How to downgrade to an earlier release?

[jpc2769]

"..it paused for a bit but didn't say anything..."

Meaning, you were returned to the command prompt? What about trying the 'list' command:

list: Show all driver packages which apply to the current system.

ubuntu-drivers list

Correct, it just waits for a bit then returns to the command prompt, the same when I use "list".

[jpc2769]

If we can start from the beginning, did you do a direct upgrade to 18.04, or a clean install of 18.04? For the past several years, the clean install process seems to work better. That being said, unless you have some unusual hardware, it would be odd to lose that much functionality in an upgrade of any kind.

In answer to your question, it is possible to go back to 16.04, but a clean install is the most direct and reliable way to do that. An ISO of the latest 16.04 that you had (i.e., 16.04.4 or 16.04.5) previously is available from the Kubuntu download page and is still supported for another couple of years.

To continue with your current problem, when you reboot, do you see any hardware errors (i.e., specific to USB devices) either during the boot or if you use dmesg with grep? Can you copy and paste back the results of

inxi -Fxz

in a code box? And just to cover all the bases, if you downloaded an 18.04 ISO, did you check the SHA256 sum?

I didn't do a clean install, I used the upgrade process; why is this still a thing if it hasn't worked for years?

Here is the output of inxi:

:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: jason-ThinkPad-X230-Tablet Kernel: 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
          Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.12.6 (Qt 5.9.5) Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Machine:   Device: laptop System: LENOVO product: 3434CTO v: ThinkPad X230 Tablet serial: N/A
          Mobo: LENOVO model: 3434CTO serial: N/A UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: GCET19WW (1.08 ) date: 05/24/2012
Battery    BAT0: charge: 51.1 Wh 99.9% condition: 51.1/57.2 Wh (89%) model: SANYO 45N1177 status: Full
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i7-3520M (-MT-MCP-) arch: Ivy Bridge rev.9 cache: 4096 KB
          flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 11572
          clock speeds: max: 3600 MHz 1: 1330 MHz 2: 1412 MHz 3: 1435 MHz 4: 1369 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
          Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
          Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
          OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile version: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio Controller
          driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
          Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-33-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5080 bus-ID: 00:19.0
          IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
          Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] bus-ID: 03:00.0
          IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (63.3% used)
          ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST320LT007 size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 21G used: 17G (87%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
          ID-2: /home size: 186G used: 170G (97%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
          ID-3: swap-1 size: 2.50GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0C mobo: N/A
          Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info:      Processes: 359 Uptime: 15:08 Memory: 2902.7/7700.9MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
          Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56

[jglen490]

An upgrade does work - in some cases. I just read your other thread. GreyGeek has pretty well confirmed what the reality is. Your Lenovo laptop is generally well supported in Kubuntu, but sometimes there are upgrades, such as drivers, that the upgrade process just doesn't seem to handle well. That APPEARS to be the case, and the way your system is reacting pretty well confirms it, too.

You might be able to fix the mess, but I think that you will want to back up your /home directory to an external drive. You could use something like rsync from the command line as the backup utility, but that could be difficult if you can't get to any USB ports from the command line. It's worth a try. If you would, open up konsole and input

dmesg|grep USB

, and copy as much as you can into a code box. If you "see" any working USB entries, and if you have a USB drive that can handle your 170GB of /home data you can use rsync.

Once you are able to back up your data, you can "clean" reinstall 18.04 or 16.04. If you can't back up your data, doing a clean reinstall would be very risky, but if you watch very closely that would be doable. Given the urgency of your need for getting a working installation back, you may not have much of a choice.

Based on what inxi is showing about your hard drive, I'm assuming that the the drive may be formatted as ms-dos and not GPT - but I could be wrong. Gparted would show that better, unless you remember what you originally did to set up the hard drive. The Machine entry indicates a Legacy setting in the firmware - which is cool. And I'm just trying to get a lay of the land.

I think seeing if you can list any active USB devices is job #1, at this point.

