[SOLVED] Recover a partially messed up system or re-install on laptop?

[stuarte]

Hi,

This morning I, or rather the system, applied a large update to this 22.04.2 system. As has been my practice all throughout using 22.04.1, in Discover I started the process of deselecting all the updates with the purpose of selecting to apply only a few updates at a time. (It would seem that now(!) Discover applies all patches/updates automatically.) So, there I am clicking the mouse and the system not visually responding. I tried entering text in Konsole but again no visual response.

Due to this interaction, I have somehow partially messed up the system. Examples of incorrect behaviour are as follows.

In System Settings, there is now an orangey-red spot on the following lines. Appearance, Workspace Behaviour (including Desktop Effects, Screen Edges, Screen Locking, Virtual Desktops, and Activities), Shortcuts (including Shortcuts), Startup and Shutdown (including Background Services and Desktop Session), Search (including File Search and Plasma Search), Regional Settings (including Spell Check), Input Devices (including Keyboard), Removable Storage (including Removable Devices).

In Konsole, working rightwards from "Q", pressing the various keys results in nothing appearing on screen until the "[" key is pressed. This results in "^[[" (without the quote marks) being displayed. Pressing "]" displays "^[]", the "a" key displays "^[a", the "s" key displays "^[s", and so on.

I have gone into System/Hardware/Input Devices/Keyboard. Under Keyboard/Hardware<tab>, Keyboard model: is set to Generic | Generic 102-key PC. (This is what I have always manually chosen during O.S. installation.) Under Keyboard/Layouts<tab> Configure layouts is set to: Map -> gb; Layout -> English(UK); Label -> (British) Union Flag.

In the Firefox browser, the mouse scroll wheel no longer scrolls the screen upwards or downwards. To scroll the screen in either direction, it is necessary to place the mouse cursor on the scroll bar and then drag.

With all these anomalies now present, would it be possible to recover the system or should I just do a fresh re-install of the O.S. (and thereby lose all the previously applied updates) ?

Stuart

[claydoh]

I started the process of deselecting all the updates with the purpose of selecting to apply only a few updates at a time.

This might be a problem, or rather THE problem, unless you know exactly what you are doing. The updates are are fairly well interconnected, and you could be missing important pieces.

It would seem that now(!) Discover applies all patches/updates automatically.

Actually, no, not Discover. Any Ubuntu system has it set to have apt automatically install security updates regularly. Most people who update regularly, or when the see a notification, will most often see these there before the system would do this.
You can adjust setting in the Software Sources tool found in Discover's settings area.

To me it seems that an incomplete set of updates is the first place to look. Update fully and see if this fixes things after a reboot.
if you can't use Konsole, then switch to a TTY via ctrl-alt-f3 (or 4, 5,etc), and run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Note any errors, and be specific.

The next step would be to create a new user account to see if these are happening there. This can narrow things down to system level issues, or user-specific problems. In the former, a reinstall might be warranted. If things are fine in the new user account, then a reinstall is not necessary. The worst case here would be to wipe just the /home/username, or most of it (after backing up your actual files) and starting with a fresh clean default set of user settings.

[GreyGeek]

stuarte, THIS is exactly why I use BTRFS.

I've been running a USB WIFI using the dkms rtl88x2bu driver, which I got from a github source. It uses dkms to create the driver. I've been using it through several kernel upgrades without a single problem, and the dkms system was always successful in building an 88x2bu.ko file which worked. Not the day before yesterday.

I was using the 5.19.0-43 kernel. The new kernel was 5.19.0-45. The dkms system attempted to compile a new ko for the 45 kernel but failed completely and on reboot I had no wifi. For about an hour I putzed around trying to get the dkms to compile the new ko for the new kernel. Then it dawned on me. THIS is exactly why I run BTRFS. In about a minute I rolled back to last night's snapshot and rebooted. Then I used "apt-mark hold" on the three 5.19.0-45 kernel files. When the dkms compile for the 45 kernel is back in shape for my 88x2bu driver I'll release the holds.

[stuarte]

Good morning all,

@claydoh: Thank you for your response.

This might be a problem, or rather THE problem, unless you know exactly what you are doing. The updates are are fairly well interconnected, and you could be missing important pieces.

I had only vaguely realised about the interconnectedness. Yes, there were several files related to the new kernel with the rest seemingly comprising small groups related to different bits of O.S./app functionality. However, other than that I am not aware of any finer grained interconnectedness.

You can adjust setting in the Software Sources tool found in Discover's settings area.

Thank you for that. Good to know.

To me it seems that an incomplete set of updates is the first place to look.

It seems that could be the case. It might also explain the aforementioned orangey-red "measles".

Update fully and see if this fixes things after a reboot. if you can't use Konsole, then switch to a TTY via ctrl-alt-f3 (or 4, 5,etc), and run:

I just tried this using ctr-alt-f3. This presented me with a cli login prompt, which requires use of the keyboard, which does not respond. A good idea but, ho-hum.

The next step would be to create a new user account to see if these are happening there.

Which, even using Users within System Settings, still requires use of the keyboard which doesn't...

The worst case here would be to wipe just the /home/username, or most of it (after backing up your actual files) and starting with a fresh clean default set of user settings.

I would rather not wipe /home/username as I do not have sufficient external storage onto which I could backup files. So, it looks like it will have to be a complete fresh install. A bit of a pain but there seems no way around this. Oh well...

@GreyGeek: Thank you for your response.
Up till now, I have been very satisfied using 4ext. I did not have any serious problems with it. Even though BTRFS is probably a better f.s. (it has come along later in the design cycle) I think I will continue my usage with 4ext. My current situation is due to a momentary forgetfulness on my part (due to being a bit of a Norin Radd) and not any fault of 4ext.

Stuart

[claydoh]

I just tried this using ctr-alt-f3. This presented me with a cli login prompt, which requires use of the keyboard, which does not respond. A good idea but, ho-hum.

Then try ctrl-alt-f2, 4, 5, 6 etc.

You may have deeper issues if your kb isn't working *anywhere*. Can you try a different kb, just to rule out any hardware issues? You can't even use recovery mode if the kb isn't fully working. But if it is working at the Grub menu, you can try updating from there, if you are using a wired connection. A wifi connection would most likely take extra manual command actions.

[stuarte]

Good morning,

@claydoh: I have just managed to implement your suggestion from post nr.2 above and it seems to have worked. This post was typed up on the laptop keyboard which now seems to once again be working "normally".

Thanks again,

Stuart