD47]

Had the same issue with a 201204 LMDE Mate/Cinnamon install last night, crashed halfway through updates--huge amount of updates--restarted computer, fixed dpkg, it finished updating and was good to go. I'm quite impressed it works at all with so many updates, kudos to Mint

[Mr. P.]

Hey zerozero,

Well, I'm writing this from LM Debian booted from the usb drive. I managed to screw up the edition on the hard disk such that it won't load the video driver. It will open the terminal.

I loaded a package that was listed as having the driver for the video card and loaded 'nvidia-xconfig'. Xconfig couldn't find the nvidia driver and loaded in the Xserver anyway without the driver. So basically the video isn't working at all just the terminal.

I'm not so sure I have the terminal skills to get back the default drivers. Probably best to reload and start over?

I'll hang on until I hear from you.

Ooops...