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Boot Problem

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  Boot Problem "Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> - 2023-12-05 17:10 +0100
    Re: Boot Problem Hans <hans.ullrich@loop.de> - 2023-12-05 17:30 +0100
    Re: Boot Problem Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2023-12-05 18:10 +0100
    Re: Boot Problem Tom Furie <tom@furie.org.uk> - 2023-12-05 18:50 +0100
      Re: Boot Problem Tom Furie <tom@furie.org.uk> - 2023-12-05 19:10 +0100
        Re: Boot Problem "Alexander V. Makartsev" <avbetev@gmail.com> - 2023-12-05 20:30 +0100
        Re: Boot Problem Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2023-12-05 23:20 +0100
      Re: Boot Problem Hans <hans.ullrich@loop.de> - 2023-12-05 20:30 +0100
    Re: Boot Problem David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2023-12-05 21:50 +0100
      Re: Boot Problem Cindy Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2023-12-05 23:10 +0100
    Re: Boot Problem Michael Kjörling <2695bd53d63c@ewoof.net> - 2023-12-05 22:30 +0100

#264295 — Boot Problem

I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this 
morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back 
tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the same 
result attempting to login as root. I have to assume that grub has been 
corrupted>

As it happens I also have Bookworm installed on a second SSD on my 
platform. I'm there sending this email

I have Grub Customizer installed in both. I have also just downloaded 
and burned debian-12-2-0-ams64.

I am very nervous about messing with the OS. What might be my best 
course of action to fix the problem (short of reinstalling)?

Thanks in advance

-- 
Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D.
https://insilicochemistry.net
(614)312-7528 (c)
Skype:  smolnar1

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#264296

Am Dienstag, 5. Dezember 2023, 17:05:15 CET schrieb Stephen P. Molnar:
To get closer to the cause, I suggest to remove temporaryly any loginmamanger 
out of the way  Either /usr/bin/xdm, /usr/bin/kdm, /usr/bin/gdm or /usr/bin/
xdm, whatever. Copy it somewhere, i.e. to /root

Then reboot and from thhe cli use the command "startx" to start into graphical 
mode. Mostly the X-server is the problem.

But now you can see, if the required kernel module is started and the required 
acceleration module is started. Or just get the error message.

In most cases I got into trouble, it was the module of NVídia, which was not 
built correctly or unavailable.

Creating temporarily a simple xorg.conf file copied to /etc/X11/ let you force 
to load different graphical drivers. Mostly "vesa" should work. but depending 
on your hardware it might be "nvidia" or "nouveau" or "ati" whatever.

As we do not know, which graphic chip you are using, we can only guess.

Please also note, that in the past I got into problems with the nouveau kernel 
module, whilst the proprietrary driver from NVidia worked perfectly. However, 
this is only related to NVidia cards. 

My greatest problems with NVidia cards was mostly after a kernel upgrade, as 
the kernel module could often not be built with a newer kernel.

This might also happen by AMD or ATI graphiccards, as they (as far as I know), 
also depend a kernel module and a related graphics module.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Good luck!

Hans 

> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this
> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back
> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the same
> result attempting to login as root. I have to assume that grub has been
> corrupted>
> 
> As it happens I also have Bookworm installed on a second SSD on my
> platform. I'm there sending this email
> 
> I have Grub Customizer installed in both. I have also just downloaded
> and burned debian-12-2-0-ams64.
> 
> I am very nervous about messing with the OS. What might be my best
> course of action to fix the problem (short of reinstalling)?
> 
> Thanks in advance

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#264299

On Tue, 5 Dec 2023 11:05:15 -0500
"Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this 
> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back 
> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the
> same result attempting to login as root. I have to assume that grub
> has been 
> corrupted>  
> 
> As it happens I also have Bookworm installed on a second SSD on my 
> platform. I'm there sending this email
> 
> I have Grub Customizer installed in both. I have also just downloaded 
> and burned debian-12-2-0-ams64.
> 
> I am very nervous about messing with the OS. What might be my best 
> course of action to fix the problem (short of reinstalling)?
>

As Hans has said, this is a display issue, long after grub has
finished, if you're seeing a login prompt. Almost always, that means
your X session is not starting.

Something you could try first is to look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log as
there may be a clue there to the problem.

-- 
Joe

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#264303

"Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this
> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back
> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the

When you say "back to the login screen", do you mean back to a graphical
login screen, or to a text console login screen?

