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Yesterday I was updating my ubuntu from 10.04 to 12.04. I have a laptop, a compaq presario v6000, with that system only: One HD for Linux, no virtuabox, and so on.

For update my Ubuntu I used the Tools, the Ubuntu Software center. Everything was going fine but when it was about to finish to install everything, just 8 minutes left, it stoped sudendly: No advances on the tool bar, no messages on the window, nothing... So wellm I decided to reboot.

And here is the problem: When I re-started my machine this message appears:

1.111355 Kernel Panic - Not Syncing :VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown

The thing is that I used a CD of Ubuntu, an old version that I have from Canonical 6.06 LTS and booted from CD, but when i tried to mount the HD it don't allow me.

A friend of mine told me that the solution can be to use a Kanopixx on a USB pendrive, and boot from that, but I don't have any idea about how to do that to recover my files from the HD and reinstall again the Ubuntu 12.04. I'm newbie on this so I'm affraid to do that without previous info.

If someone can give me some clue or know how to fix my computer, it will be great. Thanks in advance for your advices :)

Alejandro R.
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1 Answers1

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Ok don't panic, good news is you should be able to recover your current install, no need to reinstall from scratch...

First, try to boot in recovery mode:
Follow the instructions in this post.

If you manage to get to the root prompt where you can type commands, things are looking good. Try this, which will hopefully let it finish the upgrade:

apt-get upgrade

(if it still fails give us details)

At any rate this should make your system bootable again:

update-initramfs -u  
update-grub2

If you cannot get a root prompt at all, then get a LiveCD (ubuntu, knoppix ...) on a dvd or usb key and boot from it. Then you have a useable system from which you can access the broken one:
Follow dilip's instructions in this post

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