Upgrade Blocked

[ubfan1]

Yes, that would do it. So no extra files to cause problems. Lets check the environment variable RESUME. From a terminal (an icon or start one by typing ctrl+alt+t), type echo $RESUME and either nothing or the UUID=748c985b-1fe1-4dac-9dae-b3b8190a8652 should print out. If it doesn't, something is changing it somewhere. Your setup files look ok, so look in your home directory at the hidden files .profile and .bashrc. From the terminal, type grep RESUME .profile .bashrc and see if any matches (expect none). There are other places to look (like .bash_profile) but I'd expect you'd remember if you set them up there. I assume you are running the default shell bash, again, if you changed that, I'd expect you to remember. Unless you had someone else set up the machine?

[CowDoctor]

Thank you, ubfan1. I will work on that. I bought the machine set up from System 76 and it has worked very well for years. I am not savvy with code and have not made any modifications of anything except adding and upgrading programs and apps as needed. echo $RESUME yields nothing. grep RESUME.profile.bashrc yields a white cursor that doesn't go away and when I try to get out it tells me the terminal has a process running. I have waited quite a while. Nothing.
Next?

[ubfan1]

There needs to be a space to separate the files .profile and .bashrc in the grep command. grep RESUME .profile .bashrc

System76 would be pop OS, a derivative of Ubuntu. Not familiar with what the differences are.

[CowDoctor]

Thank you. When I do that I still get the little white rectangle, first blinking then steady. In response to your message, I first tried it with the spaces and it returned no such file or directory, so I tried without the spaces. Not doing that anymore, but still nothing. I've been waiting about 5 minutes and no change.

[ubfan1]

The response should be instantaneous. The expected response is nothing, just another prompt from the terminal. The assumption is you are in your home directory (where you login, or after typing just cd in the terminal), and you are running the bash shell (last entry in the /etc/passwd file for your username should be "/bin/bash").

[CowDoctor]

Ok, I think that is what is happening. For what it is worth, I do seem to be running the bash shell as I get bash prompts, but I can't find anything in /etc/passwd. A dir of etc shows passwd but trying to get there give me "not a directory" or "no such file or directory".

[1fallen]

less '/etc/passwd'

should show it
EDIT: to narrow it down a bit:

less '/etc/passwd'|grep $USER

Good Luck

[CowDoctor]

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-network:x:100:102:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd/netif:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-resolve:x:101:103:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd/resolve:/usr/sbin/nologin

[CowDoctor]

Thank you. What next?

[ubfan1]

That less output was only the first page, so scroll down, we're looking for your username. Alternatively, use a different comand, like cat /etc/passwd which does not scroll, or even grep bash /etc/passwd to search and output just users defaulting to the bash shell at login (other than root).