Linux is not booting on my PC after a couple days of use

[sacole bone]

Hey guys,

So, I'm a newbie on linux mint and linux in general, but i've succesfully done a dual boot with my windows 10 and was using both normally, then I ran with some problems with the native program that does a backup of your sistem (I forgot the name of it), as a newbie, i've put it on my /root, then in a couple of days it was full, a whole 30 gb root full. I couldn't uninstall it or anything for some reason, even thought i should have access to the root, but eventually I could delete the paste of the program, after that i've tried to unistall the program but wasnt succesful, after that i just restarted my pc and tried running linux again, but then the only thing that happens is the logo apperearing and disappering until everything is black, nothing happens anymore. Can someone please help me?

[SMG]

A 30GB root partition is not really a big root partition. Also Timeshift can be turned off rather than trying to uninstall it.

If you have your installation usb/dvd, please boot to a live session of Mint and supply us with information about your hardware by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

[sacole bone]

A 30GB root partition is not really a big root partition. Also Timeshift can be turned off rather than trying to uninstall it.

If you have your installation usb/dvd, please boot to a live session of Mint and supply us with information about your hardware by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

At the time, I did try to stop timeshift, but couldn't. Anyway, my instalation is on my hard drive in a dual boot with win 10, actually, i am using win10 right now to type this, and, what parts of my hardware do you want to know exactly? I could tell you some parts but I don't know if it would help: CPU I5 750 2.67Ghz, 8 gb ram, hd 500gb and GPU Gtx 960.

I don't know if this is enough, I think the only thing to do is to uninstall linux and reinstall again, and I won't lose to much either, I've being using for a week total.
Hope this helps, and thank you for your reply

[linux-rox]

No need to reinstall. Boot a live session (same thing as you used to install). Open Timeshift. Delete all the snapshots on the internal drive. Reboot the installed system. Set up some other location to save snapshots. Create a baseline snapshot. Carry on.

[SMG]

I don't know if this is enough, I think the only thing to do is to uninstall linux and reinstall again, and I won't lose to much either, I've being using for a week total.

I was interested in seeing how you set up the partitions. You can actually set up and install Mint in one large root partition. You do not have to have separate partitions, but depending upon how you use your system there can be advantages to having separate partitions.

As a newbie, I'll let you know one of the ways to troubleshoot your install is to use your installation usb/dvd and boot into a live session of Mint so you can see and access your Mint install. You would be running from the usb/dvd instead of the hard drive and would have access to all the Mint software (such as being able to access the web to type this as well as access to Timeshift) without actually using the hard drive.

If you are fine with re-installing, you can do that.

[sacole bone]

I don't know if this is enough, I think the only thing to do is to uninstall linux and reinstall again, and I won't lose to much either, I've being using for a week total.

I was interested in seeing how you set up the partitions. You can actually set up and install Mint in one large root partition. You do not have to have separate partitions, but depending upon how you use your system there can be advantages to having separate partitions.

As a newbie, I'll let you know one of the ways to troubleshoot your install is to use your installation usb/dvd and boot into a live session of Mint so you can see and access your Mint install. You would be running from the usb/dvd instead of the hard drive and would have access to all the Mint software (such as being able to access the web to type this as well as access to Timeshift) without actually using the hard drive.

If you are fine with re-installing, you can do that.

Hmm interesting... So you are saying that I can acess my hard drive install with a live session? I didn't quite understand.
My partitions are a /home and a root one, also used a swap (don't know if it is classified as a partition). As I don't understand much, could you tell me what partitions I should use? I just wanted to use Linux for browsing the web, gaming and instaling programs that I may use, very simple stuff really.

Thanks for the help, hope to see your answer soon!

[sacole bone]

No need to reinstall. Boot a live session (same thing as you used to install). Open Timeshift. Delete all the snapshots on the internal drive. Reboot the installed system. Set up some other location to save snapshots. Create a baseline snapshot. Carry on.

That's great news! But, would you be able to tell me what a baseline snapshot is? I'm as newbie to this as it gets lol.

[linux-rox]

Scratch the word baseline. Create a snapshot, or let Timeshift do so per a schedule.

[SMG]

Hmm interesting... So you are saying that I can acess my hard drive install with a live session?

Yes. If you open the File Folders app on the live session, you can see your hard drive and the files on it. You can access Timeshift snapshot on the hard drive to restore your system. You can use GParted (which comes installed on the Mint live session) to make changes to partitions on the hard drive.

My partitions are a /home and a root one, also used a swap (don't know if it is classified as a partition). As I don't understand much, could you tell me what partitions I should use? I just wanted to use Linux for browsing the web, gaming and instaling programs that I may use, very simple stuff really.

What is the total size of the space available for Mint? If it is 60GB or less, I would suggest just making one root partition.

Linux Mint makes a swap file by default, so a swap partition is not necessary unless you plan on hibernating your computer (hibernating is different from putting it to sleep).

You can set up Timeshift to just take snapshots on demand instead of having them automatically made on a schedule. As long as you have at least one snapshot, you can revert your system to it to fix issues. I keep my snapshots on a separate usb and take one every 3-4 weeks.

[sacole bone]

Yes. If you open the File Folders app on the live session, you can see your hard drive and the files on it. You can access Timeshift snapshot on the hard drive to restore your system. You can use GParted (which comes installed on the Mint live session) to make changes to partitions on the hard drive.

I'm going to try it, thx!

What is the total size of the space available for Mint? If it is 60GB or less, I would suggest just making one root partition.

It's 240 Gb, do you think I should create other partition or just the root?

Linux Mint makes a swap file by default, so a swap partition is not necessary unless you plan on hibernating your computer (hibernating is different from putting it to sleep).

