Wheezy upgrade - "X.Org X Server" failure

leamassiot · 07-15-2013, 07:52 AM

In reply to "cynwulf".

Quote:

You did not have a kernel meta package installed, thus the kernel could not be upgraded. A specific kernel package cannot be upgraded to another kernel. Instead a new kernel is installed and the old one marked as an obsolete package.

Ok. Thank you very much, I wasn't aware of that. Sorry if it sounded obvious.
The paragraph "4.6.1." in "http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#kernel-metapackage" was indeed dealing with that matter. I didn't pay much attention to it.

Quote:

It remains until you clean it up.

Can you tell me how to clean up properly the old kernel?

Thank you very much for your help.

cynwulf · 07-15-2013, 09:06 AM

To remove the old kernel you should purge it using apt-get or aptitude. You may want to hang onto it for a while however - old kernels can be useful for booting into and fixing problems with newer kernels. Once you're sure everything is working as it should be (give it a few weeks) you can get rid of the 2.6 kernel and headers packages.

leamassiot · 07-16-2013, 03:31 AM

Thank you for your answer.

Quote:

you can get rid of the 2.6 kernel and headers packages.

Forgive me but how do I know which packages to purge and how many?

descendant_command · 07-16-2013, 03:45 AM

The linux-image-x.xx-xxx package and linux-headers-x.xx-xxx package.
A good way to see what is going on (and make it easier to make informed decisions) is to use the aptitude ncurses interface.
Just type 'aptitude' at a command prompt.

leamassiot · 07-20-2013, 05:50 AM

Hi and thank you for your answer.

Given the results of the two commands below, which packages should I purge (in a few weeks):

Code:

# dpkg -l '*linux-image*'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                               Version                   Architecture Description
+++-==================================-=========================-============-==========================================================================
un  linux-image                        <none>                                 (no description available)
un  linux-image-2.6                    <none>                                 (no description available)
ii  linux-image-2.6-amd64              3.2+46                    amd64        Linux for 64-bit PCs (dummy package)
un  linux-image-2.6-openvz-amd64       <none>                                 (no description available)
un  linux-image-2.6-vserver-amd64      <none>                                 (no description available)
un  linux-image-2.6-xen-amd64          <none>                                 (no description available)
ii  linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64         2.6.32-46                 amd64        Linux 2.6.32 for 64-bit PCs
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64          3.2.46-1                  amd64        Linux 3.2 for 64-bit PCs
ii  linux-image-amd64                  3.2+46                    amd64        Linux for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)

Code:

# dpkg -l '*linux-headers*'
dpkg-query: no packages found matching *linux-headers*

Thank you.

evo2 · 07-21-2013, 09:08 PM

Hi,

you seem to have to kernels installed:

linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64
linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64

The linux-image-2.6-amd64 package is just a "meta package", in this case just depending on the latest amd64 2.6 kernel, which seems to be linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64.

Similarly linux-image-amd64 is also a meta package which will depend on the latest amd64 kernel which appears to be linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64.

As stated earlier you could get rid of the 2.6 kernel, but since you only have two kernels installed it might be a good idea to keep it for now.

Evo2.

leamassiot · 07-22-2013, 03:49 AM

Hi and thank you for your answer.

I do apologize for my ignorance but I've no idea what a "meta package" is.
Are there "meta packages" for packages other than kernel packages?
If you could explain a bit what they are, it would help.

I won't uninstall the "linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64" kernel for now (I promise) but if I wanted to, would I just have to run:

Code:

apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64

Should the meta packages be purged too?
Both of them?
- linux-image-2.6-amd64?
- linux-image-amd64?
Is there something else that would have to be done?

About the output of "dpkg -l <package-name-pattern>", if I understood well (from that source https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku.../006993.html):
"un" means "Unknown" + "Not Installed"
"ii" means "Install" + "Installed"
So, I only have to concentrate on the "ii" packages, is that right?

Also, I noticed that I have no headers packages installed.
What are they useful for?
Is it normal that I have no headers packages installed?

Thank you for your patience.

evo2 · 07-22-2013, 08:21 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by leamassiot

Hi and thank you for your answer.

I do apologize for my ignorance but I've no idea what a "meta package" is.
Are there "meta packages" for packages other than kernel packages?
If you could explain a bit what they are, it would help.

It is a package that doesn't contain any files (except for those required to make it a valid package), but instead depends on other packages. The dependencies of the mata package can be updated as new versions of the packages it depends on become available. Kernel meta packages are primarily used to allow automatic updateding to the newer kernel versions. Other meta packages exist often to provide a single package to pull in a group of packages (sometimes call a software suite). Expamles of this type of package are things like gnome
http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/gnome and libreoffice http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/libreoffice .
There is a very brief description at http://wiki.debian.org/metapackage

Quote:

I won't uninstall the "linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64" kernel for now (I promise) but if I wanted to, would I just have to run:

Code:

apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64

Yes.
(I had to check since the "purge" command is relatively new: used to need to do:

Code:

apt-get remove --purge <package>

)

Quote:

Should the meta packages be purged too?
Both of them?
- linux-image-2.6-amd64?
- linux-image-amd64?
Is there something else that would have to be done?

If you remove linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 then linux-image-2.6-amd64 will be remove automatically because it depends on it. If you remove linux-image-amd64 you will system will not automatically be upgraded to new kernels. It's up to you to decide (personally, I'd leave them).

Quote:

About the output of "dpkg -l <package-name-pattern>", if I understood well (from that source https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku.../006993.html):
"un" means "Unknown" + "Not Installed"
"ii" means "Install" + "Installed"

Correct. The first two line in output of "dpkg -l" shows this also. Eg on my system:

Code:

% dpkg -l '*linux-image-3*'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name              Version       Architecture  Description
+++-=================-=============-=============-========================================
ii  linux-image-3.10- 3.10~rc7-1~ex amd64         Linux 3.10-rc7 for 64-bit PCs
ii  linux-image-3.2.0 3.2.46-1      amd64         Linux 3.2 for 64-bit PCs
rc  linux-image-3.4-t 3.4.4-1~exper amd64         Linux 3.4 for 64-bit PCs
rc  linux-image-3.6-t 3.6.4-1~exper amd64         Linux 3.6 for 64-bit PCs

Quote:

So, I only have to concentrate on the "ii" packages, is that right?

Sure.

Quote:

Also, I noticed that I have no headers packages installed.
What are they useful for?
Is it normal that I have no headers packages installed?

You only really need the headers if you want to compile additional kernel modules.

Cheers,

Evo2.

leamassiot · 07-23-2013, 03:26 AM

Domo arigato (*) Evo2 for all these useful information and for your kindness.
Good day.

(*) Thanks a lot