stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

[przxqgl]

i got the prompt to upgrade to jaunty recently, and without thinking about it, i went ahead and told it to upgrade.

BIG mistake... this is an old, built-myself computer made out of the bits and pieces of other computers that i have scrapped over the years. hardy worked fine, but the attempted upgrade to jaunty left me with a text-only interface, no network, no mouse, no CDROM and no way to get back what i had.

i've tried finishing the upgrade, but it keeps coming up with dependency problems that it can't resolve, and because of the fact that it can't find the network, there's no way to resolve the dependency problems. i decided that i would rather go back to hardy than deal with this, but because of the fact that it can't find the CDROM, i can't even get it to boot from my live hardy disk, even when i go into the CMOS and set the only boot device to be the CDROM.

i'm totally at a loss here... any advice?

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

I would be very surprised if we can not make Intrepid work, but I think as soon as youget the network up you should upgrade to Jaunty and then fix any remaining problems. This sounds like a desktop computer and you have a terminal login so what is the network card? Are you using ethernet? Do you use DHCP to get an address from a DSL/Cable modem?
lspci
should tell you, and may give clues to other things also. Take a look at a file /etc/network/interfaces. To make an ethernet connection using DHCP it should look like this
*************************************
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
********************
The first line says, bring up the loopback and erhernet 0 automatically. The second line is directions for configuring the loopback, which each system needs. The third line defines the ethernet interface. If you want that to be static we will need to change some things. If it does not have the eth0 line, add it and run
sudo ifup eth0
and you should have ethernet.

The command to edit is
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
unless you prefer another editor.

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

so what you recommended got internet working, and now i can run aptitude -f full-upgrade but it's still giving me lots of errors, which include

kdebase-bin
kdebase-runtime
kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4
libkleo4
libkpgp4
kmail
libkdepim4
ldm
libksieve4
konqueror
libmimelib4
dolphin
libkonq5

and nothing i do will resolve these.

what now?

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

It would be nice to have some idea what the errors say, but try this.
sudo dpkg --configure -a
This should configure any packages that were partially installed before. This must complete without errors. If it does not, run it again, until it either completes are you are always seeing the same error. Then tell me what it is.

After that, run
sudo aptitude -f install
This should put your system in a consistent but possible incomplete state. After that finishes with no errors run
sudo aptitude -f full-upgrade

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

dpkg --configure -a gives me the following, more or less:

dependency problems prevent configuration of kdebase-bin: kdebase-bin depends on kdebase-data (= 4:4.2.2-0ubuntu4): however: Package kdebase-data is not installed

error processing kdebase-bin (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

dependency problems prevent configuration of kdebase-runtime: kdebase-runtime depends on kdebase-runtime-data (>= 4:4.2.2-0ubuntu1); however: Package kdebase-runtime-data is not installed.

error processing kdebase-runtime (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

similar errors for kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4 and kdebase-runtime (>= 4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet"

similar errors for libkleo4 and kdebase-runtime (>= 4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing libkleo4 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for libkpgp4 and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet"

similar errors for kmail and  kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". also kmail depends on libkleo4 (= 4:4.2.2-0ubuntu1) which isn't configured yet

similar errors for libkepim4 and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing libkdepim4 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for kdm and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing kdm (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for libksieve4 and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing libksieve4 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for konqueror and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing konqueror (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for libmimelib4 and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing libmimelib4 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for dolphin and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing dolphin (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

similar errors for libkonq5 and kdebase-runtime (>=4:4.2.1) but this error says that kdebase-runtime "is not configured yet". this error also says "error processing libkonq5 (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured"

it's a lot of errors that are a very strong indication that it would take far less time if i could get the CDROM to load, and re-install hardy, but if you can figure out how to make it work, either way, i would be extremely grateful.

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

Don't despair. It only looks bad because you haven't seen it before. We should have it fixed soon. There are 2 thing that might be causing problems. The first is that you may have added some repositories to your sources that are not the kubuntu repositories or the medibuntu repositories. The other is that you may just need to run
sudo aptitude update
to update your systems database of what packages are available. The results of that command will allow me to see if you have any strange entries in /etc/apt/sources.list or in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/. So run
sudo aptitude update
and show me what it says.

