Suse Linux 10.0 Trouble

[Mystery Man]

I installed Suse Linux 10.0 today with both the KDE and the GNOME desktops.

I then wanted to install the VLC Media Player for Suse. I wasn't able to install the same using the Yast, so i decided to use the rpm packages instead. There were several dependences so i went on to search for the rpm's and began installing them.

I had managed to install only four packages through the console after which i had to turn off my computer. When i restarted it to continue the work the system won't let me in.

The message stated that it had been less then 10 seconds since login and if you haven't chosen to logout(which i did'nt) check for unfinished installations or disk space using the failsafe sessions. Disk Space is not an issue here.

I went in using the FailSafe GNOME session and removed the 4 packages that i had installed through Yast because they were coming up as not installed when i tried to remove them through the console.

Even after doing this the system wont let me in into any of KDE or GNOME and displays the same message. Well it states that the failsafe session does no runs startup scripts.

Moreover the error message log to which it points me towards is empty.

My questions :

Has someone ever faced a problem like this and if yes what could be the possible solutions ?

Where are the startup scripts stored so that they can be accessed for modification?

Please help with a stratergy so that i donot have to reinstall Suse.

[Moira]

Is this the new Suse package just recently released? I didn't even manage to install it on the old laptop I was going to put it on in place of kubuntu. It just "hung" about five minutes into the install.

Sorry, this is no help whatsoever to you

[Mystery Man]

Well no actually its not the latest one !! Its 10.0 version ..... i guess the latest is 10.2 maybe !

It was a clean install and it worked fine for well 6 hours and then poooof !

[gore]

Did you by chance try to install on the /swap instead of / partition? That would do it. I've seen a Slackware install do this from that.

[Mystery Man]

Hello gore !

Well i am unable to understand what exactly to do !

Should i go for a reinstall or is there a way to recover the system back ??

Like i said i can login with the GUI in the GNOME FailSafe sessions and i have also removed the earlier installed packages. I have the root privileges in that login.

Can you please be specific on what exactly to do ?

[muert0]

If you installed to swap like Gore said you need to use fdisk from the install cd and reformat your swap.
You shouldn't go mucking around if you don't know what is what.
Why did you decide to shutdown in the middle of the install?
Did you shutdown the system or just pull the plug?
What packages did you install?
How do you have your partitions setup?

If you decide to reformat here are instructions for installing VLC.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-suse.html

[Mystery Man]

Hi

I am in a learning phaze for linux and if i dont experiment it will do no harm to my computer but will not provide me much knowledge either.

Now i did a clean shutdown and there were no problems what so ever. It was not in the middle of any installation. The 4 packages were dependencies for the install and i didnt did anything extra for that too.

As for those instructions i followed them but was unable to understand the GPG key thing. Also the computer wasnt able to verify the directory sources so i had to resort back to downloading rpms.

The 4 packages like i said were dependencies and were related to media file libraries. I am sorry but i do not remember their names and the linux partitions are not acessible through windows.

The partitions are on a 20gb hdd. Its a 9 gb suse partition (i think ext2). And a 10 GB win xp pro. Suse was able to read the win partitions. The install was clean and with no changes whatsoever to the default installation specifications provided by suse.

I have no intentions for a reinstall unless there is no way other than that out of it.

Also it mentions the name of a session failure log file which it displays to be empty.

Please tell me how to go about the GPG key thing and a possible solution out of this !

Thanks !

[thehorse13]

That would have to be one hell of a swap partition for the entire OS to be installed. Then again, when you don't undertstand what's going on, I suppose someone could create a 3 gig swap partition. LOL.

How about this:

1) Low level format the HD.
2) Use Yast for package management. If you start playing with other package managers, your system will become hosed up in no time flat. Compile code only if you know what you're doing. This goes for Gore too. ;-)

So the answer is yes, I have seen this many times. Yast is there for a reason. Use it.

Have you tried using the RPM facility to back out the packages? i.e., RPM -e [package-name]

I typically rebuild the RPM db once I remove/add packages RPM --rebuilddb

Anyway, you've gone ahead and hosed up something by nixing files that Suse uses by installing packages outside of Yast.

unable to understand the GPG key thing

More than likely, you're seeing the warning about needing to have a GnuPG key installed on your host. There should be further instructions given to install the public key. Or, you're seeing a message about a package failing because the GnuPG signature is bad on the particular RPM. Which is it?

--TH13

[Mystery Man]

I am extremely sorry at being unclear about the GPG key. Actually its mentioned on the link above for the VLC install. It states here

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-suse.html

"" The repository is signed with a GPG Key (gpg key C8DA93D2 fingerprint BC8D 780D E330 8581 B2E0 7085 33DE 8FB7 C8DA 93D2). Accept this key in YaST and it will warn you in case there is something suspect with the repository.
Accept everything by clicking Finish. ""

Well i dont get why is this mentioned because when i tries it i found no message for this and it didnt worked either.

Also the rpms installed perfectly using the rpm -i [package name]

But when i used rpm -e [package name] It stated that package not installed. Well i suppose it was because i didnt rebuild the RPM db which i just found out. thanks for that. So for their removal i used Yast.

Well a strange thing happened just now. Out of nowhere i just found that KDE was working with the login that i created with my name at the time of install and the problem remains the same with the root login.

It also gives me warnings regarding not having enough privileges to do many things including starting things i installed as root. Is there a way that i can increase my current privileges to that of root level.

[muert0]

log in under the user account and open a terminal. Type su. It will prompt for password. Type your root password in. It may or may not work. I'm thinking it probably won't. Diving into linux may seem like the way to learn but you need to read around about it. It isn't just going to jump in your lap. And this I don't want to reinstall crap won't fly that long. Your system is screwed you need to reinstall and you should expect to reinstall a few more times until you learn what you are doing.
You might want to learn how to navigate man pages. They are documentation built-in to the OS.
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Man-Page/index.html
http://www.penguin-soft.com/penguin/man/1/man.html
once you learn about the man pages apropos and whatis are some good commands to get familiar with.
http://www.penguin-soft.com/penguin/...ALL&action=man
http://www.penguin-soft.com/penguin/man/1/whatis.html


Sites for info:
online manpages= http://www.penguin-soft.com/penguin/manpages.jsp
how-tos= http://www.linux.org/docs/
http://tldp.org/
Also the library can be your friend. You don't have to go out and buy a book on SuSE since you may decide to change flavors tomorrow.

And if you can't get root you can't control your system so you're pretty much screwed.