How to start command prompt at booting

[satimis]

Hi all

Ubuntu 16.04 desktop

Please advise how to start command prompt at boot. F12 doesn't work. It starts;


Deteted Hard disks

ANCL controller
1) Hard dist

O(ther boot device
f) Floory
c) DD-ROM
l) LAN

b) Continue booting


1) and b) start normal booting

Because on normal booting the menu bar disappears. I need start the Terminal to fix it.

Thanks

Regards
satimis

[again?]

ctrl+alt+F1 at the login greeter.

[satimis]

ctrl+alt+F1 at the login greeter.
Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

But this is a VM of Oracle VirtualBox

ctrl+alt+F1 starts the terminal of the Host which is also running Ubuntu 16.04 desktop

Regards
satimis

[westie457]

As the VM is booting tap the 'Esc' key a couple of times. This should bring up the GRUB menu with the usual options.
From there go to Advanced hit 'Enter', got to Recovery hit 'Enter', you should now be at a screen with the usual recovery options including 'Drop to a Root Shell prompt'.

I hope this is what you meant.

[satimis]

As the VM is booting tap the 'Esc' key a couple of times. This should bring up the GRUB menu with the usual options.
From there go to Advanced hit 'Enter', got to Recovery hit 'Enter', you should now be at a screen with the usual recovery options including 'Drop to a Root Shell prompt'.

I hope this is what you meant.
Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

start GNU Grub
-> Advanced Options ......
-> Ubuntu .... (recovery mode)
-> root Drop in root shell prompt

Enter root passwd

But I am not allowed to edit /etc/apt/sources.list

ls -al /etc/apt/sources.list

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 2890 Apr 19 2017 /etc/apt/sources.list


It is strange to me

Regards
satimis

[westie457]

Have just tried a couple of things here.

When you go to the 'root shell' there is no need for SUDO or password. Warning, it is now possible to damage your system completely.

Did you see these lines of text
Enter for maintenance
Ctrl+D to continue?
Hit 'Enter' you are now in the ROOT prompt. The sentence and warning above are now in use.

In the prompt window the file system is read only at the moment we have to mount as rw so edits to files can be made.
run
mount -o rw,remount /

To edit a system file I suggest using 'nano' to edit files.
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Make your changes then 'Ctrl+o to save then Ctrl+x to quit.
Now your back to the prompt try
apt update this will probably fail completely because you probably won't have any networking capabilities at the moment. DO NOT PANIC.
At the prompt type 'exit' to return to the recovery menu and attempt to enable 'networking' or any other options presented.
Better option IMHO is at the prompt type 'reboot' > hit 'Enter'.

[ajgreeny]

Thread moved to Virtualisation. which is more appropriate and a better fit for this thread as it is about a guest OS in VirtualBox.

[satimis]

Hi westie457,

Lot of thanks for your detail advice.

I have spent more than 2 hours unable to sort out what has happened to this VM. I can edit files under /etc/ after running

mount -o rw,remount /

as mentioned in your previous posting. However on running apt update ; apt upgrade;

....
E: Failed to fetch http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/u/unity-control-center/unity-control-counter-faces_15.04.0+16.04.20171130-0utubutu1_all.deb Temporary failure resolving 'hk.archive.ubuntu.com'


Tried;


apt update --fix-missing

unable to solve my problem

The complete story is as follows;
1) VM - After running update and upgrade
2) Reboot VM
3) Then install "VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.2.iso"
4) Reboot VM
The menu list on the left found disappeared.

Then I try to reinstall ubuntu-desktop. It comes to present situation.

I have compared the sources.list of Host and VM. They looks similar.

Edit
===
This is NOT my first time encountering this problem after installing VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.2.iso. (The old VBoxGuestAdditions version is NOT this version). Previously I created a new Ubuntu 16.04 desktop VM. After installing VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.2.iso it came to the same situation compelling me to delete it.

Regards
satimis

[&KyT$0P#]

this is a VM of Oracle VirtualBox

ctrl+alt+F1 starts the terminal of the Host which is also running Ubuntu 16.04 desktop
Try Host key + F1.

[satimis]

Try Host key + F1.
Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

Hot-Key + F1 works for me here.

On Terminal (not drop to root shell)
I can run update upgrade and dist-upgrade without problem. But the menu-bar still disappears after boot up and login

I have tried follow solutions without result

1)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install unity
sudo reboot

2)
sudo mv ~/.cache/compizconfig-1 ~/.cache/compizconfig-renamed
sudo shutdown -r 0

3)
initctl restart unit-panel-service

initctl: Name 'com.ubuntu.Upstart" does not exit


sudo initctl restart unit-panel-service

initctl: unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: Connection refused


Please help. Thanks

satimis

[satimis]

Hi all,

Through pain and difficult finally I got the menu bar back by running following commands

sudo aptitude install upstart-sysv
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo reboot


Edit
===
I'll create a new Ubuntu 16.04 VM later. Then install VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.2.iso to see what will happen. I'll come back afterwards.

satimis

[satimis]

Hi all,

Unfortunately the solution mentioned on #11 above couldn't solve similar problem encountered on Ubuntu 16.04, recently installed, menu bar found missed after booting up.

Steps performed:
After having run the commands mentioned, on reboot it drops to text mode. I have spent 1~2 hours without a solution including;

Edit /etc/default/grub
Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”” to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”3”
sudo update-grub

After reboot it still drop to command prompt (text mode)

Please help. Thanks

Regards
satimis