[Solved] Linux Mint 'Cannot escape Emergency Mode'

[Linxer]

I've seen a few of these as "solved" in other places, but none of what I read makes any sense to me, so I'm going to open a new one for a bit. As this should imply, I am not an avid linux user, but have become more familiar with imaging laptops to run various OS. I recently installed mint 20.1 alongside an older version of Ubuntu (dual-boot). Recently, I inserted a CD to test an older version of wine in Ubuntu, and later found that I could not boot into my mint no matter what. It gets stuck in the dreaded screen of "emergency mode" which I never asked for, and nothing I do can seem to escape this. Trying to type "Control-D" as it states gives me some kind of failure error that I don't understand, and it won't let me type exit or anything else. Keep in mind that I did not use any "mount" commands on this device. The mint is a VERY fresh install, in fact having installed no other software since it was put there (though I booted into it normally a couple of times).

There is no windows partition on this laptop as of yet. I'm running lots of tests and this is the biggest and most alarming issue I've run into. Not sure what to do or even why it happened. Can anyone please try to explain this to me? And if you do, please dumb it down as much as possible. I understand I'm a novice at linux, but I never had this issue before and as far as I know I've done nothing to particularly instigate the problem, so please be polite.

I don't have lots of log info: I'm not really able to provide that since the screen prompt barely lets me type anything in to begin with. The laptop is an older model, Asus with intel processor 4 GB ram, 64bit compatible. Bios has no "safe boot" or "fast boot," but supports optional UFEI. Making little changes has not allowed me to rectify the issue. Last thing I remember doing was booting into the other OS of Ubuntu, testing a Wine app from CD rom, then powering down. If that's all it takes to wipe out an entire mint os, please let me know so that I can pick a different linux OS in the future as the main OS for this laptop.

*Note*: I can still boot into Ubuntu just fine, but not sure what I can do from there. I don't care about that install but have not removed it yet in case it comes in use to fix this current issue.

[mikeflan]

Please type this in a terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz

Post the output to this forum in "Code" tags. The button that inserts these Code tags is marked </>, which is in the mini toolbar above the edit box where you type your reply.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=364929

[Moem]

Mod note:
Topic cleaned up, let's stay on topic.

[Linxer]

This issue is not solved yet. I will soon be posting the output code when i can. I cannot copy and pase it, so i will have to take screenshots and upload them later on once I get the time. I already tried general solutions from other similar posts and either did not ubderstand the process or didnt work entirely. I cannot boot into any version of mint in order to use its terminal, and am only limited to the basic terminal seen in the error message screen (emergency mode terminal).

[SMG]

I recently installed mint 20.1 alongside an older version of Ubuntu (dual-boot).

What "older version" of Ubuntu do you have installed?

Is there a particular reason you installed Mint 20.1 instead of a more recent version of Linux Mint.?

Recently, I inserted a CD to test an older version of wine in Ubuntu, and later found that I could not boot into my mint no matter what.

What kind of CD was this?

I'm running lots of tests...

What kinds of tests?

I can still boot into Ubuntu just fine, but not sure what I can do from there.

You can provide the system information from it.

I already tried general solutions from other similar posts and either did not ubderstand the process or didnt work entirely.

We have no idea what that means you did. You are going to need to provide more specifics.

[Linxer]

What "older version" of Ubuntu do you have installed?

It is Ubuntu 10.0. Still capable of booting into that one by the way, but I only has it installed to test something with the DVD ROM, and so I don't exactly need it, except maybe to use it as a means to escape EM mode if possible.

What kind of CD was this?

This was a gaming disc, meant for windows 98 (yes, the game was that old lol). I wanted to test an older version of wine since I was not having any luck on newer versions of wine and wondered to myself why. I still think on that matter, it's just a skill issue. For some reason the older layout of wine feels more straight forward. The game being that old means I don't have to worry about steam and DRM.
> At first it seemed like it was not detecting the disk (that is, wine wasn't detecting it), but it did when I right clicked on the setup and asked wine to run it from that menu. I didn't do anything in terminal to mount/unmount anything.

