Weird error on booting

[rhomp2002]

When I try to boot Kubuntu, I get an error saying that apt-get is not installed and I need to login and install it. At that point if I hit Ctl/Alt/Delete, the boot continues and I am able to get onto Kubuntu with no problems. No idea why it should be asking for apt-get at that point at all. If I do try to login it does nothing but just keep asking me to login in.

Once I get to Kubuntu, it works just as it did for Efty and Dapper. It is only when I am trying to login.

I am not getting this error on Ubuntu which I also have installed while I decide whether to go with Gnome or KDE.

Both Kubunut and Ubuntu were installed as fresh installs with disks from Canonical.

Any ideas would be appreciated as I have no idea where to go next. I just find it really weird.


Additional info. I read it carefully when I just booted and it tells me that I need to install apt-get. It first attempts to run a bash shell but there is a whole chain of errors. It then repeats telling me to install apt-get. It says if I type "apt-get install apt" then apt-get will be installed. The next line says that apt-get is not recognized. This is an error from within a bash shell script. It then displays the konsole type root message for me to enter a command but whatever I enter gets rejected.

As I said if I hit ctl/alt/delete, then the boot continues and I get the normal login screen and then get onto Kubuntu. Very strange.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Weird error on booting

Strange indeed.

When you are saying you are typing in commands that are not recognised, I assume one of them is apt-get install apt? If so are you typing sudo first?

Ian

[penguin.ch]

Re: Weird error on booting

apt-get install apt

Neat

- Did you change (read: upgrade) the kernel recently?
- Is there anything in /var/log/boot or /var/log/dmesg?

Reasoning: I take this "apt joke" for a mere symptom.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Weird error on booting

I must confess for some time I scratched my head on this wondering how, if you've not got "apt", you can "apt-get" anything

Having re-read the question, if the only reason you are using both ubuntu and kubuntu is to pit kde against gnome, you will be pleased (or perhaps not!) to note that it is unnecessary. Given that ubuntu works for you, I would use that and install the kubuntu desktop package. to switch between the 2 all you have to do is to logout and then when logging in choose a different session type.

Sorry it doesn't solve the immediate problem.

Ian

[dibl]

Re: Weird error on booting

When I try to boot Kubuntu, I get an error saying that apt-get is not installed and I need to login and install it.

This is the error you get when the kernel specified in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file is at a different location than the root directory that is listed in /etc/fstab. (I just had the same problem after the recent kernel upgrade).

Do a close comparison of the location of the vmlinuz file in /boot/grub/menu.lst, as compared to the location of "/" in /etc/fstab -- they have to match perfectly.

HTH

[penguin.ch]

Re: Weird error on booting

I just had the same problem after the recent kernel upgrade.

You, again - I should have known that ... thanks for enlighting us (anyway)

[dibl]

Re: Weird error on booting

thanks for enlighting us

Oh pshaw -- I have nothing to teach you, Birdy!

[rhomp2002]

Re: Weird error on booting

To Liquidator - I tried both sudo and not entering sudo and it made no difference.

I loaded Kubuntu first to try it out as I got Ubuntu to Feisty by upgrading all the way from 5.10. When I got the CD's from Canonical for Ubuntu Feisty, I then reloaded the Ubuntu from that. Also Ubuntu is 64-bit and Kubuntu is 32-bit which is the other thing I was messing with. I have some of the 32-bit modules running on the 64-bit box to see how that compares as well.

I will check into the Vmlinuz location to see how that works. I know that when the menu.lst was first created it had all those UUID entries there. I deleted most of them because they seemed to have no affect whether they were there or not and I saw no need to open more cans of worms in case I changed something and then typed the UUID entry wrong.

Actually I have a big bunch of stuff out there right now. I have PC-BSD, Sabayon, Wolvix, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Slackware all out there and loadable. I am using the Ubuntu menu.lst as my primary. They all work and I am seeing a lot of differences in how well they work, mostly minor but interesting. Not sure just where I will end up yet. Interesting times. They are all on the same drive as well. Thank God for big drives. I tried to load Gentoo but the LiveCD for Gentoo is a mess and really is dangerous to play around with. Hit the install at the wrong time and you wipe the drive real easy (ask me how I know - that is why I no longer have Windoze as well but then that is no loss IMNSHO). I think the final result will be a couple of them left and the rest wiped out. It would be a better test if AMD64 was better supported but that is another story.

[dibl]

Re: Weird error on booting

I happen to know a little bit about multi-drive, multi-OS setups (but don't ask me about networking) -- here's a piece of my /boot/grub/menu.lst file, which works great, and fills up my 21 inch CRT screen nicely:

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-lowlatency
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-lowlatency root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-lowlatency
quiet
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-lowlatency (recovery mode)
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-lowlatency root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-lowlatency

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
quiet
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-lowlatency
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-lowlatency root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-lowlatency
quiet
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-lowlatency (recovery mode)
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-lowlatency root=UUID=5c75276d-48e9-4705-a19c-94210edf8c2a ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-lowlatency

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd2,0)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda1.
title		Kubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (on /dev/sdb2)
root		(hd1,1)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=84445218-c1c0-41fc-9616-2c92a5a348d5 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
savedefault
boot

title		Kubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sdb2)
root		(hd1,1)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=84445218-c1c0-41fc-9616-2c92a5a348d5 ro single 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
savedefault
boot

title		Elive Revolution rl2+ (unstable) (on /dev/sda1)
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-elive root=/dev/hda1 vga=791 splash=silent 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-elive
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda1.
title		Elive Revolution rl2+ (unstable) (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda1)
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-elive root=/dev/hda1 vga=normal single 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-elive
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sdb1
title		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root		(hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map		(hd0) (hd1)
map		(hd1) (hd0)
chainloader	+1

The problem with this kind of setup is the automatic overwriting of menu.lst when upgrading, and the "priority" of the boot options, i.e. the "Last Linux Wins" rule. Back up the menu.lst file for the the OS that you want to be the first boot option on the list -- you'll need it after you upgrade any of the ones farther down the list, because that's when you will observe the breakage that you originally posted.

8)