On Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:20:01 +0100 Greg Wooledge <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 11:52:04AM -0800, Charlie Gibbs wrote: > >> I updated my main machine to Bookworm (12.2, kernel 6.1.0.13-amd64) >> some time ago and it's running well. >> >> I read the fuss about EXT4 file system corruption. At first >> I got the impression that this happened in 12.4, but further digging >> suggests that the bug was in 12.3, fixed in 12.4. Is this the case, >> or should I wait for 12.5 before updating my other machines? > > Yes, it's fixed. The current stable kernel ABI is 6.1.0-17, which is > from a security update post 12.4. > <https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2024/msg00000.html> > > The data corruption bug was initially fixed by a kernel which had a > major bug in a Wifi support module. The kernel after *that* was the > first safe one. And now we have -17 which is that plus some more > security fixes. Upgrading is recommended. Thanks, Greg - and everyone else who answered - for the reassurances. Today I took a thorough backup of my laptop and dove in, using the instructions at https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUpgrade as a guide. The process went smoothly, as always, so I took a deep breath and performed the scariest step of all: re-booting. It took a while, but being the first boot on a new system I gave it some slack (no pun intended). Then the screen painted and... what the HELL happened to my desktop? It looked more like my wife's Macbook than good old Xfce. The only way I could get a command prompt was to SSH in from another machine (at least the networking came up OK). I can run slrn remotely - which is how I read this list - and I can even run my preferred web browser, Seamonkey, from that remote command line. A bit more web searching came up with these commands: $ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP $ (Well, maybe since it's a remote login it doesn't work properly.) $ ps -e | grep -E -i "xfce|kde|gnome" Omigod, I'm infested with GNOMEs! What happened to Xfce? This didn't happen when I upgraded my main machine, although it went to 12.2, not the 12.4 that's on my laptop. And the damned thing hibernates - making my SSH session hang - rather than running xscreensaver. (OK, I found a setting to stop the hibernation, but Jamie Zawinski's pride and joy is still nowhere to be found.) However, I can make the laptop's screen display a settings window, which contains interesting things like: OS Name Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) OS Type 64-bit GNOME version 43.9 (Aha!) Windowing System Wayland (WHAT!?) I followed the update steps exactly, accepting all defaults. Well, there was one thing: since I was already at a root prompt after doing my backup, I just typed "apt-get <whatever>" rather than prefixing the commands with "sudo". Could this cause such a drastic change? And if so, it would be nice if the documentation warned about it. Xfce to GNOME? Xorg to Wayland? That's pretty extreme. I'm not yet ready to wipe it and restore my backup, but there's only so much time I'm willing to spend tinkering with this. I regularly use my laptop for work on the road, and I'm trying to minimize my downtime. I don't understand it - when I upgraded my main machine, everything went smooth as butter, and my desktop and all applications were left exactly as is. But on my laptop, the only thing that appears intact is the contents of /home. Can anyone suggest what happened and how to fix it? -- /~\ Charlie Gibbs | "Some of you may die, \ / <[email protected]> | but it's a sacrifice X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | I'm willing to make." / \ if you read it the right way. | -- Lord Farquaad (Shrek)
