[BLABBING]
So was very proud of myself, 20 years fucking around with windows both professionally and personal use, finally took the plunge into Linux and i freaking love it! After "Bash-ing" like a madman and at end of the 2nd day, got everything running smooth, even tested some Linux games from steam, had Kodi set up.. the lot right. So I wake up and think to myself "Right, everything looks stable, so lets do your first post on the forums and get the wee niggly problems posted up and see if anyone can help me solve them." e.g. my laptop has a backlit keyboard and wasnt working. Hopefully my next post
[ISSUE]
I decided to install CPU-Z (I mean i-nex)from a .deb file to get more system info for making my first post, but instead my distribution has ceased to function(Go figure) and will not go further than the Load screen -
... It was advised by the "new to the forum" recommendations @ linux.org.
[WHAT IVE TRIED]
using the GRUB [recovery] option to UPDATE GRUB, FILESYSTEM CHECK, FILESYSTEM REPAIR.
[FOUND] - some RED and YELLOW flags on the REPAIR/CHECK which showed Dependency issues and swapfile.swap errors
[WHAT I THINK]
I was prompted when installing CPU-Z (I mean i-nex) that there were missing dependencies and do I want to download & installed them, I did. Now the logs/recovery module are pointing to those dependencies(Python3 I think). As to the purpose or working order of the swapfile, I am uncertain. I think if there is a way or rolling back the changes then hell yeah, but from just browsing the forums its not that easy right? haha
As always, any ideas and advice is appreciated. I'd post up the bash logs or install logs but i dont know where to find them
[SYSTEM SPECS]
OS: ubuntu MATE 17.10
SONY VAIO Flip 15 Touch Screen
Intel i5 4200U
Intel HD Graphics 4400
8GB DDR3 SODIMM
1920*1080 Screen
WD Black 1Tb Hybrid Drive 7200RPM
Hi Max, and welcome to the forums! I can't seem to find a .deb file for CPU-Z (which seems to be a Windows program). If you can direct me to what you downloaded, I may try to install Ubuntu Mate to a laptop and see if I can duplicate your problem. That often helps me to understand the situation better and can help me find a fix more directly.
It sounds like you had a great start going until this issue came up. But I can't quite see how a program dependency issue would stop the system from booting (only stop the program in question from running). I'm also concerned about your swapfile errors... that seems unusual. In fact, with 8 GB of RAM, it should be rare for you to even use swap space.
There is a way to "roll back" changes... but you need to have that capability installed beforehand, and it doesn't come pre-installed with Ubuntu. Check out @wizardfromoz's excellent tutorial about the Timeshift program here. You may well want to install this program and use it when you get everything going again.
If I understand right... you get the GRUB menu screen (where you selected recovery). If so, then it seems that GRUB itself is not broken, which happens sometimes. I just spotted an old YouTube video that shows something in that recovery mode... something like "dpkg... repair broken packages".... do you have that? And if you do, try running it to see if it will help.
Back again. Underestimated time to discharge chores, regrets if people are catching zzz's.
With that screenshot above:
Debian-based Distros (Ubuntu, Linux Mint and the like) ship with a package manager called Synaptic or SPM. If Synaptic is not in your Menu (usually under System-Administration), then you can install it from your Software Centre, or at Terminal, with
Code:
sudo apt install synaptic
OR
sudo apt-get -y install synaptic
At the bottom of the Synaptic Window above, you can see a line
"3 packages listed, 1868 installed, 0 broken, 0 to install/upgrade, 0 to remove".
What it showed prior to my performing a search on 4 packages, was "58,088 packages listed".
So you can see that we have many many more packages (and similarly with applications and utilities) available to us, through our Distro's Repositories (Repos) than we are likely to make use of.
By the same token, if we are seeking to add software - check the Repos first, it may be there and then you can simply install it without having to go to The Net for a .deb .
Again, the screenshot shows my search on the following:
hardinfo
inxi
lshw and
psensor
These are only a small number of system monitoring and system specification tools available "in-house" on your Ubuntu. I'll illustrate a little on each.
I'll take them with inxi 1st. You can see the options in Terminal, by typing and entering
Code:
man inxi
I use
Code:
inxi -Fxs
inxi
Is installed. CLI (command line interface)-based, ie Terminal.
Here's my output, click the Spoiler. The Spoiler has a toggle so click again to close.
Note the warning at start and finish to use sudo, that is
Code:
sudo lshw
... and no I have not compared the difference with or without sudo so don't ask. Try it yourself?
psensor
psensor is authored by Jean-Philippe Orsini, a Frenchman, whom goes by the handle of jeanfi at some forums, and JeanFi at others.
