Unbootable after running sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

[steve7233]

How do I recover? I installed on btrfs and GG told me how to make a snapshot of / and home.

[steve7233]

I forgot to mention the screen is blank and the laptop's caps light is flashing.

[claydoh]

Probably a hardware problem

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01732674

Sent from my LG-H900 using Tapatalk

[steve7233]

Probably a hardware problem

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01732674

Sent from my LG-H900 using Tapatalk

They only go back to 2011. I have a dv6 . That's 2008 or 2007. Anyone have a guess as to what a flashing caps lock led means? I tried to check the memory cards. Its like working on my old Toyota Corollia Mark II when I was a teenager. I once had to replace the starter. Very difficult just getting to it! 😭 I could only get the top one out after several minutes of trying to get in potion I heard several satisfying clicks. Unfortunately I still get the flashing led.

Either the bottom memory card that I couldn't get my fingers in to adjust, is loose or something else went wrong. Its pretty old. I hope its not something expensive. I wish I had a few hundred dollars for a new computer, but I don't. I hope I can manage until I have the money.

[claydoh]

Not knowing the specifics of your system (You may have already specified this elsewhere, but I am not going to go digging to find it) and the actual blinking sequence (which will tell us what may be malfunctioning), I cannot tell you for sure. It does indicate a hardware issue of some sort. A search on HP's support site, and perhaps finding your model's specific user or service manual would help. Even though yours is older the codes may be the same.

Can you access bios/setup at all?

[steve7233]

While trying to aceess the Bios I got to the grub II boot menu and selected the top rescue mode.Mabey I can fix this. I suspect its a grub configuration problem rather than a hardware problem or maybe both. It went into emergency mode while I was typing this. I will live running at this point until some one responds. If nothing else maybe someone can tell me how to use my read only btrfs snap shots - As per Gg - to roll my stem back to a bootable state.

[steve7233]

I tried the other kernel and it boots just fine. It must be a kernel module problem. It didn't happen until I ran ubuntu-drivers auto install. That must have installed bad data. What is the command to reconfigure grub II so it will use the old kernel or how do I remove the bad kernel module or maybe I should roll back to the BTRFS snapshots.

[GreyGeek]

I forgot to mention the screen is blank and the laptop's caps light is flashing.

While you got it running by booting the previous kernel I still suspect that your dead screen and blanking caps lock light is indicative of at least one thing: a nearly dead CMOS battery. You should search for a PDF of your model service manual and look into how to replace that MOBO battery. I know for sure that you will have to remove the keyboard and the metal shield beneath it, which will requiring taking out a lot of screws on the back side. I also know from experience that laptops that old tend to have brittle cable connectors that break while just wiggling them, to say nothing of trying to unplug them.

For sure you are on borrowed time with that CMOS. Meanwhile, since you have already booted into a previous kernel why don't you merely use Muon or the command line to purge that kernel that won't boot and then reboot. The good kernel will be used automatically. That's the easiest approach right now.

If that doesn't work you can do the rollback thing.

[steve7233]

I tried the other kernel and it boots just fine. It must be a kernel module problem. It didn't happen until I ran ubuntu-drivers auto install. That must have installed bad data. What is the command to reconfigure grub II so it will use the old kernel or how do I remove the bad kernel module or maybe I should roll back to the BTRFS snapshots.

Duplicate post something went wrong with the forum program or an Internet glitch.

[steve7233]

While you got it running by booting the previous kernel I still suspect that your dead screen and blanking caps lock light is indicative of at least one thing: a nearly dead CMOS battery. You should search for a PDF of your model service manual and look into how to replace that MOBO battery. I know for sure that you will have to remove the keyboard and the metal shield beneath it, which will requiring taking out a lot of screws on the back side. I also know from experience that laptops that old tend to have brittle cable connectors that break while just wiggling them, to say nothing of trying to unplug them.

For sure you are on borrowed time with that CMOS. Meanwhile, since you have already booted into a previous kernel why don't you merely use Muon or the command line to purge that kernel that won't boot and then reboot. The good kernel will be used automatically. That's the easiest approach right now.

If that doesn't work you can do the rollback thing.

When I was looking in the memory compartment I saw the CMOS battery but I don't know if I can get to it that way.
I will try that kernel thing you said.

[GreyGeek]

BEFORE you attempt anything mechanical with your laptop be sure you find a PDF of the HP SERVICE manual (not the user's manual) for your SPECIFIC model and download it. It will give you all the necessary steps required to change the CMOS battery (also called the RTC battery by HP).

[jglen490]

There must have been something else going on, because sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall will only install drivers that are not installed for the specific, detected hardware.

john@John-Desktop:~$ sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
[sudo] password for john: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 168 not upgraded.
john@John-Desktop:~$ ubuntu-drivers -h
usage: ubuntu-drivers [-h] [--package-list PATH] <command>

List/install driver packages for Ubuntu.

positional arguments:
<command>            See below

optional arguments:
-h, --help           show this help message and exit
--package-list PATH  Create file with list of installed packages (in
                     autoinstall mode)

Available commands:
 devices: Show all devices which need drivers, and which packages apply to them.
 autoinstall: Install drivers that are appropriate for automatic installation.
 list: Show all driver packages which apply to the current system.
 debug: Print all available information and debug data about drivers.

While it is possible that a module associated with the kernel running at the time was somehow corrupted, that would - to me - indicate a hardware problem that was occurring as the ubuntu-drivers command was running. Possibly electrical. When you loaded the other kernel from Grub, a different set of associated kernel modules were loaded also. Thus, your computer started up just fine.

Synaptic and Muon will each list your installed kernels and can be used to uninstall kernels. I agree with GreyGeek that you should purge the suspect kernel, and for now go with the working kernel. You can always simply re-install what was the bad kernel some time later.

Once you get 16.04 actually running, I strongly recommend that you not do anything to mess with success including experimenting with things. At some point when you can get a more modern (or reliable) laptop or notebook or desktop, then you can play!

[steve7233]

How do I know which kernel to delete and can't I just use the reinstall option? BTW: I had to install Muon as it wasn't installed.

EDIT: Nevermind, I used KDE info center and used muon to remove the other one. Actually the proper word is purge but Muon calls it remove even though it really purges the kernel.

[steve7233]

BEFORE you attempt anything mechanical with your laptop be sure you find a PDF of the HP SERVICE manual (not the user's manual) for your SPECIFIC model and download it. It will give you all the necessary steps required to change the CMOS battery (also called the RTC battery by HP).

I found an HP web site that showed me how to check the memory and unscrew the cover on the bottom which gave me access to the memory cards. I think a Japanese design was used as there is barley enough room for small fingers and I have large hands. I wish I could talk to the idiot that designed the memory compartment. If you have an old HP Pavilion you can see what I mean. I suspect the other compartment is probably the PSU.

[GreyGeek]

How do I know which kernel to delete and can't I just use the reinstall option? BTW: I had to install Muon as it wasn't installed.

EDIT: Nevermind, I used KDE info center and used muon to remove the other one. Actually the proper word is purge but Muon calls it remove even though it really purges the kernel.

My Muon offers purge: