Linux Mint will not start

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LinuxGorilla

Linux Mint will not start

Post by LinuxGorilla »

Hello there. I have been using Linux Mint for about a year now and have run into the occasional problem, but have mostly found ways to solve the problems using internet searches. However, now I have run into perhaps my biggest problem yet, and internet searches have turned up nothing specific to my problem.

I am using the most current version of Linux Mint though I cannot check the exact number since I cannot start Mint.

Problem: Everything in the grub works fine and I am dual booting Windows 10 and Mint. Though when I get to the password sign in screen something new is happening. Every time I type in the correct password the screen turns to black as if it was loading, and then simply returns to the password prompt. Now I know that I am typing in the correct password, because when I intentionally type in the wrong password, the prompt goes no further and tells me you have typed in the wrong password. But when I type in the correct password, it simply goes to a black screen for about 3 seconds and returns me to the password prompt as if I had not done anything yet.

I have also booted up into the basic Mint recovery mode (pre-mint sign-in) and went through all the options one by one ie fix grub, clear space etc and try restarting and nothing has helped or changed the current behaviour.

Any help would be much appreciated as I miss Linux, especially since Windows always keeps my laptop continuously hot with all its useless background processes, which mint doesn't :)

Thanks in advance! :)
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Arch_Enemy
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Did you do any updates from the time you installed the OS? Do you recall what they were? Did you update the kernel or graphics driver?

Do you have more than one desktop installed?

When the computer boots, and gets to the end of the BIOS loading, hold down the left shift key until the GRUB menu comes up. This will give you base and advanced options for each kernel installed. Look for the previous kernel, if available, and try to boot that. If you have the same result, chances are your video driver needs to be reinstalled.

If you see FAILSAFE try that. That will get you to a command prompt. From the command prompt type in startx and report any error message you get.


Good luck...you may be looking at a reinstall....if that's the case, boot from DVD or Flash drive, and load all your data onto another flash drive.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Flemur »

LinuxGorilla wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:21 pmProblem: Everything in the grub works fine and I am dual booting Windows 10 and Mint. Though when I get to the password sign in screen something new is happening. Every time I type in the correct password the screen turns to black as if it was loading, and then simply returns to the password prompt.
It sounds like there's a permission problem with your home directory or some file in it.

Check the "$HOME/.xsession-errors" file (starts with a "." dot, so it's a "hidden file") see what it says.
Do that by either booting into a non-graphic maintenance-mode (**) or from the liveMedia.

** something like: get the grub menu -> advanced options -> recovery mode. Then you'll be at a full-screen "console" (terminal).

Also check the output of

Code: Select all

ls -al /home/username
make sure you own everything, especially the "." files like .ICEauthority and .Xauthority
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
LinuxGorilla

Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by LinuxGorilla »

Hello and thanks for the replies to Arch_Enemy and Flemur. Sorry for getting back to you a quite a but later. I spend the weekends helping a friend tear down and build up his house before his family moves in, and this is the first chance I have gotten to sit down with the computer again.

As per Arch_Enemy questions:
1. I update almost daily or whenever the little update notifications show up in the bottom taskbar/notification bar. I just automatically install everything on the list, because I have made the assumption that the updates would not bring harm to my computer, and generally don't understand a good 50% of what the updates are for, since my linux lingo/knowledge is not 100% yet.
2. Did you update the kernel or graphics driver? From the grub safe mode it says that I can start in linux 4.15.0-20 (0-45) or (0-46). So I am guessing that means the kernal has been updated at least twice?
3. Do you have more than one desktop installed? Not 100% clear about what you mean by this. I dual boot windows 10 and this current Linux, but not sure that actually answers your question, as you probably already read that info from my original Post

I did what you said re: the holding down left shift key and tried the different kernals with the same password result. Also did not see FAILSAFE :(

Thank-you for your reply and attempt to help either way Arch_Enemy!





As per Flemur's post:

My attempts to boot into a non graphical maintenance mode:
1.
** something like: get the grub menu -> advanced options -> recovery mode. Then you'll be at a full-screen "console" (terminal).
Went to grub menu/advanced options/recovery mode gave me the options to select 4.15.0-20 (0-45) or (0-46) and a version of each written with recovery mode beside it, Tried all of them as per Arch_Enemy's request, and none worked. But at the same screen it gave me options to press "e to edit commands before booting or c for a command line" I chose "c" and it brought to me a grub terminal? ie grub> _
Is this where I would:
Check the "$HOME/.xsession-errors" file (starts with a "." dot, so it's a "hidden file")

If so what should I be typing to check that? Sorry I am a beginner with the terminal commands :(

But thanks for your help so far and any help in the future!
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

You have to get to a $ prompt in order to do that. If you aren't able to open a terminal, no go. If you CAN, then you want to type nano .xsession-errors and have a look, or paste the results here.

