[SOLVED] No USB and other problems

[DrMartinus]

Hi,

after the last possible update with Muon updater a few days ago Kubuntu has stopped functioning properly.

1. External harddisks connected via USB 3.0 aren't recognized, a look at them with KDE-Partitionmanager reveals that their is no known file system, which is definitely wrong - the disks had been used without problems before the update
2. Connecting USB-Sticks or other things via USB 2.0 does not work - I can't access the sticks. KDE Partitionmanager shows at least the installed file system.
3. No shutdown available in the K-Menu, only "change user", "log out" or "lock". When logging out, the option to shut down the PC at the bottom right is not accessible (greyed out).
4. I cannot do any other update: when starting the Muon updater and clicking on "update now" or so, it basically hangs, no dialog box for entering the admin password is being opened.

The system reports at startup that the energy management system isn't installed properly, but I have no idea how I could solve that, and I'm not sure if that's related to the other problems. I suspect sonthing has happened with the admin, but I am clueless. Any help would be appreciated.

My system: Kubuntu 14.04, 64 bit, 16 GB RAM

Thanks

Martin

[dibl]

Wow that is a messed-up system! I take it that the KDE desktop comes up when you log in. If so, the first thing to do is Ctrl-Alt-F1 to the tty console, and log in there. Then issue "sudo service lightdm stop" to shut down the X server. Then try these, in sequence:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This will fully update your system. Post back if any of those commands gives you error output. If there are no errors after the commands run, issue "sudo shutdown now -r" and it will reboot, and you can see whether the problems with USB devices and shutdown from the panel remain or not. If they do, then the problem probably would be in the user's configuration.

[SteveRiley]

We had another person with the same symptoms the other day. For some reason, the udisks2 package is failing to install or update. Udisks controls, among other things, USB ports and power up/down. dibl's suggestion should work for you -- it'll finish the incomplete upgrade tasks.

Oh, and I'd urge you to stop using Muon for updates, and start using the command line. Here's what I wrote in the other post about that:

Supposition: Muon (or whatever GUI package manager you were using) downloaded all the updates and unpacked them. Then it started installing them, dutifully following the installation script contained inside each package. Something crapped out and Muon simply quit without a warning. This leaves your system in a state where some packages are installed and configured, while others are only unpacked. I bet that the Udisks package was in such a state, which means that the binary isn't ready for running. The command I had you run evaluates the complete package installation state, and finishes any undone tasks.

A word of advice, if I may. I know that we all use and love KDE for its wonderful graphical environment. But, time and again here on the forum, we see that many package-related problems stem from using GUI tools for package management. These tools simply don't provide the level of in-progress detail and recovery capabilites that the command line tools offer. I would recommend to any Linux user that becoming comfortable with command-line package management is an important skill.

[DrMartinus]

Hi to both of you,

well, the step-by-step instructions of dibl helped me solve the problem - thank you very much! And to Steve Riley a big thank you for your advice. I probably could have found the solution on my own, but being used to a graphical environment let's one forget the many possibilities of the console.

Thanks again, the problem is solved!