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View Full Version : Help... upgrade to 19.10 almost finished - power outage



bierdo69
October 24th, 2019, 12:12 AM
I was running 19.9 (Disco Dingo) and decided to upgrade to 19.10,
I followed all the options and was going well, I was almost finished and I had a power outage.
On restart it won't fully go into 19.10, it starts (goes through some stuff) and then just stops and stays on a blank screen with a cursor showing "-" at the top left of the screen.

When I try to start it or go into recovery mode, I only get 19.10 options (which I would like to finish upgrading).
As 19.10 won't start, I thought upgrading from my old Ubuntu might work, but I don't know how to access this, to finish the upgrade...
I'm worried after all of this I might lose files on my desktop etc... (yes I should have backed up ...)

Can anyone help me ...

crip720
October 24th, 2019, 01:52 AM
Do you happen to still have the installer USB, any recent one should do?

rbmorse
October 24th, 2019, 03:44 AM
The 19.10 dailies are being posted, so you could grab the latest one of those and make a live install flash media (or DVD) from that.

bierdo69
October 24th, 2019, 04:33 AM
No USB installer as I did it all online ...

Cool I'll look for the 19.10 dailies, what ever they are.
I ALWAYS use Ubuntu and I have for years, I've never had an issue.
So from the dailies can I continue the installation?
I don't want to loose my desktop folders/files and personal etc...

bierdo69
October 24th, 2019, 11:01 AM
By the way, thank you for your help.
I haven't found a solution yet, but thanks.
:-)

westie457
October 24th, 2019, 11:59 AM
This might work.

Boot the system into recovery mode, at the on screen menu select 'Root Prompt'

In here run 'dpkg --configure -a' to fix the not quite installed packages.
This command is optional : 'apt install -f' #not sure if this will work in the root prompt without internet access
Reboot to 'hopefully' normal system, open a terminal and run
sudo apt install -f
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

All being well you should have a usable system.

Impavidus
October 24th, 2019, 04:42 PM
Before you run any other commands at the root shell, you may have to remount the file system in read-write mode:
mount -rw -o remount /

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 01:27 AM
Thanks for the help, westie457 and Impavidus,
I followed all your suggestions and it seemed to help.
After running
mount -rw -o remount /
and
run 'dpkg --configure -a'

It allowed me to login like normal and then up comes:
"Oh no! Something has gone wrong"
...
"Log Out"

So the Ubuntu system still has problems and doesn't want to run,
I can't get into the Terminal to run the Code or maybe there's another solution?
HELP ...

I'll restart it and see if this helps?
And if I can, I'll run the Code in the Terminal ...

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 04:05 AM
Restarting doesn't fix it.
As I'm running two screens, the main screen is blocked by the error code.
The second has the rest of the desktop, so I could right click and run a terminal from desktop? ...

Thanks to help from the two people just before, I was able to copy most of my desktop, just in case ... but if I can, I'd like to do this and keep them as they are, if I can ...

Any suggestions or help?
It fully boots up and my desktop is intact, but I have that error message (that blocks the main screen)
asking me to logout and restart... which I have done MANY times ...
HELP ...

uRock
October 27th, 2019, 04:17 AM
Ctrl+Alt+T will open a terminal window. Ctrl+Alt+F1 will drop you to a non-GUI command line.

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 05:57 AM
I used Ctrl T and tried to run
sudo apt install -f
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

but it told me i had to run
sudo dpkg --configure -a
again
Which I did, but it eventually froze
So I had to try a restart and it then took me into:
"grub rescue>"
What do I do now?

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 06:17 AM
it says on restart:

error: symbol 'grub_file_filters' not found.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

I don't know what to enter ... HELP me please ...

zimbuf
October 27th, 2019, 06:35 AM
At this point, I think it is best to create a new Ubuntu installation medium (if you don't have one already) and reinstall. The following steps should guide you through recovery via graphical means:

Phase 1 - Recovery:



Boot from the USB/CD/DVD.
From there select "Try Ubuntu without installing"
IF YOUR PERSONAL FILES EXCEED WHAT FITS ON A THUMB DRIVE:

Open GParted.
Shrink your existing / partition by about 20 GB (it'll be the biggest ext4 one).
Create a new partition of 20GB as ext4.
Save your changes and once GParted has finished writing the drive, open Nautilus and navigate to "Other Locations". Click on the volume that was your original / to mount it.
Then re-open nautilus and click the volume that is the new 20GB drive.
Go through the drive and copy over any files that you wish to keep to the 20GB share. (Your personal files will be in /home/<your username>)


IF YOUR PERSONAL FILES DO NOT EXCEED WHAT FITS ON A THUMB DRIVE:

Open Nautilus and go to "Other Locations"
Click the largest drive to mount it
Plug in your other USB drive (Ubuntu will auto detect it)
Open a second Nautilus window to open the other USB drive
Go through the drive and copy over and files that you wish to keep to the USB drive (Your personal files will be in /home/<your username>)


Once done, go ahead and select the "power off" option from Ubuntu's toolbar (Ubuntu will take care of unmounting the drives).


Phase 2 - Reinstallation



Boot from the Ubuntu LiveCD/USB/DVD
Select "Install Ubuntu"
IF COPYING DATA FROM THE DISK:

Proceed through installation as usual, but select to manually partition the disks
Delete all partitions except for (Windows partitions, Mac partitions if you have them), the 20GB share, linux swap and your efi partition
Create a 5GB ext4 partition mounted at /boot
Create a new ext4 partition that takes up most of the space. Have it mount as /
Format the linux swap partition
Do not touch the 20GB share
Proceed with installation
On boot of the installed system, open Nautilus
Go to "Other Locations" and select your 20GB share.
Copy stuff over
Alternatively you can modify /etc/fstab to permanently mount the 20GB share in the future if you want. Or, you can download GParted from the repository and delete it altogether (after unmounting via Nautilus)


IF COPYING DATA FROM THUMB DRIVE:

Proceed with installation as normal.
On boot of the installed system, insert your thumb drive
Copy files over

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 06:58 AM
I'll try that if I have to, I would prefer to keep all my files and just do it online rather than having to copy onto and use a USB.
Is there no command I can just enter into "grub rescue>" that will get me out of this situation?
Just looking for an easy solution ...

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 07:06 AM
As I have my computer partitioned, to UBUNTU and a percentage to WINDOWS to for when I have to use it.
So I don't want to lose everything ... and I've been trying for the last few days to find a solution to this ...
I like UBUNTU a lot ... that's why I have been using it for a while now ... as never before have I had a problem ...
HELP

bierdo69
October 27th, 2019, 10:39 AM
Thanks zimbuf,
All sorted now, a bit more complicated than I wanted.
I lost a few, but thankfully not too many files, I should have backups?
If I don't, I don't, oh well ...
Thank you.