I usually do all of them before doing continue to boot, just to make sure i cover all the basis.
The most effective appears to be the fsck option for my recoveries.
Its always difficult doing at a distance and with older users who may not read the screen totally or report all the available options or even follow the requests you make such as what is a slash / or \ and in linux it makes a big difference.
Thanks, @callpaul.eu . That is what I meant by “repair & reboot,” in my first post; but in order to use those options, I have to have someone there showing me the screen and then I instruct them what to do with each (no one would know Linux grub). My mother is bedfast and cannot assist me. I was blessed to find a neighbor girl who could assist me with the dpkg repair broken pkgs. But since that did not work, nor did booting to the previous kernel, I just had her select the other Linux OS and booted into it for now. I am so thankful I had the forethought to dual boot this computer before giving it to my mom last year since I knew I would only be able to access it remotely.
Sorry if I miss understand about the boot problem.
But and maybe you already tried this, but at PC power on you can get a boot menu
by hitting the Esc, F12, or F9 keys. It varies by PC manufacture.
This of course this needs to have some one there and may not help anyway with Ventoy.
Yes, thanks Howard @easyt50. No, you did not misunderstand, it’s a difficult issue to resolve remotely.
Thankfully, I was so detailed in my notebook for this computer knowing I was relinquishing it from my home & would not remember all the things you do when you use them daily. I had even written down the command to get into BIOS & Boot menu at the POST splash screen as well as the number of each OS in grub in case I had to switch them around, as I have now.
I could always call the neighor girl back over on the weekend to assist me in booting into the LM live session and then I could use Timeshift to restore to last Friday, before I upgraded the kernel this past weekend.
I am not worried about her files as they are on her cloud drive and she has very few. In fact, I could probably grab them from the other partition while I am in Kubuntu, as I saw it mounted in Nemo.
That would probably be the simplest, but I would need to do the TS selections (not the neighbor girl) so I would probably have to then have her install the RDP app in order to do it remotely and that would require her ability to do so while I watch via video call on her phone. Ahhh, it’s easy for us, but difficult for those without computers, and even then, most kids these days use only cell phones as computers.
I do wish I could fix the LM from within Kubuntu so they would both be working again, but I can think of no way to get rid of that update without Timeshift, and that has to be done from live session.
I am going to get her old laptop up and running with a new cooling pad (it is 12 years old and overheats easily) and that can also be a backup. But in the next couple of months, if she is not back to her old self, I will have to go there myself to handle things so I will fix it all then.
I still do not see the Ventoy USB after adding the line and update-grub.
Advanced options for Ubuntu
Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-35-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-35-generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-13-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-13-generic (recovery mode)
memtest86+
Memory test (memtest86+x64.efi, serial console)
Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia (21.3) (on /dev/sda3)
Advanced options for Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia (21.3) (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-107-generic (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-107-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-106-generic (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-106-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-89-generic (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-89-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-56-generic (on /dev/sda3)
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.15.0-56-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda3)
UEFI Firmware Settings
Maybe it has to be an internal drive or partition?
I do remember learning that you can use CLI to do a one time boot selection after reboot, I just have to find that command in my Linux notebook.
No.
If I leave my external backup drive on and do update-grub it sees it. Same for a flash drive.
It has to be Ventoy. osprober cant see the Ventoy managed files.
What do you see from lsblk
what do you see from osprober
It is there. Just like it is mounted in Kubuntu as Ventoy.
But os-prober?
sudo os-prober
/dev/sda3:Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia (21.3):LinuxMint:linux
That is all it sees. But default grub has it enabled:
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=20
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=FALSE
# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"
# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console
# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
Do I have to reboot for default grub and update-grub to take effect? I thought it was immediate.
osprober is not seeing any OS on that Ventoy drive.
osprober looks at partitions and sees if they have a root filesystem… eg a /boot directory
containing vmlinuz … etc.
It looks like the Ventoy partition hides that somehow… osprober is not seeing any OS
That might be an argument for not using Ventoy… hardly helps at moment.
The only way to boot that Ventoy disk seems to be to point the BIOS at the flash drive, and use Ventoys own grub. Even then, you have to make selections on the Ventoy menu.
No, but consider that I have access to it from Kubuntu, I could just use that mounted USB drive and make one from there. The real issue is, though, even if I boot from that so that I can use Timeshift to restore last week’s snapshot of LM onto the LM partition, I would have to have the RDP app installed to remotely do all of that. Or could I SSH into it and have full control while in the live session. My thinking is I might SSH into the installed OS’s, but a live session? That would not have been set up yet.
As I said last night, I am fearful of rebooting and trusting that my changes to default grub will actually boot back into Kubuntu automatically, and then I would be back to no access if that failed.
I am open to suggestions and I saw on Github for Timeshift that you can actually restore a snapshot from another OS to the non-booting one in Linux. But remember we were also told we could restore a snapshot of LM onto an existing OS and that did not work out for us. So I am doubtful.
I may investigate that article I found on Chainloading a Ventoy USB into Grub. But none of my options will be tried and tested until I at least have my granddaughter over there to help me (she lives near my mom and does all her errands).
I would be prepared to let that run without updates for another 5 years.
What will eventually stop you is you will want some new piece of software and it will not run in your old Linux.
or
maybe web page design will change and your old browser will not handle some sites.
Security is the least of your worries. You are behind a NAT. The only way you could get malware is by downloading bad software yourself, or something in email, and an updated Linux is not going to stop that, it is up to you.
As Neville noted Ubuntu 24.04 is supported until April 2029. “Ubuntu LTS releases receive 5 years of standard security maintenance for all packages in the ‘Main’ repository.” Maybe the notice is about the “Plasma Workspace”.
I am a bit like you about applying updates, so I understand your feelings. I update Linux every time I notice there are some updates available.
I think about the PC at your mother’s house more as a “Monitoring” system. A system not interacting with the internet. Little interaction, very little exposure.
I am not saying don’t do updates, but just wait until you are there. Just my opinion or 2 cents.
Hi Sheila,
I don’t know what’s going on with your PC, but if you are or will be using KDE 6, I upgraded to Manjaro and now have two DEs: X11 and Wayland. Qt is also upgraded to Qt 6
I have a client on linux mint 14, 32 bit version mate.
He has never done an upgrade, never done any form of updates last time we spoke he had forgotten his password thats why he stopped but he reads the newspapers every morning and keeps looking at things about alternative life styles, for a period he was living in a tent in a garden … perhaps that says it all.
But yes older versions work and still run but not sure he does on line banking
