Ubuntu 14.04 Hanging on Boot after Failed Package Update

[lennart3]

Oh my...
Sorry for my post ...posting in the wrong thread....

[Harrison_Bolin]

Thanks so much for the help! I'll admit, I don't totally know what to do with those articles, I read through them and they were interesting and gave good tips, even though they don't apply to my specific system. Before the crash everything was working except for fingerprint reader (understandable) and the backlit keyboard (not the screen back-light).

I believe I have it in BIOS boot mode, because it still shows the regular dell Vostro bios screen, When I press the F12 button furing startup (within first 2 seconds) I get to the Dell BIOS screen, with different settings for repai. I don't totally know a lot, coming to Ubuntu (and Linux) only three days ago.

Once i find a flashdrive to put Ubuntu on (I'm downloading 14.04 from my Mac), how do I find the name of the partition I should replace in your suggestion with sdb1? Sorry for my cluelessness, I really appreciate the help.

In response to lennart3: I don't think I have that particular graphics, card, but then again, I was never able to find out. Thanks for the input!

[Harrison_Bolin]

Oh my...
Sorry for my post ...posting in the wrong thread....

Thanks for telling me! Your post really confused me XD

[oldfred]

Run this and any partition with ext4 should have e2fsck run on it.

sudo parted -l

[Harrison_Bolin]

Thanks! I'll run that from the terminal from the Boot USB?

PS: I decided to run the Dell BIOS Diagnostics, and the results are that everything is working fine from a hardware and BIOS standpoint. Don't know if this actually means anything, but I thought I would let you know.

[Harrison_Bolin]

Ok update. I got unetbootin and made a Ubuntu drive from my mac. So far, though, my computer does not recognize it as a boot drive? Is there anything I need to do, or something I'm doing wrong?

[oldfred]

Mac is different, but I would think unetbootin would work. Do not know if there are issues.

This includes persistence so you can save some data.
Fix for making bootable Ubuntu Live USB with persistence using Unetbootin on a Mac
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2174630

[Harrison_Bolin]

Ok so after around 30 tries, I got it to boot with a USB stick. I know I need to do a full fsck, but how? I tried sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sdb1 but it said that it was in use. What should I do?

[Harrison_Bolin]

Finis: It seems my problems have been resolved in the light of a glorious re-install. Thanks for the help! I'll mark this thread solved so it saves confusion

[oldfred]

Glad you managed to figure it out. I do not know much about Macs.

30 tries!! You have perseverance.