Problem with latest 2009.0 kernel desktop586-2.6.27-41mnb

On Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:33:43 +0000, I wrote:
[color=blue]
> "Could not start kstartupconfig...[/color]

Well, despite trying all the tricks various helpful people in here
suggested, 2009.0 is still dead in the water, so - reluctantly - I'm
pulling the plug.

Later on - when perhaps they will have fixed whatever caused the
screw up - I will re-install and try again.

Because the crippled installation refers to ".KDE4... not writable"
(when I had installed KDE3 and *removed* KDE4), I have a suspicion
that something in that update batch (not the -4 kernel itself,
presumably) is working on the assumption that KDE4 is installed (which
it is by default in the 'One' CD), and thus screwed KDE up.

Also, having seen KDE4 in action (before I removed it), I am
concerned that Mandriva will - sooner rather than later - not make
KDE3 available as an alternative, with other distributions
following suit (so there will be no escape!).

My problem with KDE4 is that it is too vast a change from KDE3.
Instead of building onto KDE3 they have replaced it with a very
different way of life, such that the new user is totally confused when
trying to do even the simplest things.

If we are all to move over to KDE4, it would greatly help if - as a
transition stage - they provided a simple way of instantaneously
switching from one to the other, so that one could experiment with
KDE4 when some spare time arises, and then scoot back to KDE3 to do
serious work.
Then, as confidence and familiarity builds with KDE4, one could stay
longer with KDE4 and gradually leave KDE3 behind.

--
/\/\aurice
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Maurice Batey wrote:
[color=blue]
> Because the crippled installation refers to ".KDE4... not writable"
> (when I had installed KDE3 and removed KDE4), I have a suspicion
> that something in that update batch (not the -4 kernel itself,
> presumably) is working on the assumption that KDE4 is installed (which
> it is by default in the 'One' CD), and thus screwed KDE up.[/color]

My kernel update using KDE3.5.9-10 desktop went OK....But my original
install was One "Gnome" so the above could vary well be true.

[color=blue]
> Also, having seen KDE4 in action (before I removed it), I am
> concerned that Mandriva will - sooner rather than later - not make
> KDE3 available as an alternative, with other distributions
> following suit (so there will be no escape!).
>
> My problem with KDE4 is that it is too vast a change from KDE3.
> Instead of building onto KDE3 they have replaced it with a very
> different way of life, such that the new user is totally confused when
> trying to do even the simplest things.[/color]

And its not what I would call beta quality, more like alpha :-)
[color=blue]
> If we are all to move over to KDE4, it would greatly help if - as a
> transition stage - they provided a simple way of instantaneously
> switching from one to the other, so that one could experiment with
> KDE4 when some spare time arises, and then scoot back to KDE3 to do
> serious work.
> Then, as confidence and familiarity builds with KDE4, one could stay
> longer with KDE4 and gradually leave KDE3 behind.
>[/color]

I'll be nice when KDE4 is more developed I'm sure, but please keep 3.5
around for those of us that don't want to experiment with KDE but work
from KDE.
--
Patrick...at
Latitude: 40.48*
Longitude: -88.95*

Maurice Batey wrote:
[color=blue]
> Also, having seen KDE4 in action (before I removed it), I am
> concerned that Mandriva will - sooner rather than later - not make
> KDE3 available as an alternative, with other distributions
> following suit (so there will be no escape!).
>
> My problem with KDE4 is that it is too vast a change from KDE3.
> Instead of building onto KDE3 they have replaced it with a very
> different way of life, such that the new user is totally confused when
> trying to do even the simplest things.
>[/color]
Hey, Change is Good. We all need Change. Just ask a US voter!

TJ

On Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:55:11 -0600, jimactivist wrote:
[color=blue]
> when you move to 2009 and kde4 its looking for the old kde.[/color]

But my 2009.0 doesn't have KDE4 any more. I Installed KDE3 and then
removed KDE4 with 'urpme'.

If I login with IceWM, it denies all knowledge of /home/<user>.

(Bizarrely, if I mount the 2009.0 partition when running 2008.0, I
can see /home/<user> is there, with all the usual files.
And if - on 2009.0 - I create a 2nd user, that works normally, but
from 2008.0 I can't see its home directory /home/<2nd-user>!)
[color=blue]
> a simple way around this is to log in from the command line
> and go into the boot menu and tell it to autolog in kde4
> after this is done you can take autolog off[/color]

I don't know how those things are done, I'm afraid.
--
/\/\aurice
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On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:10:09 +0000, Maurice Batey wrote:[color=blue]
>
> (Bizarrely, if I mount the 2009.0 partition when running 2008.0, I
> can see /home/<user> is there, with all the usual files.
> And if - on 2009.0 - I create a 2nd user, that works normally, but
> from 2008.0 I can't see its home directory /home/<2nd-user>!)[/color]


From the above line, I have to guess /home for 2009.0 is different
from /home for 2008.1.

Had you showed the commands used to "see its home directory" it may be
the fact 2008/etc/passwd|group do not have 2nd-user from 2009 and you
can not do a ls -al /home/2nd-user to see it.

