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Where should I go to get help from experienced people on very specific issues that I can't find a solution for? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Right now I'm stuck in a boot issue on Elementary OS and I have no access to any installation medium :(

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You are right, it doesn't happen with any other O/S except iOS where you have to pay people/Apple to fix it (or reset the OS) or Windows where the stock response is "reinstall the O/S"

How valuable is the data on your laptop? Did you have it backed up? If so, stop worrying and just take the Windows approach. If not... Find someone local to you who is able to fix it (good luck with that...)

As for the rest - you come over as someone who expects someone else to fix your shit for free with no information other than "waaaa it's stopped working"

This may help How to as Smart Questions

Fwiw, based on your brief description of symptoms, I would say your boot device file system is broken somehow. To fix you need to mount it on another booted OS and fsck it (however if it mounts, copy valuable data off onto other media, then fsck it) . How to do that is left to your powers of Google. Not warranting my response in any way.

Best of luck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You seem very fixed in your opinion that I'm some sort of crybaby. You must remember that there are people that have less knowledge than you have. I installed Linux because of people here suggesting it, with exactly the amount of knowledge you would have if you never bothered with operating systems before, so, none.

There have been problems with it. First I had to fix the system staying black after waking up from sleep. Then the webcam stopped working. Now it doesn't even boot anymore.

expects someone else to fix your shit for free

Actually, not at all. I looked for paid support options as well, but didn't find any that looked reputable.

How valuable is the data on your laptop? Did you have it backed up? If so, stop worrying and just take the Windows approach.

Not extremely, however it's extremely surprising that you would suggest me to use Windows. I'm as unfamiliar with it as Linux.

This may help How to as Smart Questions

Look at my original question. I'm literally trying to find out information like the one you posted in this guide. Thank you for offering that, but there really was no need to be condescending about me together with it, accusing me of being lazy. I tried to figure it out, but I just have no knowledge to even search effectively.

To fix you need to mount it on another booted OS...

Thanks but that was the problem, I'm travelling and don't know where to get another OS to boot to from.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Lemmy might hate this, but ChatGPT has gotten really good at debugging Linux issues if you give it enough text to work with.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

@Azzu Usually googling error message will lead you either to stack exchange(by stack overflow) or distros forum, and if you can't find fix - just ask on both. But you would need to elaborate further on what do you see.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

First up - I know nothing about your specific problem. Let me add some pointers as to why you may be having difficulty...

You need to provide way more detail than a screenshot (which shows nothing really) and "why is it broken?"

What is the hardware, what is the boot device, what is the boot loader (and version), what does the boot loader config look like... There could be any number of things that stop the boot, including a corrupt boot file.

No one is able to diagnose your problem from the information you have provided.

If you are unwilling to grab a USB stick from a retailer, boot a different OS image and try some diags on your original file system you may well find people reluctant to help (for free...)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I have a laptop. Model name Ideapad flex 5 14ALC7. I installed Elementary OS on it. It worked fine for a while. Now it shows the screen when booting and does nothing else. I literally don't know any more.

what is the boot device

I don't know what you mean. It's booting from it's hard disk I guess? Idk what you want to know

what is the boot loader (and version)

Idk what that is, how do I find it out without being able to boot?

There could be any number of things that stop the boot, including a corrupt boot file.

Yes that is what I'm trying to find out. What thing it is. But I have no idea how. And you're just telling me that I'm unwilling for some reason.

No one is able to diagnose your problem from the information you have provided.

How am I supposed to know that? If more information is needed, I can provide that. But how am I supposed to know which information is needed?

If you are unwilling to grab a USB stick from a retailer, boot a different OS image and try some diags on your original file system

How do I do that? How would I even know that is something I have to do? Where can I find a shop that sells a USB stick with a different OS image? I guess I can find a USB stick, yes, but how do I get an OS image on it? As I said, I'm travelling and just want to use my PC. This kind of stuff didn't happen with any other operating system and I just wondered if it's possible to fix it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I’d suggest burning an ISO of Linux (really just about any live Linux) and familiarizing yourself with concepts like mounting filesystems, partitioning, GRUB/U-Boot and the like.

I’d recommend trying the following in this order (easy to most difficult):

  1. Scan your boot device’s (hard drive) filesystems for errors with fsck and repair any errors it finds. If errors were found, reboot and see if the problem has gone away.
  2. Check the boot device’s /boot partition. You’re going to be using any combination of fdisk, parted, lsblkid to figure out which partition is /boot, mount its filesystem, then move on to harder stuff.
  3. “Harder stuff” is going to be finding out if the kernel is botched, and praying that an older one is available and figuring out how to boot from it. If there isn’t an older one, there’s a chance you can search for packages from your distro that include the kernel — I’d try to find an exact filename match and copy it over the existing one but maybe only after backing it up first.

This is where GRUB knowledge comes in handy and unfortunately where my advice ends, because personally I’m inexperienced in this area.

Another option which might be a lot easier (if you know what you’re doing) is reinstalling the OS completely after backing up everything.

Or, if you’re lucky your /home directory was created in its own filesystem in its own partition. Provided you set that up again without destructively destroying/partitioning it while installing the OS again you could very easily get a clean install with all your user-level apps’ preferences, downloads, etc. preserved.

Edit: Taking a look at your GitHub screenshot, my guess is that the three Linux-related lines on the boot screen are different kernel versions. It makes me think there was a botched update to your /boot partition (just because the names are exactly the same) though I could be wrong there.

It’s strange you have a Windows boot option if you don’t have Windows, but it would make sense if the Windows bootloader was there when elementaryOS was installed and the drive hadn’t been completely wiped beforehand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I used the "wipe everything" option when installing elementary. Thanks for your help, but that was my initial problem, I am traveling and don't know how to get a bootable medium here, at home I used my other PC to create it :/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’d look at trying to get into the GRUB shell, assuming that the screen is indeed GRUB. From what I can find online it would be the C key. Are you familiar with CLI commands? It seems like it’s pretty full-featured.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It seems like this is the BIOS boot menu, not grub. Doesn't even seem to get to grub.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I’m kind of wishing I understood UEFI better, but I mainly run Linux on arm64 devices. Are you sure that’s the BIOS/UEFI? To me it seems strange that it would be smart enough to know about the different OSes but I’m probably wrong. 😞 It looks like a customized GRUB to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah it's some kind of Lenovo thing. Went to a repair shop they changed the HDD because the old one was apparently dead and installed Windows because they don't have anything else. I haven't even used Windows ever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does Windows boot? I know it’s not ideal but since you’re unable to boot into a Linux ISO you could consider running the filesystems checks from Windows. I’ve never done something like that but I know tools like Paragon exist. I’m not sure if WSL would be capable of checking them, but that could be another option (I haven’t used Windows in years).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for all the help, really appreciate it. Took it to a repair shop and they replaced the HDD, old one was broken, and installed Windows on it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Ohh, gotcha. You’re welcome!!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

https://elementary.io/support

https://github.com/orgs/elementary/discussions/categories/q-a

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Usually Google the error message. Or find some ElementaryOS forum and ask there. Maybe use their search function first. Other than that you could visit some friend and use their computer to prepare a new intall medium...

If you ask someone (with expertise, on the internet): Don't overly ask to ask. Volunteer all necessary information. Include the exact error message, maybe a log or screenshot. Say what lead to the situation. Give version numbers (if known).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Here isn't a bad place, but you'll need to give a lot more details than "a boot issue".