comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

[swefal]

i have dualboot XP ? kubuntu on my old desktop (about 7 years old system). i've installed kubuntu over a year ago but due to the weird security measures which reminded me more of vista than the suse i have on my laptop, i haven't used kubuntu until now.
i got in to kubuntu and did an upgrade to 9.04 but the computer crashed in the middle (hardware related crash) and now i can't get into the GUI in kubuntu. i can, however, go to the recovery screen and through that to the konsole, i can log-in under my username but for reasons known only to the developers i can't log-in as root with my user password. i have no idea what the root password is, if there is any. when i try to load kubuntu the usual way it tells me the GUI mentioned isn't the correct one and then the whole thing just freezes.
so, the questions are: how can i fix the system through the konsole? how can i change the passwords?
btw, my CD drive isn't working so i can't re-install from a CD.

thanks in advance!

[arochester]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

...try...

Boot into recovery mode. There are various options given. Choose: Drop into root shell prompt with networking.

If you can get in, issue the command: sudo apt-get -f install

This should fix any broken packages you have and complete the installation as far as possible.

To change password see: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

Can you beg or borrow an external CD-Rom?

[Fintan]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

i've installed kubuntu over a year ago

Which version of kubuntu are you trying to upgrade from, what apps did you install then, do you have a separate /home partition?

but due to the weird security measures which reminded me more of vista

What would they be?

also could you give some specs on your machine, cpu, ram, video card, etc?

That could help others help you

[swefal]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

i did what arochester suggested and got this message:

(Reading database ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/dpkg_1.14.24ubuntu1_i386.deb (--unpack):
files list while package 'libcap2' is missing final newline
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/archives/dpkg_1.14.24ubuntu1_i386.deb
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

after those messages i'm thrown back to the console. i have tried doing that after an update (apt-get update) and got the exact same message again.
the version i had was 8.04, then it upgraded to 8.10 and after a reboot it says it will upgrade to 9.04, so the upgrade in question was from 8.10 to 9.04. i don't remember the partition settings but it's the standard one, considering i have 2 hard drives, windows takes the first one and the second is shared between the linux and FAT32 for both to use (it was done a couple of years ago, before NTFS writing was more of a standard in linux).
the comp specs are: Intel Pentium 4, 3 GHz CPU with 1 GB ram, hard drive configuration as explained previously. video card is NVidia 6200, if i remember correctly. internet is via cable and not wireless and the CD tray doesn't work. i have left those details out since i didn't think they have any thing to do with the current problem at hand. and about the security thing, the inability to change certain parameters (as grub menu) by simply clicking on a setting and giving a password, but rather logging in as root and so on. i don't know if it still applies but it's what it seemed to me when i tried using kubuntu 8.04.

[arochester]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

Unless there is someone who disagrees, I think that you need a new, "clean", reinstall.

On the subject of your CD-Rom not working; is it a general, standard unit or a non-standard unit (specific to a make and/or model)? If it is a standard unit it should not be a difficult DIY job to buy and fit a relacement.

The alternative is to acquire, somehow, an external CD-Rom. You might need to change the BIOS to boot from USB first. OR if you can put the installation onto a USB stick using the application called UNetBootin.

If there is anything in your Home that you want to save you will need to boot from a LiveCD (I use Knoppix for that purpose) and copy to either an external Hard Drive or USB stick (or burn a R/W-CD?). There is a suggestion that you should always have a separate Home partition ( see http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome ). Then when you do a reinstallation you can say reformat X and Y but NOT my Home.

[swefal]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

buying a new CD-ROM to this old computer would be like buying a new set of wheels for a rusty, old Ford-T. i'm planning on buying a new computer the coming year so there's no use spending more on this old one.
i thought about booting from USB, i have an 8 GB one and the BIOS supports boot from USB, but the problem is how to make the USB drive itself bootable. does UNetBootin create bootable USB drives or does it merely "burns" ISO files on a USB drive? for that i just use 7-zip, so the problem is only formatting the USB drive in a way so it becomes bootable.
there is nothing in the /home folder that i need, luckily enough. the important files i leave either in the NTFS or FAT32 areas in the hard drives since those are accessible from both linux and windows systems.

[kevinc]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load

Bootable USB drive http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089474.0

[swefal]

Re: comp crashed while upgrading - kubuntu won't load [SOLVED]

thanks for the help guys, in the end i gave up on the failed attempts in making a bootable USB stick and just borrowed a USB CD drive from the inlaws.