Bodhi3 has stopped working
 

I've been using Bodhi 3 for a long time. Yesterday I did a dist-upgrade and this morning when I booted my laptop Bodhi stopped at the text login prompt. I can login, but there is no graphics. When I login there is message stating that fglrx-core linux-image-4.2.0-30-generic... are no longer supported. I don't know if this is related to the problem. Also, it appears that no prior kernels are saved (not shown in GRUB screen). Any idea what the simplest way is to fix this - I need my laptop up and running asap.

no offense but time to try a newer version. re: the error message i cannot say - maybe - maybe this has to do with some of the kernel bugs that have occurred over the last 1/2 year or so. not with me and bodhi but ubuntu had an issue a while ago and you could not boot. there was a work around until they fixed it weeks later. i heard there was another issue but as i said i do not know too much about that. just a thought and i did not sleep in a holiday inn last night. heh heh

good luck - maybe stefan or robert have some ideas on this.

I'm just really limited for time. I'm even wondering if it's possible to install a different desktop over Bodhi. The other option would be to revert to the previous kernel, but I'm not sure how to do that either. (It just would take too much time to backup, reinstall packages and get everything tuned to where I need it.)

I hear you.

askubuntu says which would explain the missing graphics. i know it's not a fix, but

many times on reddit i have seen someone suggest nomodeset when graphics drivers get messed up. i don't know enough to say that is exactly your issue or that it will fix your situation, but after reading a little it seems like it might be worth a shot. here is a page that shows how to set nomodeset after you get to the grub menu:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/3878...talled-ubuntu/

Cordx, I tried adding nomodeset in the GRUB settings but unfortunately it didn't work. Thanks though for the suggestion...

my thought not long after posting was "but this doesn't address the unsupported kernel". outside of reverting to a backup (which i assume you would have done before posting) my last idea is some sort of rescue cd or environment. even then, i don't know how you would get past the kernel issue. the (admittedly ancient in computer terms) link below shows how to boot into rescue mode. near the bottom it describes how to run fsck in that environment. the few times i have run into a file system issue, bodhi threw that warning instead of booting so i doubt this is the fix, but maybe?

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-...x-rescue-mode/

After this is sorted, install TimeShift, or a similar solution. SystemBack would also be an option although it's no longer supported nor has it been updated, but it should still work on an older OS version.

These are more-reliable solutions having the same functionality as MS Windows System Restore.

i am a fan of timeshift personally, but would be surprised if a program created so recently would function in a bodhi 3 environment (based on 14.04?) if that is what op chooses to return to. i see that there are options to run it from the command line, but still imagine the dependencies would be an issue.

before i started using timeshift, i used clonezilla. because it is run from a live usb/cd it doesn't matter what version a distro is. the downside being that it necessitates a reboot to run instead of doing so from a running system. the other option i can think of (i'm not saying systemback wouldn't work. i just haven't used it) is to get familiar with the rsync command that timeshift is built on and either do manual backups or set up a cron (or maybe systemd) job to run daily/weekly or how ever often feels appropriate.

though the browse function does not work with bodhi 5 as far as i can tell: adding that tidbit for completeness :)

Timeshift's browse-bug, and it's not just for Bodhi
 

:( It seems the Timeshift Browse button doesn't work anywhere else, either, at least not in Ubuntu or its derivatives.

Probably, it's best not to press this button, as unpredictable events may occur, in any OS that won't start its file manager as root. Surprisingly, the program's reviews skip right over this point, but the developer is aware of it, as described in the bug-report link above.

I have seen a post saying it's possible to install the now-old and unsupported Systemback in Bionic. I thought it best to go to a newer program, but at least, everything was working with the old one. Now, I may give it a second look, as the Timeshift developer is not optimistic about a finding cure for the browse bug.

thank you for sharing this information. i agree that it is surprising that this known bug/issue wouldn't be covered on the website if the developer is aware of it. admittedly i haven't read the whole site, but have read a fair bit of it trying to understand how timeshift works.

i had to check just to be sure, but it actually does work in ubuntu mate (i keep it installed just in case i run into ubuntu issues in bodhi and want to look at them in a "regular" ubuntu environment) which uses the caja file manager. as stated in the bug-report response, after clicking browse in timeshift caja is launched as superuser and is able to browse the images. i would imagine that would mean caja might work on bodhi as well, but i don't necessarily need or want to install it just to check.

i have actually browsed the images manually by opening them in pcmanfm (not as superuser) just to have a look at what is saved. i was just surprised that the browse button in timeshift itself opened ephoto instead :)

You have made a very interesting observation!
 

That is a very interesting observation because the documentation for PCManFM says there's a 'trick' for getting it to (also) start as root, if I've interpreted it correctly.

I wonder, how does caja manage that? Does it always open as root, or is there some special way for the user to start it, to get to go one way or the other? If that could be duplicated, it's possible that Bodhi's browser could do the same trick, and voilà, Timeshift would be fully functional in Bodhi.

On my system, after a very long delay, it opens pqiv, another image viewer. :confused:

the only way i have found of starting pcmanfm as root is to launch it from the terminal with sudo. i notice some minor changes (a couple of the folder icons are different, some partitions aren't listed) in the visual presentation, but otherwise don't see any indication that it is acting as root. in caja there is an indication at the top of the window that it is "running as superuser" or some such.

as far as how caja does it, i am pretty much in the dark as well. as far as i can tell it does not always open as root because the "running as superuser" indication is not there. in another thread about the interaction between esudo and polkit, Stefan showed how to change a config file (if i am remembering correctly) to launch gparted and timeshift from the favorites (or applications) menu as root successfully. perhaps when clicking the browse button in timeshift causes it to launch caja in a similar manner?