If both /2008.1 and /2009 have /home in fstab and it is the same
partition, then 2008.1 just needs 2nd-user added to passwd and *group
files to allow you to do a ls -al /home/2nd-user.

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:10:09 -0500, Maurice Batey <maurice@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
[color=blue]
> But my 2009.0 doesn't have KDE4 any more. I Installed KDE3 and then
> removed KDE4 with 'urpme'.[/color]

I suspect you removed too much. I have both kde3 and 4 installed. When
running kde3, it still picks up some items from kde4 including kdeinit4,
kded4, klauncher, and kttsd.

I'd reinstall task-kde4.
[color=blue]
> If I login with IceWM, it denies all knowledge of /home/<user>.[/color]

Please post the output of "mount", and "ls -l /home".

Regards, Dave Hodgins


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On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:22:05 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:
[color=blue]
> I'd reinstall task-kde4.[/color]

By the way, my setup had 2 IDE hard drives, with WinXP in 1st (hda),
2008.0 on 2nd (hdb), and 2009.0 on USB drive (sda6=root, sda8=/home).
(In 2009.0 terms, the drives seem to be sda,sdb,sdc.)

Have now done that. No change whatsoever in the situation, I'm
afraid, except that the 2nd user ("lin") can now choose to login (via
'greeter') with KDE3 or KDE4
For user1 ("mab") selecting KDE or KDE4 results in same old
'kstartconfig' error.
[color=blue]
> Please post the output of "mount", and "ls -l /home".[/color]

(This is executed within user 'lin' on 2009.0 (followed - for good
measure - 'cat/etc/fstab'), and was the same after re-installing KDE4:

[lin@localhost ~]$ mount
/dev/uba6 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/hd type vfat (rw)
/dev/sdb5 on /media/hd2 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sdb7 on /media/hd3 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /media/hd5 type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

[lin@localhost ~]$ ls -Al /home
total 4
drwx------ 26 lin users 4096 2008-11-11 11:03 lin/
[lin@localhost ~]$

[lin@localhost ~]$ cat /etc/fstab
# Entry for /dev/sdc6 :
UUID=d0baa141-4f0f-4a3e-b7ba-af97fb659532 / ext3 defaults 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdc8 :
UUID=5933e717-dabc-48b3-9c92-ac07c632cec6 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb6 :
UUID=024fb1a9-abd0-402e-a0e1-2deed50b79c8 swap swap defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb9 :
UUID=3db8a128-ea47-46ab-a461-7a64624c8de5 swap swap defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc7 :
UUID=5cb0d76b-6609-4154-9e76-e5950bcb279f swap swap defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=C4CE-1174 /media/hd vfat defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc5 :
UUID=4a218082-16f2-4b88-a8d5-31a766affebd /media/hd2 ext3 defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc7 :
UUID=31617080-6e7e-4095-aa34-4e357e2ef475 /media/hd3 ext3 defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc8 :
UUID=474239df-c0b9-4ffa-b7a0-265125341d33 /media/hd4 ext3 defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=42F8ED60F8ED52A9 /media/hd5 ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
[lin@localhost ~]$
--
/\/\aurice
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On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:14:42 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:
[color=blue]
> From the above line, I have to guess /home for 2009.0 is different
> from /home for 2008.1.[/color]

etc.

Thanks, BT!
Let me know if my response to Dave's posting doesn't answer your
questions.
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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:53:25 +0000, Maurice Batey wrote:
[color=blue]
> Let me know if my response to Dave's posting doesn't answer your
> questions.[/color]

lin's mount command results on 2009 do not show a /home mounted.

Therefore I suggest /home is a directory under / from lin's perspective.

What is funny, is your 2009 fstab shows defaults 0 0
where as my 2009 shows relatime 1 2.

Just check my 2008.1 fstab and it also has relatime. Could be because
I use labels instead of UUIDs for partition identification.

$ cat /etc/fstab
LABEL=vm2008_1 / ext3 relatime 1 1
LABEL=local /local ext3 relatime 1 2
LABEL=20081_64 /20081_64 ext3 user,noauto,relatime 1 2
LABEL=2008_1 /2008_1 ext3 user,noauto,relatime 1 2
LABEL=2009_0 /2009_0 ext3 user,noauto,relatime 1 2
LABEL=accounts /accounts ext3 relatime 1 2
LABEL=vmguest /vmguest ext3 relatime 1 2
LABEL=HP_PAVILION /win_c ntfs-3g user,noauto,defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
LABEL=DOZE /win_d vfat user,noauto,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
LABEL=HP_RECOVERY /win_e vfat user,noauto,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0
LABEL=swap swap swap defaults 0 0

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:50:16 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:
[color=blue]
> Therefore I suggest /home is a directory under / from lin's perspective.[/color]

Hey, you're right, BT! That explains the incongruous ls -l /home
results.