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#264306

"Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> writes:


> On 12/05/2023 12:47 PM, Tom Furie wrote:
>> "Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> writes:
>>
>>> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this
>>> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back
>>> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the
>> When you say "back to the login screen", do you mean back to a graphical
>> login screen, or to a text console login screen?
>>
> Xfce4 graphical login screen

Then the problem is not a display issue, but something wrong in loading
the desktop. I don’t use XFCE, but hopefully this means dead-end lines
of enquiry such as display drivers are halted, and that someone with
XFCE experience can chime in and offer advice.

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#264309

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On 05.12.2023 23:33, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
> I decided to try something. I logged in to the rescue  mode as root 
> and entered startx at the prompt. This generated the error:
>
> Unable to contact settings server
> failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory)
>
I vaguely remember having similar behavior as you described in the first 
message, but I can't recall what was the root cause of that problem.
Probably it was Xfce4 user session failing to start because of config 
file or cache corruption.
Try to create a new test user and login using these new credentials, 
just to test it out.

It would be great if you'd also share an information about your system, 
installed version of Xfce, etc.
Contents of log files in your user's home directory "~/.xsession-errors" 
and "~/.xfce4-session.verbose-log".
You can use Debian Pastezone [1] to share long text files.


[1] https://paste.debian.net/
-- 
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀

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#264314

Stephen P. Molnar composed on 2023-12-05 13:33 (UTC-0500):

> I decided to try something. I logged in to the rescue  mode as root and 
> entered startx at the prompt. This generated the error:

I believe if xserver-xorg-legacy is not installed that startx failure is expected.
I keep it installed on all mine, so I'm not sure what happens if it is not.

> Unable to contact settings server
> failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory) 

If you have not already, and have not already tried with a virgin user and reached
the same failure, while logged out of XFCE, delete all content of ~/.cache/, then
try logging in normally. This is known to occasionally succeed in Plasma, and
might apply to XFCE as well.
-- 
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
	based on faith, not based on science.

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata

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#264308

Am Dienstag, 5. Dezember 2023, 18:56:48 CET schrieb Stephen P. Molnar:
Not good! You have to start startx from the shell.

However, when you see the login screen (gdm, lightdm, kdm, whatever), that 
means, the X-server is running and ok.

So you have a problem with XFCE.

Look at ~/.config/xfce4 and move this folder out of the way.

Also look in your /home directory, if any files are set ownership root:root. 
This caqn happen, when you change from a normal user to root. I had this 
problem, that .xerrors were set to ownership root:root thus X started no more. 
So iz might be, that some files of XFCE are set root:root,m and can not be 
overwritten.

So my suggestion: move any folders related to xfce4 away (just to somewhere 
else) and try it again.

If XFCE4 is starting, move all the removed files partly back and see, which is 
causing the problem.

Hope this helps.

Best

Hans 


> Xfce4 graphical login screen
> 
> On 12/05/2023 12:47 PM, Tom Furie wrote:
> > "Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net> writes:
> >> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this
> >> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back
> >> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the
> > 
> > When you say "back to the login screen", do you mean back to a graphical
> > login screen, or to a text console login screen?

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#264310

On 12/5/23 08:05, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this 
> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back 
> tot he login screen, over and over and ................. I got the same 
> result attempting to login as root. I have to assume that grub has been 
> corrupted>
> 
> As it happens I also have Bookworm installed on a second SSD on my 
> platform. I'm there sending this email
> 
> I have Grub Customizer installed in both. I have also just downloaded 
> and burned debian-12-2-0-ams64.
> 
> I am very nervous about messing with the OS. What might be my best 
> course of action to fix the problem (short of reinstalling)?
> 
> Thanks in advance



 > On 12/05/2023 12:47 PM, Tom Furie wrote:
 >> When you say "back to the login screen", do you mean back to a graphical
 >> login screen, or to a text console login screen?

On 12/5/23 09:56, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
 > Xfce4 graphical login screen


XFCE is the desktop environment.  The graphical login manager is another 
program (lightdm?).


On 12/5/23 10:02, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
 > I've attached the log. I hope that someone can tell me what the 
problem is.
 >
 > Thanks inn advance.


Searching Xorg.0.log for "error", I see one comment and no error messages.


We need to know the context that created the attached file:

1.  What OS instance generated it?  How did you obtain the file?

2.  What happened when?  E.g. when was the graphical desktop manager 
displayed?  When did you try to login?  More than once?  How and when 
did you shut down the machine?


