[EdLUG] Kubuntu Desktop broken after 'apt-get dist-upgrade'

Tue Sep 20 21:40:10 UTC 2022

Did the kernel upgrade at the same time? Did you try booting into the older kernel and still get the problem? I have had something similar and I needed to add a boot flag, correctly boot and then update again but it’s tough to say without access. You’re able to login? So you can see a GUI at a login? 

I know this is not the time to say such a thing as it’s of no help to you now but it’s also a great place to plug using Btrfs and snapshots, you can have it automatically snapshot whenever you do a package manager command, if you destroy it, you can boot to the old snapshot. I recently did this while playing around with new wayland settings, destroyed it, couldn’t boot, went back to the last snapshot (taken automatically when I updated a wayland package) and I was back in the game. (running Arch)

From: Kevin Davidson
Sent: 20 September 2022 22:26
To: Edinburgh Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [EdLUG] Kubuntu Desktop broken after 'apt-get dist-upgrade'

I think I missed the beginning of this, but if I were troubleshooting this, the first thing I'd try is to log in as a different user and see if you still have the problem, Create another temporary user account if you need to. If that works, then it’s not the software installation that’s the problem, it’s the configuration. Start looking through all the dot files and see what’s different between the config that works and the one that doesn’t. The .xsession-errors file ought to be a useful log of what went wrong.

Kevin

On 20 Sep 2022, at 21:54, Alistair <alistair at archerry.plus.com> wrote:

I am still struggling to understand how to recover the desktop in a refined manner.

Some of the sites I have found discuss re-installing the display manager and/or window manager and/or the desktop environment, but non of them mention kde plasma explicitly.
(I see the kde plasma logo and spinning cog wheel when I issue the 'startx' command. It just stops at a black screen.)

Taking a "blunderbuss" approach, I have looked at simply re-installing the kubuntu desktop. 
Is this an acceptable approach? Or are there further questions I can ask to establish the system state and what needs fixing?

Using the simulation option of apt-get, I can compare what will be installed / re-installed on the system compared to another working setup:
Broken T480:
'sudo apt-get install -s --reinstall kubuntu-desktop

Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
 fonts-noto-unhinted haveged ibus-data kde-style-oxygen-qt5 kgamma5
 kubuntu-settings-desktop libhavege2 libibus-1.0-5 liboxygenstyle5-5
 liboxygenstyleconfig5-5 libscim8v5 libxcb-record0 plasma-desktop
 plasma-desktop-data plasma-thunderbolt plasma-widgets-addons sddm
 sddm-theme-breeze
Suggested packages:
 ibus quota
The following NEW packages will be installed
 fonts-noto-unhinted haveged ibus-data kde-style-oxygen-qt5 kgamma5
 kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop libhavege2 libibus-1.0-5
 liboxygenstyle5-5 liboxygenstyleconfig5-5 libscim8v5 libxcb-record0
 plasma-desktop plasma-desktop-data plasma-thunderbolt plasma-widgets-addons
 sddm sddm-theme-breeze
0 to upgrade, 19 to newly install, 0 to remove and 67 not to upgrade.'

Working T450:
'sudo apt-get install -s --reinstall kubuntu-desktop

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Inst kubuntu-desktop [1.398] (1.398 Ubuntu:20.04/focal [amd64])
Conf kubuntu-desktop (1.398 Ubuntu:20.04/focal [amd64])'

Regards,
Alistair

On Tuesday, 13 September 2022 21:10:09 BST Ken Robson wrote:

OK my bad .Xauthority is right one.

⁣Ken

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On 13 Sep 2022, 19:11, at 19:11, Alistair <alistair at archerry.plus.com> wrote:

Ken,
Thanks for the suggestion.
I cannot find a file called .xauth.
In the /home/alistair/ folder are the files:
.Xauthority and .xsession-errors.
I have 'rsync' these, and the output of 'dmesg' to another box so that
I may view them more easily.
What clues should I look for in these, or other files ?

Regards,
Alistair

On Tuesday, 13 September 2022 18:15:05 BST Ken Robson wrote:

I had a similar issue a few years ago. 
Try renaming the ~/.xauth file (sudo mv ~/.xauth ~/xauth) and see if
x will load then.

⁣Ken

Get BlueMail for Android 

On 13 Sep 2022, 17:56, at 17:56, Alistair
<alistair at archerry.plus.com> wrote:

azmodie,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

"sudo dpkg --configure -a"
Reports no actions.

"sudo apt-get update", followed by 
"sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" or "sudo apt-get install -f":
Both Reports
"0 to upgrade 0 to newly install 0 to remove and 13 not to upgrade"

So I need to dig deeper...

Regards,

Alistair

On Tuesday, 13 September 2022 15:26:18 BST azmodie wrote:

Hi Alistar,

I'd try the usual recovery commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

You may need to run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

or

sudo apt-get install -f

Regards,
azmodie

--
http://gplus.to/azmodie
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until
you hear

them speak."  -- some bright spark

On Tue, 13 Sept 2022 at 14:23, Alistair
<alistair at archerry.plus.com>

wrote:

Last week I updated my Thinkpad T480 (running Kubuntu 22.04)
using

the

command line. During the process the laptop crashed, and I am no
longer

able to access the desktop.
I can login to console after boot up, but when I try to start
the

desktop

with 'startx' I get a black screen. To get there it asks for a
Kwallet

password - (never previously used) and a wireless network
password.

The

mouse pointer is a black arrow  with a white outline, which does
follow

movements of the trackpad but does not respond to right or left
buttons.

I tried  'apt-get dist-upgrade' with the '-f' option to no
avail.

I think it stated that several packages would be held back
before

the

update. I booted into recovery mode, ran 'fsck', 'clean',
enabled

network,

then ran 'dpkg' which updated 41 packages, but still no proper
desktop.

How do I confirm the current state of the system, and then
recover

/

repair the Kubuntu desktop?

Regards,

Alistair

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