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How can I get myself out of this boot loop?

I am a bit at a loss, my Grub screen is empty (shows no options to choose from.) I now only have access to Grub options if I hold down the Shift key during the time Grub is being processed.

I got myself into this pickle while upgrading Ubuntu 19.04 to 19.10, and something went wrong.

I started going through the different Kernel options to see if one would get the system back up. The last one did. I was able to get to a login window; however, logging into Ubuntu would not work. So I tried logging in using the Unity Desktop option. This brought me to the Unlock Login Keyring. But the Unity Desktop UI is empty -- besides a auto-start opening Rhythmbox. Somehow in Unity or Ubuntu-MATE. I can't get a Terminal doing Ctrl+Alt+T.

As suggested, using Ctrl+Alt+F5 works, but I can't figure out what is missing in order to boot into Ubuntu Desktop 19.10, tty5 login states:

Welcome to Ubuntu 19.10 (GNU/Linux 5.3.0-19-generic x86_64)

I tried login into unity --:1 to get into a standard UI based on this helpful post but got this:

compizconfig - Info: Backend     : gsettings
compizconfig - Info: Integration : false
compizconfig - Info: Profile     : mate
Switched to profile 'unity-lowgfx' (for enfironment 'mate')
compizconfig - Info: Backend     : gsettings
compizconfig - Info: Integration : false
compizconfig - Info: Profile     : unity-lowgfx
WARNING: no DISPLAY varable set, setting it to :0
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: core
compiz (core) - Info: Starting plugin: core
compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: :1
compiz (core) - Error: Failed to load plugin: :1

It looks like it is somehow switching to mate and fails loading the plugin.

Doing a reboot brings me straight back into some leftover Ubuntu-MATE; without UI -- not very helpful.

MeSo2
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  • This is similar problem, and for me disabling auto login worked: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1181649/unable-to-login-after-upgrading-to-19-10-from-19-04#1181660 – MeSo2 Oct 31 '19 at 19:15
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    Please post your comment as an answer. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Oct 31 '19 at 21:50
  • This is similar problem, and for me disabling auto login worked: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1181649/unable-to-login-after-upgrading-to-19-10-from-19-04#1181660 – MeSo2 Nov 01 '19 at 00:59
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    @WinEunuuchs2Unix I just tried again, but somehow I can't... It must be a web UI bug – MeSo2 Nov 01 '19 at 00:59
  • Thanks your answer was posted. I hope you don't mind but I improved it to traditional standards. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 01 '19 at 01:22

3 Answers3

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I solved my own question with this answer:

I had to disable "Auto Login" and then the screens were normal again.

To summarize the link:

sudo -H gedit /etc/gdm/custom.conf

and commented out these lines (by placing a # in front):

AutomaticLoginEnable=True
AutomaticLogin=username
WinEunuuchs2Unix
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MeSo2
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  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix thank you for the edit, I just added this https://askubuntu.com/questions/1185377/how-do-i-report-a-bug-in-the-web-application-stack-exchange-inc-askubuntu-co new post related to the problem I found. Not sure if it is a bug... – MeSo2 Nov 01 '19 at 01:28
  • I voted to close your new question as a duplicate of an older question – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 01 '19 at 01:39
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You can get into a terminal. You just use the following combination: CTRL + ALT + F5 You'll get a tty window, where no desktop is needet. Just like a serverinstance of Ubuntu. Then you log in there and have full access as your user, just without the GUI. To Switch back to the gui: Reboot or CTRL + ALT + F1 (Source: What is a tty, and how do I access a tty? )

And yes, you probably have to perform an update-grub if you change anything to the boot params. To get it back, I would suggest that you use the following commands(this may fix the failure in the upgrade):

sudo -i 
apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get autoremove
apt-get autoclean
update-grub
reboot
MelcomX
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  • CTRL + ALT + F5 worked. I ran your suggested commands, but that somehow brought me back into Uinity. update-grub fines different images, but the Grub UI is still empty after a reboot bringing me back into that boot loop. – MeSo2 Oct 29 '19 at 19:51
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What's your filesystem?

This sounds similar to what I initially experienced while trying out 20.04's ZFS root installer (which I've read is in 19.10, bit I could never find it). After logging in from the GUI I'd be kicked right back out.

If by any chance that's your issue, the reason is Ubuntu-specific. You need to rename the datasets. See here.

Another time this happened to me I had something in my ~/.profile that was throwing an error.

Long story short, your issue could be caused by anything without more info.

dcmorse
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  • fs is ext4 root in LVM2_member (I am now thinking of a auto-loader code fix some time back, that needed to be added to get X to do something ... but do not remember. Could this be causing it?) – MeSo2 Oct 31 '19 at 02:21
  • .profile content: if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then . "$HOME/.bashrc" fi fi if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" fi – MeSo2 Oct 31 '19 at 18:18
  • where is rpool/USERDATA in root? – MeSo2 Oct 31 '19 at 18:48
  • My comment only matters if your filesystem is ZFS, which it isn't (it's ext4 on LVM). Also your .profile looks fine, so I don't know what the issue is. – dcmorse Oct 31 '19 at 20:06
  • thanks for following up. I found that the autologin was causing the problem (see comment) "Answer Your Question" sent me there. Not sure why – MeSo2 Oct 31 '19 at 20:13