Well, topic says about all. Install went with no problems, update changed 1900+ files. Boot stops on the console where ususally the graphical mode is started, I can (there) login in the console. "startx" gives an error. "dmesg" shows no errors. Where to look?

<edit> Come to think of it, seems sddm is not starting. How to revive? </edit>

First, what is your hardware. You have more than one computer listed. What is the graphics card? May be that the correct driver isn't loading. "lsmod" will show you the loaded drivers and what they are used by.
Second, you said there was an error after running "startx". What is the error output? You are running "startx" as root?
Assuming that "x" is running, although it probably isn't, have you tried running "sddm" or "kdm" directly from the command line? That may give hints.
What repositories do you use?
Just to be clear, did you run "zypper up" or "zypper dup"? I ask because 1900 packages seems like a lot unless you haven't upgraded in a long time.
I would assume that the kernel was among the long list of updates. openSUSE's standard policy is to save the old kernel to boot from in case the newer one breaks something. Have you tried using the grub2 menu to select the older kernel?

Just to make sure that the update went correctly, you could try "zypper verify".

More information will likely bring better answers.

It's the PC with a msi graphic card (Radeon 7/360 etc.).

I'll reboot and then come back in a few minutes.

Running startx as root I get:
I chmod'ed /usr/bin/Xorg to setuid and retried starx -- no joy.

I tried sddm. No reaction at all.

SUSE's defaults.

"zypper up". As I wrote, the iso is an old download (of july 2015 I think). You get hundreds of updates even in a few days for tumbleweed.

I'll have to look, be back shortly.

I'll have to look, be back shortly.

Your help is even now very much appreciated .

Okay, here comes the rest of the answers you wanted:

lsmod: about 90 entries, among them "radeon 1605632 1"
kdm: command not found
old kernel: not present in appropriate grub2 menu
zypper verify: error while loading shared libraries /usr/lib64/liblber-2.4.so.2 file too short

That of any help?

why use a old version of tumbleweed ?

in the last year there has been a MAJOR change in how the os is packaged and naming

also
https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed

Well, I had it downloaded and I wanted to save bandwith.

Are you meaning to say that the changes in packageing break the ability to update the system? Because that's what I did, installing a version a little older and updating it subsequently.

P.S.: I use the radeon driver, not fglrx.

I gave up on Tumbleweed a couple of years ago because I much prefer the fglrx driver and it was a headache to have to rebuild it every time there was a kernel update. I suppose it all depends on how "cutting edge" you want to be and whether or not you are willing to put in the time and effort to keep it current. I currently run Leap and am quite satisfied with it.

That worries me. It is possible that zypper is broken, and that would truly be a serious problem. To test, I would just run "zypper refresh" and see if it completes without errors. After the refresh, assuming it completes, don't download anything just yet.

Thanks to John VV for the Tumbleweed Project link he posted. I'll add the link for the page with the install instructions:

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Tum...n#Repositories

The instructions seem easy enough to follow. I would make very sure that you follow everything in the order written, including removal of your existing repositories prior to adding the new ones. John VV might chime back in to offer an opinion as to whether or not to do a network upgrade to Leap before going back to the Tumbleweed project. My instinct would say "yes" just to get a stable base, but that could end up being large downloads followed by more large downloads. If zypper is truly broken on your system, then a network upgrade to Leap may be the only way to save your system.

Please note that if all goes well and you are able to get the new repositories set up, you should run "zypper dup", rather than "zypper up". It also recommends that you run "zypper dup" from a terminal login rather than a graphical interface, in case "X" crashes during the upgrade and kills zypper or Yast2.

Ah, no, nothing changed: zypper verify: error while loading shared libraries /usr/lib64/liblber-2.4.so.2 file too short.

So, no chance to upgrade/update.

Just to make it plain: I installed tumbleweed using a tumbleweed-download in the first place. I did not touch any repositories. I ran zypper up. Then I was hip deep in ... where I am now.

I wanted to use tumbleweed, since both kmail5 and thunderbird are broken on Leap 42.1 (since months and I posted on bugzilla) but which I know to work both on my netbook on tumbleweed.

I guess I'll revert to 13.2 as my working horse (which worked beautifully prior to my experiments with the newer versions). It only lacks kmail5 which is so much improved over kmail4.

I'll download a newer version of tumbleweed and experiment further there. Seems we are in for a depression of performance again until SUSE gets its act pulled together again -- seems to happen every few years...
*sigh*

P.S.: Seems this issue can't be solved.

I have used Thunderbird forever and never encountered a bug in Leap. Do you have the bugzilla bug number? I would be interested in seeing what this bug is all about.

When you originally went to Tumbleweed, did you upgrade an existing openSUSE installation or did you do a fresh install? I personally recommend always doing a fresh install and also recommend deleting everything in your /home folder except for what you really need to keep such as documents and your e-mail (the .thunderbird folder). There are usually left over user config files from the original system in your /home that may cause future problems. To install any new version of openSUSE, I format the "/" partition, clean my "/home" without formatting, and then install the system. Please note that I always use a separate /home partition to avoid losing important documents.

If you are set on tumbleweed, I would follow the instructions on the installation page, linked above, to the letter. Install from the ISO (preferably the "network install ISO"), clean the repositories as instructed and add the Tumbleweed repositories, and then "zypper dup". Best of luck.

I'll dig it up these days, right now I'm in a hurry.


Fresh install on a newly re-partitioned and formatted disk / partition.


I never had problems when staying with the same brand of distribution. E.g. openSUSE 12.3 - 13.1 - 13.3 - leap don't impede each other -- how else could upgrades work? It may be different when one adds e.g. fedora, mint ... but I always could set things right by deleting ~/.kde or analogs.

So do I.


Thanks, I'll shortly re-install a newly downloaded tumbleweed. This one seems to be not recoverable since zypper is broken.

1 members found this post helpful.

for reference
here is the opensuse forum post on this topic
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthre...-anymore/page2

Here is more information from LQ itself :

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-a-4175559419/

This is the bugzilla post:
https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=961286

Thanks for the link. The author of the linked post mentioned that gnome was running. It's apparently something that happens in Thunderbird under the gnome desktop environment? That may explain why I had no knowledge of it. I've always used KDE, or LXDE at times.

Ahm, no. This is a misunderstanding. I installed Gnome parallel to KDE shortly before the crashes started, because some of the fonts are managed(?) by gnome/GTK. I wanted to have identical font sizes in all applications, so I installed Gnome. I'm using KDE practically exclusively. I mentioned this only for the maintainers as a possible source for the trouble.

OK. Thanks for the update. I misunderstood.