Installed 19.1 alongside LMDE3 and now can't get into either

[carolynmcm]

I recently bought a 2nd-hand Thinkpad T430s on Ebay, with Mint LMDE3 Cindy pre-installed. I then decided to migrate to Mint 19.1, which I installed from CD, alongside the Mint LMDE3, making 2 equal partitions on the SSD.
When instructed to click Restart I first removed the CD (Was that right? There was no instruction)
I missed the BIOS first time (very short delay, perhaps because the SSD has replaced an earlier HD), but I started again and changed the startup option from CD back to to the SSD.

Mint 19.1 came up. I followed the pop-up starter menu and made a snapshot. I was then instructed to download any needed drivers: 2 were suggested, 1 of them being an Invidia driver. Neither rang a bell, but I trustfully went ahead. It took a long time (but my Broadband is slow). When I next tried to boot up the Grub Menu came up, then the Mint Logo, then the screen went black. Same with Mint LMDE3.

But later I tried again and selected Mint LMDE3 from the Grub Menu and somehow managed to get a terminal screen (full page) which read:
[1.582013] tpm tpm0: ATPM error (6) occurred attempting to read a pcr value
[1.622008] tpm tpm0: ATPM error (6) occurred attempting to read a pcr value
[1948207] nouveau 0000: 01.00.0: DRM Pointer to TOMS table invalid
[1948207] nouveau 0000: 01.00.0: DRM Pointer to flat panel table invalid

Built-in commands:

There follows a lot of text, finishing with:

(initram fs)

and the input prompt.

I still can't get Mint 19.1 to produce anything other than a blank black screen.

Grateful for any help here. The CD reader initially refused to open and was noisy in operation so it might be dodgy. What's my simplest way out of this?

[Mute Ant]

TPM sounds like Trusted Platform Module. You might fix the whole problem by switching that off from a BIOS screen.

You get to the busybox initramfs prompt when the kernel hits a problem that hasn't been anticipated by the authors... the infamous Unexpected Error. A novice can do lots of damage from that prompt because it's running with root privilege.

o Changing the drivers for Mint19.1 won't have affected LMDE3... different repositories and different initrd.img files. Try starting LMDE.

o You can interrupt a booting installation at the GRUB stage and possibly disable fancy graphics by adding nomodeset and xforcevesa to the kernel boot arguments.

o You already have Mint on a DVD. Do you have a USB-connected DVD reader?

o If the Mint 19.1 distribution ISO is on the machine, somewhere, initramfs can write it to a USB drive. I'd save this one as a last resort.

[carolynmcm]

Many thanks for this. I haven't responded because I've been away from home for over a month and as I'd had no replies when I left I'd just parked the problem and the new laptop. However I'm very grateful for the information. I'll think about it and have a go.

[AZgl1800]

I recently bought a 2nd-hand Thinkpad T430s on Ebay, with Mint LMDE3 Cindy pre-installed. I then decided to migrate to Mint 19.1, which I installed from CD, alongside the Mint LMDE3, making 2 equal partitions on the SSD.


When instructed to click Restart I first removed the CD (Was that right? There was no instruction)

Just going to reply to this 1 question.

the answer is 'NO', I have been bit by the same action you took.
That is why you can't boot into either one.

Click Restart, and do NOT remove anything UNTIL you see a message that says "Please Remove the installation media, and THEN click RESTART."

if you don't get to that message, GRUB Menu is not installed yet.

[carolynmcm]

Many thanks, AZgl1500. I've been away from home for a while but I'm now back and thinking about the Thinkpad problem. I'm about to re-install. Poking around in the Forum I've discovered that I'm far from the first to have this problem. I think a note should be added to the installation instructions.