View Full Version : [ubuntu] Distro Upgrade Failed Miserably
anachronon
June 3rd, 2011, 04:20 PM
Hey All,
Yesterday, I tried to upgrade to v10.04 ("Lucid"). After nearly 15 hours of painfully slow downloading and installing, my computer froze, just as the upgrade was almost complete. Needless to say, my Linux kernel is now wasted.
So, what is the best way to proceed? I would like to get the OS going again, without losing any of my data or files. I also have a ******* partition on that HD, which needs to be preserved. Any suggestions? I would really like to avoid another 15-hour marathon session. I suspect that insanely long time is what caused my computer to finally freeze.
Thanks everyone.
Joe of loath
June 3rd, 2011, 05:12 PM
Boot into a live CD, and try rescue the system using chroot. Open a terminal, and type:
sudo -i
mount -t proc proc /*partition*/proc
mount -t sysfs sys /*partition*/sys
mount -o bind /dev /*partition*/dev
chroot /*partition*/
cat nameserver 8.8.8.8 > /etc/resolv.conf
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
Then go from there, as you would fix a borked installation normally.
anachronon
June 3rd, 2011, 08:47 PM
OK, I booted up with an old live CD.
I got as far as typing "mount -t proc proc /*partition*/proc"
And, the response was "/*partition*/proc does not exist"
Joe of loath
June 3rd, 2011, 10:18 PM
Well, yeah, it shouldn't :p. I forgot to mention that you should mount the hard drive, but once it's mounted, you need to replace *partition* with the mount point (Will be /media/(Disk-uuid)) :D
anachronon
June 4th, 2011, 12:18 AM
OK, I got the mount commands working. The Properties dialog box defined the mount point as simply "/media/disk"--no need for the long uuid.
However, when I got to the "chroot" command, I got "permission denied". I was never prompted for a password. Nor, could I find any way to enter one. All the while, I was working under root--the "#" prompt.
Joe of loath
June 4th, 2011, 11:23 AM
Could you post the full output of what you typed and what you got in response, please?
anachronon
June 4th, 2011, 06:13 PM
Here is a copy of my terminal screen:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo -i
root@ubuntu:~# mount -t proc proc /media/disk/proc
root@ubuntu:~# mount -t sysfs sys /media/disk/sys
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /dev /media/disk/dev
root@ubuntu:~# chroot /media/disk/
chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': Permission denied
root@ubuntu:~#
Joe of loath
June 4th, 2011, 06:19 PM
How strange... Maybe bash got corrupted?
anachronon
June 4th, 2011, 07:37 PM
How strange... Maybe bash got corrupted?
Any suggestions?
tukuyomi
June 4th, 2011, 07:47 PM
Long shot: You try to use bash 64 bit on a livecd 32 bits?
anachronon
June 4th, 2011, 09:24 PM
Long shot: You try to use bash 64 bit on a livecd 32 bits?
No, I have no 64-bit stuff. Only 32-bit i386. Could it be because I am using two different versions of Ubuntu? The live CD is an old v7.
Joe of loath
June 4th, 2011, 10:44 PM
Although it shouldn't matter, I'd try a newer CD.
Also, if you use the same version, try copying /bin/bash from the live CD to the disk, and making sure the permissions are 655 and that it is executable.
anachronon
June 4th, 2011, 11:29 PM
Although it shouldn't matter, I'd try a newer CD.
Also, if you use the same version, try copying /bin/bash from the live CD to the disk, and making sure the permissions are 655 and that it is executable.
Unfortunately, I don't have a live CD, newer than v7. Since getting that one, all upgrades and updates have been handled by the package manager.
One possibility, could I have gotten a corrupted file? That day, it took 12 hours to download the upgrade, when it should have only taken one or two. Honestly, it was hardly better than dial-up, and AT&T seems to have no intention of fixing the messed-up internet in this hick town.
kansasnoob
June 5th, 2011, 07:13 AM
Using the Live CD please post the output of the Boot Info Script as described here:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
anachronon
June 5th, 2011, 09:07 PM
Using the Live CD please post the output of the Boot Info Script as described here:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Here is what hppened: I downloaded and extracted Boot Info Script onto a thumb drive. I then booted the computer with the live CD, and mounted both the thumb drive and the Linux partition. I then ran boot_info_script.sh, and got thise error message:
"gawk" not found
please install missing program(s), and run boot_info_script.sh again
No results file was produced.
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