Linux mint 17.3 Rosa update removed cinnamon + network

[Alpako]

Hi there,
So today (after a couple of months) i had some time to run some updates on my GF PC.
I was on the phone while doing so, so when i got the prompt about packages to be removed and installed but i didn't pay to much attention to it.
It figured, an update will update the packages it removes. After it finished, the network manager was not there. I thought its a quirk, and hit restart.
instead of the usual login screen i got a very minimalist one that didn't seem to like me. login in cmd did work but when i've typed: startx,
I could see the mouse pointer, but nothing else. I think I removed cinnamon, network manager and some other important packages during the update.
tried google for aptitude and apt-get package fixing commands, but to no avail. no network. all update tries returned as errors.
What else can i try? I'd rather fix this before my GF comes back and shames me
Mint was running on this pc for a while now with no hiccups at all. any ideas? i hope you can help. Thanks in advance!

[Tomgin5]

Hope you had backups!
If not, instead of an upgrade put in a newer release like 17.3 or 18.1. Much more stable.

[Alpako]

Hope you had backups!
If not, instead of an upgrade put in a newer release like 17.3 or 18.1. Much more stable.

Hi Tomgin,
So is what you are saying is: there is no hope. you broke your PC? or rather, hmm sounds nasty, but i don't know how to help you.
thanks for replying.

[WharfRat]

Alpako,

I would like to check one thing on your system. Are you able to boot to recovery mode or do know how to chroot from the installation media

[acerimusdux]

Just boot to a command line. CTL-ALT-F1 will get you one.

Then login, and go check the logs, to see what apt/dpkg actually did. See if there were any errors.

Code: Select all

cd /var/log
cat apt/history.log|tail -15
cat aptitude|tail -20
cat dpkg.log|tail -150

Could also see what's actually running when you boot with

Code: Select all

pstree

[Alpako]

Alpako,

I would like to check one thing on your system. Are you able to boot to recovery mode or do know how to chroot from the installation media

Hi,
Yeah, I could boot to recovery. but not continue to normal boot. While in recovery I've tried fixing broken packages etc. but got same errors. due to no network probably. As to installation media, i have none. I've used the usb to install newer versions of mint to other pc's. I could put 17.1 back on it if its available though.
I dont know hot to chroot but could read how to if i'd find a link.

[Alpako]

@acerimusdux, ill give it a try, see if something makes sense. anyway to save the log from cmd to usb?
edit: i can photo the log i guess. edit 2: http://imgur.com/a/5WEC5 here are the logs.

[WharfRat]

First check what acerimusdux suggested then try aptitude search ~U to see if there are any results or it just drops back with nothing.

[acerimusdux]

@acerimusdux, ill give it a try, see if something makes sense. anyway to save the log from cmd to usb?
edit: i can photo the log i guess.

You can also send the output of any of those commands to a text file. If your usb is mounted on /mnt/usb for example, you could do:

Code: Select all

cat apt/history.log|tail -15 >> /mnt/usb/history.txt 

I also would like to know if your network is really down. Something like:

Code: Select all

ping -c3 yahoo.com

will give a good clue if you aren't connecting to the internet at all. If so, it can be hard to fix everything else without getting some ability to download packages first. Unless the ones you need are still in the cache.

If internet is OK, then your problem seems mainly with your x-session, window manager, desktop, etc., so check this log file:

Code: Select all

cd ~
cat .xsession-errors

[Alpako]

First check what acerimusdux suggested then try aptitude search ~U to see if there are any results or it just drops back with nothing.

Did as he/ she suggested. uploaded results and also the output to aptitude search ~U here: http://imgur.com/a/5WEC5

[Alpako]

ping says: unknown host yahoo.com, guess it means no internet tried it with lan as well.

[Cosmo.]

There are 2 things wrong:

1. Mint 17.1 Rosa is not possible. Either 17.1, than the codename is Rebecca, or Rosa, than the system is 17.3. But this mistake is rather harmless. (Of course in case of a new install you should know, what you want.)

2. Updates from the official sources would hardly remove essential packages. So I assume, that you have one or more strange PPAs installed. This opens the question, what the programs from those PPAs did changed. It doesn't sound, as if a try to recover the system will be successful.

[Spearmint2]

you could try a dirty install of the system again no top of what's there. Just make a backup of your /home folder. Don't allow it to overwrite files. That might restore what's missing and not cause programs you've installed since the first time to be broken. You then have to copy your profile folder into the new /home folder. Make sure you use the same profile name.

Here's where I did it once. I did make one mistake but recovered from it.
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=173714

[Alpako]

There are 2 things wrong:

1. Mint 17.1 Rosa is not possible. Either 17.1, than the codename is Rebecca, or Rosa, than the system is 17.3. But this mistake is rather harmless. (Of course in case of a new install you should know, what you want.)

2. Updates from the official sources would hardly remove essential packages. So I assume, that you have one or more strange PPAs installed. This opens the question, what the programs from those PPAs did changed. It doesn't sound, as if a try to recover the system will be successful.

1. You are right Sir! 17.3 it is.
2. could be.. have no idea.. it has been quite a long while since i looked at the software sources on that pc.
did you see anything fishy on them logs i've posted?

Thank you and the others so much for taking the time and trying to help me!

[WharfRat]

I have a feeling that never having installed the packages shown with aptitude search ~U might have caused the problem here.

It requires a dist-upgrade because there are changed dependencies with new versions of packages. I found that holding them back indefinitely eventually leads to a problem like this.

What you can try, since not being able to easily make a net connection, is to boot from the installation media (I hope you have one hanging around) and dist-upgrade from there, then reinstall mdm and possibly cinnamon.

[Alpako]

I'm downloading rosa 17.3 (same version) as i type. Ill make a bootable usb out of it on my other linux pc.
Once i boot, i should install it on top of the current system?
I'm sorry. a lot of what you guys write is not very clear to me. or should i
open cmd on the live image and run the dist upgrade?

thanks a bunch

[Spearmint2]

If you run "dist-upgrade" might as well walk away for a day, and then you have the fun of doing cleanup. It is absolutely the slowest way to upgrade a system.

[Tomgin5]

Alpako. You are part right in that I am not sure how to fix the 17.1. I have had not a few issues with crashed updates with 17.1. in every care after fighting the system trying to patch it, I still had to reboot the complete OS and usually went to 17.3.
I was a little suspicious with the "Rosa" for 17.1. I have only had 3 issues with updates in 17.3. In each it was because of some corruption in the data or the connection during the update. on new installs. On one of those I wound up going to 18.0 because of hardware compatibilities.
Over 100 systems of LM OS's installed in the last 14 months.

[Alpako]

@spearmint2
So i shouldn't do that but rather try the slick ninja magic solution: ? or are you referring to the dirty install way?

@tomgin5
Thanks, yeah, i might end up putting a new install on it. but I'd like to try and save the stuff that's on there.

[Spearmint2]

That's up to you. I just gave you my experience in doing it. No need to lose your data if you boot a LIVE linux DVD and make a backup of your /home profile folders. Just remember. DON'T FORMAT IT, if you take that route.