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BEWARE! Mint newest kennel update!

Discussion in 'Crashed!' started by Daniel~, Mar 17, 2020.

  1. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    I just spent 3 hours undoing the damage done...Which includes the following:

    1. CPU running at full speed when nothing is making or asking it to do so, Yep! run away CPU speed.
    2. My drives all disappeared in the BIOS.
    3. Bios screen distorted, shows up 1/2 size on the horizontal.

    My saving grace. The only drive still functional/reachable was my DVD drive.

    Solution:
    After much thought I realized it had to be the Mint Kernel up date.
    I do updates everyday. So i took me a while to remember I had just done two kernel updates.both from Mint updates.

    Actions taken:
    I immediately un-clocked my CPU. Made desktop. I had set it to 35 down from 48. Regained desktop and found it at 35 as expected...But running 100% at 35.
    I used my DVD to do a restore. Fortuitously while I could no longer see my drive in the bios Mint could reach my backup and do a restore.
    Regained desktop and found things as the should be, Re-clocked my CPU to 4.8 All seems well.

    Attached Files:

  2. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    Ok. I checked out my system and all was well. So I did a fresh back up and gave The TWO kernel updates anther shot. Installed without error rebooted and all is well.

    I'd like to add that this is the second time Mint has totaled my system while installing new kernels on the first try only to install without error after a restore from my backups.
  3. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Very nice Daniel! Great job troubleshooting!
    What happened with your drives in the BIOS? Was it able to find them again?
    Hopefully a kernel update didn't mess up your UEFI (BIOS)

    I recently had a problem with Mint as well. I don't think it was related to an update, but about 30 min before my LAN party on Saturday, I woke up a sleeping PC and nothing came up. Thinking it was crashing I rebooted with the power switch. Same thing.... now I'm getting worried. Rebooted again... same thing. It would show the DELL screen and I could reach the BIOS, but no Mint icon or boot process. So I'm thinking its Grub.
    I spend an hour (while everyone else was playing games) trying to manually setup Grub and boot the existing Mint... never had any luck. I was using a Live disc via USB drive and was able to access the hard drive. So I didn't think it was hardware related. Something happened and I didn't know what or why?

    I fixed it by installing Mint 19.3 on the freespace and then converting the original Mint to my /home drive. This worked perfectly as /home already hosted most of my settings, games and data. I only had to re-install a few things:
    • xterm
    • PlayOnLinux
    • Steam
    • 2 Games
    • Updates
    • ia32-libs
    • Nvidia Drivers
    That's about it. So far everything is running nicely!
    Now I have the OS on a partition and /home on a its own partition. This way next time something Happens, I just re-install Mint Operating System files on its own partition and it never touches /home.
    I should post a step-by-step guide on how to set this up.
    Such a life saver!
  4. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    Any draw backs to doing a home/OS split?

    If not I'm be interested in how to set that up.

    No never was able to figure out why I could see my drives on the boot screen, but could not see them once I was inside the BIOS. To be honest I was a bit surprised that A restore worked.

    Surprised but grateful.

    One question. Does doing a OS/Home split complicate doing back ups?
  5. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    I actually posted a guide this morning:
    http://www.gamersonlinux.com/forum/threads/linux-mint-rescue.3002/

    Once you are comfortable with the separate OS/Home configuration, you only need to back your /home

    I think the system you have in place is a really good one, so you would probably backup OS partition and /home partitions at the same time. Not sure how that would affect your backup scheme?

    I have always done manual backups.... but take a look at the guide and see if it makes sense for a quick restore of the OS without any backups.

    Not sure about drawbacks? I think having the OS and /home in the same partition has more drawbacks as I have learned.
  6. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    A further issue has presented itself. The new kernals installed cutoff my sound.
    I messed with it for several hours and could not get it back. Did a pre kernal install restore and got sound back.

    Open to suggestions?
  7. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    I thought you did a restore from backups?
    Did you try the kernel update again?

    I just ran two kernel updates this morning... I'll let you know if I have any issues over the weekend
  8. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    Yeah, did a restore, then tried them again. The second time was much better, only lost sound system wide.

    This NEVER use to happen. I never hesitated to update in the past. Now I have to think about it.

    Am I currently backed up? Do I have the time and energy to run down anything that might go wrong?
  9. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Yeah, I hear you. I hesitated to upgrade from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19.3
    I waited and waited and waited... then stumbled on my idea for using the free space to install Mint 19.3
    If something went wrong, I could just boot to Mint 18.3 temporarily.

    With the Kernel update, if something goes wrong, then you can use Mint Recovery in the GRUB screen.... Just keep pressing ESC during the boot process. Then Mint should give you recovery options from before the update

    upload_2020-3-20_15-42-34.png
  10. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    Which option should I choose and what are the consequences?
  11. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Just choose the 2nd one down to restore before the kernel update. Or experiment by selecting other ones.
    Obviously it will have an older kernel and your audio should be back, but the update will still be available.

    One thing you can do is skip the current kernel update. Just wait for the next one.

    The only consequences is you may have to boot to that restore every time you restart. Otherwise it will use the current boot option.
  12. Daniel~

    Daniel~ Chief BBS Administrator Staff Member

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    As all is well, I can wait.":O}

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