LMDE: Questions before upgrading to UP7

[taytong888]

Hello,

I just installed LMDE 64-bit Cinnamon, updated it, and did almost all prerequisites as suggested in the Forum and Blog before upgrading to UP7. I still have 2 outstanding questions to resolve before committing to upgrade via Update Manager:

1. Location of Grub

I have a multiboot system in which openSUSE 12.2 is the default OS and uses Grub(1) to boot Windows and other Linux distros via chainloading. Currently Grub(1) is in the root partition of openSUSE 12.2. During installation of LMDE I placed Grub(1) in the dev/sda14 root partition of LMDE. After installation is completed, I rebooted the PC and LMDE was successfully booted from the Grub menu. During upgrading to UP7, where should I place Grub(1) when prompted by the screen without messing up my multiboot system? I recalled from previous attempts to upgrade to UP7 that although the screen shows both /dev/sda and /dev/sda14 as options I could not make /dev/sda14 stick, because the system automatically put Grub(1?) in /dev/sda. Because Grub2 is always placed in the MBR (/dev/sda), I think LMDE uses Grub2, even though Grub(1) is shown in the installation screens.

2. Gnome Shell

UP7 Update Pack Info says:

UP7 provides gjs 1.32 which is needed by Cinnamon. Gnome Shell requires gjs 1.36 so it cannot be installed without forcing gjs to upgrade. You can install Gnome Shell with the following command. Note that this will remove Cinnamon from your system:

Code: Select all

apt-get install -t testing gnome-shell libgjs0c gjs

Currently I have gnome-shell 3.4.2-12 and gjs 1.32.0-2. How can I force gjs to upgrade to 1.36? If Cinnamon is removed after upgrade to UP7, how do I install Cinnamon back?

I would appreciate your advice/suggestions.

[taytong888]

Hello again,

Regarding Point #2 in my thread above.....

1. Is it absolutely necessary to have "gnome-shell" in order for current version of "cinnamon" to work properly?

2. If I were to upgrade to UP7 now, consequently "cinnamon" would be wiped out, should I wait until after Cinnamon 2.0 is available to "apt-get install cinnamon"?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

[taytong888]

Hi,

I managed to upgrade to UP7. However, after restart I saw only text if I boot into kernel 3.10.2 or its recovery mode. If I replace "quiet flash" with "nomodeset" as Grub menu boot options, I got to sign in but afterwards the keyboard light went off; the mouse light stays on a black screen for a very, very long time. I can move the mouse pointer around but the keyboard inputing has no effects. Tried CTRL ALT F1-F7 unsuccessfully.

I suspect this problem has to do with systemd but right now cannot or don't know how to solve it.

Any ideas?

[taytong888]

Hi again,

Another try:

1. Boot into kernel 3.10-2 (quiet flash)

2. Screen shows: Loading kernel...Please wait

3. Screen shows on the 2nd line: BUG: Unable to handle paging request at ffff87ad5b0977d4

Any suggestions?

[taytong888]

Hello once again,

My keyboard and mouse are still working. Before logging in, I have to choose Gnome Classic as default session because Cinnamon is not available. If I try to use Synaptic to install Cinnamon I will get a broken package error message. Ditto for Cinnamon-2D.

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet flash".  Replace "quiet flash" with "nomodeset"

Save and exit

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sudo update-grub

Currently I have gnome-shell 3.4.2-12, gjs 1.36.1-2 and libgjs0c 1.36.1-2. My system is fully up-to-date with UP7. The only thing left is for me to get used to Gnome Classic again! Perhaps I will wait until Cinnamon 2.0 is fully-debugged and readily available before trying to install it.

Cheers!