19.3 to 20 - complete failure, extremely angry

[OlivierM]

Hey,
I have an Asus UX 333 laptop. For some reason only linux mint booted on that pc so I installed it (I normally use devuan) so i've been using it for a year.
So today I saw the update to install in my notification zone. Let's try that. What can go wrong, right ?

0. installation completely failed (gconf2 had too many errors) anyway I rebooted and thought, no big deal, let's save files so i'll reinstall from a bootable iso.
1. the computer cannot boot a usb drive anymore, it locks when i try to select the usb device in the boot menu (pressing ESC to gain access)
2. but I can still boot from the nvme drive on a completely sabotaged distro. most of the packages are gone, I just have terminal with most commands gone. thankfully dpkg and wget still work,.I am in the process of manually reinstalling apt and seeing if I can salvage that major screw-up

Anyway i'm now afraid my 1200€ laptop is screwed.
tl;dr : don't install that stuff. Until now I was recommending this distribution for beginners, even if I didn't like systemd. But hell, how can such a major screw up happen ? Do you even test your software before pushing it ?

[Moonstone Man]

2. but I can still boot from the nvme drive on a completely sabotaged distro. most of the packages are gone, I just have terminal with most commands gone. thankfully dpkg and wget still work,.I am in the process of manually reinstalling apt and seeing if I can salvage that major screw-up

tl;dr : don't install that stuff. Until now I was recommending this distribution for beginners, even if I didn't like systemd. But hell, how can such a major screw up happen ? Do you even test your software before pushing it ?

So, it's someone else's fault that you failed to take a Timeshift snapshot or Clonezilla image.

[OlivierM]

Yes, it's the user's fault. Especially the UEFI part.
Are you for real ?

[Moonstone Man]

Are you for real ?

Very much so.

https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2485

C2. Create a system snapshot

If anything breaks or if anything goes wrong during the upgrade, you can go back in time and revert all changes by restoring your latest system snapshot. Whatever happens, you're covered. You'll be able to restore your operating to this current state, either from within Linux Mint, or by launching Timeshift from a live Mint session (live DVD or live USB).

It seems Clem is also.

[MellowTigger]

Same problem here. I'm finally online with a spare laptop from work. The update to 20 essentially bricked my machine. When I try booting to the LM20 desktop, I eventually end up with blue pixels scattered on my screen instead of a login window. A previous LM19.2 USB thumb drive also won't boot now. I'm downloading ISOs for LM19.3 and another LM20 to see if I can get something to work, at least.

LM20 turned my tower computer into a door stop. Displeased.

[Pierre]

you do need to have some sort of Back-up.
- - that Cannot be stated, anywhere, for enough times.

ie: both of my in-place "upgrades" did Fail

but, I've done this before .. so this was Not on this Laptop .. my Main Machine.
and so, an Clean Installation was done, and that did work .. okay.


for some reason, any Major Upgrade, to an New version .. is not so good.
- - an 'upgrade' within the same release .. does seem to work, that much better.

[trytip]

you need to blame the idiots that invented UEFI bios. i also have the same issue with my desktop it would not let me install bootloader into my SSD drive. so i had to buy a spinning drive just so i can point the bios to the bootloader.
now i admit i have no clue how to control UEFI it took me about 3 days trying to figure out how to install 19.3 back last year.
but one thing is for sure, timeshift will let you restore any system back to how it was. of course there are also many variations of errors and confusion involving timeshift
it is your responsibility as the end user to create a working usb drive and prepare the system for installation.

[MellowTigger]

I have the recommended backup. I currently have NO WAY OF ACCESSING that backup because I cannot get any functional Linux Mint session to work, whether booting from my hard drive or from a USB thumb drive. I have my new ISOs ready, so I'll try various USB thumb drive versions to see if I can at least boot again.

[Flemur]

Are you for real ?

Very much so.
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2485

C2. Create a system snapshot

When I follow those instructions "mintupdate check" it says

!! ERROR: Please set up system snapshots. .... Restoring your backed up APT sources.

I backup with grsync and don't use timeshift, so I'll finish this post with what happens next...

Edit: mintupdate won't proceed without setting up timeshift, which I refuse to use. I guess I'll change the APT sources by hand, update with "apt" and see what happens...

Edit: I edited /usr/bin/mintupgrade and commented out these two lines ( ~ line 223):

Code: Select all

# if not os.path.exists("/etc/timeshift.json"):
#            self.fail("Please set up system snapshots. If ...

and successfully upgraded from Min1 19.3 Xfce to v 20; the only glitch was wine...

Edit2: I upgraded using mintupgrade and the instructions at the link, I did NOT change the software sources by hand.

[Moonstone Man]

Are you for real ?

