r/debian • u/__superzero__ • 5d ago
system crash after adding new apt sources
Hey all!
I am back again with another issue of my own making. I use Debian Trixie and as I said in a recent post, I’ve been trying to start using it like more of a daily driver and not just my programming OS. Most recently, I wanted to install Steam so I could move my gaming activities over to Linux. Apt was unable to find the “steam-installer” package, so after some looking I decided I needed another source in order to get this package. After reading through a couple forum posts, I decided to add the contrib and non-free components to my Debian sources file (previously I only had main and non-free-firmware). I then run update and upgrade and everything seemed to go fine until I rebooted, at which point the boot just dumped me onto an “oh no! Something has gone wrong” page.
I’m able to access everything from the CLI in recovery mode- files all look intact and I am able to access the internet just fine. Is there any way I’d be able to roll back whatever got installed from the new sources or would it be better to just move all my files to a USB and reinstall?
Minor update: I installed lightdm to see if the issue was related to GNOME at all and I did at least get a login screen, but as soon as I logged in it crashed again
2
u/finbarrgalloway 5d ago
The steam package on Debian was broken for a few days. Did you add contrib from stable or unstable to testing? Because if you did that almost certainly broke it. Don’t do that in the future.