Linux Mint Forums

I am a mint user for a few months now and am convinced it is the best desktop dist for non technical people such as myself. Unfortunately whilst playing around I stupidly ignored warnings whilst using "kleansweep" and have deleted some things I shouldn-t have and now Mint won"t boot. On booting I first get the message

" graphics file "/etc/grub/message.mint" missing, press a key to continue....

I then get a modified version of the dual boot screen where I select between vista or Mint. On selecting Mint, at first the mint loading screen appears as normal (splash?) but then screen goes black and I get the following message

195 : can-t open /etc/default/rcS
error: /etc/init.d/rc exited outside expected code flow
init: rcS main process (2529) terminated with status 2


This message is then repeated, and then I am left with a blinking cursor.

Fortunately perhaps, yesterday I installed the new ubuntu using wubi inside vista just to try it out ( wubi would be a great addition to Mint by the way!), and therefore I have access to my mint partition from inside Ubuntu, everything seems to be still there if only I could boot into it. I can even go to the kleansweep back up files I made but don,t know how to reinstate them. I could reinstall mint as I have all my personal files backed up but would rather not. If only because I don.t want to loose all my e mails from thunderbird ( is there a way of salvaging these?)

I would be very very grateful to anyone prepared to spend the time to help me recover from this problem , I promise not to be so stupid in future!

You could try running fsck with a live cd, but not knowing what you have deleted, it is hard to say. You can use a live cd to get your emails, etc. Boot a live cd, open a terminal and run . Then using the info from that command, run fsck on your linux partition:
Replace the "x" with your number.

I would recommend a fresh install!
You have all your personal files backed up except mail?
This is in your Mozilla profiles folder in home so just copy that folder to a safe place and use a separate partition for home when you reinstall and you wont loose any data on reinstall
I have my profiles in a non standard location so I can't give you the exact path, but I think it's a folder in /home called Mozilla_Profiles

Hey Husse, do you ever sleep?(lol)

amazingly fast replies! Thanks. Will try what you say when I have time tomorrow and let you know how I get on (and probably ask for more advice!)

@ 67GTA
I came home from work about 6 AM today, so I slept most of the day

Thanks for your suggestion 67GTA but I'm afraid it didn't help, the damage must have been too great. So thank you Husse for your advice and I am now freshly installed - wasn't able to find my thunderbird e mails though. Never mind. I've learnt from the experience though and in future I will use Gmail so I have an online back-up, also I have installed my Home to a separate partition to keep it safer and make upgrading easier. and most importantly I shall try in future not to mess around with things I don't understand!

There is another topic where I've been active where you can find the correct path to Thunderbird mail (if the need ever arises again)