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

aptitude update gives me this:

Writing extended state information... Done
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release.gpg
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release.gpg
Get:1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release.gpg [189B]
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release
Get:2 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release [49.6kB]
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Sources
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Sorces
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Sources
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Packages
Hit http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Sources
Get:3 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Packages [14.5kB]
Get:4 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates//restricted Packages [14B]
Get:5 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Sources 4149B]
Get:6 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/restricted Sources [14B]
Get:7 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Packages [5423B]
Get:8 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Sources [14B]
Get:9 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Packages [14B]
Get:10 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Sources [14B]
Fetched 3.9kB in 2s (25.7kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Updating debtags database...... Done

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

Looks like that went very well. It also says that you are at jaunty, although I was under the impression that you were running Hardy when this started. Did the system really take you from Hardy directly to Jaunty?

Since it appears to update cleanly try
sudo aptitude -f install

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

If that fails try
sudo aptitude -f install kde

Also if either of these completes you might want to try
sudo invoke-rc.d kdm restart
to see if it now works

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

i was running hardy when i started, but i'm apparently no longer running hardy. i am in the root selection of 8.04 recovery mode, so i'm not typing sudo, because i get a root@fig prompt.

and when i type aptitude -f install i get a whole bunch of text which ends with

Errors werre encountered while processing:
kdebase-bin
kdebase-runtime
kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4
libkleo4
libkpgp4
kmail
libkdepim4
kdm
libksieve4
konqueror
libmimelib4
dolphin
libkonq5

which are the same things that i got errors in when i ran dpkg --configure -a

this is the fourth time i've run through this whole scene, and as i said before, it would take a lot less time to just delete the entire mess and go back to hardy... i have a disk and everything, it just won't boot from the CDROM for some reason...

i'll try aptitude -f install kde and see what happens...

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

It has always been that you should not try to jump 2 releases in one upgrade, but should upgrade from one to the next and the the next, eg. hardy->intrepid->jaunty. That is why I initially thought we would get intrepid working and then upgrade to jaunty. I am surprised that Kubuntu software tried to jump you like that, but not surprised that it broke.

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

aptitude -f install kde failed, with the same errors that aptitude -f install gave me.

i was under the impression that canonical did these upgrades in alphabetical order, so i was a little confused when i saw a "J" after an "H" with no intervening "I", but yeah, the system apparently tried to upgrade me two levels at a time, which is doubtless how it broke.

i'm still willing to delete the entire OS - i've got my /home directory on a separate disk, because i've had this happen before - and re-install hardy, but it won't boot from the CDROM, as i've said... :P

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

Lets try this. We will entirely delete KDE and reinstall the desktop. I am about 99% sure this will work. It should not mess with your personal .kde settings. If you run
sudo aptitude purge libqt4-core
It will take out all of your kde because they depend on Qt. You may have noticed that dochawk did this so he could upgrade to jaunty with kde 3.5.
Once they are all gone you should not see those errors anymore. Then you can run
sudo aptitude install kdm kde kubuntu-desktop
That should pull in everything you need. After it installs all of that you should try
sudo invoke-rc.d kdm start
to see if it does.

[przxqgl]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

aptitude purge libqt4-core also produced a whole bunch of text which ended with

Errors werre encountered while processing:
kdebase-bin
kdebase-runtime
kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4
libkleo4
libkpgp4
kmail
libkdepim4
kdm
libksieve4
konqueror
libmimelib4
dolphin
libkonq5

what now?

[flarson]

Re: stuck - won't see CDROM, network, mouse, only sees keyboard some of the time...

Sorry to take so long, had to have dinner. I think that there must be a package with a pre removal script that is failing. It is probably the first error that gets printed out. I am thinking that you should run that command again and pipe the output through tee to a file and attach it to a post.

sudo aptitude purge libqt4-core | tee purge.txt

should do it. I can't believe they tried to go two releases. People are having enough trouble trying to use their GUI package manager to upgrade one release.

If your CD worked I would say go do it, but meanwhile we are not done yet.