What kinds of tests?

> Oh all kinds of fun tests. Part of the problem is that, ideally, I need to have at least 3 different linux distros I can boot into, two on the problem computer and one more on a separate laptop. Some of the tests are as I mentioned above, learning how to better make use of wine (cause years ago, I sucked at it so bad I just gave up). Other tests are not with the distros but with imaging. Want to see if I can basically copy a direct disk image from a gaming desktop I have (windows) and "restore" it to a specific partition I have to the laptop, even knowing I will have to fix obvious driver problems on the way. Clonezilla might be needed for that, but it's my plan to have at least one distro I can log into if I totally screw up the windows part, which I'm sure I might at least once.
> Never had issues with mint in the past which is why it was my main choice for this. I installed the same version on another laptop and never had this issue (though this other laptop has no DVD or CD ROM and is newer). Anyway, once the testing is over, I intend to keep mint installed. If I have to reinstall it, that is fine, I just need to make sure this doesn't ever happen again.

You can provide the system information from it.

> I see. You need the laptop specs and all. Well I did already try it the first way, so I'll just upload screenshots of that for now. If they are not good screenshots, let me know I and will try the same from ubuntu.

Here are the screenshots

[SMG]

It is Ubuntu 10.0.

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu from 14 years ago.

I wanted to test an older version of wine since I was not having any luck on newer versions of wine and wondered to myself why.

Where did you have "newer" versions of WINE installed?

You said your Linux Mint install was "fresh" which means WINE was not installed on it because WINE does not come with a fresh Linux Mint install.

> At first it seemed like it was not detecting the disk (that is, wine wasn't detecting it), but it did when I right clicked on the setup and asked wine to run it from that menu. I didn't do anything in terminal to mount/unmount anything.

I cannot provide any insight to a WINE install on Ubuntu 10.0.

What kinds of tests?

> Oh all kinds of fun tests. Part of the problem is that, ideally, I need to have at least 3 different linux distros I can boot into, two on the problem computer and one more on a separate laptop. Some of the tests are as I mentioned above, learning how to better make use of wine (cause years ago, I sucked at it so bad I just gave up). Other tests are not with the distros but with imaging. Want to see if I can basically copy a direct disk image from a gaming desktop I have (windows) and "restore" it to a specific partition I have to the laptop, even knowing I will have to fix obvious driver problems on the way. Clonezilla might be needed for that, but it's my plan to have at least one distro I can log into if I totally screw up the windows part, which I'm sure I might at least once.

Those don't sound like they have anything to do with troubleshooting this issue. I thought you were running test to try and fix this issue. I wanted to know what you had tried.

You can provide the system information from it.

> I see. You need the laptop specs and all. Well I did already try it the first way, so I'll just upload screenshots of that for now. If they are not good screenshots, let me know I and will try the same from ubuntu.

These images show you installed LM21.1 and not the 20.1 you mentioned in your first post.

Additionally, the Drive information appears to indicate only Linux Mint is installed. There is one HDD of size ~465 and ~10.5 is used which is the exact amount used on your Linux Mint root partition. That data does not appear to indicate there is an Ubuntu install on the computer.

[Linxer]

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu from 14 years ago.

I know, it's old as heck. I figured that things like the terminal commands would still be roughly the same. The mint that I have I believe is based on Ubuntu in some sense.

Where did you have "newer" versions of WINE installed?

Well, with a 14 year difference, if a distro ships with wine, updated distros would sometimes have either a newer version of wine or just a different layout for it. I remember that the wine I used last (not the ubuntu) had a different gui and and just worked differently. It's been a while since I touched the one on mint.

You said your Linux Mint install was "fresh" which means WINE was not installed on it because WINE does not come with a fresh Linux Mint install.

