Kali 3.18.0 not loading to GUI after a failed attempt to dist-upgrade

[luv420]

problem background: it's been a while since I last made any update to the system as I was travailing and hadn't had an access to a fast & stable internet connection. yesterday I was trying to update the outdated chrome browser, in the same way I successfully did several time in the past, but this time it didn't worked as expected: at some some point there was a suggestion to use the commend apt-get -f install, I wasn't sure, so I looked up at some YouTube tutorial and tried to follow one of them, and because this step was indeed part of the tutorial(s) I tried it for a couple of times myself but it didn't worked out. now it will be a good time to do a dist-upgrade, so I thought... so I updated the repos in source file from the official Kali website and tried to apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade but during the upgrade there was a blue screen with a massage, which its content I don't remember, I clicked "ok" and it continue, but after a minute or two I started to notice that the kali GUI skin is suddenly disappeared and rollback to its basic skin, I tried to open a picture but a 'Oh no! Something has gone wrong' screen appeared and the computer reboot. now I can only can access to the CLI in normal or recovery mode. I tried to run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade from there but with no luck. related pictures attached, any help will be highly appreciated.







in recovery mode:







Thanks for your help

[steev]

do NOT enable sana, and kali-rolling, and moto. That is a big no-no.

Moto was 1.0
Sana was 2.0
kali-rolling is the current version.

You should only ever have 1 in your sources.list. comment out (remove completely preferable) the sana and moto lines. And try to dist-upgrade again.

[luv420]

thanks @steev I tried it but nothing seems to be changed.

[steev]

After you comment out the wrong parts, you'll need to do

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get -f install

And either keep trying those 3 until it finally works itself out....
Or re-install and learn from your mistake and not do that again

[luv420]

apt-get update:



apt-get dist-upgrade: gives the same screen as seen before

apt-get -f install:





Should I choose Yes?

[steev]

Yes.... the instructions even told you to run it. You may need to do it a couple of times, if it gets stuck, and likely need to plug in ethernet to get internet access, since it says it needs to get 2875 kB still so a package hasn't been downloaded yet.

[luv420]

apt-get -f install was seemed to be working fine without errors twice (during the second time I was requested to change the SQL password), and I was trying to run apt-get dist-upgrade after each of those times, but it still didn't worked out, so I tired to apt-get -f install again but this time got the following error (which I have no idea what to do about).

any help would be highly appreciated.

[steev]

Honestly, at this point, you should just do a clean kali-rolling install.

You can also try removing the snmpcheck package since snmp is trying to overwrite a file from it. But really, you're better off starting from scratch, and NOT modifying the values of /etc/apt/sources.list until you're more familiar, and ONLY ever add in what we have documented (and note that the documentation states to ONLY use one, not every single entry.)

[luv420]

Before reinstalling I'd like to first try to manually fix that.

So, I've tried to comment out Kali rolling & Moto sources and ran apt-get update, upgrade and dist-upgrade and it's was seemed like it was successfully done and was updated to Sana, but it's still not loading to the GUI. there seems to be a problem with the redis-server.service as well as with miredo.service but I still haven't figured out how to fix it.

when i'm trying to update\upgrade\dist-upgrade:



redis-server start\status:



redis-server journalctl -xe:



redis.conf line 375 (/etc/redis/redis.conf):

[steev]

you have packages from a variety of sources installed now. You need to use kali-rolling, not sana or moto.

You can attempt to remove the problematic packages, and you can look in the logs to see what is causing X to not start properly (/var/log/Xorg.0.log); but since you have packages from multiple versions of kali, your system is in too questionable a state, which is why a fresh install was suggested.

And you're still going to need to jump through the hoops of running those commands a few times. And *always* accept the package maintainer's version of the config files.

So switch it to kali-rolling, and try again.

[pedropt]

I dont think it is possible to upgrade kali moto directly to rolling .
What he should do is to enable kali sana repositories , then do and update,upgrade & dist-upgrade
after that he do an update again on sana .
After be on Sana release desktop , then he can activate the rolling repositories and do an update,upgrade & dist-upgrade .
dist-upgrades in kali must be incrementally , 1,2,3 and not 1,3 , one of the biggest reasons is that moto and sana work completely differently .
Kali sana is a systemd OS while moto is not .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd

[steev]

He is already "on" sana.

And no, dist-upgrades in kali do not have to be incremental.

