I am using Debian 11 and 32 bit and I think I made a terrible mistake.
I am newbie with Linux and so maybe I did destroy the system-files.
What files shall I post here to find the problem?

What error messages are you seeing? What is the computer not doing that it should? More info would be helpful. If you overwrote system files, you can possibly reinstall the corresponding package to put them back.

1 members found this post helpful.

In addition to what jayjwa asked, what were you trying to do? Can you boot the installed system at all, or reach a Grub menu? Define the "problem".

Why did you install the 32 bit version? Is the machine really that old so it cannot use the newer 64 bit OS? What is the hardware you are using?

Thank You for Your friendly help.
What did I do.
Debian up to 11.
New boot.
Crash.
Panic.
Until today I cannot boot.
How do I use the PC?
I start in recovery mode.
This is working fine.
How can I repair grub or other files.

This says Grub is OK, if you mean recovery mode from Grub menu and not from USB boot.

When a normal attempt to boot fails, what exactly makes you say there is a problem? What is the problem? Describe "crash". Describe "panic". After these things happen, does Ctrl-Alt-F3 give you a shell login prompt?

Look at the Xorg.0.log file in /var/log/ or if not there look in ~/.local/share/xorg/ for any (EE) lines, which are error reports. You can attach this file or pastebin it if you don't understand what you see. Also look for fail lines using journalctl and/or dmesg. You can save journal and/or dmesg as files to upload as attachment or to pastebin so we can see what's in them.

Thank You.
I do booting from HD.
What does happen.
I do boot.
Screen ist frozen after 15 seconds.
Lasn sentence:
Panic occured.

Because the PC is frozen
I made a photo with a digicam,
not very good quality
but You can read the last page.
Shall I post it here?

Attach it here or pastebin it somewhere so we can see it.

Do you have another computer? It's possible only local input/output is frozen but the computer is still working. When that happens, it is sometimes possible to login remotely from the other computer to diagnose and repair.

Did Debian ever boot successfully? If so, were some changes made just prior to this problem? From statements in your posts, I would guess a new install. If that is the case, did you use some tutorial or instructions on a web site to install and if so, could you post it? Could you post some information on the hardware you are using as 32bit systems are not much used any longer. Is Debian the only OS installed? Is the last sentence you see on screen a kernel panic such as shown in one of the images at the site below? There are some suggestions on that page for dealing with the problem so you might read through to gain some insight.

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/kernel-panic

Here is the pic:

https://ibb.co/ZMsN1Rr

Thank You.

It is a single PC
no network.

But. it is used for www.



There is only one OS
Debian.

Questions ofyancek:


Did Debian ever boot successfully?
Yes.
The accident happened after update to 11.
We did update
from 7 to 8
and so on
but no problem.

We do use only simple software:
GIMP
gedit
chromium
thunderbird

That shows a kernel panic, which is very bad, but occurs after you have proceeded out of the Grub menu. Are you able to use your Grub menu to select booting to an older kernel?

When you boot and see the Grub menu, hit the 'e' key on the keyboard to edit. This will show the menuentry. Check the first entry, the one that does not boot, for the vmlinuz file. That is on the linux line in the menuentry. Make note of it and then check the Advanced option, the one you say does boot and check for the vmlinuz file on that entry. Are they different? The kernels are generally numbered so compare the numbers.

If you are able to boot Debian, you might check the /boot directory to see what vmlinuz files are there.

You indicate you have been upgrading from 7 to newer releases. Are you doing this by doing apt-get update and apt-get upgrade or are you booting a new iso of Debian and installing over the old / filesystem? In either case, I would expect Grub to be updated.

I am sorry.
Thank You for help.
How can I repair "grub"?
Does Debian during update delete old 10 or 9 and old grub?


"When you boot and see the Grub menu, hit the 'e' key on the keyboard to edit. "
When do I have to stop.

Before or after I do the choice to recovery?
Or during I see the menu?


Stupid question.

How about:
I boot in recovery.
Then I open gedit and read the system files and post them here.

Is this a to much bad idea?

Regards

It looks like you answered my question. It's hard to be sure. Small text files you may paste here using code tags. Large ones should be pastebin'd either using pastebin.com or the terminal command pastebinit. Output from journalctl -b -1 should be pastebin'd on a rescue boot that directly follows an attempt to boot normally. Output from efibootmgr you may paste here. These commands may require you to either login as root, or use with sudo prepended. Search for Xorg.0.log.old in /var/log/ and ~/.local/share/xorg/ and pastebin it. If you find more than one, or you find any with a 1 or 2 in place of a 0, pastebin the next-to-newest, not the newest, from a current rescue boot that employs nomodeset. Whichever you think is suitable, look at its first few lines. If the long one containing "Kernel command line" also contains "nomodeset" or "modeset=0", then it is not useful. /boot/grub/grub.cfg may be OK, but you can pastebin it too for us to look and see if you "destroyed grub".

Sorry.
I have to study it.
I ll print it out
read it and try it.
Then I ll answer.
Thank You all.

Where can I post long/big files to save space here?

Regards
and Thank You to all.