What must have happened is that when user2 (lin) was created
via user1's MCC, its /lin directory was put under a root /home
directory (on /dev/sda6) instead of in the /dev/sda8 /home, which
seems to be ignored when running user1, i.e. user1's /mab directory
isn't found in the root partition /dev/sda6 ('cos it's on
the /dev/sda8 /home).

So, is moving root/lin into /dev/sda8's /home directory worth trying?

But why is 2009.0 looking in the / directory (on /dev/sda6) for /home
when there's a /home partition (on /dev/sda8)?

--
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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:03 +0000, Maurice Batey wrote:[color=blue]
>
> So, is moving root/lin into /dev/sda8's /home directory worth trying?[/color]

You can copy/move it. But,
[color=blue]
> But why is 2009.0 looking in the / directory (on /dev/sda6) for /home
> when there's a /home partition (on /dev/sda8)?[/color]

that is what has to be resolved first.

If you reboot the system all users should be able to do a
mount, and see /home.

Until that happens you will not be able to get lin and mab to see eye
to eye on /home.

Was your 2009 /etc/fstab copied in from an old release?

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:15:38 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

[color=blue]
> Was your 2009 /etc/fstab copied in from an old release?[/color]

No - is pristine 2009.0 install version.

Anyway, I've copied the root/lin directory over into /home on
/dev/sda8, and modified 2009.0's /etc/tab's entry for /home as follows
in case there was a problem with the UUID:

# Entry for /dev/sdc8 :
# UUID=5933e717-dabc-48b3-9c92-ac07c632cec6 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc8 /home ext3 defaults 0 0

BUT on booting 2009.0, the /dev/sdc8 /home is still not mounted, and
I noticed in the boot sequence something to the effect that "Special
device /dev/sdc8 does not exist.."

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Maurice Batey wrote:

[color=blue]
> BUT on booting 2009.0, the /dev/sdc8 /home is still not mounted, and
> I noticed in the boot sequence something to the effect that "Special
> device /dev/sdc8 does not exist.."
>[/color]

This may be because /home is on an usb disk that hasn't been initialised
before the init script tries to mount it. Once booted can you mount it
manually?

--
sid
RLU 300284
Mandriva 2008.1 X86_64
2.6.24.7

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:32:14 +0000, sid wrote:
[color=blue]
> This may be because /home is on an usb disk that hasn't been initialised
> before the init script tries to mount it.[/color]

But the / (root) partition is also on the USB disk; no problem there.
[color=blue]
> Once booted can you mount it manually?[/color]

Because there's no /home there isn't much I can do.

Anyway, if the system's going to be usable I need fstab to mount
the /home partition. (It was doing just that quite happily before the
software update the other day.)

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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:58:58 -0500, Maurice Batey <maurice@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
[color=blue]
> # Entry for /dev/sdc8 :
> # UUID=5933e717-dabc-48b3-9c92-ac07c632cec6 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
> /dev/sdc8 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
>
> BUT on booting 2009.0, the /dev/sdc8 /home is still not mounted, and
> I noticed in the boot sequence something to the effect that "Special
> device /dev/sdc8 does not exist.."[/color]


Based on the prior post, try changing /dev/sdc8 to /dev/uba8.
First time I've seen /dev/ub used.

Once you get it mounted, in order to move /home/lin to that filesystem,
boot into run level 1, "umount /dev/ubc8", "mv /home/ /oldhome",
"mkdir /home", "mount /dev/ubc8", "cd /oldhome" "mv lin/ /home/",
"reboot".

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:19:53 -0500, David W. Hodgins wrote:
[color=blue]
> Based on the prior post, try changing /dev/sdc8 to /dev/uba8.[/color]

Brilliant idea - but sadly it didn't work.

The boot sequence now reports "Special device uba8 does not exist"!
[color=blue]
> First time I've seen /dev/ub used.[/color]

There is a USB mechanism 'ub' mentioned in the boot sequence.

Re. fstab: suHow does one find the UUID of a device/partition?

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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:45:44 -0500, Maurice Batey <maurice@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Re. fstab: suHow does one find the UUID of a device/partition?[/color]

I use "/sbin/sfdisk -l" to find the device name, and then "/sbin/vol_id /dev/???#"
to find the uuid. Both commands work as a regular user.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:45:44 +0000, Maurice Batey wrote:
[color=blue]
> Re. fstab: suHow does one find the UUID of a device/partition?[/color]

Try man blkid and man vol_id

Two examples:
blkid /dev/sd*
vol_id /dev/sda7

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:56:29 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:
[color=blue]
> Two examples:
> blkid /dev/sd*
> vol_id /dev/sda7[/color]

Well, they both showed that the UUID of the recalcitrant /home
partition (/dev/sda8 from 2008.0, /dev/sdc8 in 2009.0) is exactly as
was given in the original entry for /home in 2009.0's /etc/fstab.

So why - when there had been no problem with the /home partition
before the s/w update 4 days ago - is 2009.0 now unable even to
recognise the partition device during boot?
Is there now a problem with booting from external USB drives?

(Still no problem in 2008.0 mounting /dev/sda8 to look into
2009.0's real /home.)
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