Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Thanks for the info. The reason chroot didn't work originally was because I gave you the wrong command! My fault entirely...

To make it work you have boot puppy and mount /dev/sda1 - typically it should be mounted to /media/sda1. I take it puppy follows this convention... To test it you should open a root shell and type

chroot /media/sda1

Once you are "in" please post the output of

blkid

and

cat /etc/fstab

With any luck we should be able to see a discrepancy there. I hope dibl, snowhog, Qqmike and kubicle to name but a few are watching this and are rearing to go with new and great input

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Okay, "chroot /media/sda1" returned with "chroot: cannot change root directory to /media/sda1: No such file or directory".

So I checked a little and tried "chroot/mnt/sda1" and got "root@puppypc:/#" which I am assuming is what you were trying to achieve.

Then when I put in "blkid" it just returns with "root@puppypc:/#" again.

Then here is the output from "cat /etc/fstab":

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=05e35a9-bc0d-485c-8a00-9fca206b8bf5 /
s=remount-ro 0
# /dev/sda5
UUID=54217ea6-8c6c-4c35-8c68-87dcbeb301e3 none swap sw
0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf, iso9660 user, noauto, exec 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw, user, noauto, exec 0 0


P.S. Sorry it takes me so long between posts, but I don't always have access to my computer from work.

[Qqmike]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

blkid may only work from a hard disk installed terminal.
From a live CD (Puppy), try this one:

UUIDs, listing:
From Live CD and HD:
ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/ -alh

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Qqmike, I tried "ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/ -alh" (is this what you wanted me to try?) and it just returned "ls: /dev/disk/by-uuid/: No such file or directory".

[Qqmike]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Yes, but as you did for
blkid

you have to chroot into the target partition.

Follow what toad has in mind for you here.

If that doesn't work (fixing your GUI?) ...

After reading this thread, I'd be tempted to re-install.
It's a concern that you can't boot from CD and had BIOS issues. Suggests you may have to look into what's causing that. Seems that the CD issue is a hardware/firmware problem, independent of the current Kubuntu problem.

If your personal home data is not on a separate partition, you will want to rescue it before doing anything (maybe even if it is on a separate /home partition you should). If it comes to this, to rescue your data, you'd have to use Puppy and a perhaps copy data off onto flash drives.

But ... first, see what toad has in mind.

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

aldee, yes, it should have been mnt, not media - you are learning quickly Removable media get mounted to media, hard disks to mnt...

Anyway, chroot into sda1 again and do

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

This is the same as blkid (but longer) and should work. Post the output or compare sda1's UUID yourself with that listed in the fstab.

Speaking of which, please double check your /etc/fstab (it lists all the devices to be mounted during boot). It should read as follows

# /dev/sda1
UUID=05e35a9-bc0d-485c-8a00-9fca206b8bf5 /        ext3  relatime,errors=remount-ro 0    1

Also while you are in chroot, go into /usr/bin and do a directory listing using a simple

ls

If you get a ton things listed you are in good shape.

So three things while you are in chroot:
1 - get sda1's UUID
2 - double check your fstab
3 - check contents of /usr/bin

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Here is what is in my terminal (input and output). Did I not do something correctly?

# chroot /mnt/sda1
root@puppypc:/# ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
ls: /dev/disk/by-uuid/: No such file or directory
root@puppypc:/#

I have also been contemplating a re-install. What is holding me back is that I am afraid of losing data (firefox bookmarks, thunderbird contacts, rss feeds, etc.) I can easily back up the home directory, but I'm not sure if everything that I want to save is in the home directory. If I can just get my system back, it seems like that would be better than reinstalling the OS.

I will have to admit that this has been a good education for me. You guys are great. I am just going on your recommendations. Whatever you can do for me, I am willing to work through with you, at least to a certain point.

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Tried "/etc/fstab" and got "permission denied".

Also did "ls /usr/bin" and got a list a mile long.

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Your firefox bookmarks are in ~/.mozilla - copy the whole directory onto a stick. My guess would be that thunderbird uses the same directory but you really want to check using ls again (and should see firefox and thunderbird subdirectories). All kde relevant settings (looks, feeds, contacts, what have you) are under ~/home/.kde (BTW, ~ = /home/your_username).

The result or non-result of ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ confirms my suspicion that your /usr/bin has somehow disappeared. Try chrooting again and attempt moving round directories using

 cd name_of_directory

and

cd ..

to go back again. Does it work? Busybox is great, but it lacks the cd command...

Also, what about #2 and #3 of my previous post? If you cannot do it from within chroot, do it from puppy's konqueror. Simply go to /mnt/sda1/etc/ and select fstab and /mnt/sda1/usr/bin respectively.

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

I did get /etc/fstab. Here it is:


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=05eb35a9-bc0d-485c-8a00-9fca206b8bf5 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=54217ea6-8c6c-4c35-8c68-87dcbeb301e3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec 0 0

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Thank you, looks fine.

chroot into sda1 again and try updating your initramfs - this is the only other reason I can think of. To do so find your exact kernel first by typing

uname -r

If you are running 8.04 you should get: 2.6.24-17-generic

Now type in

update-initramfs -u -k output_of_uname-r

This will take a while. Reboot and gape in awe (I hope!).

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

/usr/bin is there. Did you want the list? It's like 1500+ items.

Also I can move around directories using "cd".

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Thanks, no list necessary. Just a case of ye olde cross posting again. We both got sweaty fingers Let me know how the update-initramfs went. Should work under chroot (while yaird doesn't).

[aldee]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Here's what's in my terminal:

root@puppypc:~# uname -r
2.6.21.7
root@puppypc:~# update-initramfs -u -k 2.6.21.7-r
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.21.7-r
Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.21.7-r
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.21.7-r
root@puppypc:~#

[toad]

Re: Help! Can't load my Kubuntu

Misunderstanding, remove the -r at the end. And you are in chroot, right? Then go