Big OOPS!! broke the environment

pen · n00b Joined: 08 Jun 2002 Posts: 17 Location: Great NW

Ok... So after getting by the problem with openmotif compiling my "emerge --update world" ran to completion without error. There was a message about 75 config files under /etc needing to be upgraded and a few under /usr/kde.

So I downloaded gentoolkit and did the upgrade - replaced them all with the new config files. ( I think this may have been the "big oops", but I'm not entirely sure at this point. Still stumbling through the rubble.)

I rebooted the system and up comes the swirly blue backgound and a big XFree login panel. When I tried to log in as Pen it would think for a bit, go to the X startup screen (you know... the stippled black/white with the "X" cursor); and finally the login panel would come back.

<ctrl><alt><f1> and log in as root. I look at /etc/mtab and see that my fstab got borked. So probably couldn't log in as Pen since there was no home directory. So I added in /dev/hda4, the old home partition, and rebooted.

Now the login as Pen works, but up comes a "Session Menu" dialog with the instructions to "Choose SessionListWidget". The choices are "Default/Fail Safe" and "Cancel". Cancel brings you back to the login screen. Dafault/Fail Safe clears the login box and hangs at the swirly blue background with an "X" cursor.

So it sound like perhaps KDM is not starting. Has anyone borked themselves like this before? I'll have to root around and see if I can remember how to set KDM as my default window manager.

I fear I have just discovered only the tip of the iceberg. Sigh... So little time! So many ways to go wrong! Such high efficiency!

/Pen

delta407 · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 6:23 am Post subject:

Hmm... well, if you got a swirly blue background, then KDM is starting.

Sorry, can't help more, must sleep.

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rac · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 6:38 am Post subject:

Sorry, delta407 seems to be down for system maintenance. I don't use kdm, but could you be referring to the DISPLAYMANAGER setting in /etc/rc.conf. That's a file that you should generally refrain from updating automatically.
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pen · n00b Joined: 08 Jun 2002 Posts: 17 Location: Great NW

As rac pointed out it was the DISPLAYMANAGER setting in rc.conf. I went in and changed it to kdm. Rebooted the system, but the behavior didn't change significantly.

Went back in since I hadn't scanned the whole file and noticed that I had changed a commented line!!

Uncomment, reboot and KDM is back. Still some permission issues with sound, KMail can't see the mail server (resolv.conf I bet) and stuff like that, but those are trivial to fix.

In retrospect yesterday was one of those days where I should have had my hands tied behind my back. It would have me and the world a big favor. Everything went wrong in just about any area I was working (not just Linux)!!

Thanks,
/Pen

pen · n00b Joined: 08 Jun 2002 Posts: 17 Location: Great NW

Happy dance time! This is being written on my Gentoo box with Konqueror, not on the WinXP box.

My networking file got re-init'ed so I had to fix up the ip/gw info etc.

More interesting to me was that all the files in /dev are now owned by "root root". I did a "chgrp audio dsp" (and dsp1) and that got sound back for user pen.

I can get things back to the way that they should be *if* Gentoo is the same in this department as Debian/Woody. I would think that it is. If both /dev directories have a given filename I should think it would have the same owner/group.

/Pen

rac · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 8:50 pm Post subject:

pen · n00b Joined: 08 Jun 2002 Posts: 17 Location: Great NW

"Are you using devfs?" Absolutely clueless here. The file /etc/devfs.conf is indeed extant. But there is no /dev/defs. Should there be?

I am running "stock" 2.4.19-r1. It seems support for the options in this box - es1371 and 8139too - appear to be compiled into the kernel. I say this since doing an lsmod comes up with a null-list.

I have two kernels in the boot directory. The stock one that I am using now and a version of 2.4.19 that I've compile with modules. In gub I refer to the latter as "Gentoo 1.1 experimental" and point to "bzImage.new". I know that I compiled that one with devfs support, but don't knwo what the stock kernel comes with.

I'll bet it's probably in some /proc/<mumblefratz> but I have sniffed around too much in /proc. I do understand that, "/proc is my friend." Just need to take the time to get friendlier I guess.

Thanks,
/Pen

rac · Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2002 3:58 am Post subject:

Most Gentoo users enable devfs. More information can be found in https://forums.gentoo.org/faq.php#7 and https://forums.gentoo.org/faq.php#8. You can find out if devfs is active in many ways. One is to see if there is a file /dev/.devfsd. Another is to see if mount reports a line like:

pen · n00b Joined: 08 Jun 2002 Posts: 17 Location: Great NW

"mount" showed that it was running. Thanks for the tips.

The upside is that they strengthen my knowledge.

The downside is that they remind me of how much I've forgotten in 7 years - ugh.

/Pen