Xorg/Xserver config files deleted -- help! [SOLVED]

[Slim.Fatz]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine running Peppermint Six 32-bit version has just called me with a problem that I would like to help him fix: especially since he does not know that much about Linux and because I am the person who convinced him to move to Linux, ditch Micro$oft completely and then even installed Peppermint Six on his only computer.

I taught him how to use the Synaptic package manager for keeping his machine up-to-date. Everything has been running absolutely fine --  until he decided to try some clean-up of his installation. He assured me that all he did was open Synaptic (he always does this as I do: with the Status button on the left depressed) click on the item Not installed (residual config), and then he performed a Mark for Complete Removal and removed everything that was there, since it said that none of it was installed anyway and under the column named Installed Version nothing was listed.

Now he cannot get into his login screen, similar to this forum posting. Unfortunately, although in this posting PCNetSpec explains the why part, the question remains: how to go about reviving the installation? 

My friend says that after leaving the GRUB screen, the Peppermint Six splash bar goes as normal to become completely red, then the screen goes black and that's the end. 

I hope to get an explanation here so that I can either tell him via telephone how to solve this, or I will drive to where he lives (unfortunately rather far away) and perform the steps for him.

So ... can someone give me the solution? We would prefer to avoid a re-installation of the system if at all possible.

BTW, I almost forgot: I did note some items after doing his installation: his graphics card is an old AMD/ATI RV610 Radeon HD 2400 Pro and he is (was) using the ati and radeon drivers from the default install (no proprietary drivers).

Regards,

-- Slim

[PCNetSpec]

Solution coming up .. just need to test it.

Make sure he has a LiveCD/LiveUSB to hand.

[PCNetSpec]

Okay, boot Peppermint (on the HDD) and drop to a text console (Ctrl+Alt+F3)

Log on in text made and run:

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dpkg -l | grep lts-utopic | grep xserver

it should spit out a list of packages that are installed that contain "xserver" in their names .. write these package names down.

Probably best at this point to also run:

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sudo blkid

and try to identify the device node that peppermint is installed on (eg. /dev/sda1)

From this point on, I'm assuming Peppermint / is on /dev/sda1

Now reboot to the LiveCD/LiveUSB live session desktop (Try Peppermint) and open a terminal  <--the LiveCD/LiveUSB must be the same architecture as the Installed OS (so both 32bit or both 64bit)

Run:

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sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

then

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for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done

then

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sudo chroot /mnt

now anything you install/reinstall (from this root terminal) will be done on the HDD installation (not the Live session), so you now need to reinstall all the packages you identified earlier with "xserver" in their names .. so for example:

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apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-core-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-utopic

Once done, hit Ctrl+D to exit the chroot environment.

And reboot to the hard drive.

[Slim.Fatz]

Hi PCNetSpec,

Thanks a million  times for the rapid reply!! 

This looks easy enough to guide him through it over the telephone -- only I made a mistake by not giving him a live USB with Peppermint Six on it.  I've learned my lesson now and will do that for all future "converts" !! So I guess I'll pay him a visit and we'll get it up and running.

Finding the correct partition is easy: I modified his GRUB configuration scripts in

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/etc/grub.d/

(and elsewhere as well) so that the GRUB selection menu displays the partition containing Peppermint Six. The only thing that concerns me at the moment is this: his installation is the one just prior to the Respin and I no longer have this ISO. I assume everything will still work using the Respin 32-bit ISO (since you only mentioned that the processor arch must match -- i.e. 32-bit).

Thanks again,

-- Slim

[PCNetSpec]

You can use the respin as long as it's the same architecture as his box (32bit).

[Slim.Fatz]

Hi PCNetSpec,

Success!! Thank you very much for your tips. I just had one slight problem: after booting the machine on the HDD I found that I could not call up a text console with <Ctrl><Alt><F3> as the keyboard was dead. 

So I did the REISUB to reboot and selected not only one of the "Advanced" options in the GRUB menu, but I also removed the splash and quiet kernel boot options as well to see what the boot process might be doing.

That (removing the kernel boot options) probably was not necessary as this time I got the text console automagically and logged in. Then I followed your tips and after the reboot everything was repaired. 

So now my buddy has a reanimated installation, a live USB with Peppermint Six Respin 32-bit and also a lesson in not touching those items in his Synaptic package manager. 

He loves Peppermint Six because he never has to do anything other than regularly check for updates and remove old kernels (which I had already told him how to do).

Thank you again from both of us,

-- Slim

[PCNetSpec]

The xorg configs will no longer be in the "residual configs" list so he should now be safe anyway

It was purely that the configs from things like xserver-xorg were being reused by xserver-xorg-lts-utopic even though the original xserver-xorg package had been replaced .. it was my fault really, I should have removed the configs and allowed the lts-utopic packages to replace them, but fixing it now via an update would be risking killing peoples graphics stack so I haven't bothered.

It was caused by the decision to stick with 14.04 for Peppermint 6 but to grade the kernel  and xorg via the lts enablement stack (something we'd never done before) .. by the time we get around to Peppermint 8 (probably also based on 16.04) I'll know to remove the configs beforehand

You live and learn eh 

[Slim.Fatz]

Hi PCNetSpec,

Yes, I noticed that on his machine the"residual config" category was then empty -- but I didn't really think any more about it as we were both so happy that everything was "back to normal". 

He later told me that he got the idea to remove the "packages" (that were not even present) by following the tips in this article (in particular tip number 2). Since I had told him about Peppermint Six being based on Ubuntu -- just made much lighter and faster, etc. -- he thought that the tips in this article were safe to follow -- especially since the entries under "residual config" indicated that no version was currently installed for any of the things listed. 

Oh well, live and learn. Nothing lost other than a little driving time for Slim. 

Thanks again for the help!!

Regards,

-- Slim

[PCNetSpec]

As always you're most welcome Slim