Cannot start X after latest Ubuntu upgrade (Armbian Legacy Kernel)

#1

I am running Ubuntu Jammy using an Armbian Legacy kernel (5.10.160-legacy-rk35xx). I’m mostly curious if others have experienced this and what kernel is being used. I did an apt update / upgrade. Afterwards, starting Xorg (either directly or via tigervnc) results in segfaults. The list of packages upgraded today is below. The most obvious culprits are the mesa upgrades.

I am curious if this is somehow related to the Ubuntu versions not being compatible with the 5.10 kernel. I did see that there are “Stable” Armbian releases for this board using the 6.7 kernel. It’s very unclear to me if I can somehow switch to the 6.7 kernel without re-installing everything. The armbian-config tool was of no help.

This could also have nothing to do with Armbian and just be an Ubuntu issue. I’m starting on the Radxa forum in case this is also seen elsewhere. This form post is sort of a shot in the dark.

Upgrade: openssh-client:arm64 (1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.4, 1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.5), libglx-mesa0:arm64 (24.0~git2312172103.377c6b~oibaf~j, 24.0~git2312190600.51bf1b~oibaf~j), libssh-4:arm64 (0.9.6-2ubuntu0.22.04.1, 0.9.6-2ubuntu0.22.04.2), libgbm1:arm64 (24.0~git2312172103.377c6b~oibaf~j, 24.0~git2312190600.51bf1b~oibaf~j), libssh-gcrypt-4:arm64 (0.9.6-2ubuntu0.22.04.1, 0.9.6-2ubuntu0.22.04.2), openssh-server:arm64 (1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.4, 1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.5), libgl1-mesa-dri:arm64 (24.0~git2312172103.377c6b~oibaf~j, 24.0~git2312190600.51bf1b~oibaf~j), libglapi-mesa:arm64 (24.0~git2312172103.377c6b~oibaf~j, 24.0~git2312190600.51bf1b~oibaf~j), openssh-sftp-server:arm64 (1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.4, 1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.5), libegl-mesa0:arm64 (24.0~git2312172103.377c6b~oibaf~j, 24.0~git2312190600.51bf1b~oibaf~j)

#2

You are using mesa from oibaf ppa, which won’t work with rk3588. I don’t know why you added it.

3 Likes
#3

Thanks. That probably explains why it is crashing. I’m not sure why it suddenly started happening though. I’ve never been concerned with accelerated video as I’m running everything remote over VNC. It looks like the oibaf ppa has always been enabled on my system without issues. So is Xorg suddenly using Mesa where it hadn’t been before? ??

#4

If I understand this correctly (and I probably don’t) then I am not using acceleration at all when connecting over VNC. I am using a headless tigervnc session started as a service. Even if the video hardware isn’t supported for acceleration in the default Ubuntu Mesa packages, it shouldn’t matter. The segfault in VNC might be related to the upgrades, but it’s not because of the lack of acceleration support for the hardware.

I saw another set of updates for the packages today. No fix, but it’s obvious someone is messing with them on the Ubuntu side.

Not being able to start xfce locally (with a monitor and keyboard) may not have worked for a while, so it’s hard for me to use that as a test case.

#5

Here’s what fixed it for me. Thanks for the help @amazingfate. Your note pointed at what I needed to figure out. Thankfully I didn’t need to install the one-off PPA Armbian recommends for 3D Acceleration. It’s not needed for my use case.

sudo apt install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers

I’m not sure why this PPA was there by default. I looked back at my /etc backups and it was there from the start.

#6

oibaf mesa is a staging git version, which may be unstable. This ppa is disabled since Feb 2023. It seems that you are using an old image.

#7

Yes. I am unsure why it was included by default when I installed the Armbian image. Removing it made my issues go away. Thanks again for pointing it out. I was baffled until I read your comment.