[Novalug] HELP (panic attack)

greg pryzby greg@pryzby.org
Sat Jun 29 15:28:04 EDT 2013


I am not sure how you installed. It is probably a complicated solution.

You will need to edit
   /etc/fstab (comment out lines for Ubuntu 10)
   /etc/grub/* (not sure the version of grub so might be menu.lst)

You want to be CAREFUL so reboot works.

Hopefully default boot is to latest (12?) of Ubuntu, if so
   /etc/fstab and comment out Ubuntu 10 partitions (if they are mounted)

Look at what partitions are set and compare to /etc/fstab
   sudo fdisk -l

IF you do NOT have /home as a separate partition, you can use one of the
Ubuntu 10 partitions for home!

   mount /dev/<partition-goes-here> /mnt
   cd /mnt
   ls (make sure it is the partition you want to blow away)
   df -h . (shows size of partition)
   sudo rm -rf * (erases stuff)
   sudo cp -p /home . (copy and keep perms correct)
   ls -l (look at owner and perms)
   cd /mnt/<user-name-here>
   ls -l (look at owner and perms)
If all is good, things will be a little tricky now
Reboot into single user mode (hopefully you know how, slightly different
depending on grub; add S to end of kernel line)
In single user, you are automatically logged in as root from a terminal
   cd /home
   rm -rf * (Make sure you have a backup and the cp above worked!!!!)
   vi /etc/fstab
      <add the mount point from above to /etc/fstab for home>
   reboot

you should NOW be in GUI w/ the home partition correct and your data there.
You also freed the disk in / from the Ubuntu 12 and are using the 10 disk

This is NOT for the novice and you can BREAK you system and lose your data.

I *thinK* it is correct, but if not, I do NOT except responsibility.

The directions are from memory.

Hopefully there is someone who will review and comment.





On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Nino Pereira <ninorpereira@gmail.com>wrote:

> Now, one follow-up question: how do I uninstall the old Ubuntu 10,
> which is no longer needed (if it ever was..).
>
> Nino
>
> On 6/29/13, Nino Pereira <ninorpereira@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Greg,
> >
> > thank you thank  you thank you, this magic invocation worked!
> >
> > I did not know bout the 'reinstall' option; that picked up a whole bunch
> of
> > packages that I had trouble getting earlier, with attempts at installing
> > them
> > individually.
> >
> > 'startx' then proceeded to tell me about a problem I had introduced in
> > /etc/X11/xorg.conf: I had put in comments about what I was trying to do,
> > like 'this does not work as advertised, what now?', but I had
> > forgotten to put a # in front.
> > When I fixed that X came right up.
> >
> > I'm happy again.
> >
> > The list came through: thank you.
> >
> > Nino
> >
> > On 6/29/13, greg pryzby <greg@pryzby.org> wrote:
> >> How do you get into recovery mode? That will help me make suggestions.
> >>
> >> If it is without a cd/dvd/thumb drive, when you log in, what happens if
> >> you
> >> say
> >>    startx
> >> ?
> >>
> >> sudo apt-get update
> >> sudo apt-get upgrade
> >>
> >> What happens if you boot and DON't go to recovery mode? If it is just
> >> that
> >> X doesn't start, try
> >>    startx
> >> and report errors
> >>
> >> You can try
> >>    sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 11:27 AM, Nino Pereira
> >> <ninorpereira@gmail.com>wrote:
> >>
> >>> List,
> >>>
> >>> in trying to repair what eems to be a problem in Ubuntu 12.04, a
> >>> missing video driver perhaps or something else, i lost X. I can boot
> >>> in recovery mode and get a terminal, but nothing else.
> >>>
> >>> To get to this point I've followed seemingly reasonable suggestions
> >>> from seemingly knowledgeable comments on various seemingly
> >>> authoritative forums on the web, with these seemingly disastrous
> >>> results.
> >>>
> >>> There may well be an easy fix to get to the normal appearance, but I
> >>> have no idea what this might be. How do you go from 'recovery mode' to
> >>> normal, and then back again when you don't get X (by which I mean the
> >>> normal appearance, where you can get icons and an x-terminal, stuff
> >>> like that).
> >>>
> >>> Since I didn't know what to do, and I had loaned my install disk to a
> >>> colleague, I installed
> >>> Ubuntu 10 from my previous install disk. This worked fine, so now I
> >>> have two Ubuntus
> >>> next to each other, each with about half the disk space. So far so
> >>> good. Except, for some reason I have the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 10,
> >>> while my system has a 64-bit processor. This is not good because it
> >>> gives all kinds of conflicts that I don't know how to resolve.
> >>>
> >>> Now knowing what to do I thought to reinstall. But, I first want to
> >>> save the files in /home
> >>> (which, admittedly, I should have done before I started this
> >>> exercise). I can copy some of them on a USB stick, but not all: I'd
> >>> like to copy them to an external disk which I can't
> >>> seem to connect (sudo mount /dev/sdd /mnt or something similar doesn't
> >>> work because there's a problem with the file system).
> >>>
> >>> Any suggestions? The best would be a magic, failsafe command that gets
> >>> 'X' back. When I google for exactly this sentence gives seemingly
> >>> useful suggestions, but then again those got me into trouble
> >>> earlier....
> >>>
> >>> hank you,
> >>>
> >>> Nino
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Novalug mailing list
> >>> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
> >>> http://calypso.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/novalug
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
> >> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gpryzby
> >>
> >> TWTR: gpryzby
> >> WEB:  http://www.MakeRoomForArt.com/
> >> BLOG: http://www.ryqyrmedia.com/ (son's)
> >>
> >
>



-- 
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gpryzby

TWTR: gpryzby
WEB:  http://www.MakeRoomForArt.com/
BLOG: http://www.ryqyrmedia.com/ (son's)
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