Ted Byers composed on 2015-05-13 10:21 (UTC-0400):
I now have a second Suse box that is refusing to start properly. I used Yast to do an online update (opensuse 13.2), and it gave me a message that one of the updates required a reboot. I thus tried to reboot, but it failed to start properly. Instead I get a fatal error about xgifb. The first ststaement I see is that it complains that it is unable to request memory, size 2000000. The next, which it flags as fatal, sayy it is unable to reserve frame buffer memory and it asks if there is another frame buffer driver active.
Now, on this machine, I can get to a repair 'desktop', which seems to be comprised of a command shell (maybe bash? sh?) But I have no idea what to do, what commands to submit, in order to fix this thing. Can someone advise on what to try, and what documentation to look at?
I am feeling rather hamstrung as I am a programmer, not a system administrator or computer repair tech.
I have a 13.2 system with what may be the same gfxchip, or at least is using the same driver as yours. I just did 'zypper -v up' on it and it still works as expected. Some data points on mine: # lsmod | grep fb xgifb 106299 0 # uname -a Linux g5eas 3.16.7-21-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 14 07:11:37 UTC 2015 (93c1539) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux # rpmqa xf86 | grep sis xf86-video-sis-0.10.7-8.1.4.x86_64 # grep 'using VT' /var/log/Xorg.0.log [ 1033.392] (--) using VT number 7 # lspci | grep VGA 0a:03.0 VGA compatible controller: XGI Technology Inc. (eXtreme Graphics Innovation) Z7/Z9 (XG20 core) # grep chipsets /var/log/Xorg.0.log | egrep -v 'VESA|FBDEV' [ 1033.390] (II) SIS: driver for SiS chipsets: SIS5597/5598, SIS530/620, [ 1033.392] (II) SIS: driver for XGI chipsets: Volari Z7 (XG20), # grep PRETTY /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="openSUSE 13.2 (Harlequin) (x86_64)" # grep 'X.Org X Server' /var/log/Xorg.0.log X.Org X Server 1.16.1 # grep 'Kernel Command Line' /var/log/Xorg.0.log [ 1033.353] Kernel command line: root=LABEL=2st12os132 ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 noresume splash=0 vga=791 3 It may help us help you to know your output from at least 'lspci | grep VGA', but more helpful and possibly necessary would be to share[1] your entire /var/log/Xorg.0.log from having tried a normal boot. If as Carlos suggested to try the previous kernel does not help, try booting with 3 added on the fly to the Grub cmdline to bring up the system without X running. Login as root, then do 'zypper ref; zypper -v up' and see if it finds any packages that YaST updates missed. If booting the previous kernel does help, try removing the newer kernel with YaST or Zypper, then reinstalling it, after first doing 'zypper ref; zypper -v up'. Another thought: try appending splash=0 and/or vga=791 on the fly to the Grub cmdline. Maybe you're facing a Plymouth problem that one of these might work around. If this works, uninstalling Plymouth or tweaking Grub2 configuration could keep it from coming back during next round of updates. I don't have Plymouth installed. The driver xf86-video-sis is one that isn't very commonly required, so probably doesn't get a lot of testing before releasing. [1] e.g. http://susepaste.org/ -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org