Re: Dell Inspiron 17 3000 Series 3785 problem with X

Moshe Piekarski <[email protected]> Wed, 14 Aug 2019 12:47:29 -0400
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.user.laptop
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
On 8/14/19 2:51 AM, Ernst Doubt wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> i've been an avid debian user for more than 2 decades at this point
> and just
>
> bought myself my first laptop. It and buster are new enough that a
> quick web
>
> search didn't show me much. Apologies if questions of this sort have been
>
> asked before (i subscribed myself to the list instead of doing an
> extensive
>
> search (i did check for 'dell 3785' and none of the results seemed
> like they
>
> were particularly helpful)).
>
> So i managed to install successfully (the LVM level encryption option
> seems
>
> very excellent -- that's what i chose) but when i restarted, the
> machine hung.
>
> Gnome Display Manager tried to briefly start. No GUI appeared though
> -- only a
>
> momentary flicker of the screen (with no mouse pointer, only a blinking
>
> underscore at the top left of the display) before reverting to command
> line
>
> output. After dropping back to the command line, no login prompt is
> available (nor am i able to access any other consoles via ctrl-alt-Fn
> nor alt-Fn key combinations. Fortunately i am able to get a root
> prompt in rescue mode, so i'm
>
> hopeful (that with the help of some of you kind people) that i will be
> able to
>
> succeed in getting my preferred KDE desktop environment to eventually
> load.
>
This sounds a lot like a graphics card bug. (see
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156341 for a possibly
related bug in nvidia cards)
>
> I have several questions:
>
> How do i enable networking from the command line?
>
Try ifconfig and dhclient. Alternatively wicd network manager has a
curses interface.
>
> i assume i can do this in
>
> rescue mode?
>
I think so but you may want to try booting into multi-user mode instead
>
> i was able to connect to my wireless network during the install,
>
> but if it's easier to plug in an ethernet cable, i'm happy to try that
> instead
>
> (DHCP is enabled (both wireless and ethernet end up in the same
> network at my home), though i'm willing to set a static IP also).
>
> What log files should i be looking for on this newly installed buster
> machine?
>
Two good places to start would probably be /var/log/X*  and journalctl,
after setting storage to persistent (if you are using systemd).
>
> My guess is that i may have to install some proprietary non-free firmware
>
> packages (which i'm OK with).
>
firmware-amd-graphics (from non-free) may help.
>
> My quick web search indicated that ubuntu ought
>
> to work, but i'd rather stick with debian (though it's possible that
> at some
>
> point in the future i'll cry uncle). Would it be helpful for me to
> boot from a live DVD (either debian or ubuntu) in order to
> troubleshoot this problem?
>
> thanks so very much for any assistance/insight anyone is able to provide,
>
> ~e
>
Sincerely,

Moshe Piekarski

--

There's no such thing as a stupid question,

But there are plenty of inquisitive idiots.
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