Sounds to me like you can't even get to a prompt, however. :(
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

This brings up an interesting point. How can you start Mint in a command-prompt mode?

Used to be you could change the runlevel at boot time. I did find this, however:

https://lintut.com/grub2-runlevel-3-how ... -on-grub2/

that implies all you have to do is enter a 3 at the end of the line that starts with "Linux"


Being a daring individual, I'll try anything once.

See y'all after I reload! :lol:
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

BTW, if someone else want to try this, you hold down the left shift key as it's booting, pick a boot option from the menu, and press e to edit the grub entry, then press F10 to boot from the modification.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

And then, as if by magic, he was back. No reload required...


To the OP, here's what you want to try. As mentioned above...

Start the system, and after the BIOS loads hold down the left shift key to bring up the GRUB menu.

Pick an entry, either the newer kernel or the older one. It sounds like they're both borked, so it may not matter at all which you pick.

press the e key. This will bring you to the GRUB entry that starts your system.

Look for the line that begins with the word linux, go to the end of that line (be aware it may wrap the text if it's a long one). At the end of that line, enter a space and then 3

Press F10 to boot.

Now, here's what's going on. If you have Plymouth, nice eyecandy that hides all the gibberish that scrolls down the screen when the system boots, then you should see some kind of graphical magic going on.


Branch: if you don't, Plymouth is not behaving itself, which may be your problem, or the graphics driver (My guess as to what your issue is) is corrupt. You can try pressing the ESC key to try to stop Plymouth. If it works, and you see text scrolling by, then you SHOULD come to a command prompt. also, try to pay attention; the last line you see may offer a clue as to the issue as well.

If you do manage to get to a $ prompt after entering your username and password, you can type startx. It will either give you a gui, or, it will present some clue as to why the GUI isn't starting.

Good luck!
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
LinuxGorilla

Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by LinuxGorilla »

As per your previous posts Arch_Enemy:

Three things:

1. After trying the GRUB2 runlevel 3 idea, I was not able to get level 3 or 2-5 to work. But eventually I tried level 1 and with your
startx
command from another post, it eventually booted up into what is essentially a live disk environment with no access to the regular files, updates or programs.

Almost immediately it gave me a message that there was no disk space available and I started to the disk analyzer to find that time-shift was using about 20.1 GB of the 35 Gb I allocated as the second partition for the dual boot. I figured since I was storing all the big files on the windows 10 partition that it would be enough space, but time-shift has other ideas.

2. I was also able to run the nano
.xsession-errors
command as per your other post. Not sure if it will tell you anything since it was essentially inside a live disk environment, but here is the screenshot: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yz1YT ... zM4Qvos1HQ

3. I found a link that talks about someone who has the exact same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comm ... 2_as_user/ Do you think I should try creating a new user like the person in the link? Just concerned about whether or not I will see my files again...

Thanks again for all your previous help, and any help you may provide in the future!
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by AndyMH »

Sounds like what you have done is point timeshift at the only ext4 partition you have which happens to contain /. Timeshift has then merrily filled up your linux partition with snapshots, either by you doing them manually or automatically until there is no space left. If,as it sounds, you can boot into mint with a GUI, go into timeshift and delete all your old snapshots to free up disk space.

If that all works, then you must point timeshift at another drive or linux partition. It could be an external USB drive formatted ext4 if you have one. If you continue to use your existing / partition for snapshots you will have to manually keep an eye on disk space so the problem doesn't re-occur (and this approach doesn't really provide much protection against system screwups).
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

LinuxGorilla wrote: Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:12 am As per your previous posts Arch_Enemy:

Three things:

1. After trying the GRUB2 runlevel 3 idea, I was not able to get level 3 or 2-5 to work. But eventually I tried level 1 and with your
startx
command from another post, it eventually booted up into what is essentially a live disk environment with no access to the regular files, updates or programs.

Almost immediately it gave me a message that there was no disk space available and I started to the disk analyzer to find that time-shift was using about 20.1 GB of the 35 Gb I allocated as the second partition for the dual boot. I figured since I was storing all the big files on the windows 10 partition that it would be enough space, but time-shift has other ideas.

2. I was also able to run the nano
.xsession-errors
command as per your other post. Not sure if it will tell you anything since it was essentially inside a live disk environment, but here is the screenshot: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yz1YT ... zM4Qvos1HQ

3. I found a link that talks about someone who has the exact same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comm ... 2_as_user/ Do you think I should try creating a new user like the person in the link? Just concerned about whether or not I will see my files again...

Thanks again for all your previous help, and any help you may provide in the future!
Not a problem. But when you logged in at RL 1, as a "live" user, you're logged in as root. Did it ask you for a username and password? I ask because your .xsessions-errors says "User not found" and says you are root.So, it looks like the xsession-errors report was for root.