He isn't running into issues because of systemd, he's running into issues because he enabled kali-rolling, sana AND moto together and installed things.

The issue he's having is due to applications having been moved (or removed) so packages will conflict, and he's somehow got older configurations, with newer versions of packages, so they are not starting. Again, this isn't due to systemd, this is due to having kept the old configurations and not upgrading the configuration.

Unfortunately though, we're getting pictures of the screen and not log files, so it's not easy to tell where the issues are.

[pedropt]

Best possible/fast option :

1- Get an US stick drive
2- mount the drive in your kali (When you are still be able to have terminal)
3- copy all your personal stuff to usb stick
4- umount usb stick
5- get new kali dvd image
6- erase current OS kali partition
7- Install new kali

Note : if you dont have anything particular on kali that you want to copy , then start on option 5 .

Just thinking ...... I am still figuring why people keep going to kali rolling or even sana , if systemd is the worst **** ever implemented in Linux , and the best thing is that no much people understands it how it works . However , kali maintainers are unable to get off systemd because kali distribution relies on debian , and while Debian don't give up that **** systemd then kali maintainers have no chance .

Note : Systemd is only good from people that do not touch too much on OS by implementing new tools and removing others , because if you do that , then you better return to Sys V before you start re-installing your kali every week .

Note: I have 1 server on systemd that i hardly touch it just to not break everything there .

.... parallell computing ..... lol

[steev]

Just because *you* do not understand a tool doesn't make it bad. There are many annoying features of systemd, HOWEVER, they have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the issues the person in this thread is facing, so take the anti-systemd rants elsewhere. If you look in the pictures, it is due to packages having binaries moved around. This has NOTHING to do with systemd, and EVERYTHING to do with the way the upstream maintainers changed the packaging of the binaries, and due to mixing all 3 repos, having a bunch of conflicting packages installed.

I already suggested that the person start from scratch. They want to attempt to fix the issue (which is a learning experience, so it's not a bad thing). Your thoughts are misguided, and the anti-systemd ranting is unnecessary and just makes you look... uneducated.

[pedropt]

You did not understood my point .
I did not mention that systemd is the problem in this case , and that is why i wrote before systemd "Just thinking" .

Anyway , since he have some problems fixing the issue , then explain him how to setup a port forward on his router and teach him to open an ssh port over the terminal , he sends you the password and his ip , you connect , fix the issue , and after problem solved he removes the port forward from router and change his root password .
Easy , simple and direct .

Last note :
The Debian forum people denveloped a non systemd fork from debian jessie at :
devuan.org
This would be a new good start for kali , but i believe they will continue with debian even knowing that they will have more problems with it .

[steev]

However, if I fix it for him, it doesn't teach him to do it for himself.

And again, the systemd rants are for elsewhere. Go make a fresh post about how it sucks instead of tucking it in to edits in comments. Or better, go do the same work that the Kali devs do based on the fork instead of expecting them to bend to your whims.

[pedropt]

And again, the systemd rants are for elsewhere. Go make a fresh post about how it sucks instead of tucking it in to edits in comments. Or better, go do the same work that the Kali devs do based on the fork instead of expecting them to bend to your whims.

Look , i am not a noob like you think , and secondly i am already on a Devuan jessie distribution , and with kali tools installed .
Now , do you really think that i would wait for a miracle to come ?!!!!
Thanks to me and to all the head smashes i had on linux , now i do not even need kali repository to be updated , because i am able by myself to install the tools i need without be dependent on a linux repository .
And secondly , most of the tools i have and work are not even on kali repository yet .
The tools i use from kali are usually the ones that no one else uses , because most people use framework tools where you have everything in one tool , a good example is metasploit or openvas or etc .... , this happens because many good people do not know the real potential of all the other stuff in kali , and it could be complicated for them to find the right switches to put it to work , or even knowing what that tool really does .
Those main framework tools i don't have them from kali repository , i have them from git .
Note: This is not an offense to kali developers or anything that could diminish kali reputation on my point of view .

Look , i will not even reply anymore to this thread , and do not take this reply in a negative way , because i may not like systemd but i have 1 server working on it , and if look closely to debian bugs or even kali bugs after they implemented this init system , the bugs fired up , however and to finish this terrible no sense subject , systemd was forced to you and you did had no choice to say "NO" to it . In linux community , that does not work very well and that is the reason why that debian fork exists .

Again , sorry for any trouble i may did to you , it was not my intention .