Can only boot in recovery mode after update to 21.1

[scw189]

I have an admittedly old Dell Dimension E521 that I have been running various Linux Mint versions starting at about version 17 for several years. I had been running version 21 for a few months with no problems. Then I decided to move up to version 21.1. Now the machine can only be booted in recovery mode. At first, I thought this was a GRUB issue and tried the 'nomodeset' in addition to 'noapic' and 'noacpi' route. No luck. Since the upgrade to 21.1 plants a new kernal, I don't have any of the old kernals to try and revert to at GRUB time.

The system does boot when using recovery mode. So perhaps this is a driver issue caused by the new kernel. I'm now looking at possibility installing a new NVIDIA driver for the GT218 (GeForce 210) video card that is installed. I don't know exactly what is NOT loaded when in recovery mode. But, I think it does not load the hardware video drivers and just does software rendering and maybe it doesn't load some other drivers. The system does seem slower than it did when running ver 21.

Did the new version 21.1 kernel 'break' the NVIDA driver? I believe that I cannot go back to the original on board Dell video hardware as it was depreciated and no longer supported several Linux Mint versions ago.

[SMG]

I have an admittedly old Dell Dimension E521 that I have been running various Linux Mint versions starting at about version 17 for several years. I had been running version 21 for a few months with no problems. Then I decided to move up to version 21.1. Now the machine can only be booted in recovery mode. At first, I thought this was a GRUB issue and tried the 'nomodeset' in addition to 'noapic' and 'noacpi' route. No luck. Since the upgrade to 21.1 plants a new kernal, I don't have any of the old kernals to try and revert to at GRUB time.

What new kernel? Both LM21 and LM21.1 are using the same 5.15 kernel series.

The system does boot when using recovery mode. So perhaps this is a driver issue caused by the new kernel. I'm now looking at possibility installing a new NVIDIA driver for the GT218 (GeForce 210) video card that is installed.

There is no proprietary Nvidia driver available for that GPU in LM21 versions.

I don't know exactly what is NOT loaded when in recovery mode.

Recovery mode boots with the nomodeset kernel parameter and another one which I do not recall off the top of my head. Yes, recovery mode just does software rendering.

You will need to supply some system information for us to be able to help you.

Did you take a Timeshift snapshot before upgrading to LM21.1? If so, you should be able to revert to it.

[scw189]

True both LM 21 and LM 21,1 use 5.15 series kernels. But when my computer was running LM 21 for several months, it was with kernel 5.15.0-57. LM 21.1 switched to 5.15.0-58. So, I considered that a new kernel. I did switch back to the slightly older 5.15.0-57 kernel. But there was no change. Still only able to boot using recovery mode. So, looks like it's not a kernel issue.

Removing the add-in video board, an NVIDIA GT218 (GeForce 210) and forcing the system to use the GPU on the mother board changed nothing. The NVIDIA web site says their driver ver ...340.108 would work with the GeForce 210. I a bit apprehensive about installing it. When the GeForce card was installed, LM 21.1 Driver Manager reported that no 'No drivers needed'. Would LM 21.1 have purged my GeForce 210 driver that I believe was there ( I was maybe 5 years ago that I installed this GPU).

As for a Timeshift snapshot. Yes, I did do a Timeshift snapshot when I upgraded from LM20.3 to LM21. However...after running the LM21 version successfully for many months, I deleted the snapshot to recover the 45 Gb that it used of the total 160 Gb of the hard drive. I know, I know, my bad.

[SMG]

The NVIDIA web site says their driver ver ...340.108 would work with the GeForce 210. I a bit apprehensive about installing it.

Support for that driver stopped in December 2019. According to Nvidia Support timeframes for Unix legacy GPU releases,"The Linux 340.* legacy driver series is the last to support the G8x, G9x, and GT2xx GPUs, and motherboard chipsets based on them. Support for X.Org xserver version 1.20 was added to the 340.* legacy driver series with version 340.107, and support for Linux kernels up to Linux 5.4 was added with version 340.108. No further releases from the 340.* series are planned."

That means it is not tested to work with the 5.15 kernel nor with the version of Xorg used in LM21 versions.

Driver Manager reported that no 'No drivers needed'.

That is because the open-source nouveau driver is your only option.

If you can boot in recovery mode, you can supply the system information. Please open the System Reports app and click the System Information tab on the left. Your computer's information should come up in the right pane. Then click Copy, and paste the results into a reply window here so we can see how Linux Mint views your hardware.

[SMG]

Moderator note: rollerdoor's issue can now be found here Can only boot in recovery mode after upgrading from LM20.3 to LM21.1.

[scw189]

Thanks for the reply. Just applied the latest updates. Here's the system info.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-60-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Dimension E521 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 3 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0UW457 v: A03 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell v: 1.1.11
    date: 08/02/2007
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K8 rev.F+ rev: 1 cache:
    L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1900 min/max: 1000/1900 cores: 1: 1900 2: 1900 bogomips: 7616
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210] vendor: eVga.com. driver: N/A pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0a65
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: nouveau,vesa
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting gpu: N/A display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1024x768 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: default res: 1024x768 size: N/A
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 22.2.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP51 High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:10.1 chip-ID: 10de:026c
  Device-2: NVIDIA High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0be3
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-60-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX vendor: Dell driver: b44 v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 04:07.0 chip-ID: 14e4:170c
  IF-ID-1: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 149.01 GiB used: 49.37 GiB (33.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3160812AS size: 149.01 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 140.58 GiB used: 49.37 GiB (35.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 6 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda5
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 8 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
  Device-1: 2-7:2 info: China Resource Semico USB Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 1a2c:0e24
  Device-2: 2-8:3 info: Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip-ID: 045e:0039
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 73.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 3520
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 213 Uptime: 22m Memory: 5.79 GiB used: 1.73 GiB (29.9%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 default: 2 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11/12/9 Client: Unknown python3.10 client
  inxi: 3.3.13

[SMG]

Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 73.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A

That's rather warm.

I am not aware of any particular reason, unless there was a change in a new kernel version, of why LM21 would work and LM21.1 would not. The mesa version is now 22.2.5, but that was bumped up for both versions.

Since the upgrade to 21.1 plants a new kernal, I don't have any of the old kernals to try and revert to at GRUB time.

I do not understand this comment. The upgrade does not remove kernels.

If you have automatic maintenance removing kernels, you can go back and manually install older kernel versions using Update Manager. (Let us know if you need more details than what is listed below.)

• Open Update Manager.
• Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue.
• Make sure 5.15 is selected on the left panel and then click on an older version kernel. An "Install" button will appear.
• Install the kernel.
• Reboot to the grub menu.
• Select Advanced Options.
• Select the kernel you just installed and continue booting to test it.

The other option to try is boot to a live session of LM21 and see if you can do it in normal mode or you have to do it in compatibility mode.

What type of cable connection are you using between the computer and the monitor? Is it VGA-VGA?