Re: [gentoo-user] Re: problem which makes gnome unusable

[covici@ccs.covici.com]

walt <w41ter@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 06 Nov 2015 17:26:43 -0500
> covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> 
> > walt <w41ter@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, 06 Nov 2015 14:45:43 -0500
> > > covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> > >   
> > > > Hi.  I am having a very bad problem which makes gnome unusable --
> > > > once I get into the virtual console where the xserver is
> > > > displaying gnome, console 12 in my case, I can never get out of
> > > > that console -- control-alt-f1 or anything does not work.  If I
> > > > try to ssh in from somewhere else, I cannot stop gdm because the
> > > > x server will not stop -- even kill -9 will not stop it and I
> > > > have to reboot the system.  
> > > 
> > > The part about kill -9 failing is exactly the problem I had with the
> > > 3.18.x kernel series a while ago.  I know this problem must be
> > > hardware specific because some distros are still shipping 3.18
> > > kernels as the default, and I'll bet others in this mailing list
> > > are using it without problems too.  I had some scary problems with
> > > that kernel version that were very difficult to diagnose until I
> > > just rebooted with an older kernel and the scary problems
> > > vanished.  The 4.2 series seems okay so far on my VMs. (Even my
> > > gentoo VMs had some minor problems with 3.18.x)  
> > 
> > I am using 4.1.9 from gentoo sources -- do I need to downgrade maybe
> > the server and nvidia-drivers?
> 
> I think downgrading xorg and a video driver sounds more complicated
> than trying a different kernel, but you're in a better position to know
> that than I am.  Depends on how many packages you changed just before
> you noticed the problem.  If you've been running kernel 4.1.9 for a
> while with no problems, and you just recently upgraded xorg/nvidia,
> then maybe that would be the simpler thing to try.
> 
> If you still have some older kernels available, I personally would
> reboot with one of those and see if the nvidia driver will compile with
> that version. (You may need to reinstall/reconfigure the older kernel
> sources if you've already removed them.)  A big PITA either way :(

I am running 4.1.9, but there is a 4.1.12 and I may go to that and try
again, but you are correct, its a pita either way.  In this last update,
I could not keep the same x server and nvidia drivers I had which worked
fine, due to portage not letting the update go through because of
various slot conflicts -- very annoying.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com