no boot anymore

[nicrnicr]

Dear all,

after I installed with much difficulties Kolourpaint and thanks to your help (https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ht=kolourpaint), I can no longer boot my computer.
After I choosed Ubuntu (which represents Kubuntu 16.04) in the GRUB, there is the presentation of the Kubuntu 16.04 system and then it's black with the cursor that I can move and all my Knotes post-its.
I tried to boot with the generic and the recovery mode with the selection of fdsk and pkg, but it doesn't change anything.
Now I want to install Kubuntu 16.04 from a live USB again (I mean that I intend to repair the hard disk). But I*don't know where in the partition (for me the partition is all the parts of it i.e. Kubuntu 16.04, Kubuntu 14.04 and Windows 10) Kubuntu 16.04 is installed. I write you how the parts of the partition appear in the GRUB and I*send you a picture of the partition:
Ubuntu
More options for Ubuntu
Memory test (memtest86+)
Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)
Windows 10 (on /dev/sda2)
Kubuntu 14.04 (on /dev/sda6)
More options for Kubuntu 14.04 (on /dev/sda6)

As I first installed Windows, then Kubuntu 14.04 and finallly Kubuntu 16.04, are we able to determine where Kubuntu 16.04 is installed please?

After having written you this, I*guess it is the sda8. Thank you very much for being in the forum.

[GreyGeek]

Why do you have sda4 and linuxswap locked locked (readonly)?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nicrnicr]

Thanks for your answer GreyGeek,
I have no idea, why sda4 and linuxswap are locked. I think that I*should unlock linuxswap if I want to delete sda5 in order to move sda6 and sda7 to the right to increase the size of sda8.

But first, I have to repair sda8.

[GreyGeek]

Why do you think sda8 is broken?

[oshunluvr]

Thanks for your answer GreyGeek,
I have no idea, why sda4 and linuxswap are locked. I think that I*should unlock linuxswap if I want to delete sda5 in order to move sda6 and sda7 to the right to increase the size of sda8.

But first, I have to repair sda8.

By design, any partition in use is locked to partitionmanager to prevent inadvertent file system. SDA7 is your swap partition. To "unlock" it, turn swap off.

sudo swapoff --all

SDA4 is an Extended partition. If any of the Logical partitions within it are locked, naturally so is the Extended partition. This wouldn't effect your ability to resize SDA6 anyway.

Don't waste time "moving" a swap partition, just delete it and re-make it when you're done resizing SDA6. Don't forget to edit /etc/fstab to reflect the change in UUID (or replace the UUID with correct device name instead, like /dev/sda7).

To GreyGeek's point: You don't really say anything about why you're doing all this. SDA8 is already 78GB - 4 times larger than the space you've used on it to this point. I've never seen a Linux install taking more than 20-22GB. Moving partitions with data on them is dangerous. Why risk losing everything to add 10GB or whatever to a partition already too large for what it's being used for?

Just because you're booting to a black screen doesn't automatically mean your file system is damaged nor does it guarantee a re-install will fix it. You may be putting the cart before the horse.

[oshunluvr]

In answer to another of your questions, the way to tell what is residing on any particular partition, in this case SDA8, is to mount it a view the data.

[GreyGeek]

By design, any partition in use is locked to partitionmanager to prevent inadvertent file system. SDA7 is your swap partition. To "unlock" it, turn swap off.

sudo swapoff --all

.....

When he said "I can no longer boot my computer" my assumption was that he was running on a Live USB or CDROM installation which shouldn't have locked the HD partitions.

[oshunluvr]

When he said "I can no longer boot my computer" my assumption was that he was running on a Live USB or CDROM installation which shouldn't have locked the HD partitions.

That's interesting since I assumed swap was in use, but clearly no other partitions are. Maybe a dual-drive with swap enable only on sda?

I haven't booted to a LiveUSB in quite awhile but maybe it seeks for a usable swap and turns swap on regardless of location? Seems possible, but not optimal behavior unless there was an "opt-in" requirement.

[oshunluvr]

BTW, this sort of thing is why I got into the habit of making swap my first partition - set it and forget it.

