It may be that there is not one solution and it could be hardware related but there is something going on.
1. Mint 13 is running when the user notices that 'something goes wrong' - an app won't launch, an app closes down itself, etc
Everything stops - it may even be impossible to 'close down' necessitating a PC reset or 'hot shut down.' I have experienced all of these scenarios.
2. On restarting this message is displayed:
Errors were found while checking the disc drive for /.
There are some options offered: Press F to fix, S to skip mounting, I to ignore or M to fix manually
3. Pressing F causes the next message to appear:
The disc drive for /tmp is not ready yet or not present
You can wait as suggested, press S or press I
4. Waiting results in the PC rebooting and in my experience MInt 13 launching normally.
Invariably if Google Chrome has been open - it will have not shut down correctly (the familiar message under the bookmark bar)
So far there does not seem to be a common solution for this problem, or not that I can find. Various reports of the error seem unresolved or peter out, the outcome being unclear.
In no way am I a techie but some factors are apparent:
1. Most people cannot be getting this problem - so what is different about those who are? Is it an installation error? Is it a hardware problem?
2. The errors appear to come from the Mint boot sequence. So does it not follow that in order for this to happen the HDD with the OS on must be ready and present? Or could it be something to do with GRUB. (I have XP installed on a second drive and this is working perfectly)
3. Mint 13 can obviously correct the problem because by waiting at error 2, the system restarts and all is well until the next time an app 'hangs' or whatever happens behind the scenes happens.
4. What part of the system is checking the disc? If it cannot find /, how can this be as surely / is the bottom line so to speak, the check sequence must be after this? I can understand how /tmp might be missing, the OS is not looking in the right place for it. I do note that some advise that /tmp is installed in a separate volume. But the fact sometimes it is found and sometimes not suggest that the problem is inconsistent.
5. What might be causing the problem(s) during what appears to be a stable session which in turn lead to the boot errors? In fact this is probably the first question that should be asked.
My feeling is that there are probably only one or two likely sources for the issue. I say this because none of the proposed solutions seem to work for everybody, there is apparently no fix as such.
A) A software 'crisis' - for want of a better word - in my case Google Chrome, - but if this the case why does a reboot not solve the problem but instead present new ones?
B) Hardware
Previously, I was annoyed but tried to be light hearted about the problem. Today I find it vexing and want to find, if not a solution, an answer. I just don't know enough about Mint/Ubuntu/Debian or computers in general to resolve it.
In the other thread I reported problems even booting the whole PC after some of the crashes, but not all. I couldn't even get beyond the bios - this leads me to think that it really is hardware at fault. Despite going through GRUB and selecting Mint I have had XP launch, and I have had the boot order of the HDDs within the bios change without me doing anything. (now I really don't understand that.)
If software this problem will cause me to ditch Mint and maybe Linux if I cannot get round it, and I don't want to do that. If it is hardware I can solve that easily and quickly but I have things to do and cannot spend my time playing with the OS.
Ho hum, I do hope somebody out there has some more ideas.
Thanks for reading.
RichardS
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, after this I got a /tmp error when I attempted to download anything and I could not clear the download. I changed my file download location in firefox/edit and reset my download settings as instructed here--> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files#Manually_delete_download_history. Then did a reboot and got the /tmp not ready or not present on start up, I was then able to clear my download history and do another reboot. I have had no more issues since then.