Got an upgrade notice, so I accepted. Upgraded all software first. When it restarted, black screen came up with the following.

Kernel panic- not syncing: Attempted to kill init! Exit code=0x00007g00

CPU:3 PID: 1 Comm: sh not tainted 3.13.0-92-generic #139 Ubuntu

Hardware name....

A lot of other stuff, but I'm on cell phone now, and time for typing is limited.

The last line reads

drm_kms_helper: panic occurred, switching back to text console

However no cursor, and no console. Are there any parameters I can pass on boot to get it to start? Also, can I use a live CD to recover stuff I need? I'm not well versed with Linux, even though I've used it since 2004. Consider me a newbie when answering.

Many thanks in advance.

I'm not particularly keen on your situation, but I can tell you that you can absolutely use a Live CD to recover your data. Just go into Nautilus/Files (or whatever file manager of your choosing) on the live cd, and select your root or (if you created a separate home partition) partition in the left pane. You can also learn the command line way of using sudo mount and cp, although if you're new you may want to keep to the GUI.

Note if the home folder on your root partition is blank, that probably means you have a separate home partition you need to mount. I'd recommend you back up/rescue your data before doing anything else.

My guess is maybe you need to rebuild your initrd file or something went wrong with a configuration deep within your system... I'll have to leave that to someone else though. After recovering your data, you may or may not have to reinstall your system, and it also depends on how much you're willing to learn and diagnose to avoid a reinstall, which may be easier in some cases.

Good luck, and feel come back if you need to know more.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks. Going to try and back up all my stuff this weekend. Hopefully I can figure out what's wrong. If not, I'll do a reinstall of 14.

Now that I gooogled "drm_kms_helper" and saw this (http://askubuntu.com/questions/47101...a-kernel-panic), do you have an old kernel in your GRUB menu, or a recovery option that boots?

1 members found this post helpful.

Tried the oldest kernel in the list, but still getting the same results. Appreciate the info. Guess I'm going to have to install 14. Just hope I can save all the data. Hope it hasn't overwritten root when it upgraded. Many thanks again.

Unless the live CD fails to boot, you might as well do a Fresh upgrade to 16.04, imho (in my humble opinion). Although the only different between Ubuntu versions these days seems to be the EOL date....

1 members found this post helpful.

wagscat123 is correct that re-installing is often the easier option. You can re-install without formatting the partition, which will preserve much of your program configurations.

1 members found this post helpful.

Apparently with Ubuntu keeping your data configuration after a reinstall is easier that it is with most distros - thanks for pointing that out.

Here's a nice guide to preserving your data:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuReinstallation

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks much for all the help. Got the Live CD to boot, and will reinstall. Going to stick with 14 for the time being, as I know it works. I'll give 16 a try when I have more time in case of another problem. Many thanks.

[[[[[Going to stick with 14 for the time being, as I know it works.]]]]]]That's a wise decision,Screw Ubuntu 16.04 since Ubuntu 1604 screwed us all.