Linux Mint 19 booting to tty

Rfisher0 · 03-12-2019, 02:20 PM

Hi!

Having a problem where my laptop is booting into tty.

I thought I had lost my root password yesterday and followed a tutorial to change it where I edited a line of code in the grub menu https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.wikih...-Linux%3famp=1

It did not boot into single user mode but started up normally. Now it is going straight to tty on startup and neither alt-ctrl-f6 or alt-ctrl-f7 get any response.

Sorry if I haven't explained well, would really appreciate any help

mrmazda · 03-12-2019, 10:06 PM

Ctrl- is only needed to escape from being in the GUI. When at tty1-6, only Alt-Fn is needed.

What happens when you try Ctrl-Alt-F[1-5] or Ctrl-Alt-F8?

1nuxg33k · 03-12-2019, 10:35 PM

Why not reverse what you did to the grub menu?

Rfisher0 · 03-13-2019, 08:40 AM

Thank you for the responses.

Alt-fn returns 'can't reactivate AUX port'

Ctrl-alt-f1 - 5 changes the tty from 1-5. Ctrl-alt-f8 gives no response.

Haven't been able to access grub with e on startup so I can't change the line back.

yancek · 03-13-2019, 12:18 PM

The information in the link you posted explain how to change an existing password for the root user. Since Mint uses sudo and does not require creation of a root user/password during the install, did you after the installation create/enable root and create a password for the root user? If you did have root enabled with a password, I would expect the tutorial instructions to work.

petelq · 03-13-2019, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rfisher0

Thank you for the responses.

Alt-fn returns 'can't reactivate AUX port'

Ctrl-alt-f1 - 5 changes the tty from 1-5. Ctrl-alt-f8 gives no response.

Haven't been able to access grub with e on startup so I can't change the line back.

Do you mean grub still boots but gets you to a console login? If so, log in and change grub from there. Or do you just get a grub prompt?

mrmazda · 03-13-2019, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rfisher0

Alt-fn returns 'can't reactivate AUX port'

Alt-Fn means same thing as Alt-F1, Alt-F2, Alt-F3, Alt-F4, Alt-F5, Alt-F6, Alt-F7 or Alt-F#, not a literal n or #.

Quote:

Ctrl-alt-f1 - 5 changes the tty from 1-5.

With a login prompt? If yes, you can login as root or use sudo and fix what you broke, edit /etc/default/grub and/or /boot/grub/grub.cfg. At a place like this I use the OFM called mc for navigation and editing. If it's not already installed, install it with apt or aptitude. It's simple to use yet powerful and yet retains the shell cmdline ready to type in any command you wish to run. Editing the hard way includes vi and/or vim and/or nano and/or joe and whatever other non-GUI editors may be installed.

Quote:

Haven't been able to access grub with e on startup so I can't change the line back.

Editing as above will enable a permanent fix to the cmdline content. Why e doesn't work I have no idea, unless you managed to change the Grub timeout to 2 or less. Maybe your keyboard is being ignored at that point. Maybe hitting it before Grub appears or using the ESC key or a USB keyboard would help.

business_kid · 03-13-2019, 12:53 PM

@OP: Post the output of either or both of these commands

Code:

runlevel
who -r

It would also be smart to post your grub.cfg

Rfisher0 · 03-13-2019, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

With a login prompt? If yes, you can login as root or use sudo and fix what you broke, edit /etc/default/grub and/or /boot/grub/grub.cfg. At a place like this I use the OFM called mc for navigation and editing. If it's not already installed, install it with apt or aptitude.

I don't understand a lot of this, total Linux newbie. I do have a login prompt, how would I log in as root? I can use sudo -s and prompt changes to root@user: but stumped from there. Since I can't get to the desktop I don't know how to install anything.

Runlevel returns N 5

Who -r returns run-level 5 2019-03-13 14:04

How can I post grub.cfg?

Edit: Got to the gnu grub the line I edited seems to have reverted reading

Linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-38-generic root=UUID=ce56655c-2a84-4928-bb15-940f24c0e948 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff

colorpurple21859 · 03-13-2019, 06:20 PM

what happens if you login with your username and then type startx

Rfisher0 · 03-13-2019, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

what happens if you login with your username and then type startx

xauth: unable to write authority file /tmp/serverauth.5dyawZRcqW-n
xauth: time out in locking authority file home/user/.Xauthority

(EE)
Fatal server error:
Could not create lock file in /tmp/.tX0-lock

mrmazda · 03-13-2019, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rfisher0

xauth: unable to write authority file /tmp/serverauth.5dyawZRcqW-n
xauth: time out in locking authority file home/user/.Xauthority

(EE)
Fatal server error:
Could not create lock file in /tmp/.tX0-lock

This may be because /usr/bin/Xorg are normally mode 0755 with systemd, while startx might require a risky mode 4711. Possibly

Code:

sudo chmod 4711 /usr/bin/Xorg

would allow startx to not error, but without solving your OP.

colorpurple21859 · 03-13-2019, 07:55 PM

what happens if you run this

Code:

sudo -s
mount -o remount,rw /
exit
startx

there is no space between the , and rw

mrmazda · 03-13-2019, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rfisher0

I don't understand a lot of this, total Linux newbie. I do have a login prompt, how would I log in as root?

Probably you cannot, because root normally in Mint and other Ubuntu derivatives no password for root is configured.

Quote:

I can use sudo -s and prompt changes to root@user: but stumped from there. Since I can't get to the desktop I don't know how to install anything.

Code:

sudo apt install mc

to install mc, then

Code:

su -
mc

to use mc in superuser mode, to navigate and make necessary configuration edits.

Quote:

Runlevel returns N 5

Who -r returns run-level 5 2019-03-13 14:04

5 is normal in Mint.

Quote:

How can I post grub.cfg?

Code:

pastebinit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Quote:

Edit: Got to the gnu grub the line I edited seems to have reverted reading

Linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-38-generic root=UUID=ce56655c-2a84-4928-bb15-940f24c0e948 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff

When you use the e key to edit at a Grub menu, the edition only works for that boot, a temporary change.

Rfisher0 · 03-14-2019, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

what happens if you run this

Code:

sudo -s
mount -o remount,rw /
exit
startx

there is no space between the , and rw

Gives the same error as before when just running xstart.

Was able to access grub menu and tried starting in recovery mode. Since then it's giving me a graphic login which loops.

Also tried clearing data but it's still giving me an error on installing that there isn't enough space.