Updating Debian 8 on X201 broke something (Gnome?) - how to rollback?

Thinkpad X201 running Debian 8

I did a standard package update and no issues were reported, but I didn't reboot immediately.

Next time I use the machine, I login and start getting font and graphical glitches.

Changing anti-aliasing settings made the font weirdness go away, but still get stuff disappearing (desktop shortcut glitches in/out, mouse cursor goes invisible)

After a variable amount of time the machine locks up (can be a few seconds or maybe a minute or two), and I have to hold power off.

If I don't login via GUI, but switch to tty2 and login there it works fine, so long as I stick to CLI.
(Booting into a Debian 8 Live USB also seems to work fine, suggesting it's not hardware/overheating.)

Anyway, I didn't actually need to update anything, so I just want to revert everything to previously working version for the time being.

Searching suggests there's no equivalent to yum history undo which would make this simple.

What's the best way to resolve this? Is there a script that I can point at /var/log/apt/history.log that will take me back to the machine's pre-update state?

Hi,

sounds like an Xorg problem. You may be using different graphics drivers now. Check you Xorg logs.

Are you sure you really want to be using Debian 8? Regular security updates stopped in June last year. Debian 10 is the current stable release.

Evo2.

When you boot up the machine, is your machine configured to display the Grub menu screen? If so, you might choose the 'Advanced Options for Debian' line and then boot into the previous Linux kernel.

^ that.
or try adding 'nomodeset' (without quotes) to the kernel command line.

Thanks for all the comments & suggestions.

Originally Posted by flshope When you boot up the machine, is your machine configured to display the Grub menu screen? If so, you might choose the 'Advanced Options for Debian' line and then boot into the previous Linux kernel.

Yep, I did that and booted into the one version prior (3.16.0-8)
There's still mouse cursor glitching after login, and the trackpad is incredibly sensitive (as in, it's reacting to fingers not even touching it), but otherwise the system seems stable (hasn't locked up after half an hour).

Sounds like the trackpad sensitivity issue is Xorg coasting, which can be disabled by settings Option "CoastingSpeed" "0"

Originally Posted by ondoho ^ that. or try adding 'nomodeset' (without quotes) to the kernel command line.

I tried 3.16.0-10 and nomodeset - brings the login screen up, I login as normal but then it flashes and dumps back to the login screen.

Originally Posted by evo2 Are you sure you really want to be using Debian 8?

Yeah, I want to be on 10, but life has been throwing a lot of crap my way, so for now I just need it working well enough until I can dedicate time to upgrading.

Originally Posted by evo2 sounds like an Xorg problem. You may be using different graphics drivers now. Check you Xorg logs.

Not seeing anything useful in the Xorg logs, but only had a quick scan.

If I configure grub to default to booting the older kernel and disable the trackpad coasting, that's probably good enough for the time being.

Originally Posted by boughtonp I tried 3.16.0-10 and nomodeset - brings the login screen up, I login as normal but then it flashes and dumps back to the login screen.

Show us the relevant Xorg log.

I'm content with running the machine on the previous kernel version for now, so not worried about getting nomodeset working.
If it's still an issue when I get around to upgrading to Buster I'll address it then, but hopefully it wont be.