Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

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Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

I've got this same problem. I did not have this issue on the Beta 048.

I am doing a fresh install on top of Beta 048. Only my /home partition is intact from 048.

I have a Compaq Presario v5000 series notebook.

ATI graphics
AMD Turion 64 CPU
1.25 Gig of RAM
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

gamx wrote:hey, i have a exactly similar problem here. seems linux mint isn't too friendly to our laptops :cry:
Specs on your computer?
Missed
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Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Missed »

I have exactly the same problem with my desk-top.

Asus M2NPV-VM
AMD 6000 X2
2Gb DDR2-800
Seagate 320 Gb
Viewsonic 22 widescreen

If I do a soft reset after the GUI fails to open, the system starts up normally.

I also did a complete reinstall, including my home partition, when this problem occurred, so I don't think it is anything that I have changed.
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

Missed wrote:I have exactly the same problem with my desk-top.

Asus M2NPV-VM
AMD 6000 X2
2Gb DDR2-800
Seagate 320 Gb
Viewsonic 22 widescreen

If I do a soft reset after the GUI fails to open, the system starts up normally.

I also did a complete reinstall, including my home partition, when this problem occurred, so I don't think it is anything that I have changed.
What is a "soft reset"?
Missed
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Location: New Zealand

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Missed »

Computersleuth wrote: What is a "soft reset"?
Ctrl/Alt/Delete.
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

Missed wrote:
Computersleuth wrote: What is a "soft reset"?
Ctrl/Alt/Delete.
Thanks . . .

I do not remember that my system booted normally after a soft reset . . . I will check it out this evening (about 8 hours from now). 8)
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

Missed wrote:
Computersleuth wrote: What is a "soft reset"?
Ctrl/Alt/Delete.
Thanks . . .

I do not remember that my system booted normally after a soft reset . . . I will check it out this evening (about 8 hours from now). 8)
Splunge

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Splunge »

Hi Guys,
Heard about mint a lot and first tried it with Elyssa RC1. All worked fine and I loved it. Waited for the final before I ditched my Ubuntu partition. Installed today and when I rebooted, all looked good, nice grub menu, but it would not load!

The mint bar (not sure what to call it) kept going across but never loaded. I rebooted and chose the recovery option and told it to boot normally and it did. It seemed to work but after a reboot it does the exact same thing.

I fixed it, BUT, I did this by using the above method and then sudo apt-get dist upgrade. <<< Did I do bad? Am I still using a Mint install or do I have some funky hybrid now?

I'd rather know so if I have to re-install I can do it now before I start setting everything the way I like.

Great job Clem and all supporters. Another Mint convert has jumped on board!
Splunge

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Splunge »

Just registered as well, don't know why I thought I had already done so above :(
Missed
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Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Missed »

I never had this problem with Daryna.

Anyway, I turned off quiet & splash at the grub screen, did several soft boots, because the first didn't work, and the list on the screen stopped at different places each time. So, not much help from that. Would the system logs help? If so which one?
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

I've attempted several soft boots. Also booting into recovery mode. No joy.
Missed
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Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Missed »

I just kept trying. Eventually success!
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

On one occasion, I booted into Recovery mode. There was plain-text with a lot of messages. One message said that it could not find /dev/hda6, which is the partition I allocated to / . Well, it seems that when I installed Mint 5 Stable, I specified the filesystem to be ext3 and formatted it that way.

I have now re-installed, specifying /dev/hda6 as an ext2 filesystem - which is the way it is formatted. Now, when Mint loads, it recognizes /dev/hda6 as the / drive.

For me, it seems that Mint could not locate the / drive and went into the default shell. I am guessing that others may have the same problem for a similar reason - that is, Mint not finding the / drive.
Splunge

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Splunge »

Hmmm, I too used EXT3 when setting my partitions. Might try a re-install tonight to see if changing helps mine. Not got anything set-up yet so a few reinstalls wont hurt :)

I tried it this morning before work and it just wouldn't boot again. Something definitely not happy, at least on my machine :(

I'll keep checking this thread though because it seems there is a few of us with the issue, sure we crack it between us.
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

Again, I think the core issue is that Mint cannot find partition "/", and so it defaults to its basic shell as the interface.

I believe that a number of problems can all result in the same sympton; that is, going to the basic shell and not getting a GUI.

In my case, I had set the file system as ext3. Apparently, ext3 is not a good file system to use for the Mint executables. Changing the file system to ext2 and reformatting made it work for me.
Missed
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Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Missed »

I'm not convinced that EXT3 is the problem. I have just read the User Guide, and it specifically says to use EXT3 for the root partition.
Joe Mama

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Joe Mama »

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. How is it that an LTS release that is supposedly rock solid stable is unable to even boot on so many machines? That's inexcusable. I'm really disappointed in the Mint team for this one. For now I'll stick with Daryna until this ridiculous bug is fixed.
Splunge

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Splunge »

Well, Don't know if the EXT thing is the issue, but, I reinstalled and chose reiserFS << don't know how good it is to be honest and I am now typing from a fully functional booting Mint.

Kind if weird that the RC worked for me and many others but not the final? Was something relating to the file system in anyway changed?
I would suggest trying it to others with a different format option, just to see if we can find a common solution to offer others should the need arise.

Any advice on using this now with Reiser, do I have to bear anything in mind?

Any comments from any of the Mint team? We need help :)

Cheers
Computersleuth

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Computersleuth »

Missed wrote:I'm not convinced that EXT3 is the problem. I have just read the User Guide, and it specifically says to use EXT3 for the root partition.
Yep. It sure does say ext3. Unfortunately, ext3 does not work as the root partition on my system. I did use ext3 for the root partition on my beta 048 installation.
Joe Mama

Re: Fresh install Mint 5 Elyssa and no gui to be had

Post by Joe Mama »

Can anyone else confirm that picking a different filesystem is the solution to this?
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