Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] Need Linux expert to help solve failed Ubuntu
On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, at 3:38 PM, James Keenan wrote: > I need assistance from a Linux expert, preferably one in New York City. > Today I attempted to upgrade from Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS to 18.04 LTS. > The upgrade failed leaving me only with a crippled 16.04 system on which > I cannot get past the login page. > > On the machine in question I successfully upgraded from 14.04 LTS to > 16.04 about two years ago. ISTR that I used the Ubuntu Software Updater > (GUI) program and all went smoothly. So, having done a backup of my > homedir, I today first attempted to use the Software Updater to move to > 18.04. (That program had been prompting me to upgrade for the past two > weeks or so.) I spent several hours working on one problem and, via a > post on askubuntu.com, got past that. At the command line I called the > apt command to do a dist version upgrade and I observed the program > downloading, unpacking and installing packages as expected. > > After about twenty minutes I came back to the keyboard and that the > command had completed with messages like the following: > > "The dist upgrade has completed, but there were problems with these file: > [list of about 15 packages] > > "Dist upgrade has been completed." > > (I'm sorry I can't quote the exact message. I copied it to a plain-text > file but, as you shall soon see, have no access to that file.) > > The program's output did not specify any what of addressing the problems > with packages. On the basis of past experience I figured that after a > restart I could address those problems one at a time. > > So I rebooted -- and here my troubles began. > > When the computer came back up, it came up into Ubuntu 16.04 LTS -- not > 18.04. So the upgrade had not really completed. Worse, once I entered > my password I never got anywhere past the login page, i.e., I never got > to my Desktop. The login page looks slightly different in that next to > my username there is a "footprint in a circle" item which, if I click on > it, offers me a choice between "GNOME on Xorg" with a circle but no > footprint and "GNOME on Xorg" with a circle and the footprint therein. > I don't recall seeing either of these on the real 16.04 LTS login page. > But regardless of which I choose, after entering my password and hitting > enter, I get taken back to the login page. > > So what happens if I try a restart (I do have mouse and keyboard input)? > The computer comes back up to the 16.04 login screen, albeit with the > "circle with no footprint in it" variant. > > I also tried holding down the Ctrl key while restarting. Earlier in my > debugging that would bring me to a pop-up stating that I was now running > in low-resolution graphics mode and offering me several options. > Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce that now. > > So what I fear happened was that the attempted upgrade removed packages > that were fundamental to the operation of 16.04 LTS -- I recall that one > of the problematic packages was 'nautilus' -- without installing > everything I needed for 18.04. I have no Desktop, terminal, browser -- > nothing on the affected machine. > > I suspect that this is the sort of problem where I'll have to bring the > computer to a knowledgeable person and work side-by-side with her/him to > salvage this situation. The only other computer I have is a 14-year-old > Mac whose browsers are so old that I can't use them to login to > askubuntu.com. > > So if anyone can help me out, the help would be greatly appreciated and > I'd ask that you mail me off-list with suggestions, time/place to meet > up, etc. > > Thank you very much. > Jim Keenan > Thanks for the replies that I have received so far, both on-list and off-list.
Two off-list suggestions were particularly valuable. One reminded me that to boot in single-user mode I have to hold down the Shift key while restarting rather than the Ctrl key. That got me to the GNU GRUB menu, with which I was previously familiar. I selected Advanced Options for Ubuntu and then selected Recovery mode and was able to explore the system thereby.
The second suggestion was, to hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 when I got to the login/password prompt. This drops me out of the GUI and gave me a terminal with which to explore the system.
I spent about 6 hours trying various things last night. At one point, much to my surprise, I had wireless internet access. That enabled me to try various combinations of the Ubuntu Software Update and 'sudo apt-get -f install' and 'sudo do-release-upgrade'. I eventually got to a point where, though the login page still said "Ubuntu 16.04 LTS", the environment into which I was transferred once I logged in was clearly 18.04. Some more rebooting got me to a point where the login page now says "Ubuntu 18.04 LTS."
My most severe current problem is: No internet access.
Upon rebooting the wireless router is detected and the signal is satisfactory. But there is no connection. 'ping 1.1.1.1' returns expected results, but ...
##### $ ping google.com ping: google.com: Name or service not known #####
I get similar results from 'ssh', 'sftp', etc.
In the past, one simple fix which worked in this situation was:
##### $ sudo dhclient -v eth0 #####
(I think I even have a comment/post about this somewhere on askubuntu.com -- but my browsers are too old to be able to search that site.)
But now the only thing I'm getting with that command is:
##### Listening on LPF/eth0/44:81:5b:40:b4:7e Sending on LPF/eth0/44:81:5b:40:b4:7e Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255. port 67 interval 3 (xid=0xbc75620) [last line repeated indefinitely with different values for 'interval'] #####
I'm inlining (because Attach File does not seem to work on this ancient browser) 3 plain-text files in the hope of getting further insights from readers of this list:
* The content of /etc/network/interfaces * The output of ifconfig * The output of lspci
##### # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8) auto lo iface lo inet loopback ##### docker0: flags=4099 mtu 1500 inet 172.17.0.1 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 172.17.255.255 ether 02:42:2a:74:df:fe txqueuelen 0 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
##### 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) 00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06) 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 05) 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 05) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d5) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev d5) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM86 Express LPC Controller (rev 05) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05) 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10) 04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 2230 (rev c4) #####
Thank you very much.
-- James Keenan jkeenan-at-pobox.com
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