Fedora 11 can't log in after yum update
 

I have Fedora 11. After my most recent update, I can't log in.

Every time I authenticate, the logon window disappears, the screen goes black briefly, and then I am back at the log in window :-(

I entirely reinstalled, and then it worked, until I updated to the newest kernel then it didn't work anymore.

Please help :-/

Okay, this is the reason updates keep a copy of the prior kernel -- something might go wrong.

1. When the system boots, press any key at the moment the kernel identifier is on display in text form (you only have a few seconds to do this). Pressing a key will allow the Grub menu to display itself. (You will see a list of available kernels.)

2. Using the up and down arrow keys, choose the prior kernel from this menu and type 'b'.

3. Once you have successfully booted up, consider what might be wrong. One possibility is you require a third-party video driver like NVidia, which is specified in /var/X11/xorg.conf but with no driver in the updated kernel. (I have this problem all the time.)

Solutions: boot up as above, or by entering the Grub boot menu and adding a '3' at the end of the kernel boot line -- like this:

Note the '3' at the end of this line. This edit temporarily makes the system enter runlevel 3 (text only) so you can fix things.

Now sort out why the system isn't activating your normal graphics runlevel (which is 5 by the way).

If you are in fact using a third-party video driver, you can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, replacing the offending driver name with 'vesa' or 'nv' (the second only if you have an NVidia video adaptor). Then type this:

This will cause the system to move from runlevel 3 to 5, and you should see a normal graphic dislay.

As lutfsp said, your problem is that your video driver was not updated when you updated your kernel. Since the video driver is installed as a kernel module, it must be (re)compiled for the specific kernel you're using.

This problem usually occurs when you're using a proprietary driver (nvidia, ATI, etc.) that you compiled yourself.

If you can, I'd suggest enabling the rpm-fusion repositories and looking for your drivers in them. Those repositories usually provide RPMs to keep your drivers in sync with your kernel.

If you have network access in run level 3 (access as describe by lutfsp, above), try doing a yum install mc to install the "Midnight Commander" pseudo-gui file manager to simplify your hacking of your xorg.conf file, and you could also do a yum install elinks to get a pseudo-gui Web browser that you can use when your video driver is not working.

I don't have a xorg.conf. I think this might be standard in Fedora 11.
Edit: I now generated a xorg.conf with system-config-display --noui

I manually removed and reinstalled xorg-x11-drv-intel with yum. It didn't work.

By the way: now the start hangs on "Starting atd: OK"

If I specify "vesa" in xorg.conf, then it gets past the point, but display doesn't load properly.

Update
 

Everything works if I remove kernel-PAE.
But this isn't a solution for me, because I want to use kernel-PAE.

What can the problem be?

PAE? :scratch:

Anyhow, the PAE kernel is different from the non-PAE kernel, and the driver needs to be compiled for the specific kernel you're using. Since the driver works with the non-PAE kernel, clearly that driver was compiled for the kernel with which it works. Simple, eh?

So, just recompile the driver for the kernel you're using.

I am attempting to recompile the driver (in run level 3), but I have not found any documentation on how to recompile the driver.

Update: I recompiled the Intel driver for my kernel, but still nothing works.
When booting in init 5, it gets past

atd starting: OK

at then it freezes. Normally the mouse pointer would appear at this point. Please help :-(

Just guessing here, but it's possible that the driver is using some libraries, and, of course, those libraries too may need to be compiled for the specific kernel version you're using.

Since you mentioned that the driver worked with the non-PAE kernel, I suspect that you have both kernels installed on the same system, and that, unless you took great care, you may have mixed libraries.