Black screen after login after upgrade/dist-upgrade

[pendragyn]

In a virtual box installation after performing an 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt-get dist-upgrade -y' when I boot up I get the login screen then the system goes to a black screen with an X for the cursor. I can right click and start a terminal which works but I have no functional gui.

A dmesg shows:

gnome-session-f[1172]: segfault at 0 ip 00007f8887b9da29 sp 00007ffc9326acb0 error 4 in libgtk-3.so.0.2200.4[7f88878bb000+6f7000]

I created a new virtual install and compared the two noticing the non-upgraded one has gnome 1:3.20+1 and the patched one has 1:3.20+2.

I tried backing down with 'apt-get install gnome=1:3.20+1 but it couldn't find the version.

Anyone know of a way I can roll gnome back to 1:3.20+1 to see if that fixes the issue? I can use use the new virtual install, but I also have Kali on a laptop that was upgraded and I am trying not to reboot it before I know of a fix.

[MrBlack911]

Same deal here. After performing the "dist-upgrade" I could not even reach a login screen. Spent hours trawling Google and can now reach a login screen and enter my details but that just takes me to the black/blank screen with 'X' for a cursor.

Can provide more details if requested if anyone thinks they can help..?

[warrend]

multiple I know having same issue you can get the kernel to 4.8 but as soon as you apply dist-upgrade desktop goes away and have not found anything to restore it ... this has happened in both Virtual BOx and KVM virtual machines
tried reinstalling desktop and gdm3 so far nothing has gotten the desktop back

[Neil]

I too have the same issue. I have tried to changing desktop manager to lightdm but that didn't make a difference.

[kali-padawan]

Same here, I got the same error msg with dmesg. Looks like this problem is very new, since I didn't find anything about it either. I also do not know how to reproduce this error, am using kali as a real system and don't want to backup and reinstall everything Btw on another machine it doesn't appear so I was thinking about an hardware issue, something like not supporting a monitor anymore. But I can hardly believe this. Besides Wayland seems to work very well in my case. Would be very nice if someone could help us out!

[Ashai Reddy]

Same problem... after dist-upgrade, when i reboot my kali virtual machine it gives me login screen but after I login, I get black screen with the 'X' mark cursor. I have 281 apps that are not upgraded. I can't get my linux header files because I wasn't able to upgrade them or their might be some other issue. I am using Kali Linux 2016.2 version and I feel linux headers are unavailable for version 4.6.0. Do anyone have any idea how to install header files for version 4.6.0 ?? I am working on a cloned Kali linux machine to avoid such problems the boot problem.

[grossnik]

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugr...cgi?bug=846898
=> https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/pk...revision=51761
we have to wait ...

[danijov]

As stated in the links grossnik posted you can go around this issue by rebooting and logging into gnome-wayland

[blackout08]

In case anyone else ran into the same issue as I did. I ran update/upgrade and was still getting mutter 3.22.2-1. When I ran apt-cache show mutter, I was still see 3.22.2-1.

Ran "apt-get clean", then "apt-get update" and got the latest version 3.22.2-2. "apt-get upgrade" and was good to go. Hope that helps anyone that runs into this issue.

[pendragyn]

Ran "apt-get clean", then "apt-get update" and got the latest version 3.22.2-2. "apt-get upgrade" and was good to go. Hope that helps anyone that runs into this issue.

Did this just fix the issue you were having logging into Wayland, or did it fix Gnome proper also?

[grossnik]

As stated in the links grossnik posted you can go around this issue by rebooting and logging into gnome-wayland

Yes - but note that PATH value incomplete:
[gnome-wayland] => /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games
[gnome] => /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

[grossnik]

it has been fixed now :-)
apt-get update
...
apt-show-versions -a mutter
mutter:amd64 3.22.2-1 install ok installed
mutter:amd64 3.22.2-2~kali1 kali-rolling http.kali.org
mutter:amd64/kali-rolling 3.22.2-1 upgradeable to 3.22.2-2~kali1

If you are in gnome-wayland the PATH is broken. I had to do:
apt-get update
export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
apt-get upgrade

Reboot => all OK...

[warrend]

cool worked like a charm ... just passed it along and got 5 other people backup cheers

[pendragyn]

Thank you blackout08 and grossnik. I upgrade mutter to 3.22.2-2~kali1 and was able to get back into gnome.

[MrBlack911]

Hey guys,

I'm really sorry but could anyone please talk me through the fix in more detail?
I've just started Linux and to be honest, had never heard of 'mutter' until I just read this thread a few days ago.
Same situation as everyone else... apt-get update worked fine. apt-get upgrade worked fine. But then after running the apt-get dist-upgrade, I lose the desktop. Is there anyone here that could be bothered walking me through the remedy..? I need the dist-upgrade to be able to update my kernel headers (it never finds the header update until I do the dist-upgrade) and I need those updated headers for VirtualBox Guest Additions to install without error.

Please let me know what other information you might require to help.

EDIT:

Sigh...

Sorry for the immediate double post. Just ran the dist-upgrade on one of my Virtual Machine clones and I did have the desktop upon reboot. Great! Went ahead and installed VBoxGuestAdditions via command "apt-get install -y virtualbox-guest-x11". Didnt throw up any errors but after rebooting the login screen is frozen/locked. Cannot type the username or raise a bash window with CNTRL-ALT-F1-6.

Any hints..?

Thanks very much everyone.

[kali-padawan]

For the one(s) who did it, thank you very much!

[megams]

already posted this elsewhere.
something similar happened with me while I was trying to update and then upgrade Kali Rolling 2016.2, the version with pre-installed tools (not the 'lite' version). I was kicked into the login screen and upon login there was nothing except for the blue background and the top bar with no image content. Guess its because the installer get interrupted at a point because of some service restart. You can check the installation log file if interested.

I had to reinstall Kali at that point of time but I guess there is an alternative too.

1. When at login screen, try Alt+Ctrl+F3. You'll now be in the terminal interface where you're to enter your login credentials.
2. Make sure you're connected to ethernet or to wifi by typing the command 'iwconfig' and confirming the ESSID.
3. Considering that the installation was interrupted, enter 'dpkg --configure -a' to resume the installation.
4. Now, let it complete and reboot.
5. Congrats! You must be into your upgraded Kali. If not, consider reinstalling Kali and follow the steps 1 and 2. Then update and upgrade using commands 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade'.
6. Also, if after you want to, you can 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' after step 5.

I am pretty new to linux apart from having screwed my Windows desktop more than once while installing ubuntu years ago.

Comment. I'll try to be of help.