0

I'm using my phone right now because I completely lost access to my Z510 laptop running 14.04 (Trusty Tahr), I had no problem using my laptop, everything worked fine and I was really enjoying it for a while just before I had this temptation to install the videogame Dota 2 which runs on an independent client known as steam.

This is where the problem actually appears: software runs but asks that the user must install three packages, namely,

libgl1-mesa-dri:i386, libg1-mesa-glx:i386 and libc6

I checked synaptic for these packages, successfully found them and install them, they also automatically removed some other packages under the architecture amd64, I thought to myself that I have a 4th gen i7 CPU, so this kind of changing may be good for performance by what its name has to offer. After installing them (and removing others) I went to Nvidia settings tried to switch to my GF 740m graphic card, I encountered an error, so decided to reboot the machine and here I am, the purple frozen screen.

Can I do something about it? may I somehow acces to my stored data (some of them are pretty necessary)? Can I repair the OS using a live usb/dvd ubuntu image? what do you suggest? Thanks in advance

Ashkan Ranjbar
  • 123
  • 7
  • That's tough luck. Can you at least switch to a non-graphic terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F4)? – Gyro Gearloose Jan 04 '18 at 12:33
  • Nah, not in the frozen purple screen, should I try it earlier!? – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 12:36
  • fortunately recovery mode is still working, but how does it work? can you help me on doing so? Gyro – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 12:41
  • If that doesn't work, things look really bad. You can try the same with F5 to F6, F7 is the port where the graphic is running. If even Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work, the system messed up your keyboard. If so, the only hope is to connect remotely, or via BIOS. I'm not an expert in either of those. – Gyro Gearloose Jan 04 '18 at 12:42
  • I don't know about recovery mode, but if it allows you to save your data to some external backup device, do so. – Gyro Gearloose Jan 04 '18 at 12:43
  • Check this thread second answer using nomodeset. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 04 '18 at 12:47
  • yeah I'm on it, just to make you informed, I first hold shift just after that I saw the BIOS logo, then came on the recovery mode, after that I chose the second line (with recovery mode labeled and later kernel version) Then a page opened, I could be able to run a repair, access to the root and even connect it through a wired connection, I wonder if I can connect an external hard drive to it to transfer my data, I wonder if it recognizes it without any trouble, unfortunately I have no external hard drive here at university, have to take my laptop home. – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 12:49
  • Hey wineum, that thread has nothing to do with my problem, however the solution I believe lies in the "recovery mode with networking" if it can somehow mount any plugged external hard drive by any means. – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 12:53
  • if you can get a command prompt with internet access, you can make the repairs as I specified. aptitude is a CLI ppackage manager. – ravery Jan 04 '18 at 12:55
  • a little more detail, ravery – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 13:16

1 Answers1

1

i386 is 32-bit, amd64 is 64-bit, it has nothing to do with the CPU manufacturer. You needed to enable multiarch and add the i386 architecture in order to install the 32-bit libraries.

since 32-bit and 64-bit libraries often conflict, you likely removed the 64-bit version of the libraries you installed. Mesa is your graphics library.

try booting in recovery mode and see if you can get a command prompt to reverse the changes you made.

ravery
  • 6,874
  • Very helpful on the subject of architecture, but I don't know how to revert them, since I used the graphical synaptic, please don't hesitate to see me as a complete noob on the subject – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 13:19
  • aptitude is a command line package manager. if it isn't already installed, sudo apt-get istall aptitude will install it – ravery Jan 04 '18 at 13:23
  • does it work for reverting such modifications? – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 13:32
  • well there is not "go back" button, but it can be use to reinstall the libraries that were removed. type "/" to get a search bar and search for "mesa" – ravery Jan 04 '18 at 13:38
  • Well that's not a good solution when I don't know which packages I should install and which I should remove. Can I plug my external hard drive into my laptop and move my needed directories (in my case /home, /usr/local/bin/anaconda3 and /usr/local/bin/rapidminer ) and start a fresh install? I just need to know how can I plug/mount/recognize my external drive through the recovery terminal? – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 15:06
  • you listed the packages that you installed. remove them and add the amd versions – ravery Jan 04 '18 at 15:18
  • They had a whole lot of other dependencies as well. Doesn't seem to be a perfect solution. – Ashkan Ranjbar Jan 04 '18 at 16:28
  • the dependencies will be added – ravery Jan 04 '18 at 16:39