Very much so.
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2485

C2. Create a system snapshot

When I follow those instructions "mintupdate check" it says

!! ERROR: Please set up system snapshots. .... Restoring your backed up APT sources.

Well, either the OP got around it or wasn't following kosher instructions. In either case, it's a self-nuke.

[mr_raider]

Meh... I once fubared a Kubuntu Trusty Tahr to Xenial upgrade. HAd to wipe and re-install.

Moral of the story, distro upgrade across two years can either work, or not.

[AndyMH]

I have the recommended backup. I currently have NO WAY OF ACCESSING that backup because I cannot get any functional Linux Mint session to work, whether booting from my hard drive or from a USB thumb drive. I have my new ISOs ready, so I'll try various USB thumb drive versions to see if I can at least boot again.

Booting from USB is driven entirely by BIOS, not what you have installed on your SSD/HDD. If all else fails, try burning to DVD and booting from that (my desktop will not boot from USB with the BIOS set UEFI - I blame MSI).

[Shadow in Fire]

Devuan is the only real choice nowadays for a Debian-based system that offers init freedom (Runit rules!). I held out for as long as I could with GNU/Linux Mint 18.3, but support ends in less than a year and PPAs aren't ideal for up-to-date software management. It was great while it lasted, but I don't want that Red Hat regression on any of my systems. Heck, even Upstart (you can switch to this init on Xenial systems) is snappy, despite being old and abandoned by Canonical.

I will say that at least GNU/Linux Mint's developers had common sense to not include Snap trash. I can foresee GNU/Linux Mint Debian Edition being THE default for this distro. Bravo!

[Flemur]

So today I saw the update to install in my notification zone. Let's try that. What can go wrong, right ?

Whoa, slow down - I'm *pretty sure* the upgrade from 19.3 to 20 does NOT appear as a notification.

Are you sure you weren't doing a normal upgrade of some installed packages? Exactly what happened after you started whatever it was? The update/upgrade manager appeared, or something else happened?

Anyway i'm now afraid my 1200€ laptop is screwed.

At worst you might have to reset the BIOS.

[rene]

And seemingly more to the point, this is by now the umpteenth report of upgrade failure, especially the ones where even 19 was upgraded from 18.

Yes, I know "clem" posted a tutorial to upgrade but upgrading between major versions has always been a bad idea, and has seemingly gone from just a bad idea to an outright lousy one this time around. So stop trying to upgrade between major versions and bloody well reinstall. It's approximately 10 times as fast in the first place so what is this friggin' nonsense all about anyway?

Yes, clearly, the Mint team should stop presenting a major-version upgrade as an option in all but the most dire of circumstances where one really does not want to install new but it's not actually forbidden to use one's own brain either. You are ripping the base out from under an OS and replacing it with something that is in essence 2 years newer. Do not, or potentially suffer every detail that has crept in over those two years. Or 4 years. Or 6 years. Or...

Not speaking for Mint in case that wasn't obvious. Just for sanity.

[arvy]

Not speaking for Mint in case that wasn't obvious. Just for sanity.

May I be permitted, with all due deference and with nothing but the very best interests of all concerned in mind, to second that motion.

[cbrevard]

This does happen to appear in the UI.

Also, when I attempted the upgrade, I found myself with a series 5 kernel. Pjotr indicates that it's apparently possible to avoid a new kernel install by removing linux-kernel-generic. It would be nice if this were confirmed and potentially incorporated into Clem's instructions.

Said instructions also indicate, at the bottom of the page, that

The upgrade overwrites files in /etc/ with default configuration files.

However, I was prompted regarding sshd_config (and just that one configuration file). Why can't this be an option for every package? Tedious perhaps, but I'd rather take the time to have a bootable system.

[OlivierM]

To those who have similar problems, I could finally salvage my laptop by reflashing the bios. (yes, as incredible as it sounds, I had to do this to unbork my machine).

[Ringel05]

Not only did the upgrade fail miserably I used Timeshift to go back and it froze halfway through the restore. Okay, I installed a clean version of 20 and two thirds of the packages wouldn't work. I've reinstalled a clean version of 19.03 and it's working fine.

Guess 20 isn't ready for prime time........

[Ringel05]

2. but I can still boot from the nvme drive on a completely sabotaged distro. most of the packages are gone, I just have terminal with most commands gone. thankfully dpkg and wget still work,.I am in the process of manually reinstalling apt and seeing if I can salvage that major screw-up

tl;dr : don't install that stuff. Until now I was recommending this distribution for beginners, even if I didn't like systemd. But hell, how can such a major screw up happen ? Do you even test your software before pushing it ?

So, it's someone else's fault that you failed to take a Timeshift snapshot or Clonezilla image.

I took a Timeshift snapshot before upgrading, when the upgrade failed I used Timeshift to restore my 19.03......... The restore failed.......