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Old 11-14-2019, 02:17 PM   #16
toddly
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Thank you rtmistler! and others...


Finally, some sympathy, whether deserved or not. Honestly, on this site I feel like a kindergartener surrounded by PhDs discussing quantum physics. I have tried to the best of my ability to do everything that has been suggested, except to wipe my hard drive and start over. Then, when I get seemingly useful advice (to purge my broken DM and install a new one), I ask everyone whether the advice given to me is safe. I am told it is safe and nobody says otherwise. So, I do as I am instructed, which seemingly wiped out most of my desktop and controls. Rather than efforts to help me recover, I am admonished with "make more careful choices in the future." How am I supposed to know what a careful choice is? I thought I was being careful.

So, when I say that "nobody is interested in helping me access my history logs" I am not trying to be facetious; I was stating the reality that I had been experiencing at the time. At the same time, I do appreciate the ongoing frustration of those who had initially tried to offer assistance, but were less than impressed with the results I was producing.

I see now there are many more voices who seem genuinely interested in assessing the situation and offering advice. After months of less than impressive results, recently I had begun to think I should give up and join the reinstall crowd. But now, seeing the renewed input, I intend to see what advice is being offered and how I can get back to trying to fix my long-ailing computer.

Thanks to all, really.
 
Old 11-14-2019, 02:30 PM   #17
toddly
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I do not have command line access

To clarify my biggest issue right now:
In order to be on the internet, I am running Linux from a USB drive
The USB drive will not allow me to do anything to my hard drive Linux because I am not signed in (not authorized)
I do not know of any way to sign into my Linux from the USB drive
I can access a command line in Recovery Mode, but it will not allow me to do things unless I sign in, which I cannot
Presently, the current installation of Linux on my hard drive does not give me much, and does not give me a command line, although it does allow me to sign in, which feels rather useless at this point
Is there some means of over-riding things so that I can sign in AND get a command line?
 
Old 11-14-2019, 03:25 PM   #18
toddly
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Advice for backing up, partitioning, reinstalling?

Okay. So I've finally gotten back up to speed at where the consensus seems to be: Reinstall.
If, in fact, there is no easy way for me to log in and access my history log, then it seems the reinstall is the best/only option.
But, being cautious here, I want to do everything right.
So, I need to understand how to save my data and mount a partition, and how to find a "stable point", OR
I need to understand how to find/use "clone software" and implement a "dd command".
Perhaps there is another post that explains these procedures in detail --so that you guys can have a break from this ongoing drama?
I have already gone to berndbausch's link and printed out how to save firefox data.
I am also looking into wagscat123's advice regarding firefox, although I still have no line command access, as far as I know. Perhaps I do?
And a special shout out to Hazel for explaining the cause of the underlying problem to me, and for JeremyBoden's comment reminding me that I actually posted (in a previous thread) the warning that I received before proceeding with the auto-remove, and another thanks to Hazel for recognizing that I was 'misled" by the person telling me to do the autoremove. (In the future, I would hope that when I post a screen warning about something like an autoremove, and I ask whether I should proceed or not, that someone would take a page from rtmistler's playbook and scream at me "stop, stop, Stop, STop, STOP!!!!!" Because it's dangerous, it's wrong.")
Yes, it's been a learning experience, but I'm not done yet. Still, perhaps we've finally turned a corner?
Thanks again.
 
Old 11-14-2019, 05:17 PM   #19
JeremyBoden
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Registered: Nov 2011
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You have some options.

BTW If you encounter any problems, stop and ask on this forum for fixes/clarifications

If you have an external disk big enough to hold your data files you could do a bulk copy of the relevant data directories.
Alternatively, if you don't have too much data you could just copy to a USB stick.
Please note that system directories such as /etc, /usr etc should be considered as corrupt and should not be restored - you could copy /var/log, but only to look at it - don't restore it!

Boot from live Mint USB/DVD

You will need to create a file system on any external device - I suggest you use gparted to do this.
gparted will also show the partitions on your hard disk - make a note of which partition(s) contain files of interest to you.
Exit from gparted

Then, open a terminal screen.
Remove the external disk or USB stick and re-insert it.
Because it now has a file system it should get automounted.

To access a disk partition you need to mount it - try
Code:
sudo mount /dev/sdax /mnt
You shouldn't need a password
Note that I'm assuming your hard disk is sda and 'x' is the partition number.

The mountpoint /mnt (directory) will then appear to hold all the data files and directories on your hard disk.
You should be able to look at /mnt in your GUI file manager.
This is the time to copy all your vital files to the external media...

When you have finished don't forget to do
Code:
sudo umount /mnt
Finally, take the install Mint option, overwriting everything.

After updates/upgrades have been done + adding/removing selected packages you will be able to copy back your data.

Then take a proper backup.

Last edited by JeremyBoden; 11-14-2019 at 05:22 PM.
 
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