Your message dated Sat, 28 Jan 2017 12:24:46 +0100
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: Bug#801467: base: Boot process freezes dead after kernel 
upgrade linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae:i386 3.2.71-2
has caused the Debian Bug report #801467,
regarding base: Boot process freezes dead after kernel upgrade 
linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae:i386 3.2.71-2
to be marked as done.

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If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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-- 
801467: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=801467
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: base
Justification: breaks the whole system
Severity: critical

Dear Maintainer,

I'm using Debian 7 Wheezy for a long time. In 2015-10-07 I've applied proposed upgrades:

libfreetype6:i386 2.4.9-1.1+deb7u1 2.4.9-1.1+deb7u2
linux-image-3.2.0-4-486:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2
linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-686-pae:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-486:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-common:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2
linux-libc-dev:i386 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 3.2.71-2

On the other day I wasn't able to boot up my system, because it freezes dead at boot process. Just right before login screen should appear. In the moment the system switches from character-mode to graphical one, the system stuck forever with black screen and clock-shaped mouse pointer in the right bottom corner (mouse/touchpad or keyboard aren't active). The only option here is to turn off computer with hard power button.

No one of the stated above kernel versions or their rescue modes doesn't work. The same result (as described above) for all of them.

Though I've found that I can normally run any LiveCDs that I have (Xubuntu, Debian 7 — from which the system was installed).

And I can run any of the stated above kernels if I use kernel option «acpi=off» (modifying bootup command in the grub2 menu). It works as usual, except Gnom3 doesn't start (probably, requires some ACPI services), Gnome2 fallback starts instead, and the system doesn't switch off properly, may be something else.

I'm using Debian GNU/Linux 7.9 (wheezy), kernel version 3.2.0-4-686-pae (gcc version 4.6.3 (Debian 4.6.3-14)) on at least 7 years old Dell Inspiron 1525 notebook.

dpkg -s libc6 | grep ^Version
Version: 2.13-38+deb7u8

Also I found that at least one other user has exactly the same problem:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2015/10/msg00175.html
Machine freezes after kernel update
After the last kernel update and restart, a wheezy-based machine (laptop running 7.9) boots to some point, however it freezes just before opening GUI. Access to CLI (Ctrl-Alt-F1 etc) is also not possible. What to do to recover?
Sat Oct 10 2015 20:56:18 GMT+0300 (MSK)

See full discussion there. In short: he encounters the same problem with the same updates. Old kernel versions are missing from bootloader menu (and from the system, actually). He managed to access the file system by using rescue CD, and found the older kernel images were archived in /var/cache/apt/archives as .deb packages. There were 3.2.68-1+deb7u4 images & headers (that worked perfectly), however apt-get install still wants to use "newest" version 3.2.71-2 (that produced the problem). Then, he somehow managed to start the system with CLI and had reinstalled the old kernel versions from .deb ( dpkg -i /path/to/packagename.deb ). The problem with boot process was solved for him.

The same with me: he uses LILO, I use Grub. But it hadn't saved old good kernel versions in the exactly same manner. I have no option of previous kernel versions in bootloader menu either. And I've never tweaked Grub on the computer, it's how it works out of the box of standard Debian 7 installation. So, if newly installed kernel version doesn't work properly for me, I have no simple way to return to the previous working one.

I've done the same downgrade as him. I've loaded with kernel option «--add rw init=/bin/bash» (modifying bootup command in the grub2 menu), it gave me CLI with root access. Then with command «dpkg -i» I've reinstalled the packages from cache:

linux-image-3.2.0-4-486_3.2.68-1+deb7u4_i386.deb
linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae_3.2.68-1+deb7u4_i386.deb
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-common_3.2.68-1+deb7u4_i386.deb
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-486_3.2.68-1+deb7u4_i386.deb
linux-headers-3.2.0-4-686-pae_3.2.68-1+deb7u4_i386.deb

Images related to 3.2.71-2 packages were completely removed. After that I can boot my system normally again.

Though, the questions are: what exactly caused the problem? Is it some bug in kernel beyond my appreciation or something wrong with my PC (old BIOS, falling apart hardware, weird settings, etc.), which possible lead to more problems in future?

And what should we do with future upgrades from now?

Thanks in advance!


Best regards,
Dmitry Piyavkin

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.9
  APT prefers oldstable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500, 'oldstable-proposed-updates'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=ru_RU.utf8, LC_CTYPE=ru_RU.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 21:36:21 +0300, Piyavkin wrote:

> Package: base
> Justification: breaks the whole system
> Severity: critical
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> I'm using Debian 7 Wheezy for a long time. In 2015-10-07 I've applied
> proposed upgrades:
> 
Thanks for your report.  Please contact one of the user support channels
as listed at https://www.debian.org/support as this report is not
actionable in this state.

The 'base' package is the wrong place for this report, so I'll be
closing it now.

Cheers,
Julien

--- End Message ---

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