Bigger upgrade, is this safe? [solved]

[kevjonesin]

I suggest backing up before upgrading. After recent upgrades ("apt-get upgrade" followed by "apt-get dist-upgrade" both via default GUI app) to MX-15 on my ThinkPad laptop fails to boot to GUI. Black screen with blinking cursor at boot. <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F1> to login to TTY CLI console and I can then launch GUI with 'startx' though. There was an error message. "[ 82.741491] systemd-logind[2323]: Failed to start user service: Unknown unit: user@1000.service" at CLI login, BTW. And the aptitude ncurses interface showed package conflicts. Anyway, proceed with caution. I backed up with MX Snapshot before 'upgrading' (last round of updates tickled my spidey sense as well) so may just reinstall and go from there in steps rather than try to troubleshoot present state.

That was caused by a MX 16 package that got into the MX 15 repo by mistake--Debian's point upgrades to Jessie have been rock solid so far.

I just got hit with that issue now, having not upgraded for weeks due to holidays and other stuff. Teach me to look at the forum more often!
Luckily I did a Clonezilla partition backup first so will just restore that and upgrade again, disabling the MX-16 repo first and then try migration after the upgrade.

Sunrat, I've been upgrading regularly throughout. After reinstalling from snapshot I've narrowed my issue down to three suggested package upgrades along with their four dependencies (so amongst a total of seven packages) by systematically using the aptitude ncurses interface rather than the MX update app or synaptic. Here's a copy of info from aptitude:

Code: Select all

--\ Upgradable Packages (7)                                                                                                                              
  --\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc) (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     mx-welcome                                                                                                            16.10mx16      16.11mx16+3
  --\ doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     mx-docs                                                                                                               20160701       20170111
  --\ java - Java programming language and libraries (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     icedtea-netx                                                                                                          1.5.3-1        1.6.2-3mx150+2
  --\ libs - Collections of software routines (4)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (4)
i A   libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0                                                                                            2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0                                                                                            2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libwebkitgtk-1.0-0                                                                                                    2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libwebkitgtk-3.0-0                                                                                                    2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
--- New Packages (66835)
--- Installed Packages (1693)
--- Not Installed Packages (11)
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (4)
--- Virtual Packages (10443)

Attempting to upgrade any of the three (mx-welcome, mx-docs, icedtea-netx) results in breakages requiring resolution. Letting the MX update applet handle them (with 'dist-upgrade' setting enabled) results in a system that fails to boot to GUI (I actually tried again after reinstalling from snapshot as further upgrades had become available and I hoped a fix might have been among them; I have since reinstalled from snapshot yet again). I've simply left the three/seven 'as is' for now until I get a better idea as to how to resolve the issues.

[entropyfoe]

What about if you update with synaptic?

Does that result in a bootable system?

[kevjonesin]

Nope, still breakages but without the benefit of aptitude's suggested resolution options.

[Stevo]

That was caused by a MX 16 package that got into the MX 15 repo by mistake--Debian's point upgrades to Jessie have been rock solid so far.

I just got hit with that issue now, having not upgraded for weeks due to holidays and other stuff. Teach me to look at the forum more often!
Luckily I did a Clonezilla partition backup first so will just restore that and upgrade again, disabling the MX-16 repo first and then try migration after the upgrade.

Sunrat, I've been upgrading regularly throughout. After reinstalling from snapshot I've narrowed my issue down to three suggested package upgrades along with their four dependencies (so amongst a total of seven packages) by systematically using the aptitude ncurses interface rather than the MX update app or synaptic. Here's a copy of info from aptitude:

Code: Select all

--\ Upgradable Packages (7)                                                                                                                              
  --\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc) (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     mx-welcome                                                                                                            16.10mx16      16.11mx16+3
  --\ doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     mx-docs                                                                                                               20160701       20170111
  --\ java - Java programming language and libraries (1)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (1)
i     icedtea-netx                                                                                                          1.5.3-1        1.6.2-3mx150+2
  --\ libs - Collections of software routines (4)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive (4)
i A   libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0                                                                                            2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0                                                                                            2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libwebkitgtk-1.0-0                                                                                                    2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
i A   libwebkitgtk-3.0-0                                                                                                    2.4.9-1~deb8u1 2.4.11-2mx150+
--- New Packages (66835)
--- Installed Packages (1693)
--- Not Installed Packages (11)
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (4)
--- Virtual Packages (10443)