I could have sworn mint (cinnamon) comes with wine...
*Update*: Hm, ok nevermind. I thought it was strange that it wasn't working well on mint, and upon looking at the mint version, turns out I somehow had like half of it installed and the other half wasn't where it should have been. Quick fix when I noticed that was the issue. In fact now the GUI looks exactly like the old one did. (I compared a usable wine to a broken one, on fault of my own). Sorrys. As for what it came with, it was nothing but an API layer, separate to this.

I'm still not testing it on this system (separate laptop), since it's close to the same thing that preluded the main problem of this original post. That said, maybe it has something to do with a mounting issue. Things of that nature are especially where my knowledge of linux runs dark.

Those don't sound like they have anything to do with troubleshooting this issue. I thought you were running test to try and fix this issue. I wanted to know what you had tried.

Oh, right. Well on that I have not been able to try very much due to the fact that I cannot boot into the mint to begin with. I remember looking at two particular posts that had similar title and issue in it. I'm having trouble finding them again now, but most of what I thought could have been relevant was something to do with mounting error and something to do with "fstab." I was having a hard time just understanding most of it, though in some cases their problem happened after an image restore (mine did not), or happened when they were messing around with mounting or unmounting drives and removable devices.

It's starting to look like I'm going to have no choice but to just reinstall the mint, and use wine only on mint if I ever run that kind of test again (on that laptop I don't care if it gets corrupted again, so not as dangerous). I just hope I don't have any issues with the boot loader getting too populated. Still have not figured out how to remove entries on uninstall/reinstall.

___

I could have sworn it was 20.1 (says so on the installation media). Is it because I ran the installer with internet updates? It could have simply updated the version afterwards without me noticing. If not, then I have mislabeled the media, which is a bit embarrassing.

That data does not appear to indicate there is an Ubuntu install on the computer.

The data that shows in the screenshots was taken from the command executed in the emergency mode terminal for mint. I don't think it would have been capable of detecting there was a Ubuntu installed there, though the Bios boot loader knows its there. I'm probably going to remove ubuntu 10 after this, since I won't really need it reinstalling the mint.

I do apologize for not being knowledgeable on most of these things. I'm gradually trying to learn linux and I need better opportunities to do so. Repurposing two specific laptops will help me in that endeavor. If there is anything I want to take away from this, is just that I would like to know what I can do to prevent emergency mode from happening. The problem laptop might be a little dated but all of its drivers were instantly picked up from the start without issue, so I'm a bit perplexed as to how. If I'm lucky, it could have just been Ubuntu's boot method messing something up elsewhere. Without more specifics, I don't think either us can be certain.

[SMG]

The mint that I have I believe is based on Ubuntu in some sense.

The Linux Mint you have is based on Ubuntu 22.04 which is many versions newer. There have been numerous changes over the last decade.

I could have sworn it was 20.1 (says so on the installation media). Is it because I ran the installer with internet updates?

No. One has to go through multiple upgrade steps to get from 20.1 to 21.1. One cannot just click update for them to happen.

You mislabeling the media sounds more likely what happened.

The data that shows in the screenshots was taken from the command executed in the emergency mode terminal for mint. I don't think it would have been capable of detecting there was a Ubuntu installed there, though the Bios boot loader knows its there.

Yes, it is capable of detecting if another operating system is installed. It will not know what the other operating system is, but it will know something else is installed. Operating systems take up space when they are installed and the data you posted only shows the Linux Mint install.

[Linxer]

Yes, it is capable of detecting if another operating system is installed. It will not know what the other operating system is, but it will know something else is installed. Operating systems take up space when they are installed and the data you posted only shows the Linux Mint install.

Strange then. Don't know why it would have an issue detecting it.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'll leave this forum open for now, remove ubuntu, combine the space and its partition, install a fresh Mint 21.1, then, intentionally install wine, insert a gaming disc for it, play around, take it out, shut it down and see if it boots again. If it does, I will come back here and mark this as solved. I'll make sure to log more system info before I run that trial too, a before and after kind of thing (to be used if it fails to boot).

