no desktop/grub rescue after Trusty update

[dbaker]

Ok, first some background...
I didn't want to sacrifice my laptop to an unstable release yet, so I made a couple of VMs to try out Trusty. I must say it seemed excellent while it worked - faster than my Saucy host OS even in spite of running in a VM, and impressively stable. Anyway, when I got notifications about updates being available I thought I'd better install them so I went ahead and did that.

On VM #1 I updated through the 'Muon Update Manager'. All went well until I restarted the VM. Then this happened:


On VM #2, thinking maybe there was a bug with muon update manager, I updated through Muon Package Manager instead. Again, everything seemed fine until I restarted...and the plasma desktop just wasn't there. I have the cursor and the splash screen even loads, but when it fades to what SHOULD be the desktop, it's just a blank, black screen. With a cursor.
This particular problem - the missing desktop - is actually familiar to me from previous VM disasters, although I can't remember what led to those so that's probably not very helpful.

I do want to upgrade my host OS to Trusty at some point, but I'm utterly terrified of something like the above happening. I wouldn't mind having the VMs back, either!

[whatthefunk]

The problem may be that you updated through the update notification application and Muon. These programs often dont hold back upgrades that should be held back resulting in unresolved dependencies and incomplete updates. You should always upgrade through the command line when using beta versions. See SteveRiley's notice for more info: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...elease-caveats

Can you boot into recovery mode? After your bios splash screen, hit Shift for the grub menu and select the first listed recovery mode. If you can get that far, first select the option that connects to your network. When that is completed, you should get back to the menu. Select the dpkg recovery option. This should resolve any incomplete updates.

[dbaker]

oops. been a while since I read the pre-release caveats...

Here's the grub menu from the desktop-less VM. Not sure what to do now - the first option just boots me back into desktop-less Kubuntu.


The other VM seems to be completely broken; can't even load the grub menu.

EDIT: never mind, found the dpkg option - by accident, somehow..
I seem to have one VM back, anyway!

[whatthefunk]

oops. been a while since I read the pre-release caveats...

Here's the grub menu from the desktop-less VM. Not sure what to do now - the first option just boots me back into desktop-less Kubuntu.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]4783[/ATTACH]

The other VM seems to be completely broken; can't even load the grub menu.

EDIT: never mind, found the dpkg option - by accident, somehow..
I seem to have one VM back, anyway!

Ah....forgot a step. Sorry about that. After getting to the grub menu (the one in your screen shot) you need to go to "Advanced options for Kubuntu" and from there you can select recovery mode.

About your second VM...sometimes getting to grub is a bit of a pain. Try pressing Shift at the bios splash screen and hold it through the boot process. You can also mash the hell out it from the splash screen. Do you remember what updates you did when it broke?

[dbaker]

Just tried to do a full upgrade, I think. I remember not all the updates were checked in Muon Update Manager though - I just left it at the default settings, because last time I tried to check all of them it crashed on me (I'm definitely only updating from the command line from now on. MUCH nicer experience).

I'm not even getting a splash screen at all on the second VM. How does grub rescue work? There's a command prompt sort of thing, so I guess I'm meant to type something.

[whatthefunk]

You're going to have to repair grub. You can do this using a Live Kubuntu CD.
http://opensource-sidh.blogspot.jp/2...-pendrive.html

[dbaker]

phew. at least it's recoverable! both VMs are back to normal now. thankyou