[nicrnicr]

Thank you GreyGeek for your question. I think that I remember that I installed Kubuntu 16.04 at the left of Kubuntu 14.04, because:
- I could grant it more space than at the right of Kubuntu 14.04, as I took space from Windows (if my memory is good)
- the computer strongly advised me to put this new system there (my memories come back slowly).

Do you mean that a black screen doesn't mean that sda8 is broken?

Thank you oshunluvr for your exhaustive answer! You wrote "Just because you're booting to a black screen doesn't automatically mean your file system is damaged nor does it guarantee a re-install will fix it. You may be putting the cart before the horse.". It seems you think like GreyGeek. Please what should I*do in order to fix this black screen?

[oshunluvr]

Thank you GreyGeek for your question. I think that I remember that I installed Kubuntu 16.04 at the left of Kubuntu 14.04, because:
- I could grant it more space than at the right of Kubuntu 14.04, as I took space from Windows (if my memory is good)
- the computer strongly advised me to put this new system there (my memories come back slowly).

Do you mean that a black screen doesn't mean that sda8 is broken?

Thank you oshunluvr for your exhaustive answer! You wrote "Just because you're booting to a black screen doesn't automatically mean your file system is damaged nor does it guarantee a re-install will fix it. You may be putting the cart before the horse.". It seems you think like GreyGeek. Please what should I*do in order to fix this black screen?

The "black screen" is a very common result of a mis-configured video environment. This could easily be a by-product of your recent large update (or letting it go so long without updating).

Start by searching on this forum and on the internet. The solution will depend on the issue so it's impossible to tell at this point what needs to be fixed - if that is indeed the case.

Reboot and when you're at the black screen, hold down the ALT key and hit F1. This should switch you to a text console and present you with a log in prompt. If it does, the issue is will not likely be fixed with a re-install.

Assuming you're at a log in prompt, log in as your user and type "sudo service sddm restart" this should take you back to the graphic display, which I assume will still be a black screen. Then, switch back to ALT-F1 and see if any error messages have printed there. Also do:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

and

cat ~/.xsession-errors

either or both of these might shed some light on the issue with some error messages. Also try editing the "linux" line in the grub menu and replacing "quite splash" with "nomodeset" and see if that gets you back to a desktop.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1948...boot-parameter

[vinnywright]

ya ,,,,I'd try the "nomodeset" option first ,,,,especially if you were using an installed graphics driver like Nvidia .

at the boot screen wile the Ubuntu line is highlighted hit the "e" key ,,, then use the arrow keys to scroll down to the line that starts with "linux" scroll over to just past where it says "quite splash"and either backspace it out and type in nomodeset or just add the nomodeset ,,,,then hit ctrl+x to boot .

if this gets you in it's most likely a driver problem ,,,,,,,if you were using an installed driver or not ,,,,let us know what graphics card/chipset and driver you do have .

using the "nomodeset" will start you with a generic (works on almost anything) VGA graphics driver ,, among other generic things.

VINNY

[nicrnicr]

Thank you very much oshunluvr and vinnywright for your answers.
I applied vinnywright's proposition. It changes nothing after I hit ctrl+x to boot. There is still a black screen with one posti-it of Knotes and the cursor that I can move.

[nicrnicr]

and when I*hit Alt+F1 at the same time nothing happens; but when I hit Ctrl+Alt+T the console is shown (By the way the post-it disapears when I*hit escape).
After I*wrote

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

and

cat ~/.xsession-errors

the answer is in both cases:

unknown path or file

Thank you very much for your reading and your possible reactions.

[oshunluvr]

It's CTRL-ALT-F1 all at the same time - sorry. my mistake.

CTRL-Alt-T does nothing here. Maybe your keyboard configuration is different?

If /var/log/Xorg.0.log and ~/.xsession-errors aren't there then Xorg isn't running at all. I can't imagine why that would be.

If you're seeing Knote on the black screen, likely your video driver is working, the problem is with your desktop configuration. You didn't mention the post-it note before. Do you get a log in screen or does it just go black with the knote. We're going to need more information to help you.