Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

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Wurrukatte
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Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

Hello kind people,

For an incredibly long-time, I have been using Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon version on my ancient Dell Inspiron 5110 for work and I have my VPN needed for logging into our Magento, as well as all the Chrome-based extensions I had on my Opera which apparently Opera does not sync somewhere else...
This is shortly why I need to save it, at least to be able to use it for another month so I can reach out again to efficiently move into the new Mint on a new laptop without losing my files and utilities.

It is a 64-bit Cinnamon version and for some reason I have two kernels available on Grub:
  • 3-19-0-232
    4-4-0-148
The problem:
The 4-4 always had the same issue and I was using 3-19 but after my laptop froze last night, I did power off the system from the power button and now when I start my system, this is the error that I get:

X server could not be started because it was not configured correctly.
Would you like to see the X server output to define the error?


When I choose yes:
MDM: Xserver not found: /usr/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/mdm/:0.Xau
Error: Command could not be executed!
Please install the X server or correct MDM configuration and restart MDM


I am sorry if this was explained before and I failed to find it in the archives.

Waiting desperately for your help,
Özgür
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

I see a lot of similat threads say :
paste this into terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
but I can not even boot my system at the moment to do that :(
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Moem »

Can you boot it from an installation USB stick or DVD?
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

Moem wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 2:12 pm Can you boot it from an installation USB stick or DVD?
Absolutely. I can download and create a live USB with any distribution that would help.
Last edited by Wurrukatte on Fri Jul 30, 2021 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Larry78723 »

Please do that and post an inxi -Fxxxzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it.

Here is how to generate the report and post it:

Boot from your installation media (USB/DVD)
Open a terminal window (Ctrl-Alt-t). Make it fullscreen to avoid unneeded linebreaks or chopped lines. Execute the command

Code: Select all

 inxi -Fxxxzr 
exactly as it has been typed here.

Mark the complete text output which the command will display with your mouse.
Press the keyboard shortcut <Shift><Ctrl>C to copy the marked text into the clipboard.
Enclose the results between the code markers by selecting </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply then paste <Ctrl>V them in your reply between the code markers [code]Results [/code].
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Moem »

Can you also please stop disabling BBcode in your replies? :wink:
It makes things look so messy.

If you can make a Mint USB stick, you can for a start use that to rescue your files and back them up to a second USB stick. Safety first.
Others will likely be able to help you further.
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

Larry78723 wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:26 pm Please do that and post an inxi -Fxxxzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it. [...]
Would this command only work for Linux Mint distros?

My default available USB stick is 2GB and it seems that all available versions within Unetbootin will be too big for it.

Any other distro that you would recommend for correct diagnostics and report?
Last edited by karlchen on Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: shortened full post quote the relevant part
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

Larry78723 wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:26 pm Please do that and post an inxi -Fxxxzr report. This will give us a concise overview of your hardware and how Mint sees it.
Here it is:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mint Kernel: 5.0.0-32-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.5 wm: muffin 4.4.1 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron N5110 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 8 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0FXK2Y v: A09 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A09 date: 09/30/2011 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 38.0 Wh condition: 43.8/48.8 Wh (90%) volts: 11.6/11.1 model: DELL JXFRP1C type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-2450M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 19956 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 800/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798 3: 798 4: 800 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0126 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] vendor: Dell driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0df5 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz, 1024x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile v: 3.3 Mesa 19.0.8 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1c20 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0bea 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.0.0-32-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 
           bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
           IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 [Rainbow Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 09:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:008a 
           IF: wlp9s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 469.42 GiB used: 1.97 GiB (0.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9500423AS size: 465.76 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: DEM1 temp: 28 C scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Kingston model: DataTraveler G3 size: 3.66 GiB serial: <filter> rev: PMAP 
           scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 3.85 GiB used: 26.6 MiB (0.7%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 62.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 53 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 19.3 _Tricia_ - Release amd64 20191213]/ bionic contrib main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tricia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
Info:      Processes: 212 Uptime: 2m Memory: 7.70 GiB used: 631.1 MiB (8.0%) Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 7.4.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.32 
Last edited by karlchen on Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: shortened full post quote the relevant part
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Wurrukatte »

Moem wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:27 pm Can you also please stop disabling BBcode in your replies? :wink:
It makes things look so messy.

If you can make a Mint USB stick, you can for a start use that to rescue your files and back them up to a second USB stick. Safety first.
Others will likely be able to help you further.
If I boot through a Live USB, is there a way clone-copy my existing system and reinstall it?

Or better yet; could one upgrade the skeleton of Mint to a e.g. 19.3 to preserve the same setup with additional software and configuration albeit working on a newer kernel?
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by mikeflan »

If I boot through a Live USB, is there a way clone-copy my existing system and reinstall it?
I'm thinking no, but I could be wrong. I think both 'Backup Tool' and 'Aptik' need to be set up while your system can boot properly. I don't use 'Backup Tool' or 'Aptik', but instead take full disk images every few months.
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by Moem »

You could copy the entire home directory and then copy it into a new installation. If this fails, you can always go the manual way by doing a completely clean installation and copy just the files as needed.
Be advised that
- you will still need to install the software (but in case /home is retained, the settings will come back after installing the software)
- much of the software for Mint 17.x will not run on Mint 19.x and vice versa.

Is your /home a partition of its own or a directory under / (root)?
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Re: Please Help Me Save My 17.3 Work Setup This Weekend :(:(

Post by h2-1 »

xserver not starting doesn't mean your system is gone, it just means xorg can't start due to some issue.

You don't need to reinstall or any other such odd ideas, it's possible that the driver failed, that's all.

However, you were running a really old kernel, and it's possible something isn't compatible.

To get to a console, when it says x server can't start or whatever, just hit ctrl + alt + f1 or f2, then login, then you can start to look around to see what's wrong.

For example: cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | tail -n 40 will show you probably why xserver failed to start.

inxi -G will show you what driver your graphics device is using.

Stuff like this isn't a big deal in most cases, it's just something made the xorg driver fail to load.

You can also try from console: inxi -Gxx --display

which may also add what driver failed if you didn't already find it in the xorg log.

Assuming the output you posted is right, you may just be using the wrong graphics card for output, nouveau is very likely to fail, it's not very reliable, you'd want to be using the intel output, and ideally just disable the nvidia for now until you figure it out. Could be you were using nvidia non free driver and it just failed to handle whatever kernel you were using, lots of options.
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