Attempting to upgrade any of the three (mx-welcome, mx-docs, icedtea-netx) results in breakages requiring resolution. Letting the MX update applet handle them (with 'dist-upgrade' setting enabled) results in a system that fails to boot to GUI (I actually tried again after reinstalling from snapshot as further upgrades had become available and I hoped a fix might have been among them; I have since reinstalled from snapshot yet again). I've simply left the three/seven 'as is' for now until I get a better idea as to how to resolve the issues.

Are you reinstalling MX 15? The mx-docs package update should have been only visible to MX 16 users, so you may still have the MX 16 repo enabled.

[sunrat]

I used the update utility from the panel, which I believe runs update before upgrading. The restored MX-15 image had the MX-16 repo in it as reported by inxi -r. I'm guessing the last update I did, which was weeks ago, may have been the one that installed the wayward package that added MX-16 repo.
I ended up just reinstalling using the latest MX-16 snapshot iso anyway so didn't resolve the issue.
Clonezilla also seems to have changed the bootloader somehow I don't understand. It seems like KXStudio (Ubuntu based), which is also installed, has taken over GRUB duties from MX without any input from me. This is the main reason I opted for a new install. The new install of MX-16 did not successfully install GRUB even though I opted to install it in ESP during installation.
I've been using MX-15 for a while as main OS, MX-14 on a netbook before that and various other Linux for ~15 years, including siduction and its predecessors for a long time. Been posting on FDN for over 10 years so not really a newbie, but this bootloader thing has got me mystified. I'll start a new thread if I can't sort it as it's OT for this one.

Bottom line is I'm posting from MX-16 now and all seems good! :)

[kevjonesin]

Are you reinstalling MX 15? The mx-docs package update should have been only visible to MX 16 users, so you may still have the MX 16 repo enabled.

Doom, gloom, and camel flea laden curses , I've been reinstalling a recent snapshot of what started out as MX-15 ... but which had indeed already been tainted with some MX-16 packages as unbeknownst to me an MX-16 repo had in fact been added to my sources. I've just now gone into the 'MX Repo Manager' and disabled it (and rolled back the notification applet for good measure (which will hopefully restore the old icon as well)). I went into aptitude and updated source data and now mx-docs and such are no longer queuing up. I imagine this kerfuffle also then explains why the installer from my recent snapshot .iso wanted to label the partition 'rootMX-16' (rather than 15).

Some weeks back I'd seen some mention (forum, facebook, somewhere) of an MX-16 package having slipped into the MX-15 repos and causing problems, but I didn't pick up that an automated repo entry was part of the issue ... At the time I simply delayed until another round of updates became available, presuming that as a known bug the issue would be resolved therein. As my system continued to function afterwards I then presumed whatever it was had passed and carried on as usual. <grrmbl> 'presumptions' can sneak up on one, eh? : }

Anyway, 'now I know'. Is it safe to assume that having had the MX-16 repo enabled for a time only affects MX/antiX stuff and that the underlaying Debian system is still solid (ie. MX-15 & 16 both draw from jessie repos, right?)? If anyone has suggestions as to other packages I should look into rolling back to MX-15 versions please advise.

[lucky9]

As long as there are no upgrades made with Backports, Testing, etc. you should have no problems. If you do an upgrade with non-default repositories enabled then all bets are off.

My upgrading is done whenever there is a notification one is available. All without problems.

All repositories are used here for individual programs. Usually that I think I have a use for the latest version. Sometimes I actually do.

[Richard]

That's my experience, @lucky9.

Since the appearance of MX-TRI and MX-DBI
I keep only the stock repos active,
plus DoubleCmd and Virtualbox.