Ubuntu 11.10 won't boot anymore

Asked by Ted Busto

INTRO: I will break my question in to sections to allow both a lot of detail and as much read-ability as possible.

IMPATIENT? skip to "Problem in a nut shell"

SECTIONS
Background
Current set-up
Leading up to the problem
The Problem
What I have tried
Problem in a nut shell

BACKGROUND: I began using Ubuntu about a year ago, I gained a little bit of knowledge around terminal and some little fixes however I still lack a lot of knowledge that I might should have, for instance I have no idea how to work with .sh files. Please forgive me if I lack the terminology to express aspects of Ubuntu correctly.

CURRENT SET UP: I have a duel boot Gateway Desktop with 8gb of memory and 1TB hard drive, 150 Gb of that having been broken off on a ext4 partition for my Ubuntu. I use a GRUB loader to dual boot both Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7.

LEADING UP TO THE PROBLEM: I had been working on repairing my father's Windows laptop just before I could not enter Ubuntu. I had recovered information from his Hard Drive using Photo rec. Photo rec pulled 117 GB of information and nearly completely filled my 150 GB for Ubuntu. When I finished recovering information I was working on a few other little things when I noticed that it was claiming that the disk was full (I think this will be important later). I rebooted started using windows for a few days and when I came back to Ubuntu the problem started. On of the last messages I got from Ubuntu was that it had an error and that it could not create a report.

THE PROBLEM: When I start the computer the grub menu comes up, when I select Ubuntu 11.10 it lists a few text messages. Then just stops. I have tried it over and over and I will not load Ubuntu. Windows loads fine but it will not go.

WHAT I HAVE TRIED: I loaded into the Ubuntu Recovery Environment attempted all the options: check file system, update grub, free up some space, exc. whenever I go to continue boot it gives me a few more messages then stops again, this time I can type but nothing happens. One of the interesting messages is something about error reporting failing. Next I booted to a live-USB and ran "Boot-Repair" which I downloaded. It ran through some fixes and informed me that my disk was full an that could be my problem. It opens a file manager window and tells me to transfer information off, it won't let me. So now I go and try to free up some space any way I can. However, When I try to remove information using a live-usb it tells me I do not have permission to do anything, when I use the terminal in Ubuntu Recovery Console it tells me that the Disk is Read-Only so I can't do anything.

PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL: Don't know a whole lot. Can't Boot into Ubuntu 11.10. "Boot-Repair" told me that my disk is full. Can't use Live-USB to delete info, can't use Ubuntu recovery console to delete info. Tried everything of which I can think.

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-ati Edit question
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Ted Busto
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

What GPU do you use?

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#2

yea... my CPU is a i3-540 and my GPU is an ATI 4860HD which was upgraded after I installed Ubuntu, but worked for 2 weeks before Ubuntu crashed.

One Message that Ubuntu does give me: Ubuntu can't use GPU for (something).

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Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131) said :
#3

Use a LiveCD to remove some stuff from your disk. If there's not enough space for swap or /tmp, trying to do it from within the full filesystem might be difficult.

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#4

Is a Live CD any different than a Live USB? I did try and remove all sorts of files with my live USB but I did not have permissions to do anything. I also ran the disk cleanup from the recovery console.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#5

Its the same difference, the live USB uses the same ISO as the CD.

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#6

yea, so Live USB will not allow me to change any files; it says I do not have permission to change the files.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#7

It will if you run:

gksudo nautilus

You can do as you please then.

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#8

Space does not seem to be my problem then.

I freed 9 Gb of space and Ubuntu still wouldn't boot, then I ran boot-repair again and it spit out this log. http://paste.ubuntu.com/810422/

hope that helps

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#9

If you boot an older kernel, is it ok?

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#10

I could not boot to any of my old Kernels (I have 3).

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#11

alright I think I see where this is going so lets try another way. I recovered 117 gb of information off my fathers windows laptop just before Ubuntu died. That is all I need to get off before a wipe and reinstall. When I loaded up a live USB it only read as 70 GB (some information it unreadable) does that mean it is gone and I should run photorec again or can I get it off of there?

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Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#12

Alright so I combined what actionparsnip taught me earlier with what I just said and I think I have it figured out. when I look at the properties of the recovery folder in a root access file explorer windows ?terminology? I pulls up the nearly the correct file size. I am moving that over to my external. HDD and I will be recovering this afternoon if all goes well I will close out my question tomorrow.

Revision history for this message
Ted Busto (mmarbut) said :
#13

that fixed it.