failed to upgrade

[winniwinter]

Hi,
I tried to upgrade my server from ubuntu (I think) 13.04 to the latest release. Therefore I did a "do-release-upgrade". During upgrade I did a huge mistake. I used CTRL+C which threw me out of the installation. I couldn't do a do-release-upgrade again due some locks.
So I did the next mistake. I restarted. Now I'm not able to boot ubuntu. I get to the screen where it says that I can access the maintenance shell or reboot via ctr+d.
Problem is. I cannot access the maintenance shell. The system immidiatly reboots. I also entered the recovery menu where I wanted to start the a root shell. As soon as I enter my root pw I get back to the recovery menu again. That means I'm not able to access the shell.

Do I have some other possibilities to fix this?

I would try something like this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/361332/ubuntu-13-04-to-13-10-filesystem-check-or-mount-failed

If I could access the damn shell..

[Bashing-om]

winniwinter; Hooo Boy !

What can I say, but I will try and help.

As you surmise we MUST be able to access a terminal in order to "fix" this install.
To that end can we ?
Try:
Boot the install to the grub boot menu. With the latest kernel highlighted, press the 'e' key for edit mode -> boot options screen.
In the line 'similar" :


linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=217ed9a7-e11a-4e32-8c05-992e8c8932b6 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff

Arrow down and across to "ro" and insert the term "text" - without the quotes and delete all other parameters you may have ;
Key combo ctl+x to continue the boot process to a textual terminal (TTY1).

IF you can get to here and login (username and password), we can proceed and see what we can do to access/salvage/release-upgrade.

For the why you are in this situation: Release 13.04 is End-Of-Life, and has no support. The software repository no longer exists as you have known it !
One would have had to change the sources.list file to redirect,
See: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

For now we just want to see if we can access the system, maybe fix permissions/access and then effect the EOL release upgrade.

ELSE: - non raided drives - mount the filesystem(s) from a liveDVD, copy off your data, and do a clean fresh install .

You are welcome and encouraged to bounce any ideas off me in this process of think'n. All I know to do is try and see what we can do. 1st approximation is get us to a terminal !




where there is a will there is a way

[winniwinter]

HeeyHo,

thanks for your support. Well the server is alive again and I'm dancing around it :)

Before you posted I created an live CD of ubuntu and started it. I mounted my linux partition and did steps that are described here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCdRecovery)



Update FailureIf there was an update that made your system non-bootable and they have fixed it in the repositories, you can use the Live CD to run apt-get to get the new files to fix your system.


[*=left]Boot the Ubuntu Live CD.
[*=left]Press Ctrl-Alt-F1

[*=left]sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt

[*=left]sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

[*=left]sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc

[*=left]sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys

[*=left]sudo chroot /mnt

[*=left]apt-get update

[*=left]apt-get upgrade



after that I rebooted and I was pretty happy to see that linux booted up again. Then I did an upgrade. And now it looks pretty good!!!

I'l added your hints on changing the grub configuration to my linux tips&tricks. thank you for that!

good night..signing off now!

ps: next big thing on my list is to backup the server..didn't do it yet..just stupid of me

[Bashing-om]

winniwinter; Great !

If you are now up on 14.04;
Please mark this thread solved;
aides others seeking the solution,
helps keep the forum clean and
precludes others miss-directing efforts to aid.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPostsTeam/SolvedThreads

See it was ;



no step for a stepper