Linux Mint 19.1

Linux Mint
1

I’ve been using Linux Mint 19.1 for a few months with great success.
I downloaded an update from the shield icon and it too seemed to go without a hitch. I closed it in the normal way. Now I can’t get it to boot
I get a black screen with request to enter user name and password, after entering my username the password line won’t let me type anything. Any chance of assistance, Please.

2

Would be easier for us to help if you would provide some photos of your screen during the process you are describing.

3

You might be able to recover your system by using your Mint USB drive and boot from it. Once there use Timeshift to take you back to before the update. Timeshift does work. I used it a couple times and got my system back.

4

Firstly, welcome to our friendly community.

You say that you have been using Mint 19.1 without problems for a few months. During which time, you will have done many updates. You also say that you closed the updates in the normal way, what is your normal way. You should let the updates complete and when the tick appears then just close, are you doing that? Do you reboot afterwards?

You say you can’t get it to reboot and you get a black screen asking for your name and password. If you look at the screen is there a grey box ? it is hard to see. If so all you need to do is just press enter afterwards and that should take you in the desktop login screen where again you enter your password (if you have set it to require one during install).

I would suggest to you that if this doesn’t work that you just shut down completely and then pressing whatever key you need to enter the grub screen, when the booting options come up and then press start Mint 19.1 - if that does not work then press the repair which is the second one down - let this do it’s thing and things should be okay.

If this completes then by all means do the Timeshift to lock it and I would also suggest that from the updates, update to 19.2

If none of these things please come back and if you can prove screen shots and further information, the community will be able help you further

1 Like
5

Firstly, thank you for your rapid response. I’ll try to go through your email in order.

  1. Yes I have been using Mint 19.1, but no this was my first update.

  2. I meant that I closed Mint in the normal way, I let the updates complete, and then carried on using Mint. I didn’t know that I should

    have rebooted after the download. It all looked OK with a few changes for instance the menu at the start looked a bit different but files and

    the main parts looked all right to me.

  3. I get a black screen asking for my username and password,it looks like the terminal, with der - vostro-200 at the top. I put in my user name

    ok but when I try to put in my password nothing appears when I type. I can’t see a grey box. And I did not set a password to open.

4 I don’t know which key to hold down to enter the grub screen, and what to type even if I got there.

  1. I supposed that this update would have been 19.2

However I’ve been trying to remember what was also on the screen after this problem started. The was small rectangle in the middle of the screen

saying [ unable to launch "cinnamon - session - cinnamon " X session… ]

       ["cinnamon - session - cinnamon" not found: falling back to default session ]

I click the little box in the left hand corner with the mouse which has become a large X, this goes to the mint screen which asks for my password which is accepted but reverts to the rectangular box again. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m not most able user and I want to use Linux to get rid of the evil “M” word but I’m struggling. I’m sorry this is a bit long-winded but I want you to have as much information as I can

provide. Thank you for your time and interest.

regards

Derek

6

Hi Derek this is useful.
Did you check the download before installing it and did you install alongside Windows?
Can you still get into windows? If you can then shut down your system and when it starts press the key that brings up your boot menu, this is usually F12, but you may have to check online to find out the one for your hardware. You need to be quick about this but once you get there, press the down arrow to get into Mint, I think it might be the 3rd option you need where it says repair - (I think I said 2nd in my last reply) then let it do it’s thing.

However if you do not have the experience or feel comfortable enough to do this, then just load Windows if you still have it and download Mint 19.2 which is the latest version. After you have done so check the download and then just do a fresh install of it which is the easiest way of doing so of correcting this.

With regards to this

This I have found from experience happens when you’ve accidentally deleted a system dependant file or an update has not completed successfully. You can get out of this by doing a repair, as I have explained above, but to be honest it is very long winded and the best thing to do is just start again.

Oh and don’t worry about things, most of us have made plenty of mistakes when we came across, I did, which is why we now know how to correct them as we’ve learnt from experience.

Hope you get this sorted and if you need further help just come back and ask

7

Sorry for delay in replying.
I reloaded Mint from my original downloaded memory stick and it’s come back(19.1) and it now responds as before but I’ve lost all files and stored emails. I have Linux on a desktop PC, only using Linux so I don’t know about partitions. Thank you for all your interest I shall proceed with the learning curve.I now need to upgrade to Mint 19.2 I suppose.
regards
Derek

8

Sorry you lost your files and I hope they were not too important. I hate to sound like a broken record, but
Backup, backup, backup your files. And be sure that one of the backups is on a different disk.
The good news, upgrading to Mint 19.2 is very easy. Go to the Update Manager and under Edit (I believe) is an option to perform the upgrade.

9

If your emails are IMAP they won’t be lost as they remain with the server. If they are POP3 they stored on your system.
Important files should always be backed up or placed a separate external drive, so you always have them. I do this and don’t use this drive for anything else.
Also always do a back up to an external drive before doing anything and then do a Timeshift on the system. This gives double protection ensure data loss is minimal.
Upgrading to 19.2 is very easy, but remember to do the Timeshift, before doing so. There is no real need to do the upgrade as both are supported as is 19 at the moment.

1 Like