Ubuntu
openoffice.org package

Computer disconnected during updates, now it won't boot up.

Asked by Arlene

I was downloading and installing the newest updates, packages, etc. today, April 30 and my laptop computer, which was connected to an external monitor. I needed to change locations and I unplugged the laptop from the monitor- this caused the laptop to turn off - or go into a hibernation mode. The update process still had about 30 minutes more to process.

I used the manual button to turn it on and the recovery mode appeared, I selected to reboot, it processed a few lines of information but just sat there for an hour.

I turned it off again, tried to reboot in recovery mode but no luck.

The screen is black except now I get a message at the top that says Kernal Panic.

I noticed while in that last mode the two lights at the top of the keyboard (the house and the padlock) were continually blinking.

I tried using the escape, Alt, & control keys to get out of there or to turn off safely. I also hit enter and tried the directional arrows to maneuver, nothing happens. I finally turned it off and decided to access help on another computer.

I am totally stuck, have no idea how to troubleshoot this problem. I hope I didn't screw it up entirely. I really need to use my laptop.

Suggestions for how to get it going again would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu openoffice.org Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
James Cuzella
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Best James Cuzella (trinitronx) said : 		#1

First, attempt to boot into recovery mode. I'd first try this to get a terminal on the machine.

If you can get a terminal, try manually updating again via apt.

# First run:
sudo apt-get update

# And then:
sudo apt-get upgrade

If you cannot get a working terminal, or you keep getting kernel panics, try booting a previous kernel at the GRUB boot menu.
If this still does not work, then you need to boot into a Ubuntu LiveCD and attempt some recovery using it.

If you need instructions for the LiveCD method, please see this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=157250
If you go this route, I'd suggest using the latest Ubuntu LiveCD rather than Knoppix if it works.

For this method, the steps are:
1) boot LiveCD
2) mount your root hard drive in read/write mode
3) chroot into your harddrive (run "chroot /media/hda1" replacing /media/hda1 with your hard drive's mount point)
3.1) If you have any other custom mounts (ie: you mount "/boot" from a separate partition, then you should mount any important ones now)
4) Use apt-get to perform the upgrade again using the commands I mentioned above.

Revision history for this message
Arlene (aahfeather) said : 		#2

Thanks TrinitronX, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
Arlene (aahfeather) said : 		#3

Thanks for the accurate and valuable steps for getting the computer up and running again. The one thing that the process didn't recover was the Internet settings. Do you have a suggestion on how to reconnect to the internet?