Different approach to repair problem .. . hiring a technician?

[rudy5]

Hi TheFu, thanks for your reply, and patience --- I have only limited pockets of time to devote to this.<br><br>I cannot see anything about forum code tags (#) on my screen here.<br><br>Two parts: lsblk -f, and sudo parted -l. I shall deal with each in separate replies. The lsblk -f discussion:<br><br>From terminal, I ran lsblk -f on the 64gb external drive, which responded:<br>sdb1 = vfat<br><br>I switched back to the GUI file manager, selected the 64gb drive (which was visible under the manufacturer's designation, LEXAR 64GB. I launched the formatting utility, selected quick format to ext4, &amp; started formatting. After a few moments, the utility displayed the info that my re-named flash drive (Nv_5_24) was now formatted for ext4.<br><br>From terminal, I ran the following command:<br>$ sudo cp -prv /home/* /media/Nv_5_24/home<br>The terminal display indicated that files were indeed being copied over; but then a series of lines ended with the message "no space left on device".<br><br>When next I tried to use the GUI, and the ls command from terminal, I was not able to see the 64gb drive at all.<br><br>I repeated the same sequence, with a second 64gb flash drive, which I named Nv_6_24. Running the cp command as above, yielded the same set of error messages ("no space left on device"). <br><br>At this point, everything goes black. By which, I mean, my display. I powered down / up, This yielded the line at the top left:<br><br>UBUNTU: Clean, 496642/6553600 files, 25954163/26208768 blocks<br><br>I next booted from the Ubuntu 22.04 install drive I had prepared, and launched the file manager. It was not able to detect any files in the home drive. (But which home drive was it looking, the clean one on the flash drive, or my hard drive? Stay tooned!)<br><br>Before I proceed to the listed command &amp;c., activated Dell's UEFI boot screen, and selected Ubuntu/Linux 4.15.0-173-generic (recovery mode). This resulted in the UBUNTU: Clean &amp;c. message &amp; screen.<br><br>Still from the Recovery menu, I selected, one after the other, three boot sequences: <br>clean - returned the error messages I've been getting from running, apt-get fix, clean, &amp;c., previously: unmet dependencies, and the advice (previously and repeatedly attempted) to run fix-broken-dependencies.<br>dpkg - returned "Not enough free disk space."<br>grub - not sure what it did, no error messages at least so I'm guessing that simply executed the boot sequence; because the result (black screen) was the same.<br>I have reached my limit today, &amp; will return tomorrow to tell the story of the listed command. I hope in the meantime I can learn how to post stuff in those white boxes you all seem to be using.<br><br><br>

[rudy5]

(Don't understand what just happened there. Try again .. .)

Hi TheFu, thanks for your reply, and patience --- I have only limited pockets of time to devote to this.

I cannot see anything about forum code tags (#) on my screen here.

Two parts: lsblk -f, and sudo parted -l. I shall deal with each in separate replies. The lsblk -f discussion:

From terminal, I ran lsblk -f on the 64gb external drive, which responded:
sdb1 = vfat

I switched back to the GUI file manager, selected the 64gb drive (which was visible under the manufacturer's designation, LEXAR 64GB. I launched the formatting utility, selected quick format to ext4, & started formatting. After a few moments, the utility displayed the info that my re-named flash drive (Nv_5_24) was now formatted for ext4.

From terminal, I ran the following command:
$ sudo cp -prv /home/* /media/Nv_5_24/home
The terminal display indicated that files were indeed being copied over; but then a series of lines ended with the message "no space left on device".

When next I tried to use the GUI, and the ls command from terminal, I was not able to see the 64gb drive at all.

I repeated the same sequence, with a second 64gb flash drive, which I named Nv_6_24. Running the cp command as above, yielded the same set of error messages ("no space left on device").

At this point, everything goes black. By which, I mean, my display. I powered down / up, This yielded the line at the top left:

UBUNTU: Clean, 496642/6553600 files, 25954163/26208768 blocks

I next booted from the Ubuntu 22.04 install drive I had prepared, and launched the file manager. It was not able to detect any files in the home drive. (But which home drive was it looking, the clean one on the flash drive, or my hard drive? Stay tooned!)

Before I proceed to the listed command &c., activated Dell's UEFI boot screen, and selected Ubuntu/Linux 4.15.0-173-generic (recovery mode). This resulted in the UBUNTU: Clean &c. message & screen.

