hi i have a pavilion notebook dv6 what the problem is i can boot up and sign in then i get a error msg unable to connect to upstart failed to connect tryed recovery mode did'nt work looked for start up safety mode but there is no option for it went to grub menu2 no safety mode screen is black with the error msg any help would be great thanks

distro running is mint 18 error msg unable to connect to upstart: failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: connection refused mdm[2034]:
glib-critical: g_key_file_free:assertion 'key_file !=NULL' failed hope this is enough

More information would be helpful.

What distro/version are you using and what is the exact wording of the error message?

You might want to read this. The more information you provide, the easier it is for others to help you.

You also want to click to edit your post, click "Go Advanced" at the bottom of the edit screen, and give your post a more specific title, such as "HP Pavilion with [distro name] errors out." "Help Me" does not communicate much about the issue and may cause persons who could help you to skip your post.

1 members found this post helpful.

i think linux mint is based on ubuntu 16.04, and i think that doesn't use upstart anymore.
so i'm going to guess that at some point you installed something (added a ppa etc.) that messed up your sources.
please post the content of /etc/apt/sources.list
and the content of ALL files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d

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thanks for the reply the problem is that i am locked out boots up show the error msg and a black screen and that is far as i get

When you're at the blank screen does pressing all three keys together: [Ctrl][Alt][F2] work?

Following on from Jamison's post, I think that your problem may be a borked Cinnamon desktop environment (did you upgrade from Mint 17.3 recently?).

If [Ctrl][Alt][F2] works (do this at the login screen), enter your login details at the prompt and run:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install cinnamon

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thankyou hydrurga and jamison worked out great all up and running thanks for your help

Please mark this thread as solved. Then anyone else who runs into the same problem will see that the thread contains a workable answer.

That's the theory anyway. In practice they are unlikely to find the thread at all because you have given it such an uninformative title. In future try to provide more useful titles for your posts.

2 members found this post helpful.

Can edit it, "go advanced?" [SOLVED] is in "thread tools..." top of posts.

Thank so much! Nice answer.