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So here's what happens:
I updated my system the other day, was prompted for a reboot for the update to complete but was in the middle of working so I delayed it until after I was done. I reboot and it's broken :(.
It appears to boot normally, with the following exceptions:
The purple Ubuntu load screen no longer displays (though it did for the first couple of times I tried to get in). I hear the login prompt sound, but no login prompt appears. Nor is it simply "invisible" - pressing enter, typing my password, and pressing enter again do nothing. Normally my Bluetooth mouse is functional at this point, but it is not.
GRUB displays recovery options for my current kernel, and for an older one (2.6.32-24). Trying to boot into .32-24 gives me an error saying "udevadm can't do something while udev is not configured".
So I try solutions listed here: ubuntu update went wrong, pc doesnt boot, how can I repair it? Nothing I tried seemed to work, and after further Googling my hunch is that it's a problem with gdm. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know all that much about how Linux/Ubuntu systems work just yet.
Things I'm able to do: Boot to a live CD
Ctrl-Alt-F2 after that login sound plays brings me to a console login, which I can successfully do (it's how I tried the solutions above). This works only under the current kernel.
A hack I'd be willing to explore is removing the login prompt from the console, but I'd prefer to "simply" fix what's wrong. Like that guy, I need to repair the system rather than reinstall.
System: Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo Proprietary Driver for Broadcom 43xx wireless
Dual-boot with Windows 7 (which is how I'm posting this, unfortunately I only have this machine and any experimenting requires constant reboots into Windows/brokenbuntu)
Last package installed was Moonlight, but it appeared to install properly.
Kernel: 2.6.32-25
Edit: After working with Karl's suggestions, it seems that the problem is with gdm.
Error exit status 245 when attempting to sudo apt-get install --reinstall gdm, also an error processing gdm when running sudo apt-get -f install.
How do I reinstall or repair gdm so that I can get back into my machine?
cliff
Posted 2010-10-08T21:51:50.640
Reputation: 23
Great, thanks for your help - appear to be getting somewhere. That brought up: ** (gdm-binary:1642) WARNING **: Failed to acquire org.gnome.DisplayManager ** (gdm-binary:1642) WARNING **: Could not acquire name; bailing out
Being an experimenter, I tried sudo apt-get install --reinstall gdm, which returned the following error messages: "dpkg: warning: old pre-removal script returned error exit status 245" and "dpkg: error processing gdm (--configure)". I don't have time to google this right now, but I do think it's a problem with gdm. – cliff – 2010-10-09T01:14:49.910
Your reinstall could be failing if you're missing dependencies for some reason. Try a
sudo apt-get -f install. – Karl Bielefeldt – 2010-10-09T05:30:01.293In addition to a line of "error exit status 245", this returned an "error processing: gdm". sudo apt-get -f install did not complete. So...how do I go about reinstalling gdm if these processes don't seem to work? – cliff – 2010-10-11T04:42:55.440
You could get rid of the pre-removal script. It's at
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gdm.prerm. I believe you don't really need it if you are planning to immediately reinstall, but just in case, don't delete it, just move it to your Desktop or something. – Karl Bielefeldt – 2010-10-11T13:54:06.760Doesn't seem to do anything, I get the same
dpkg: error processing gdm (--configure). – cliff – 2010-10-11T17:02:04.447I can successfully uninstall gdm. When I try to reinstall, it gives me more
error exit status 245messages (which I can't find a reference for anywhere), I think when it's trying to configure gdm. I'm almost to the point of giving up and reinstalling - that'll teach me to delay a restart after an update. Gah. – cliff – 2010-10-11T17:36:38.163Wish I could be of more help, but it looks like at this point doing it "the hard way" will actually be easier. – Karl Bielefeldt – 2010-10-11T21:13:39.880
It occurred to me on the way home tonight - I know that I use a proprietary driver for my wireless, and it definitely doesn't work until the machine is fully booted. I try to ping say, google.com, and it immediately doesn't resolve, so I don't think it's initialized. I do have the 10.04 distro CD (downloaded around 8/28/10) in the drive, could it be grabbing gdm to reinstall from there and that version is incompatible with the updates? – cliff – 2010-10-12T02:33:41.250
It's worth a try. – Karl Bielefeldt – 2010-10-12T04:21:17.543
No dice. Backed up my files, looks like I'll be reinstalling this evening. Thanks for your help though, I greatly appreciate the attempt. – cliff – 2010-10-12T20:26:23.683
This is why I keep my /home on a separate partition. In this case, I'd set up a new installation and keep the old one and hack away at it until I got it fixed or completely ruined it. – Rob – 2011-11-30T18:26:07.350