Still from the Recovery menu, I selected, one after the other, three boot sequences:
clean - returned the error messages I've been getting from running, apt-get fix, clean, &c., previously: unmet dependencies, and the advice (previously and repeatedly attempted) to run fix-broken-dependencies.
dpkg - returned "Not enough free disk space."
grub - not sure what it did, no error messages at least so I'm guessing that simply executed the boot sequence; because the result (black screen) was the same.
I have reached my limit today, & will return tomorrow to tell the story of the listed command. I hope in the meantime I can learn how to post stuff in those white boxes you all seem to be using.

[oldfred]

Screen shots of code tags.
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....8#post12776168

if you get no space left on drive, then you have more data than the size of the partition you are copying into.
Click on your flash drive to mount it & the partition you are copying from if not mounted & run this;
If not mounted it will not show use:
lsblk -e 7 -o name,fstype,size,fsused,label,UUID,mountpoint

[rudy5]

I'm back --- dealing with not just this, but also a kidney stone, which is causing me to miss some work / time.

Thanks for the tip about

 code tags

, I'll use these the next time I post here.

Meanwhile, I have encountered ANOTHER problem with my computer / setup: my computer won't power down at all now. ?!?

The computer has been running since I booked off sick on the 7th of November. The power button has no effect.

I can unplug the power source, but then there's the battery. What's a good way to deal with this --- unplug, let the battery run down, re-connect to power & insert my boot drive? (Which is what I've been working on since the boot-up failed on November 6.)

A clarification on the backup medium. "if you get no space left on drive, then you have more data than the size of the partition you are copying into," you say; but here's the thing. I have no more than 26gb of data on this drive that I'm trying to copy --- probably closer to 16gb, after I removed three instances of the Ubuntu 22.04 ISO that I'd placed in the trash (which the cp command was apparently also trying to copy onto my storage medium).

The data could not be copied onto the storage drive ("not enough free disk space") whether I was trying to copy onto a 32gb drive, or a 64gb drive. I do have a 2tb drive now, for what it's worth. Wonder if I'll ever be able to use it on this laptop. The problem isn't the capacity of the media, but something else.

Here's another queer thing about this. I haven't mentioned the fact that I bought this laptop from Dell WITH UBUNTU 16.04 PRE-INSTALLED. Now, this model doesn't even show up on the Canonical site as a supported model. Hundreds and hundreds of Dell models supported, yes, but not the one I purchased with Ubuntu already installed. Could there be a hardware problem (too)?

[rudy5]

After some trial and error, I was able to get the on-off switch to respond (!).

After even more trial and error, I was able to launch the flash drive with Ubuntu 22.04, by selecting a boot-up option I'd never selected (or even seen?) before: UEFI: Generic Flash Disk 8.07, Partiion 2. Ubuntu 22.04 loaded. From terminal, I entered

sudo parted l

and this is what I got:

Model: ATA SK hynix SC380 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 128gb
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk flags:

Number    Start    End    Size    File system    Name            Flags
1    1049kB    525MB    524MB    fat32    EFI system partion    boot,esp
2     525MB    3747MB    3221MB    fat32    Basic data partition        msftdata
3    3747MB    111GB    107GB    ext4
4    111GB    128GB    16.9GB    linux-swap(v1)                         swap

Model: Generic Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk  /dev/sdb: 17.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number    Start    End    Size    File system    Name    Flags
1    32.8kB    5032MB    5032MB                   ISO9660    hidden, msftdata
2    5032MB    5037MB    5155kB                  Appended2    boot, esp
3    5037MB    5038MB      307kB                  Gap1           hidden, msftdata

I *know* there's something there. The purple Ubuntu load screen with the row of bubbles loads at start-up, and re-appears when I shut down.

[yancek]

You mentioned in several of your previous posts that you had an were using to try to copy data to 64GB flash drives. Where are they? The parted output you posted shows a 17.7GB drive and a 128GB drive. Is the 128GB drive the one you are booting from? Are you using different drives now to copy to? parted shows the partitions and their sizes but it does not show data. You can mount each partition and then run df -h to see how much data is there, what % of the partition is used. If you have other drives you are trying to copy to you haven't posted any information on them.

