Can't boot since failed Synaptic updates

Hello to every Debian lover,

yesterday Synaptic informed me of available updates. I let it download and install them. If I recall correctly, some updates failed in the process of installing or downloading. As it was late, I shut down my PC and decided I would install what had not been installed on the morrow.

When I tried to boot this morning, here is the screen that I got:

http://imgur.com/pHxvyZH

I run Debian Jessie.

I would appreciate any help, guidance, or opinion. My level is noob-intermediate (I know how to use the recovery terminal, at least). Thank you.

Hi,

Before I suggest anything, are you using an encrypted partition? I have no experience with encrypted partitions, and I guess the procedure for these cases must be different to a regular partition, so that's why ask.

Cannot find boot partition.
Cannot read ext4.

I am guessing they are related. It might be caused by systemd. There have been some problems of that nature recently.

Originally Posted by t-688 yesterday Synaptic informed me of available updates. ... I run Debian Jessie. ... My level is noob-intermediate (I know how to use the recovery terminal, at least).

No insult intended, but if you describe yourself as a newbie using Synaptic, is it a good idea to use a testing system, especially during the conversion period to systemd?

Managed to solve the problem by:

1/Booting recovery terminal
2/Configuring wifi access from terminal (hardest part... my laptop had no working ethernet)
3/Doing an apt-get clean and apt-get upgrade

No insult intended, but if you describe yourself as a newbie using Synaptic, is it a good idea to use a testing system, especially during the conversion period to systemd?

None taken. The definition of "noob" varies widely.

Thanks for the update and solution.

Saw this post and thought it might be a tough one. Glad I was wrong.

One suggestion from someone that prefers testing and Sid to stable; don't use Synaptic for your update/upgrade chores.

It is a great tool. It is a gui front end for apt-get. Simply invokes the same commands. However, you are using a Debian version that is under continous development and any package can be a bit, or a bunch, unstable. Using the cli is simply safer as it does cut out a layer of complexity.

One thing that Synaptic does that most people do not is to run apt-get dist-upgrade instead of upgrade and then dist-upgrade. This mean you have all packages to wonder about when something goes wrong instead of just some of them.

If you do not have apt-listbugs installed I would do that no matter if you use Synaptic or not. This will warn you of all KNOWN bugs for any packages being upgraded or installed. Many may not affect your hardware and you do need to wade through them. Well worth the effort if it saves breaking your system once a development cycle.

I use Synaptic with Sid without any problems. I never use the "Mark All Upgrades" button, and I review the changes before it installs/upgrades anything.