"unable to open X server"

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 03:53 PM

This evening I updated my Debian sid from 2.6.17-2-686 to 2-6-21-1-686.

After that, the KDE GUI won't start - I get the message "unable to open X server".

In the past, typing xstart or kde or kdm at this point would get things going. Not this time. I've Googled for a couple of hours, and found lashings of stuff (much from 2003 and earlier), but nothing that helps.

An oddity: 'aptitude update' starts a load of references to Linux 3.1 r1 _Sarge_ which was, long ago, the original installation.

'aptitude upgrade' (my last resort as a non-expert) brings the response
dirmngr: Depends: libpth20 (>= 2.0.7-2) but it is not installable
gnupg-agent: same
gpgsm: same

Can anyone suggest a cure that will get the X server back online?

Dutch Master · 06-22-2007, 04:11 PM

What's the contents of your sources.list file? Make sure to change all references to Sarge or Etch to Sid (and Stable, Testing -> Unstable) Update and try again.

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 04:44 PM

Thanks! Yes, it mentioned the original Deb 3.1 Sarge CDs, now commented out.

It then downloaded a load of extra stuff to update, but crashed out on the upgrade with the error message:

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libpth20_2.0.7-8_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libpth.so.20.0.27', which is also in package libpth2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/libpth20_2.0.7-8_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

startx got a bit further, but still crashed - with a

Fatal server error: failed to initialise core devices
X10: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

I've been here before - but it was a year or so ago and I can't find my notebook with what I did that time

BillyGalbreath · 06-22-2007, 04:57 PM

apt-get remove --purge libpth2

apt-get install -f

apt-get upgrade

makuyl · 06-22-2007, 04:58 PM

dpkg -i --force-all /var/cache/apt/archives/libpth20_2.0.7-8_i386.deb
dpkg --configure -a

Anything interesting in: grep "EE" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Dutch Master · 06-22-2007, 05:02 PM

Try the -f option. Just aptitude -f (or --force). This forces aptitude to solve the dependency with the best possible (or least troublesome) solution.

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillyGalbreath

apt-get remove --purge libpth2

apt-get install -f

apt-get upgrade

Thanks, but no change. Same error messages about libpth blah blah.

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makuyl

dpkg -i --force-all /var/cache/apt/archives/libpth20_2.0.7-8_i386.deb
dpkg --configure -a

It told me it was doing stuff because it was forced.
At the end, it came back to the non-GUI # prompt.
"startx" gave the same result - including a message about
No Input driver matching 'keyboard'
No core keyboard.

Odd, because the keyboard works fine in command-line mode, and was fine before...

Quote:

Anything interesting in: grep "EE" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Yes -

(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) Failed to load module "keyboard" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) No Input driver matching "keyboard"

I wonder where my keyboard has gone...

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Master

Try the -f option. Just aptitude -f (or --force). This forces aptitude to solve the dependency with the best possible (or least troublesome) solution.

Yes, been doing that. No effect

I think the problem's more than apt-get knows how to cope with.

makuyl · 06-22-2007, 05:22 PM

Look for line like this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf :

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Keyboard0"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "fi"
EndSection

Change "keyboard" to "kbd" as above. Try starting X again and see if it spits out any errors in the log file again.

Keithj · 06-22-2007, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makuyl

Look for line like this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf :

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Keyboard0"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "fi"
EndSection

Change "keyboard" to "kbd" as above. Try starting X again and see if it spits out any errors in the log file again.

Banzai!

Debian Sid is back - many thanks!

There's some configuring to do, but the beast is up and running.

makuyl · 06-22-2007, 05:38 PM

No problem, glad you got it sorted out.