Greetings,


i've been an avid debian user for more than 2 decades at this point and
just

bought myself my first laptop. It and buster are new enough that a quick
web

search didn't show me much. Apologies if questions of this sort have been

asked before (i subscribed myself to the list instead of doing an extensive

search (i did check for 'dell 3785' and none of the results seemed like
they

were particularly helpful)).


So i managed to install successfully (the LVM level encryption option seems

very excellent -- that's what i chose) but when i restarted, the machine
hung.

Gnome Display Manager tried to briefly start. No GUI appeared though --
only a

momentary flicker of the screen (with no mouse pointer, only a blinking

underscore at the top left of the display) before reverting to command line

output. After dropping back to the command line, no login prompt is
available (nor am i able to access any other consoles via ctrl-alt-Fn nor alt-Fn key combinations. Fortunately i am able to get a root prompt in
rescue mode, so i'm

hopeful (that with the help of some of you kind people) that i will be able
to

succeed in getting my preferred KDE desktop environment to eventually load.


I have several questions:


How do i enable networking from the command line? i assume i can do this in

rescue mode? i was able to connect to my wireless network during the
install,

but if it's easier to plug in an ethernet cable, i'm happy to try that
instead

(DHCP is enabled (both wireless and ethernet end up in the same network at
my home), though i'm willing to set a static IP also).


What log files should i be looking for on this newly installed buster
machine?

My guess is that i may have to install some proprietary non-free firmware

packages (which i'm OK with). My quick web search indicated that ubuntu
ought

to work, but i'd rather stick with debian (though it's possible that at
some

point in the future i'll cry uncle). Would it be helpful for me to boot
from a live DVD (either debian or ubuntu) in order to troubleshoot this problem?


thanks so very much for any assistance/insight anyone is able to provide,

~e

<div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">Greetings,</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">i&#39;ve been an avid debian user for more than 2 decades at this point and just </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">bought myself my first laptop. It and buster are new enough that a quick web </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">search didn&#39;t show me much. Apologies if questions of this sort have been </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">asked before (i subscribed myself to the list instead of doing an extensive </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">search (i did check for &#39;dell 3785&#39; and none of the results seemed like they </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">were particularly helpful)). </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">So i managed to install successfully (the LVM level encryption option seems </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">very excellent -- that&#39;s what i chose) but when i restarted, the machine hung. </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">Gnome Display Manager tried to briefly start. No GUI appeared though -- only a </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">momentary flicker of the screen (with no mouse pointer, only a blinking </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">underscore at the top left of the display) before reverting to command line </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">output. After dropping back to the command line, no login prompt is available (nor am i able to access any other consoles via ctrl-alt-Fn nor alt-Fn key combinations. Fortunately i am able to get a root prompt
in rescue mode, so i&#39;m </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">hopeful (that with the help of some of you kind people) that i will be able to </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">succeed in getting my preferred KDE desktop environment to eventually load.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">I have several questions:</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">How do i enable networking from the command line? i assume i can do this in </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">rescue mode? i was able to connect to my wireless network during the install, </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">but if it&#39;s easier to plug in an ethernet cable, i&#39;m happy to try that instead </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">(DHCP is enabled (both wireless and ethernet end up in the same network at my home), though i&#39;m willing to set a static IP also).</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">What log files should i be looking for on this newly installed buster machine? </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">My guess is that i may have to install some proprietary non-free firmware </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">packages (which i&#39;m OK with). My quick web search indicated that ubuntu ought </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">to work, but i&#39;d rather stick with debian (though it&#39;s possible that at some </p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap">point in the future i&#39;ll cry uncle). Would it be helpful for me to boot from a live DVD (either debian or ubuntu) in order to troubleshoot this problem?</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"> thanks so very much for any assistance/insight anyone is able to provide,</p>
<p style="margin:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"> ~e</p></div>

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Thank you for the response Moshe. i was able to succeed this morning
(using the ip command to get online via ethernet in recovery mode).
After manually configuring my networking, i'm pretty sure the package
that solved my issue (for the benefit of anyone else stumbling across
this) was linux-firmware-nonfree -- after installing it, i rebooted and
X works (and for the record, there is no /var/log/X directory on my
laptop -- must be a change with buster (or farther back?)). The file /var/log/daemon.log seemed to have a fair amount of relevant
information in it though.

Now i'm off and running with KDE (and couldn't be happier :-])

thanks again,
~c

On Wed, 2019-08-14 at 12:47 -0400, Moshe Piekarski wrote:

On 8/14/19 2:51 AM, Ernst Doubt wrote:

Greetings,

i've been an avid debian user for more than 2 decades at this point
and just
bought myself my first laptop. It and buster are new enough that a
quick web
search didn't show me much. Apologies if questions of this sort
have been
asked before (i subscribed myself to the list instead of doing an
extensive
search (i did check for 'dell 3785' and none of the results seemed
like they
were particularly helpful)).