[jpc2769]

An upgrade does work - in some cases. I just read your other thread. GreyGeek has pretty well confirmed what the reality is. Your Lenovo laptop is generally well supported in Kubuntu, but sometimes there are upgrades, such as drivers, that the upgrade process just doesn't seem to handle well. That APPEARS to be the case, and the way your system is reacting pretty well confirms it, too.

You might be able to fix the mess, but I think that you will want to back up your /home directory to an external drive. If you would, open up konsole and input

dmesg|grep USB

, and copy as much as you can into a code box. If you "see" any working USB entries, and if you have a USB drive that can handle your 170GB of /home data you can use rsync.

I have /home on a separate partition, so at least there's that...

Once you are able to back up your data, you can "clean" reinstall 18.04 or 16.04. If you can't back up your data, doing a clean reinstall would be very risky, but if you watch very closely that would be doable. Given the urgency of your need for getting a working installation back, you may not have much of a choice.

Based on what inxi is showing about your hard drive, I'm assuming that the the drive may be formatted as ms-dos and not GPT - but I could be wrong. Gparted would show that better, unless you remember what you originally did to set up the hard drive. The Machine entry indicates a Legacy setting in the firmware - which is cool. And I'm just trying to get a lay of the land.

I think seeing if you can list any active USB devices is job #1, at this point.

When I bought the computer, it had Windows 7 installed. I split up the free space into /, /home, and swap

If you would, open up konsole and input

dmesg|grep USB

, and copy as much as you can into a code box. If you "see" any working USB entries, and if you have a USB drive that can handle your 170GB of /home data you can use rsync.

OK here it is:

root@jason-ThinkPad-X230-Tablet:~# dmesg|grep USB
[    0.135206] ACPI: bus type USB registered
[    1.870008] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    1.870252] ehci-pci 0000:00:1a.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    1.888042] ehci-pci 0000:00:1a.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    1.888126] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    1.888129] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.888401] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.888881] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    1.908041] ehci-pci 0000:00:1d.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    1.908110] usb usb2: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    1.908113] usb usb2: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.908351] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.908661] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
[    1.908694] uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
[    1.908899] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
[    1.910224] usb usb3: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    1.910227] usb usb3: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.910460] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.911432] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
[    1.911438] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: Host supports USB 3.0  SuperSpeed
[    1.911497] usb usb4: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0003
[    1.911500] usb usb4: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.911733] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.224037] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[    2.248071] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[    2.381155] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=0024
[    2.381157] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    2.381582] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.404435] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=0024
[    2.404439] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    2.404655] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.672032] usb 1-1.6: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[    2.692025] usb 2-1.5: new full-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[    2.788225] usb 1-1.6: New USB device found, idVendor=04f2, idProduct=b2ea
[    2.788226] usb 1-1.6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    2.801994] usb 2-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=056a, idProduct=0090
[    2.801996] usb 2-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    2.808763] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    2.811512] wacom 0003:056A:0090.0001: hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Tablet ISD-V4] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.5/input0
[   37.172105] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[   37.288712] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=21e6
[   37.288715] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[   38.263906] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1)
[   85.291650] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 4
[  419.664131] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[  419.814381] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0718, idProduct=0157
[  419.814387] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  420.406396] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected

[jglen490]

You have USB devices - good. What that probably means is that when you attach a thumb drive such as your key" thing, it's probably being mounted with root as owner and no "other" user read or execute permissions. With screwed up permissions,though, it should still be possible to sudo a command such as rsync and other command line inputs.

[jpc2769]

I ended up creating a USB image of 18.04 on another computer, then using that to do a "clean" install, and everything seems to be working now.

I really think they should not be including the ability to upgrade distributions anymore, just prompt people to do fresh installs...

[jglen490]

Well, glad you were able to resolve your issue. You could actually file a bug report against the upgrade process. or just live and learn.

I've changed my own behavior WRT version installs. I ONLY do LTS, and even then I wait until the xx.04.1 LTS version that includes the first big group of bug fixes. The Kubuntu devs actually do a great job of creating a stable, useful set of software that you and I can install and use for free (or you can contribute cash, time, ability!!).