If I do have the issue again, clearly it would have something to do with the DVD drive, and I'll have some code to paste. I will arrive back on Monday with an update.

[Linxer]

Update:

So it's been a journey. That hunk of junk really hates it when I try to install anything for some reason.
Blanked the drive, re-partitioned it (with added swap space), and installed Linux Mint 19 something (32 bit).
Tried several times to re-install the 64 bit mint 21.1 and it just refused to install at every attempt. Installer kept crashing for no reason at different steps with or without internet. After fifth try I gave up and went with the 32 bit version. On one hand hearing "it's no longer supported" kind of ticks me off cause there isn't anything I can do about it, but on the other the version isn't incredibly important in the end. Neither is getting random old games to work on wine (which has also been a colossal failure for some reason). Linux just isn't for gaming... *Sigh*

On the brighter news, I at least have something. Haven't had the chance to perform a windows image test on the other partition yet, but for now I'm able to use the heavy brick, and that's a step in the right direction. Not at all how I imagined the progress to go, but here we are.
I also learned how to remove an old boot entry which was a nice bonus; easier than I thought.

I kind of want to either update here later or make a new forum post about a possible imaging method with windows (on a dual-boot system) but honestly it would probably just be deleted, even though I still consider it to be relevant in some aspects. What do you think?

[SMG]

Update:

So it's been a journey. That hunk of junk really hates it when I try to install anything for some reason.
Blanked the drive, re-partitioned it (with added swap space), and installed Linux Mint 19 something (32 bit).
Tried several times to re-install the 64 bit mint 21.1 and it just refused to install at every attempt. Installer kept crashing for no reason at different steps with or without internet. After fifth try I gave up and went with the 32 bit version. On one hand hearing "it's no longer supported" kind of ticks me off cause there isn't anything I can do about it, but on the other the version isn't incredibly important in the end.

LMDE 6 has a 32-bit version and it is receiving support so if you want to try again that's an option. (I can understand why you would not so just take that as a teasing joke.)

I kind of want to either update here later or make a new forum post about a possible imaging method with windows (on a dual-boot system) but honestly it would probably just be deleted, even though I still consider it to be relevant in some aspects. What do you think?

It's been my understanding that anyone dual-booting with Windows needs to install Windows first.

Making a post about dual-booting with an out-of-date operating system is not really something appropriate for this forum.

[Linxer]

It's been my understanding that anyone dual-booting with Windows needs to install Windows first.

Usually I do, but I have been unable to set some things up on that side, due to some BS with windows imaging in the backup manager. I imagine the biggest reason is to have windows not overwrite the bootloader menu and hide the linux, right?

The test I'm doing (the most important one) is to basically copy/paste a full system image of a windows install (gaming version) to any other hardware including a laptop. I have some (not many) old games that I would love to be able to play anywhere, but they have a dumb activation blocker that basically prevents "activating" the game more than once, and especially now since the server for that has long since shut down. It isn't a steam game, but the bigger picture of it entices me. I have the free space, enough base hardware to run the lower-ended games. I know already that drivers will be important to reinstall (according to the laptop specific specs), and I'm ready to give it my best shot. Having linux to boot into if something goes wrong would be nice though. For now, Clonezilla will have to come to the rescue...

[SMG]

It's been my understanding that anyone dual-booting with Windows needs to install Windows first.

Usually I do, but I have been unable to set some things up on that side, due to some BS with windows imaging in the backup manager. I imagine the biggest reason is to have windows not overwrite the bootloader menu and hide the linux, right?

I know that is part of it, but I don't know if there are other issues as well. I don't usually help with those types of issues.

[mikeflan]

Install windows after LM:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=301934
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=246414
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=204298
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=263637

I have never done that and I probably never will