Fedora Gnome Nightmare

[DarkDespair5]

This is my failed attempt at fixing my repositories upon upgrade:

- Crash-Hat didn't work with FC6, so I removed the RPM from the Yum repository folder in /etc/.
- I did a yum update -y to update my system. Totem-Xine complains about package Totem. I uninstall Totem. Re-ran yum.
- The updated kernel doesn't play nice and says it conflicts with my packages. So I did a yum remove kernel. I get 2 "fatal errors" with Gnome, which can't be good.
- I reinstall the kernel as well as the other dependencies, EXCEPT for apcis-tools (or something like that), which wasn't found.
- I run yum update once again.
- I reboot my computer.


Suddenly, the screen splits in two. The top screen shows what should be the bottom and the bottom shows what should be the top. The actual screen content is slid horizontally about half the screen so a black bar occupies the rest. init 3 will crash the comp. However, everything else works fine, including the internet, etc.

I suspect this has to do with the Gnome "fatal error".

I guess this is what happens when a Linux newbie tries to fix an OS.

Thank you for your help.

[notiones]

Wow dude. Sounds like you would be better off with a fresh install. I don't think it would be that hard to fix what has happened, but time would be better spent re-installing. Hey, we all need practice don't we?

[DarkDespair5]

Well, I'd lose all my data with a reinstall....

[u-noneinc-s]

I've suggested this for various reasons in the past . (I'm starting to feel like a parrot) Someday someone is going to take me up on it (and I'll probably be sorry they did). but If you've got nothing else to lose stick in the installation media and reboot. select upgrade. It should restore without losing anything. If you have an updated kernel with kmods the kmods won't work until you upgrade the kernel again.
Whether you try this or not, back up your data if you can. cuz you will more than likely need to reinstall.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by u-noneinc-s

I've suggested this for various reasons in the past . (I'm starting to feel like a parrot) Someday someone is going to take me up on it (and I'll probably be sorry they did). but If you've got nothing else to lose stick in the installation media and reboot. select upgrade. It should restore without losing anything. If you have an updated kernel with kmods the kmods won't work until you upgrade the kernel again.
Whether you try this or not, back up your data if you can. cuz you will more than likely need to reinstall.

Nice idea! I can't think of any reason that won't work! If I bork my sacrificial FC6 install... I'll try it!

Dan

[notiones]

I guess I shouldn't have neglected to mention the obvious. Please backup your data. Thanks to u-noneinc-s for pointing that out. In the future you might try keeping your /home directory on its own partition too. That way if you need to re-install or want to try another distro, you simpy choose not to delete the /home partition during the partitioning phase of the install. Quite frequently I just tar all of my files and move them to some other media so I can blow the whole thing away and start with something new and dangerous.

[Dan]

Quite frequently I just tar all of my files and move them to some other media so I can blow the whole thing away and start with something new and dangerous.

Your DVD burner is your friend!

Dan

[DarkDespair5]

After the upgrade what do you suggest I do to get my repositories working?
(The included kernel conflicts with lots of packages)

[DarkDespair5]

Oh no! THE INSTALLER IS AFFECTED BY THE BUG! The installer is a kaleidoscope! Wierd.
Anaconda is borked too. The graphics of the installer are all messed up just like when booting.

[u-noneinc-s]

Well I didn't anticipate any kernel conflict. Can you post your errors? I'm not that bright myself (see my sig), but maybe someone can advise you.

I've had to use the "upgrade" twice, and all it did was drop me back to my stock kernel. I upgraded the kernel and back in business. (FC5).

There are a couple of threads going about a kernel conflict on i686's. It's installing a 586 kernel and they are getting dependency errors with yum update. conflicts with 586 kernel and 686 packages (or something like that). There is a procedure for replacing the 586 with the 686 and their problems are solved.

Maybe search the forum for FC6+586+686 and see if you can find them.

Otherwise, Tangledweb is a little smarter than he let's on

[u-noneinc-s]

Originally Posted by DarkDespair5

Oh no! THE INSTALLER IS AFFECTED BY THE BUG! The installer is a kaleidoscope! Wierd.
Anaconda is borked too. The graphics of the installer are all messed up just like when booting.

At the anaconda screen, type linux rescue and see if it will give you a text log in. If yes, login and look at your xorg.conf (I don't know if it's the same in FC6) should be /etc/X11/xorg.conf. post the results. Maybe someone can find the problem.
If you cant access your xorg.conf, type chroot /mnt/sysimage and try again

[u-noneinc-s]

I got to thinking after the last post, the xorg config probably won't help if anaconda is affected. Do you have another os you can try the monitor out on?.

[DarkDespair5]

I forgot to mention, the TEXT is not affected. It is when you type Enter to test the graphical install that Anaconda fails. I'll try the X.org config you have mentioned.

[u-noneinc-s]

See post 12 above. It may not hurt to look at it, but if it's affecting Anaconda, I'm thinkinking it could be the monitor. During "normal" boot (no Boot CD) is th monitor "normal" until you log in and then it splits?
Also, you can still try the upgrade method in text mode. At the Anacond screen (even though the screen is messed up) type linux text and you should get a text installer but you may have to tweek the xorg to get into graphical mode when you're done (if startx doesn't work).

[DarkDespair5]

My commands
cd /etc/
cd /X11/ : No such file or directory.