Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
The computer has an old version of Ubuntu (11.04) that I need to upgrade, after I do a file backup. Previously, another Absolute Beginner (who's even more green) had been using the machine, and told me that it failed to boot up at some point.
Instead of booting, it displayed this screen:
* Starting MTA speech-dispatcher disabled; edit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher [OK]
* Starting Bluetooth * PulseAudio configured for per-user sessions saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned
* Enabling additional executable binary formats binfmt-support [OK] Starting smfpd daemon…done Process smfpd [1511] is running [OK]
Checking battery state... [OK]
(It lags here and doesn't boot.)
After that, there were several other malfunctions:
I had to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete and do hard reboots to make it boot. I don't know if that might have damaged the filesystem.
I couldn't save changes to files. For example, when I tried to edit and save a text file, it said that there wasn't enough disk space to save the file -- "Please free some disk space and try again."
When I looked at the Disk Usage Analyzer, it showed that the directory /var was taking up 89% of total filesystem capacity.
I looked at the System Monitor, and the System Status showed "Available disk space: 0 bytes".
Whenever I looked at the Properties of files, there was a huge discrepancy between the total size of files Vs. "Size on disk". E.g. the directory /home had "Size on disk" listed as 35 GB, but Total size of files was only listed as 4.3 GB.
I ran a Memory test, but after 4+ hours, it still wasn't complete.
At the Recovery Menu, I tried "clean" to try to make free space, but nothing happened. Also, none of the other options on the menu were functional, including failsafeX.
Now, the machine no longer boots. When I type Ctrl-Alt-F1 or -F2, I get a screen that allows me to log in and type commands, but I don't know what to type. If anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Welcome to the forums.
You may have more luck with this if you edit it for clarity (e.g. paragraphs) because currently nearly unreadable. Cheers and good luck. ;)
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Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Connect a external drive with free space to the pc, boot a livecd, backup all the files you need to the external drive, format & reinstall.
You do not intent keeping the current OS so I see no point in trying to fix it.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Thanks for answering.
To Bucky: I just realized I had scripting turned off...
To mips: Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think my external flash drive has enough space, and I'd like to see if I can boot by entering some commands.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Can you run:
df -a
Perhaps that will show us where all the space is going? Oh, cut and paste the results to this thread.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
I suggest that you boot into recovery mode and drop to a root shell. Next run apt-get clean to clean the cache with updates and installed programs (this does not remove programs or updates, just cleans the cache)
Next run fdisk -l (lower case L), df -h and du -h --max-depth=1 / and post the results (between [code] and [/code]).
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Be aware, max-depth might not be available in your distro, not sure. However, df -a will give us more than enough.
Code:
~$ df -h --max-depth=1
df: Unbekannte Option »--max-depth=1«
„df --help“ gibt weitere Informationen.
The apt-get clean is a good idea, definitely try that.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Thanks for answering. I tried Wim's suggestion, and apt-get clean apparently didn't work-- when I typed it and hit Enter, nothing happened. But the other commands did work.
Just one question: I can't boot, so how do I copy and paste the data output? Is this possible without a CD?
Thank you.
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
If you can just type in anything that might look suspicious, e.g.:
Code:
~$ df -a
Dateisystem 1K-Blöcke Benutzt Verfügbar Verw% Eingehängt auf
/dev/sda1 278860856278860800 56 99% /
proc 0 0 0 - /proc
sysfs 0 0 0 - /sys
none 0 0 0 - /sys/fs/fuse/connections
none 0 0 0 - /sys/kernel/debug
none 0 0 0 - /sys/kernel/security
udev 2054784 4 2054780 1% /dev
See first line? This indicates that the root f/s is technically out of space. Do you see any thing like that?
Re: Can't boot anymore after a series of malfunctions
Thanks, for /dev/sda1 it says:
Size Used Use%
71G 68G 100%
As I wrote in my original post, the computer had indicated that the vast majority of the space was being taken up by the directory /var (specifically, /var/log) but I don't know why...