Boot hang after Timeshift restore

[thebear]

Hello all,
This is my first post. I am running Linux Mint 32-bit XFCE 18.3 on an old Asus laptop (dual core Pentium with NVidea graphics card). I recently upgraded to Sylvia and have had a number of annoying problems, such as not being able to launch Update Manager, only being able to shudtown via the terminal, Supertux won't launch, repeating error regarding authorisation file, etc.

Before upgrading I installed Timeshift and took a snapshot of my system prior to the upgrade. Because of these problems I thought I would restore my system back to 18.2. I did this but now it won't boot, it hangs on Started Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes. I have searched online but been unable to find a specific solution.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Cosmo.]

Upgraded from what?
Did the prior system run without problems?
Was there enough space for the snapshot?
Did you create a snapshot before you did the restore?

[thebear]

I upgraded from 18.2 and yes, it ran without problems. There was enough disc space for the snapshot I took prior to the upgrade. And no, I didn't take a snapshot prior to hitting Restore.

[Cosmo.]

Try to repeat the restore. As you cannot do it from the installed system you need to do it with the life system. In case of 18.3 TimeShift (TS) is already in the life system; if you only have a life system of an older Mint you can install and use TS in the life system. (But as soon as you leave the life system, the installation of TS will be gone.) Perhaps the restore process from the problematic 18.3 did not run through properly.

[thebear]

I'm sorry, but what is the "life system"?

[Cosmo.]

The system, from where you installed Mint. A DVD or a USB stick.

[thebear]

Do you mean do fresh install from the installation disc?

[Cosmo.]

No, I wrote to do the TS restore from within the running life system. (Of course a fresh new install would be the always possible last option.)

[thebear]

Do you mean boot from installation disc (which I think is Sarah), install Timeshift and then run a retrospective restore? Is that possible? Or have I got this wrong?

[Cosmo.]

Yes, you can install TS in a life system and do a restore from there, as described on the official page (scroll down to the chapter about System Restore).

[thebear]

Ok, thanks, I'll give it a go and let you know what happens.

[thebear]

Have booted from installation disc but cannot get Timeshift from either Software Manager or through the terminal.

[Cosmo.]

Which version of Mint is on the installation disk?

[thebear]

My apologies, I have been able to get Timeshift via terminal. Screen keeps freezing a few minutes after boot up so I have to start over again and try and do things quickly before it freezes again which is making this somewhat laborious. I will keep fiddling and keep you posted.

[thebear]

Ok, I was able to install Timeshift, run the Restore again and this time it worked, so thanks very much for your advice Cosmo.
Unfortunately, the errors/issues I had been getting before I did the first restore are still there but I guess that is a separate issue.
I will come back to this thread and just describe exactly the procedure I followed for the assistance of others.

[Cosmo.]

Some ideas, suggestion, advices:
Download the iso file for LM 18.3 and place it on a dvd or stick. Now you have 2 advantages: At first you can check the problems with 18.3 in the live system, at second you have TS always at hand.
In case you should try to repeat the upgrade to 18.3 and need again to revert, do at first another TS snapshot of the 18.3 system, so that you can switch in both directions.

Regarding problems with 18.3 create a new thread. You said, that your 18.2 works without problems, the trouble with doing a successful restore is solved and issues with 18.3 do not match with this topic.

[michael louwe]

@ thebear, .......

...

.
I think Timeshift is designed for restoring an operating system that has remained the same system, ie not for restoring an LM 18.2 system that has encountered problems upgrading to a different LM 18.3 system. This is because the inplace upgrade from LM 18.2 to LM 18.3 would have altered the LM 18.2 system significantly and irreversibly.

[Cosmo.]

I think Timeshift is designed for restoring an operating system that has remained the same system, ie not for restoring an LM 18.2 system that has encountered problems upgrading to a different LM 18.3 system.

You are in error in a double sense:

At first using TS to get able to revert in case of a problem to the previous dot-release has officially been described by Clem:

If anything goes wrong, you can easily restore your operating system to its previous state.

At second the OP has said, that the previous 18..2 installation worked trouble free. It was the upgrade, which gave out of an unknown reason a problem. This problem was obviously so serious, that TS could not do the restore process properly, when the OP tried it at first from inside of the upgraded 18.3 system. So the restore process had to be done from another system - the live system in this case.

I agree, that in case, that the previous (here 18.2) system would have been faulty, an upgrade is not a recommended method for trying to solve such problems. (Some users try this anyway.) But this was not the case here - at least the OP did not notice problems with the previous 18.2 system.

[michael louwe]

@ Cosmo, .......

...

.

System Restore

Snapshots can be restored either from the running system or from a live CD. Restoring backups from the running system requires a reboot to complete the restore process.

Cross-Distribution Restore

You can also TimeShift across distributions. Let's say you are currently using Xubuntu and decide to try out Linux Mint. You install Linux Mint on your system and try it out for a week before deciding to go back to Xubuntu. Using TimeShift you can simply restore the last week's snapshot to get your Xubuntu system back. TimeShift will take care of things like reinstalling the bootloader and other details. Since installing a new linux distribution also formats your root partition you need to save your snapshots on a separate linux partition for this to work.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/timeshift-pro ... buntu.html#
Does the above quote for "Cross-Distribution Restore" apply to a successful but problematic inplace upgrade of LM 18.x, eg from 18.2 to 18.3.?

[thebear]

Hi all and thanks for additional responses.

Just to clarify, since doing the 2nd Restore I am able to boot into Linux and it is booting into 18.2. However, I am experiencing the issues that I was experiencing in 18.3 and did not experience in 18.2 before I upgraded. So the Restore has been successful in as much as I can use my laptop again, but possibly unsuccessful (depending on how you measure it, I suppose) in that it did not restore my system to a pre-error state.

I don't know enough about Timeshift to assess it properly but I was under the impression that it would restore my system to the exact state it was in on that specific time and date. This it has not done.

I'm assuming the best course of action for me now is to address each issue separately rather than just trying to throw a blanket over the whole thing by doing a Restore.