I saw this tutorial for the instalation and he talks about the swap etc, I'm going to send it so you can actually see what I did and tell me if I should follow it or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8DJ_FxBWxs&t=318s

You can set up Timeshift to just take snapshots on demand instead of having them automatically made on a schedule. As long as you have at least one snapshot, you can revert your system to it to fix issues. I keep my snapshots on a separate usb and take one every 3-4 weeks.

That's what I should have done... thx for the tip!

[sacole bone]

Scratch the word baseline. Create a snapshot, or let Timeshift do so per a schedule.

Thanks for the help! I'm going to try it and put "[SOLVED]" on the title if everything works out, if not, i'll ask again for help. Thanks again and excuse me if anything.

[AndyMH]

It's 240 Gb, do you think I should create other partition or just the root?

Nothing wrong with having a separate /home partition on the 240GB SDD, this is what mine looks like:

Your problem was using timeshift with the defaults so it saved its snapshots in the / partition and filled it up. I save my timeshift snapshots to a separate drive. I have a lot of stuff installed but have only used 20GiB of the 32GiB availabe in /. If you start installing flatpaks they can be quite greedy on disk space (I don't).

I've got a swap partition (= same size as my RAM) because I've always had one. From LM19 on you don't need one, it will use a swap file by default.

The screenshot shows a legacy install, if it was UEFI boot (which is the modern way) I would have a small (100MB) EFI partition in addition to those shown. This contains the boot files.

[linux-rox]

This contains the boot files.

Clarification. An EFI partition contains only boot loaders. The rest of the boot files, including grub.cfg and the kernels, are in the /boot directory of the root/system partition. Also, as I'm sure you know but for the OP's benefit, in the typical dual boot scenario with a UEFI system, there already will be an EFI partition (Windows also needs one) and Mint will put its boot loaders there automatically.

[AndyMH]

I was keeping it simple

[linux-rox]

sacole bone, reviewing the thread, I realize we never figured out why you filled the root/system partition in the first place. Shouldn't have happened in a few days, even saving Timeshift snapshots on a modestly-sized root partition. So, either you installed a lot of Flatpak apps and/or you fiddled with the Timeshift settings (e.g., including your home directory in snapshots). The latter problem, in particular, isn't solved by saving snapshots on the home partition. Besides, you shouldn't be using Timeshift for data files. There are other, better backup tools for that.

[SMG]

Linux Mint makes a swap file by default, so a swap partition is not necessary unless you plan on hibernating your computer (hibernating is different from putting it to sleep).

I saw this tutorial for the instalation and he talks about the swap etc, I'm going to send it so you can actually see what I did and tell me if I should follow it or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8DJ_FxBWxs&t=318s

The guidelines that person recommends seem good to me other than we tend to recommend a / size of 30-50 GB for LM20 (rather than the 20-50GB mentioned in the video).

With 240 GB allotted to Mint, you have plenty of room for a swap partition. Whether your system will benefit from it would depend on how much memory your system has and how you use Mint. There is no problem having the swap partition and not using it unless your system runs short of space in another partition (and thus you "short-changed" one partition to make space for a swap partition). That does not sound like the case for your install given you have plenty of room allotted for Mint.

[sacole bone]

Linux Mint makes a swap file by default, so a swap partition is not necessary unless you plan on hibernating your computer (hibernating is different from putting it to sleep).

I saw this tutorial for the instalation and he talks about the swap etc, I'm going to send it so you can actually see what I did and tell me if I should follow it or not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8DJ_FxBWxs&t=318s

The guidelines that person recommends seem good to me other than we tend to recommend a / size of 30-50 GB for LM20 (rather than the 20-50GB mentioned in the video).

With 240 GB allotted to Mint, you have plenty of room for a swap partition. Whether your system will benefit from it would depend on how much memory your system has and how you use Mint. There is no problem having the swap partition and not using it unless your system runs short of space in another partition (and thus you "short-changed" one partition to make space for a swap partition). That does not sound like the case for your install given you have plenty of room allotted for Mint.

Hmm alright, so imma try to do the live session and see if it works. Thanks for the help again and I'll ask again if anything goes wrong on the process!

[sacole bone]

sacole bone, reviewing the thread, I realize we never figured out why you filled the root/system partition in the first place. Shouldn't have happened in a few days, even saving Timeshift snapshots on a modestly-sized root partition. So, either you installed a lot of Flatpak apps and/or you fiddled with the Timeshift settings (e.g., including your home directory in snapshots). The latter problem, in particular, isn't solved by saving snapshots on the home partition. Besides, you shouldn't be using Timeshift for data files. There are other, better backup tools for that.

It was pretty full tbh without timeshift, but timeshfit was occupying like 16 gigs because I just don't know how to configure it and I made it backup the whole sistem everyday. That's what happened I guess.

[sacole bone]

UPDATE: So, I've tried to do the live session thing to reconfigure or erase timeshifht from my HD, but then, there were JUST windows files on my linux HD, I didn't understand so I went to see the partitions on my windows, this is what happened: all my patitions from linux are listed as primary partitions on windows, I don't think this happened before by taking a look at the partition menu on Windows.

So, should I just erase it and install linux again (not a huge deal to me)? And, could someone explain to me why that happened?

Anxiously wainting for your replys!

[sacole bone]

This contains the boot files.

Clarification. An EFI partition contains only boot loaders. The rest of the boot files, including grub.cfg and the kernels, are in the /boot directory of the root/system partition. Also, as I'm sure you know but for the OP's benefit, in the typical dual boot scenario with a UEFI system, there already will be an EFI partition (Windows also needs one) and Mint will put its boot loaders there automatically.

Mine is probably a legacy one like AndyMH has, and that's because on my BIOS there were no options to change legacy to UEFI and not even secure boot options etc, and another reason I believe it was boot legacy is because my mother board is really old lol.