[TheFu]

A week ago, I asked for 2 commands to be run. Didn't think that was hard at all to run them and copy/paste the output back here. Guess it is.
All the storage devices should be at least connected to the PC, if not mounted (which would be better).

[rudy5]

Hi, yancek.

The 64gb flash drives I was unsuccessfully trying to copy my data onto are sitting on my actual, legacy molecule-format desktop here. They are not at the moment plugged into either of the two USB drives on the laptop.

I booted from an Ubuntu 22.04 install disk, stored on a 16gb flash drive. (I earlier described this Ubuntu 22.04 install disk as being a 32gb drive, but this was incorrect.) It was from this flash drive / Ubuntu 22.04 instance that I ran parted -l from.

Can you help me parse the information returned? I'm guessing the disk it found at sda is my 128gb hard drive. Can you tell me what information lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 are telling me?

Disk /dev/sdb would appear to be that flash drive.

Perhaps my next move in this diagnostic adventure would be to buy a USB hub, and connect all these devices to the laptop?

[rudy5]

Hi TheFu,

Sorry I was late with my homework. Hard to do from a hospital bed : / . I did run the commands suggested, and posted the results in this thread, admittedly not right away. And yes, it *has* been hard.

This saga began (in 2022!) with my inability to either update or upgrade my installation of 18.04. None of the fixes suggested by the error messages (apt-get update, upgrade, fix, clean, whatever, &c., &c.) were effective; all generated half a dozen to a dozen and a half error messages about broken depencies &c. At that point I decided to try to copy my data to a flash drive, install a fresh OS, copy my home data back over, & proceed. <--- Note that I've done this before, more than once; & as recently as 2022, on this Dell Optiplex / Ubuntu 22.04 install I'm working from as we speak. I've migrated several Linux installs since I began using Red Hat Fedora in 2005; I've upgraded or migrated from Ubuntu 6, to 8, to 10, to 12, to 14, to 16, and to 18, sometimes smoothly on the same machine, other times migrating my data to a new computer. (Yes, it's true, I'm stupider than I've ever been. But who isn't?)

I could not however copy any folders onto an external drive. Correction: the folders, yes, but none of the contents. This was the case whether I was working from terminal (with -r) or the GUI. I could copy individual files, but not folders; and so, I could'nt copy my Thunderbird profile, with my e-mail history. Nor could I copy my home folder.

My last resort was going to be to individually drag over the files I really, really, really needed. But that's when I lost access to my hard drive & data.

What does the fact that grub (I guess) displays the 18.04 launch screen, but then is unable to get past that to the actual OS? That purple screen isn't in the BIOS, is it? It's on the hard drive, right?

[briandu2]

Just as a note: You state that you (@rudy5) have a Dell xps failure. Be aware that you may still have challenges since you may require dell drivers. Not helpful I know, but it may become an issue, so don't rush to format anything!

Having had a similar problem before (enough times), I booted on a Ventoy USB, where I placed the Ubuntu version (22.04 in your case?) and booted up from there. Then reinstalled the OS BUT.......did not reformat the drives (so you do not lose your data!)

Alternatively, after Ventoy USB/Ubuntu boot up, then you can copy the data (usually the biggest drive/partition) to another usb based drive.
You CAN mount the drives (once you booted up) from USB to lo examine where your home directory is (then you know which partition it is). Use GParted and you can see the partitions on your drive so you can know which partition has your home.
Assume GParted states /dev/sda (with dev/sda1 and dev/sda2).
Then, open a terminal and do the following:
mkdir qaz
cd qaz
sudo mount /dev/sda2 . (note the "." and the assumption is /dev/sda2 is the drive with your data. [if not: then press cd~ and repeat the process with zaq instead
In either case above, you will be able to see your home directory (BTW qaz or zaq are arbitrary names)
Once you haver mounted the drive above, you open the file manager to go directory qaz and see if your home folder is there. (Rinse and repeat as zaq etc. as necessary)

I suggest that when you get to gparted then post the sizes of the partitions i.e. /dev/sda1. /dev/sda2......./dev,sdb1, /dev/sdb2...... That will certainly help.
PLUS you have verified that /devsda2 is your home directory (or whichever it is -assuming you did the terminal work as described)

Whatever you do - do not format a partition, otherwise game over for you.
Lastly, you are using linux, it is very rarely that you cannot get out of the hole. Just steady nerves!! Especially when you a newbie!!! I remember my time sweating bullets!