[SOLVED] Upgrade from Wheezy to Jessie fails after apt-get dist-upgrade

Angoid · 12-19-2015, 03:53 PM

Hi all,

I have an old laptop, onto which I'm attempting to get Debian Jessie running.

Three times now I have ended up with a system that does not boot following the apt-get dist-upgrade step on updating to Jessie.

Here is the procedure I followed:
1) Installed Wheezy from a CD I burned
2) Booted up to make sure all was working - seemed OK
3) Rebooted and pressed 'e' at the GRUB screen, edited the Linux start command to get a command line boot
4) Did the following operations, all successfully:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
5) Rebooted. Again, all was well.
6) Edited /etc/apt/sources.list and changed the references from 'wheezy' to 'jessie'
7) Rebooted to command prompt as before
8) Ran the following:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
9) rebooted. All was well.

However, if I reboot to command prompt again and run this:

apt-get dist-upgrade

it churns away for an hour or so doing the upgrade, and at the end I reboot at the command prompt

When rebooting, it seems to go well and then I get a login prompt for all of 1 second or so, which disappears and resolves to a totally blank screen.

There it hangs.

I can boot into recovery mode, but that's the lot.

Right now I've got it to Jessie before the dist-upgrade bit .... what am I doing wrong to get a corrupted system?

Here is the contents of my sources.list file:

Code:

# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20131014-02:39]/ wheezy main

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20131014-02:39]/ wheezy main

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main

# wheezy-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main

Thanks!

Ztcoracat · 12-21-2015, 09:27 PM

Maybe follow this Tutorial and it will give you success.
https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/...table-release/

I always download the .iso of a distribution burn it to CD/DVD or usb and perform a fresh installation.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stab...upgrading.html
https://www.rootusers.com/how-to-upg...bian-8-jessie/

Aside from that make sure that your sources.list is correct and wait for other members with Debian experience to chime in and give you upgrading advise.

Angoid · 12-22-2015, 04:55 AM

Thanks Ztcoracat,

I did follow that tutorial, and it was after the apt-get dist-upgrade bit that it became unbootable.

I did also try the 'online' Jessie download ISO, created a bootable USB image and used that to fresh install (there isn't anything on the system so I can N&P at will, but it's very time consuming so don't want to just keep doing that on a "because I can" basis if I can help it).

Result? Same unbootable system.
It's as if there's something in the very hardware that's incompatible that's causing it.

Following the apt-get upgrade I get a nicer-looking GRUB menu and the desktop background is the Jessie logo, so it seems as though I do have Jessie for all intents and purposes, but the dist-upgrade shouldn't fail.

Sometimes, I see something that looks like "Eth0 not enabled" flash up before the screen goes blank, but it's only on for a split second so can't get the full text. But the Ethernet port is OK, and prior to running dist-upgrade the system works.

xiongnu · 12-22-2015, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angoid

Hi all,

I have an old laptop, onto which I'm attempting to get Debian Jessie running.
...

When rebooting, it seems to go well and then I get a login prompt for all of 1 second or so, which disappears and resolves to a totally blank screen.

There it hangs.

I can boot into recovery mode, but that's the lot.

hi, by any chance, did your laptop go into sleep mode after screen turning blank?
I had a similar problem with screen going blank on a fresh Jessie install on my netbook. see my post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...n8-4175543276/

Angoid · 12-23-2015, 02:42 AM

Thanks Xiongnu,
No, I don't remember it going into sleep mode. I was with it all the time (albeit doing something else on a different PC) BUT it's possible that the screensaver kicked in once or twice. Also, it would have been after a good few minutes that the screensaver came on (about 10 or 15, didn't time it though) and not just a few seconds. The problem always occurred after rebooting (by way of the 'reboot' command) after the dist-upgrade.

Due to the Christmas break, I may not be able to take advice immediately but I will check back as frequently as I can. Just so nobody posts to me and think I'd disappeared off, never to be seen again...

Ztcoracat · 12-23-2015, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angoid

Thanks Ztcoracat,

I did follow that tutorial, and it was after the apt-get dist-upgrade bit that it became unbootable.

I did also try the 'online' Jessie download ISO, created a bootable USB image and used that to fresh install (there isn't anything on the system so I can N&P at will, but it's very time consuming so don't want to just keep doing that on a "because I can" basis if I can help it).