On 12/5/23 10:33, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
 > I decided to try something. I logged in to the rescue  mode as root and
 > entered startx at the prompt. This generated the error:
 >
 > Unable to contact settings server
 > failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory)


That looks like a meaningful clue.


On 12/5/23 12:07, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
 > My Os is up to date and running the version XFCE4
 >
 > I've attached the log files that i could find. I hope that it will help.


Searching Xorg.0.log for "error", I see one comment and no error messages.


Search Xsession-errors for "error", I do see error messages that may be 
meaningful clues.


If you have the expertise to "find the needle in the haystack" and "put 
Humpty Dumpty back together again", then go for it.


Otherwise,d o you have a recent image of your OS disk (e.g. dd(1), 
Clonezilla)?  If so, restore the most recent image onto a blank drive. 
If not, do a fresh install onto a blank drive and start taking images on 
a regular basis.  Once you have a recovered/renewed OS drive, mount the 
damaged drive read-only and recover settings, data, etc..  Take an image 
of the OS disk, and backup your configuration settings and data, when 
you are done.


David

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#264312

Please forgive me if I somehow messed up the quote attribution. There
was a lot of stuff I was able to cull. :)

On 12/5/23, David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:
> On 12/5/23 10:33, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
>  > I decided to try something. I logged in to the rescue  mode as root and
>  > entered startx at the prompt. This generated the error:
>  >
>  > Unable to contact settings server
>  > failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or
> directory)
>
>
> That looks like a meaningful clue.


I run into that message occasionally after brand new installs via
debootstrap. I can't remember what triggers it. It's something like
trying to right click then open a file via mousepad or use that "Open
Terminal Here" option from within Thunar (for both).

At some point in my own experience, I tried "apt-cache search
dbus-launch" because the "No such file or directory" told me the
system thought there should be a file by that name. Search returned
"dbus-x11" as the only potential option. It wasn't installed so I
attempted installing it. It works immediately every time for my
situation.

As an aside, if "apt-cache search" doesn't find anything for a not
found file, maybe something like apt-file will show a package that
might be missing.

A second thing that could be tried is to rename
"/home/<user>/.Xauthority"  to something else. If this was me, I'd
rename it singularly definitive as e.g. .Xauthority20231205-1626 (time
and date). I'll often also add on a couple words that describe the
problem I was having when renaming the file. Makes it easy to decide
whether to delete it if the system starts working properly with the
new replacement.

Then try logging in. I haven't had to do this in a LONG time, but it
seems like the system will simply generate a new file. For some
reason, the old one just gets corrupted and starts failing.

Getting kicked back to the login GUI is exactly what happens to me
when this file is corrupted. When I haven't properly installed that
GUI and am having to login from the console screen, startx will just
keep kicking me back to the command line in this same situation.

As a matter of fact, I think that may also be where I learned about
.Xauthority. Seems like it gets a head nod during that type of login
fail.

You shouldn't have to do anything like create a new empty file or
anything because /etc/skel does not include .Xauthority as one of the
default files for all new adduser creations. That was my hint to
attempt this option years ago when it felt like I had tried every
other option at the time.

That's all I've got. Best wishes fixing this soon...

By the way, the dbus-launch error has happened for me on both xfce4
and lxqt desktop environments.

Cindy :)
-- 
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with birdseed *

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#264311

On 5 Dec 2023 11:05 -0500, from s.molnar@sbcglobal.net (Stephen P. Molnar):
> I have Bookworm installed on a 1TB SSD. When I attempted logging this
> morning I failed! Rather than opening my XFCE desktop I was sent back tot he
> login screen, over and over and ................. I got the same result
> attempting to login as root. I have to assume that grub has been corrupted>

As others have already pointed out, this likely has absolutely nothing
to do with GRUB. If you're getting a graphical login/password prompt,
you are well past anything that GRUB is likely to have any impact on.

Try switching to a text virtual terminal; Ctrl+Alt+F1, F2, F3, ...
until you get to one that will give you a "login:" prompt. Log in
there using your normal username and password. What happens when you
try that? Please be as specific as possible.

The few times I've seen anything similar to what you describe,
something has been amiss with the home directory; not mounted,
permissions, some critical file has been corrupted or deleted, ...
Logging in at a text virtual terminal will eliminate several layers of
complexity and _even if_ it won't allow you to log in, might very well
tell you more directly what the problem is.

-- 
Michael Kjörling                     🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”

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