In the Repos, but not installed, deals mostly in temperatures, here's a pic of mine:
GUI-based, and in the Menu under Psensor, there are Preferences, and Sensor Preferences. Under Preferences, you can change from Celsius to Fahrenheit, mine shown are in Celsius.
When I came back from shopping, I tracked down another, namely
sysinfo
GUI-based, in the Repos, but was not installed.
Here's mine
So in summary, try "in-house" first to find things, and of course, that begs the question:
"How am I supposed to find the frickin' thing when I don't know fancy names like hardinfo, inxi, lshw, psensor and sysinfo?"
Fair question.
Go to Synaptic, press Search and enter "system information" ... you'll find all but psensor there.
Type in "temperature", hey presto, you've found psensor and one called hddtemp.
...And just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water ...
I hadn't forgotten perhaps your most pressing issue, which is a buggered Aardvark MATE.
I concur with all that Stan (@atanere ) said, in #2, as I often do
Simplest, if you have not had the time to generate a whole lot of personal data that is housed in the root partition on which you have installed 17.10 - might be a simple reinstall. You said it was working fine prior to the development with i-nex's introduction sending it pear-shaped, and although I agree with Stan that that in itself is unlikely the cause of the demise, it is not impossible.
There is also a point that Stan has not covered yet, but well might have had I not just put in my two cents. That is, that there is a documented bug in the Aardvarks, that is, MATE and GNOME (which is replacing Unity).
I was not aware of it until Stan brought it to our attention (kudos) here.
... where input was still being generated as recently as 38 minutes ago at time of writing.
It seems to be most affecting certain brands of computer eg Lenovo. some Acers, &c, with an obstruction to being able to change your BIOS and save changes. I have no idea if there is any association between the Bug and your dilemma.
I have both MATE and GNOME on this laptop, but they are both Betas.
What I will do is as follows:
Generate a Timeshift snapshot on my Peppermint 8 distro, which is currently the default at the top of my Grub Menu (you'll see why, later)
Then Timeshift snap this 17.10 MATE
Blow away this 17.10 MATE
Restore it from Timeshift, this will regenerate Grub and should place this at the top of my Leaderboard (The Leaderboard Shuffle, featured elsewhere)
When Aardvark is in charge, I will go into my BIOS and change a few settings and see if they save, or not
Once that is established, ... the plan is open-ended from there
I had gotten through steps 1 - 3 of the above I planned, and then thought I may as well replace my MATE beta and my GNOME beta with the official releases, so I could better duplicate your circumstances (similar to Stan's methodology )
When I went here, to download MATE - https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/ - I noted as per the screenshot below, hope it is clear or check the link
Screenshot 1 - Bug Warning, Artful Aardvark
So, I might be best to put this on hold while you digest the implications?
If you go with the option to install 16.04 (currently).3 - 'Xenial Xerus', you have support from Canonical/Ubuntu until April 2021, cf (confer with, compare to) 'Artful Aardvark' July this year, 2018. Maybe not so many "whistles and bells", and you would have some more downloads to do, to update.
Your call, your computer.
No particular probs for me, if I continue with my plan, because I cannot have any serious downtime, with 65-70 Linux onboard to run. Other than if the Power company goes on the fritz, or blackouts locally, and then I could still jump in the car with the lappie (for about 2 hours) and go down the local Macca's (Golden Arches) buy a coffee and wifi. (no banking)
Sleep on it if you like, let us know. I'll keep working on Timeshift and annoying people.
I didn't get the i-nex app to crash my Ubuntu Mate.... but will try again later if I can. The .deb file was probably not the best way to install it anyway. They give install instructions for using a PPA (Personal Package Archive)... but that failed to install for me. I think their package (or repository) is broken, and maybe that's what led you to getting something corrupted.
That Wizard fella sure gave you a boatload of good info above though! All of the info that you want to get from i-nex is already available to you from built-in Linux tools, or from other well-known apps from the standard repositories.
And Wizard is also probably right in that if you are not too committed yet to this install of Ubuntu Mate, you might want to consider re-installing it (or another variant if your Sony Vaio shows up in the buglist for Ubuntu 17.10). This is sometimes just the easiest way to get clear of a problem, but it is also a good reminder of the importance of making backups or getting friendly with that Timeshift program.
Gotta run for now... just a few more days to work and I'll get a break.
... It was advised by the "new to the forum" recommendations @ linux.org.