Result? Same unbootable system.
It's as if there's something in the very hardware that's incompatible that's causing it.

Following the apt-get upgrade I get a nicer-looking GRUB menu and the desktop background is the Jessie logo, so it seems as though I do have Jessie for all intents and purposes, but the dist-upgrade shouldn't fail.

Sometimes, I see something that looks like "Eth0 not enabled" flash up before the screen goes blank, but it's only on for a split second so can't get the full text. But the Ethernet port is OK, and prior to running dist-upgrade the system works.

I wonder if the upgrade is messing with the graphics card somehow?
The last time I upgraded Elementary OS with the dist-upgrade command I had a black screen and fought for days with the FGLRX driver.

What GPU do you have?

Try searching through the Troubleshooting Debian Documentation.
I'll look through the Debian Help and WiKi's after the Holiday.

Ztcoracat · 12-23-2015, 06:56 PM

Proprietary Video Drivers from what I understand don't survive upgrades.The new kernel lacks the module for the Proprietary Driver. So... you might have to drop to a root prompt shell and install the driver that way.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=115304
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...zy-4175542067/

Have you tried installing Jessie in "Expert Mode"?
That might help.

Angoid · 12-24-2015, 10:33 AM

Thanks Ztcoracat,
I'm not going to have time now until next week to look at this, but I'll check that out and post back how I get on!
The laptop has a SiS integrated card, 64MB (so not a powerful card but I'm not going to be gaming), don't have the machine powered up right now but I think it's a sis 661fx chipset.

273 · 12-24-2015, 11:09 AM

Once the machine has booted have you tried getting a terminal with the Ctrl+Alt+F2 (or other F key) combination?
Also, how long do you wait for the system to boot fully after the screen goes black(Asking because my laptop, running Sid, sometimes seems to take an age to load the display manager and I think it's far newer than your machine)?

kiyop · 12-26-2015, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angoid

Code:

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20131014-02:39]/ wheezy main

Comment out or remove the above line.

Is there any relevant info in the manual?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

https://www.debian.org/releases/stab...upgrading.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angoid

The laptop has a SiS integrated card, 64MB (so not a powerful card but I'm not going to be gaming), don't have the machine powered up right now but I think it's a sis 661fx chipset.

Notorious SiS card!
https://www.google.com/?q=SiS+debian

Angoid · 01-04-2016, 09:28 AM

Thanks Kiyop,
Still haven't had a chance to get near this, but this topic here at LQ hasn't escaped my notice:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...t/4537/cat/all
Could affect me...

sgosnell · 01-04-2016, 07:11 PM

Why are you doing a dist-upgrade after you've already done it? Once you get Jessie running, you should only do upgrades, at least until a new stable version is released.

Angoid · 01-05-2016, 03:45 PM

I thought you were supposed to a dist-upgrade after an upgrade:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

and the dist-upgrade deals with obsolete and out-of-date packages?

That's why my understanding of the documentation and instructions is that I have read, anyway.

Being a newbie to Linux, please correct me if I'm wrong....

Ztcoracat · 01-05-2016, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angoid

I thought you were supposed to a dist-upgrade after an upgrade:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

and the dist-upgrade deals with obsolete and out-of-date packages?

That's why my understanding of the documentation and instructions is that I have read, anyway.

Being a newbie to Linux, please correct me if I'm wrong....

Once you have a fresh installation of your distribution and you update it and upgrade it once there is no need to run the dist-upgrade command until the Debian Team and Developers turn out a new release.

Just keep your system up to date with apt-get update at at least once a week.

Read the Debian Documentation so you can gain knowledge and obtain wisdom on how to maintain it and etc. Take your time when you read through it. If you don't understand some of the terms Google them.

https://www.debian.org/doc/
https://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals

Angoid · 01-06-2016, 10:32 AM

Thanks Tzcoracat, I'll just leave it as-is then. I did an apt-get update followed by upgrade last night and that brought it up to date with the latest and greatest version, but won't bother with the dist-upgrade for the time being at least .... it's just that I thought this was supposed to remove obsolete and out-of-date packages, leaving you with a cleaner system with less clutter.

I am familiar with Google, by the way