So i managed to install successfully (the LVM level encryption
option seems
very excellent -- that's what i chose) but when i restarted, the
machine hung.
Gnome Display Manager tried to briefly start. No GUI appeared
though -- only a
momentary flicker of the screen (with no mouse pointer, only a
blinking
underscore at the top left of the display) before reverting to
command line
output. After dropping back to the command line, no login prompt is available (nor am i able to access any other consoles via ctrl-alt-
Fn nor alt-Fn key combinations. Fortunately i am able to get a root
prompt in rescue mode, so i'm
hopeful (that with the help of some of you kind people) that i will
be able to
succeed in getting my preferred KDE desktop environment to
eventually load.

This sounds a lot like a graphics card bug. (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156341 for a possibly
related bug in nvidia cards)

I have several questions:

How do i enable networking from the command line?

Try ifconfig and dhclient. Alternatively wicd network manager has a
curses interface.

i assume i can do this in
rescue mode?

I think so but you may want to try booting into multi-user mode
instead

i was able to connect to my wireless network during the install,
but if it's easier to plug in an ethernet cable, i'm happy to try
that instead
(DHCP is enabled (both wireless and ethernet end up in the same
network at my home), though i'm willing to set a static IP also).

What log files should i be looking for on this newly installed
buster machine?

Two good places to start would probably be /var/log/X* and
journalctl, after setting storage to persistent (if you are using
systemd).

My guess is that i may have to install some proprietary non-free
firmware
packages (which i'm OK with).

firmware-amd-graphics (from non-free) may help.

My quick web search indicated that ubuntu ought
to work, but i'd rather stick with debian (though it's possible
that at some
point in the future i'll cry uncle). Would it be helpful for me to
boot from a live DVD (either debian or ubuntu) in order to
troubleshoot this problem?

thanks so very much for any assistance/insight anyone is able
to provide,
~e

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 2019-08-14 at 13:11 -0400, Moshe Piekarski wrote:

On 8/14/19 1:06 PM, ernst doubt wrote:

Thank you for the response Moshe. i was able to succeed this
morning
(using the ip command to get online via ethernet in recovery mode).

Glad to know you got it working.

After manually configuring my networking, i'm pretty sure the
package
that solved my issue (for the benefit of anyone else stumbling
across
this) was linux-firmware-nonfree -- after installing it, i rebooted
and
X works

linux-firmware-nonfree is a metapackage. it just pulls in several of
the non-free firmware packages.

Thanks for clarifying. In my haste i noticed several packages being
installed, but assumed they were dependencies. Should have looked
closer.

(and for the record, there is no /var/log/X directory on my
laptop -- must be a change with buster (or farther back?)). The
file

I'm sorry I wasn't clear I was referring to
/var/log/Xorg.(0).log(.old)

/var/log/daemon.log seemed to have a fair amount of relevant
information in it though.

No worries. i was actually the one who was being unclear. But in any
case, there's no file(s) named Xorg* either:

root@deletion:/var/log# ls -latr

total 4692

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 8 2019
firebird

drwx--x--x 2 root Debian-gdm 4096 Feb 9 2019 gdm3

drwx------ 2 speech-dispatcher root 4096 Feb 20 07:22 speech- dispatcher

drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 Aug 12 21:32 ..

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug 13 06:52 hp

-rw-r--r-- 1 sddm sddm 0 Aug 13 07:37
sddm.log

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5432 Aug 13 07:46
fontconfig.log

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug 13 17:36
installer

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Aug 13 17:37 private

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 13 17:37 cups

drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Aug 13 17:37 unattended-upgrades

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32032 Aug 14 07:42 faillog

drwxr-s--- 2 Debian-exim adm 4096 Aug 14 07:43 exim4

-rw-rw---- 1 root utmp 1152 Aug 14 07:48 btmp

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 14 08:33 popularity-contest.0

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 113004 Aug 14 08:34 popularity-contest.new

drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Aug 14 08:34 .

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34036 Aug 14 08:34 popularity-contest.new.gpg

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 292292 Aug 14 08:41 lastlog

-rw------- 1 root root 47830 Aug 14 09:00
boot.log

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 14 09:15 apt

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 13056 Aug 14 09:16 wtmp

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62839 Aug 14 09:16 alternatives.log

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1278336 Aug 14 09:18
dpkg.log

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 73515 Aug 14 09:23 debug

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 495727 Aug 14 13:19
kern.log

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 395060 Aug 14 13:19
user.log

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 753781 Aug 14 13:19
messages

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 14022 Aug 14 13:19
auth.log

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1141357 Aug 14 13:19 syslog

-rw-r----- 1 root adm 243277 Aug 14 13:19
daemon.log

Now i'm off and running with KDE (and couldn't be happier :-])

thanks again,
~c

Sincerely,

Moshe Piekarski

--

There's no such thing as a stupid question,

But there are plenty of inquisitive idiots.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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