LinuxQuestions.org - Mint issues after update

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Mint issues after update

The Story
So yesterday I update Mint, it said something about not everything could be downloaded or accessed or something. I figure I'll update what I can anyway. Sounds good, right? Haha...

Next time I go to boot up the computer, I see the login screen for the first time (before the monitor would say "no signal" after the BIOS screen for a couple minutes and then I'd be at the desktop screen). I think this is pretty cool, Mint now gets along with my monitor.

I get a message about my session lasting less than 10 seconds after trying to log in. Not so cool.

I click on details and I see a few lines about virtualbox kernel service, and the last line says gnome session not found.

The Questions

1.Is there a way to reinstall linux mint somehow (I think Lisa, might be the one after it, either way it's the one supported until 2017 if I'm correct. There's newer versions but I guess they won't be supported as far out)

2. If I fxxxed something up, is there a way I can save my google chromium favorites (my firefox favorites are backed up), and other files that I've edited since my last backup?

Thanks,
matt

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMCJavelin74 (Post 5049233)

1.Is there a way to reinstall linux mint somehow (I think Lisa, might be the one after it, either way it's the one supported until 2017 if I'm correct. There's newer versions but I guess they won't be supported as far out)

Sure, you could just backup all your data from within a live session and then reinstall everything. The current LTS version is Maya. (version 13).
However your problem sounds very fixable. I would strongly recommend to post more information (exact error messages, logfiles etc...) Note you could also grab logfiles from a live session, just make sure you are copying the ones from disk and not from the live system. I am sure that some people here will be able to help you fix this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMCJavelin74 (Post 5049233)

2. If I fxxxed something up, is there a way I can save my google chromium favorites (my firefox favorites are backed up), and other files that I've edited since my last backup?

Same thing here, should be very easy to recover any data from within a live session.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_2000 (Post 5049278)

Yes it's Maya... I didn't upgrade since the newer releases aren't supported as long.

So my new question is how to get those error messages and get into a live session (is that booting mint from a dvd/usb drive?) How would I go about this? I figure it's best to keep everything pertaining to my current situation in one thread, less clutter on the forum is better :)

Will I need to try different monitors (or is it a video card/moboard issue?) to see it boot up. Between BIOS and the desktop the screen displayed a "no signal" message... this is really the first time I've seen the actual login screen!

edit: spent some time googling this stuff (I use startpage) to no avail regarding booting and backing up a live session. *sigh We'll look into this more tomorrow.

Hi and welcome to the forums, the first link in my signature may help... :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMCJavelin74 (Post 5051231)

Download a Linux Mint iso, put it on a CD (burn as disc image, not as data CD) or create a bootable usb stick. Boot from the CD / stick and choose to run Mint rather then installing from the menu.

You may have to change the boot device order in your BIOS. The procedure to do that varies from Motherboard to Motherboard, but it typically involves pressing ESC, F2, or F11 directly after the computer was switched on...

The error messages? You mentioned some in your initial post, I recommend to post the exact wording. Or, better: put it into a startpage.com search and see if fixes are already available.

Based on the info you provided already I would also assume that the content of /var/log/Xorg.0.log might be of interest. You just need to find it on the hard drive. In the live session you will see symbols on the desktop that represent the partitions of your hard drive. (E.g. 100 GB file system... or similar) Double-click to mount and open. If it has the Linux-typical filesystem hirarchy, you picked the right one. Then go to var/log/ in there to find the log files from your actual system...

EDIT: By the way the same procedure applies for accessing / backing up your data...

So here's some pictures... can't do screenshots or log files as I can't log in, but hey the iPhone came in handy. Can't complain too much about that.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps015e4e3f.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psd5d62052.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psb5968891.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps36d1f302.jpg

You may have to shrink them with the Gimp or something, if the attachments are too big it warns you? Don't see them...

photobucket pics

There! This site doesn't like uploading my pics for sizing issues. That's ok. :)

Hmm, are you sure this happened only by updating the system? Or did you change anything else? Any configuration on the display manager / login screen stuff?

