[Debian-eeepc-devel] I've been having trouble booting wheezy on my ASUS 1000HE.

[Hendrik Boom]

On Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:42 -0300, Ben Armstrong wrote:

> On 05/24/2012 10:43 PM, Hendrik Boom wrote:
>> What happens with the new kernel is that it boots, but at the end of
>> the boot sequence, it gives me a login screen that invites me to enter
>> my user name.  The screen seems subtly malformed -- it looks as if it
>> has been stretched horizontally, and the little wheel that marks the
>> mouse position is an ellipse.
> 
> This sounds like you're missing xserver-xorg-video-intel 

Already had that.

> and are falling
> back to -vesa or something. Failing that, maybe a wrong boot option (do
> not disable KMS ... recent Xorg needs that!)

How do I find out whether I'm disabling KMS?  There seems to be no mentino 
of KMS in my static boot stanzas (I'm using old grub 1):

for the current kernel, that fails:

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.2.0-2-686-pae
root            (hd0,5)
kernel          /vmlinuz-3.2.0-2-686-pae root=/dev/mapper/VG1-root--deb 
ro 
initrd          /initrd.img-3.2.0-2-686-pae

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.2.0-2-686-pae (single-user 
mode)
root            (hd0,5)
kernel          /vmlinuz-3.2.0-2-686-pae root=/dev/mapper/VG1-root--deb ro 
single
initrd          /initrd.img-3.2.0-2-686-pae

or for the old kernel that works:

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.0.0-1-686-pae testing (testing-
grub) OK
root            (hd0,5)
kernel          /vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae root=/dev/mapper/VG1-testing--
root ro 
initrd          /initrd.img-3.0.0-1-686-pae

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.0.0-1-686-pae testing (single-
user mode)
root            (hd0,5)
kernel          /vmlinuz-3.0.0-1-686-pae root=/dev/mapper/VG1-testing--
root ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-3.0.0-1-686-pae

Or do I need to look elsewhere for this option?

> 
>> But the real problem comes when I actually try to log in.  It is
>> totally unresponsive to the keyboard and the mouse.
> 
> This sounds like you are missing xserver-xorg-input-evdev. 

Indeed, I was.  Not I have it, but there's no improvement.

>It used to be
> that -input-kbd and -input-synaptics handled keyboard and
> touchpad/mouse, but now evdev handles everything.
> 
> I'm not sure why the problems appear to you be related to the kernel. 

Because booting an old kernel works, whereas a new one doesn't.

> It
> sounds to me much more likely that they are Xorg-related. That being
> said, modern Xorg and kernel work in close concert with each other so
> that a mismatch in versions and/or packages installed can lead to
> strange behaviours such as you reported.

I regularly do aptitude safe-upgrade.  I'm worried that the regularly 
upgraded xorg will stop working with the kernel that I'm actually using.  
> 
> Always pay careful attention when doing upgrades as to which packages
> apt/aptitude says will be removed. Make sure it makes sense. Doubly so
> when you're running testing or unstable.
> 
> Ben

I suppose I should try a single-user boot sometime.  See if the keyboard 
is still unresponsive without X.

-- hendrik