[Virtual-pkg-base-maintainers] Bug#801467: base: Boot process freezes dead after kernel upgrade linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae:i386 3.2.71-2

[Piyavkin]

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