Bad update - X11 corrupted

[Martin Stone]

Dick,

Here's a way to boot from the hard disk and skip the graphical stuff:

When the GRUB bootloader screen comes up, hit the 'a' key - this allows you to 
modify the kernel parameters that are being used to boot your system.  Backspace 
over 'rhgb' to remove it, then type '3' (without the quotes) and hit Enter. 
This tells the Linux kernel to boot to runlevel 3 instead of what is specified 
in /etc/inittab (that would be '5' in your case.)  Runlevel 3 is the normal 
runlevel with all normal services running except for X.  Much easier to 
troubleshoot your system from this point than from a rescue disk.

After you've booted to runlevel 3, you can log in normally and try to diagnose 
your X problem.  I recommend starting by trying:

X -probeonly

and seeing (and telling us!) what error messages are reported.

Good luck!
Martin


Dick Brown wrote:
> Thanks to those who have replied so far.
> 
> I did make a boot disk, and can get to a system prompt with "linux 
> single".  The problem I'm having is that I can't get a graphical login.  
> When the login prompt comes up, the system automatically tries to go to 
> the graphical login.  Unfortunately, it can't get there, so keeps 
> cycling from text login to graphical login and back, so I can't do 
> anything.
> 
> There was one other thing I tried, and maybe this was bad.  When I 
> couldn't log in normally after the failed update, I tried reinstalling 
> Fedora over itself.  It seemed to go fine installing over RH8, so I 
> figured it would be okay to install over itself, too.  Would this have 
> messed it up?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dick
> 
> jludwig wrote:
> 
>>> Hi all,
>>>    I recently decided to upgrade from RH8 to Fedora.  I downloaded
>>> the .iso files, burned them and installed without a hitch (checked 
>>> the md5sum and the finished CDs first).
>>>    Unfortunately, when I performed the system update, the X11 package
>>> was corrupted.  Now I can't boot into Fedora normally.  I can get in 
>>> through the "Linux rescue" from the install disk, but I'm afraid I
>>> don't know what to do from there.  I'm at that dangerous stage where 
>>> I know enough to get myself into trouble, but not enough to get 
>>> myself out,
>>> so I don't really want to touch anything without some advice first.  
>>> Is there an easy fix to this?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Dick
>>>   
>>
>>
>> What were the error messages, if any, while booting?
>> This will give me/us an idea how to help you fix this problem.
>> jludwig <wralphie at comcast.net>
>>
>>
>>  
>>
> 
> 
>