Stuck in login loop - how do I free-up space on /boot with only Command Line access?

[Cassandra]

Hi,
today my Update Manager alerted me to the presence of an update.
I opened it, and saw that it was a Java toolkit or webkit or something. I didn’t pay too much attention, as this was from the official Mint repository; I just installed it.
I then shut down my laptop completely, and re-started it.

On re-start I noticed that I couldn’t control my Bluetooth app, so I force-stopped that, and tried to re-start the laptop in Recovery mode.
Unfortunately, that DIDN’T WORK - every option I tried returned a message like “cannot update from Una to Focal”. I resolved to raise that as an issue here.

I then restarted my laptop in normal mode (& found that I could no longer change the keyboard backlight colour).

I tried to use Timeshift to restore my system to a working state.
Timeshift warned me that I was running LOW on space in the Boot sector, but appeared to run ok. It asked for a restart.
I then restarted my laptop again.

Now it will NOT let me login!

If I enter my password the log-in screen just reloads.
If I try to open the ‘Guest’ account that I put on the machine (which requires no password), the login screen reloads.
If I deliberately enter an incorrect password I get the ‘incorrect password’ notification.
So, the password-recognition bit of software seems to be working.

BUT: I can NOT now get in to my six-month-old laptop. At all.

Can any of you suggest any way for me to fix this?

[Flemur]

Unfortunately, that DIDN’T WORK - every option I tried returned a message like “cannot update from Una to Focal”. I resolved to raise that as an issue here.

That's weird: Una is a Mint release, Focal is a Ubuntu release.

If I try to open the ‘Guest’ account that I put on the machine (which requires no password), the login screen reloads.

There are a lot of posts about that (it's usually caused by a full disk); search the forum for login loop.

PS: your computer isn't bricked.

[AwesomeOpossum74]

Situations like this can be frustrating. I think this is not the typical outcome, because there'd be a wider group of people reporting the issue.

I wonder if the Java toolkit package got corrupted on your system, and how many of the services/utilities/apps on your system rely on it.

Did you try logging in through the console (Ctrl-Alt-F3)? If you can log in, maybe you can try reinstalling the packages?

A clean install may be in order.

[dave0808]

Should you get into a position to reinstall it, I think the package in question is "libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37", which is the "Web content engine library for GTK". It has nothing to do with Java.

PS: your computer isn't bricked.

Exactly. Bricked means that it won't power up, won't do anything. Therefore, about as much value as a brick.

[Cassandra]

Did you try logging in through the console (Ctrl-Alt-F3)? If you can log in, maybe you can try reinstalling the packages?

A clean install may be in order.

Ok, I hit Ctrl + Alt + F3 at the login screen.
It then took me ‘only’ about twenty attempts to get my user-name right ( ), but I now have a command prompt!

What should I attempt next?

[Cassandra]

Should you get into a position to reinstall it, I think the package in question is "libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37", which is the "Web content engine library for GTK". It has nothing to do with Java.

I think that you may be right!

Now that I have managed to get to a command line, what do you advise me to do?

If my boot sector is indeed full, should I try to free up some space on it first?
Or should I try to launch Cinammon?

Or is there a way to fix the libwebkit from the command line?

In case anybody reading this cannot tell, I am merely somebody who uses a pc, and am Totally Clueless about how the underlying code works, or how to go about repairing it when it goes wrong.

[Cassandra]

(I have now changed the title of this thread after having been educated about the correct definition of ‘bricked’.)

[Cassandra]

Ok, so I found the thread at https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic ... 7#p1769597

…and have used the command df -h | egrep "^/dev/|Filesystem"

Which has revealed that my /boot drive is currently 98% full.
D’oh!

So, how should I proceed from here?
How do I find out what is on /boot, and which files I can delete to free-up space on /boot?

My thanks in advance for your answers.

[sleeper12]

Any old kernels you can remove in Update Manager, View, Linux Kernels?

[Cassandra]

Any old kernels you can remove in Update Manager, View, Linux Kernels?

I cannot get in to the machine, except via hitting Ctrl+Alt+F3 at the login screen, and am now therefore at a command prompt.

I have used cd to navigate to /boot.

It contains config files and initrd.img files for kernels
5.4.0-91
5.11.0-43
5.11.0-46
5.13.0-21
5.13.0-22
5.0.13.0-25
5.0.13-0-27

Not sure why the 5.11 kernels are still there; I tried to remove those from ‘Update Manager’ last month.

There are also vmlinuz files for
5.4.0-91
5.13.0-21
5.13.0-25
5.13.0-27

And system.map files for
5.4.0-91
5.11.0-43
5.11.0-46
5.13.0-21
5.13.0-22
5.13.0-25
5.13.0-27

Edit to add:
I wish to keep the LTS kernel 5.4.0-91.
Other than that, I would like to keep 5.13.0-25 and 5.13.0-27.
I am happy to delete the rest of the kernels.

[sleeper12]

Can you run this command:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt autoremove 

That might free up some space.

[Cassandra]

Can you run this command:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt autoremove 

That might free up some space.

Just did that - it returned info that it changed nothing.
(0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove, and 0 not to upgrade)

[Cassandra]

Can you run this command:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt autoremove 

That might free up some space.

Hang on; I ran that from within /boot.

Which directory SHOULD I be in when I run it?

Edit:
I just ran it from the home (top level) directory, with the same result.

[sleeper12]

Can you run it from Terminal (Ctrl & Alt & T)?

[Cassandra]

Can you run it from Terminal (Ctrl & Alt & T)?

I cannot get in to the GUI, because I am stuck in a ‘login loop’.
I was advised that this is probably because my /root directory is full.

After being advised to hit Ctrl+Alt+F3 at the login screen, I am currently inside a command prompt (terminal).

I am typing commands into that.
The cd and ls -la commands seem to be working.

[Cassandra]

After finding the command df -h | egrep "^/dev/|Filesystem" on an old thread, I have learned that my /boot drive is currently 98% full.
D’oh!

Sadly, the old thread does not advise me what to do next.

[sleeper12]

Not sure if it makes a difference, but try:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt --purge autoremove 

[Cassandra]

I know that I could start removing individual files from /boot by using rm, but I don’t want to delete the ‘wrong’ files.

Am I correct to assume that I safely could use rm to remove every file associated with old kernels that I no longer wish to keep?
Or should I be keeping e.g. ‘vmlinuz’ files?
I have no idea what they are!

[Cassandra]

Not sure if it makes a difference, but try:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt --purge autoremove 

I tried that and got a list of commands returned to me.
Should I try sudo apt autopurge?

[sleeper12]

Try:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt remove --auto-remove