[Tfug] Desktop machine has become unusable in Linux

[John Gruenenfelder]

Sorry for the vague subject line, but I'm really at a loss as to what's
happened to my desktop machine.  I was using it just fine last night and now
today it is no longer functioning in Linux.

The symptoms:

* Boot process can complete and X will start, but keyboard and mouse (both
USB) do not work at all.  Even though login cursor stops blinking, machine is
running since clock on GDM login screen changes.

* Booting into single user mode also has unusable keyboard.  If I unplug it
and plug it back in, I can see the kernel USB messages about the disconnect
and reconnect.  I cannot see any messages about the "input" module being
loaded, however, so that may explain the lack of KB.  Of course, they may have
occured earlier in the boot sequence, but since I cannot scroll back...

* After a full boot, network is not up.  It's an onboard NIC (skge module) and
configured statically so normally it comes up automatically.  I tried to SSH
in from another machine but I get "no route to host" messages.

* Aside from some "failure in name resolution" messages caused by the lack of
network, I cannot see any noticable error messages as the boot occurs.

* Booting with a current Knoppix CD mostly works.  When it boots I get a
kernel oops when knoppix tries to mount my root partition (/dev/sda2) which
uses XFS.  The kernel stack trace shows that it is oops-ing in XFS code.  This
oops does not occur when I boot with my regular kernel.  Knoppix is still
usable, but /dev/sda2 is unusable due to the oops.

* Machine has a known USB issue with Linux.  Simply unloading/reloading the
USB host controller module will fix the problem.  This same issue also occurs
on my two machines at work.  The only thing they have in common is that they
are both Athlon 64 machines.  I tried working with the kernel USB maintainers
on this, but I didn't get much help from them...

* And lastly: the machine seems to work just fine in Windows.

The only thing I did last night to the system was a package update with
aptitude.  I'm running Debian/Sid.  I've dealt with odd problems before, but
this has me stumped.  If it were caused by the update my usual process would
be to boot with Knoppix, chroot, then fix the problem.  But I can't do that in
this case.  :(

Any ideas as to what may have occured?  There's likely more info in the boot
logs, but without SSH access or Knoppix to mount the root partition, I can't
get to them.  I'm going to try to borrow an non-USB keyboard tomorrow.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, UMass Amherst student
                        Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://gutenpalm.sf.net
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood
of my enemies!"
        --Sam of Sam & Max