Can you login to other sessions? (If you are using the standard mint display manager you should be able to login to other sessions with the middle button below the username / password field)

Anyway, in order to get some more info on your system for us, you could do the following. When you are presented with the login screen, press ctrl-alt-F1.
This will bring you to a console. Enter your username and password to login.

Can you please post the output of

Code:

cat /etc/linuxmint/info

It's strange that it says "gnome-session not found". Can you post the output of

Code:

dpkg --get-selections | grep gnome-session

and

Code:

which gnome-session

Oh geez... I'm going to town on this one. Being able to get to the terminal was GREAT!--
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps930544d6.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps7942e0d6.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psab0ddeae.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps87eb14c1.jpg

I ran

Code:

sudo apt-get update

and got

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps0fd8b66f.jpg

but then I ran

Code:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and got

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps3c52dc4e.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psdc53dcb1.jpg

after the updates installed, I rebooted the system and... same problem as before... gnome session not found.

Hopefully what I posted will help clue you guys in. I appreciate the help!
Matt

Ok, so this helps a bit. The fact that "which gnome-session" returns nothing explains why the error message says "not found".
mdm tries to launch the desktop session with this command but it does not currently exist, or at least the system does not know where to find it.

Now that you have access to a console, you may want to do a backup of your data. Are you able to do that via commandline?
Let me know if you need help with that...
Once that's done we can try to troubleshoot the problem further, but it might be that your install is severely broken, in which case a clean reinstall might be the most efficient way. In case you would like to continue trouble shooting see some further thoughts below...

Can you please check if the file /usr/bin/gnome-session exists. If does exist, please post the output of

Code:

echo $PATH

The list of installed packages is not consistent with the ones available in a linux mint maya / cinnamon live session. Not sure if this is a bad sign.

You ran apt-get update without the sudo. It only works if you prefix it with sudo.
But that's not the only reason why your dist-upgrade failed, at least I don't think so. Rather I think that it's because of the medibuntu sources, which somehow seem to be broken (I saw a similar issue on another machine two weeks ago). This can be worked around by deactivating them for the time being.

To do that you have to edit the sources list:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

It should contain entries similar to this:

Code:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ maya main upstream import

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner

#deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free

Note that the line that has medibuntu in it is commented out, i.e. it has a # at the beginning. In nano you can save the file by hitting ctrl-o and leave the editor by ctrl-x. While you're at it please also post a screenshot of the contents of that file.
Your file does not have to look exactly the same, the only modification you should make is adding the # to the medibuntu line! If you are unsure post the screenshot before proceeding to the next step.

Then again

Code:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

That should give you at least a successfull update.

Ok I have started a live mint-13-cinnamon-32bit session in a virtual machine. It has the following packages with "gnome-session" in it:

Code:

gnome-session-bin

gnome-session-canberra

gnome-session-common

gnome-session-fallback

If I try to remove bin and fallback (the ones you don't seem to have) it also wants to remove mint-meta-cinnamon, which I am pretty sure is needed. Hence, could you please check if you still have that package:

Code:

dpkg --get-selections mint-meta-cinnamon

If it is also missing, reinstalling it might fix your issue.

Code:

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-cinnamon

Note that after that you may still get an error message that it failed to load session Ubuntu (at least that's what happened in the live system).
In that case, on the log-in screen, press the middle button below the login name field to choose your session. Then select Cinnamon. Confirm to make it default.

Let me know how this goes....

thanks Joe! If you lived near me I'd buy you a beer or two! There used to be a German restaurant in town... the owner went to work for a fancy restaurant in Hawaii so the place closed. :(

Haha thanks, you are welcome. But did it help?

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_2000 (Post 5057165)

Haha thanks, you are welcome. But did it help?

I should have clarified better... my computer has been working well since. :)