You want to log in, and, if you have to do this again, navigate to /home/<your user name> and THEN see what the .xsession-errors file says! :wink:

Unless, of course, you actually DO log in as root, which isn't advised...
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Oh, and, glad you were able to actually log in, of course!
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
LinuxGorilla

Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by LinuxGorilla »

@AndyMH: Thank-you for the pointers! I originally chose the default settings when I installed Linux and I guess it chose the ext4 partition. I went in through the GRUB runlevel 1 command and deleted all the time-shifts as per your suggestion. One time-shift was 2.4GB and another was 3.4GB and yet another was 14.9 GB. This is a bit obscene as I have next no data on this machine, so I don't understand what it could be backing up that would require 14.9 GB.

Also I went into the time-shift options to try your other suggestion of pointing it at another destination and could not find any options that would allow me to do that. I also plugged in a USB drive and the time-shift did not recognize or give me options to select and other drives, nevermind the USB. For now I have turned off time-shift, though I am sure that is probably not wise, I don't want it to plug up the laptop too much again to the point where I can no longer log in as per the original problem of this post.

Good News though! This deleting of the time-shifts allowed my computer to start up again as per normal, obviously without having to use the GRUB runlevel 1. Thanks a lot for the the suggestion!

@Arch_Enemy Thanks again for the responses!
I am not 100% sure if I am the root user on this machine How would I go about finding that information out for sure again? Would that be through, copying and pasting the xsessions information you mentioned before and having someone provide an explanation?

Also I navigated to the
/home/<your user name>
area and ran the xsession-errors command and successfully received a readout that was about 3 screens heights long in the terminal. Though no matter what I did I could not copy all the information. When I tried the copy all commands it would only gave me what was currently readable on the screen and ignored the rest of the data. I tried for about 10 minutes to manually copy out all the information and gave up because I could not manually figure out where my last copy and paste started and stopped. :roll: Is there a better way to save the readout so I can post it in this thread?

Thanks again for all your help!
Last edited by LinuxGorilla on Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by AndyMH »

The reason that timeshift refused to see the usb drive is that it will be formatted either FAT32 or NTFS, timeshift insists on saving its snapshots to a linux format drive, e.g. ext4. It will only show you drives with linux format partitions in settings*. So depending on what is on your usb drive, reformat it to ext4 (you can do this in gparted). Note - if you do this and are still using windows, windows will be unable to read the drive.

You can use the / partition to keep your snapshots, but as you have found, you need to keep an eye on disk space. Someone else will correct me if I'm wrong, but snapshots are full of symlinks (if the file hasn't changed since the last snapshot, the current snapshot has just has a pointer to the 'real' file in the previous snapshot). Think this might cause the size of a snapshot to be overstated.

* why does it do this - linux file permissions, e.g. ext4 are different from NTFS or FAT so timeshift cannot save all the file information on a NTFS/FAT partition.
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LinuxGorilla

Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by LinuxGorilla »

@AndyMH: The explanation is much appreciated! So by your thorough answer I now understand that it would both be necessary to dedicate a USB drive to this purpose alone, since I would not be able to use it for windows because of the ext4 format. Great explanation and very helpful!

Also (I am making a guess here) even if the snapshot was being overstated, and was not quite as big as shown, it would still cause my Linux machine to experience the problem this thread was originally created for, ie not starting because of an assumed reason of having 0 bytes of hard drive space. I am making this assumption because after deleting the snapshots and freeing up some space, Linux started as per normal effectively solving my main issue, after approximately 2 weeks of being unable to start Linux.

Thank-you for your time and explanations! :)
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by pbear »

Another advantage of saving the Timeshift snapshots to a USB flash drive is that the worst that can happen if it fills up is that the next snapshot won't get saved. Your system will boot fine regardless.

By the way, unless it's convenient to leave the flash drive attached all the time, I'd suggest you turn off scheduled snapshots in Timeshift. Do manual ones instead. Once per week will be plenty. TS will tell you how much room is available each time you open it. Not much purpose to saving snapshots more than a month old, so prune periodically to keep from running out of room.

Also, to clarify, you can share the USB drive with Windows. What you can't share is the ext4 partition. So, if the drive is large enough to split, you can have two or more partitions, one formatted ext4 for Timeshift and the other(s) formatted NTFS.
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by AndyMH »

Your assumption is correct - no space on / = no boot.

And you can get really small USB sticks. I got one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01 ... UTF8&psc=1
and leave it plugged into the laptop all the time in one of the ports round the back. With one of these you could still have timeshift on auto backup, as @pbear suggests - once a week is plenty.

From memory (at least with win7), win only expects a single partition on a usb stick, so even if you have more than one, it will only show one (which of course has to be FAT or NTFS format).
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Re: Linux Mint will not start

Post by pbear »

I haven't run Win7 in a couple years and not sure I had occasion to test the question. Still have Win10, though, and am able to share USB drives with mixed formatting. Of course, Windows can only read the Windows-formatted partitions, regarding ext4 partitions as unformatted.
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