On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Paul Johnson <pauljoh...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Camaleón <noela...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:13:53 -0500, Paul Johnson wrote: >> >>> On a student's Debian system, I ran some updates and resulted in gdm >>> refusing to start, with the error message that shows a picture of a sad >>> computer and a message says: >>> >>> Oh no! Something has gone wrong. >>> A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a >>> system administrator. >>> >>> I'm pretty sure this is due to a failure in the video drivers--some >>> gnome3 packages installed and the nouveau video driver is not >>> sufficient. And I am certain this problem happened when I tried to >>> update to the network-manager from wheezy on his Squeeze-based system. >>> I hoped some of you might help me think though the problem so I can >>> fix that machine, next time it comes to the office. >> >> (...) >> >> Well, I've got that message under two different situations: >> >> - First, as you say, when there's a problem with the VGA card or driver >> that cannot enable 3D acceleration properly which is needed by gnome- >> shell to start. >> >> - Second, when there's an error (a "syntax" error) in "/usr/share/gnome- >> shell/themes/gnome-shell.css" file. >> >> When this happens, you can still login to "GNOME classical" mode instead >> and work from there until you correct the problem that makes gnome-shell >> to halt. What I've never seen is gnome-shell crashing because of N-M or a >> wireless related update :-? >> >>> This crash happens before GDM offers the list of users, so I don't >>> understand how it could be related to a config problem in a user >>> account. Right? Everybody says "check ~/.xsession-errors", but why? >> >> (...) >> >> Because that file registers the reason of the gnome-shell crash, so what >> does it say? :-) >> > > I will check. But you seem not to understand something. This "Oh, > NO.." error happens before anyone is allowed to log in. If no user is > logged in--no user has even had a chance to enter a password because > the graphical login display never starts--there would be no trace of > trouble in ~/.xsession-errors because there is no X session. > > The trouble is before that.
The one time I had this happen, I was able to boot up using an earlier kernel, which I then made the default until the next upgrade. That helps, of course, only if the student's machine has an earlier kernel. Patrick -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cajvvkspli0n9mzdruuaibtscgtwycuv2kuuq64gfrdc6aka...@mail.gmail.com
