As usual, I seem to have managed to get myself into trouble. I downloaded another distro to a USB last night so I could ‘play’ with it. When I restarted the computer to boot from my SSD rather than my DVD or USB , I did get a different start menu, it gave me the option of Ubuntu Mate (or an advanced version of it) plus it gave me the option of Peppermint (or an advanced option of that). I selected Ubuntu Mate and it logged me in properly. I decided that I should change from an automatic login to having to enter my password and it said I needed to reboot to make this happen. When I rebooted it just went straight to a text screen and i have no idea what I need to enter to get back to my normal menu! I’m assuming I’ve done something weird to ‘grub’ but I don’t really know. At the moment, I’m actually working off a USB… well, I’m assuming that’s what I’m doing anyway because I am currently in Peppermint. I do have a second computer set up in Win 7 that I can probably (hopefully lol) start up again if that is going to help. Really would appreciate help with this, I need access to stuff on my computer (SSD) lol. Thanking you in anticipation. Michael
When you boot (after selecting Ubuntu MATE), do you get to a text login screen or nothing (like black screen with a blinking cursor)?
If you get to a text login, can you switch to a graphic session by trying ctrl + alt + F1 to F7 or do the seven display the text prompt?
If you can login in text mode, does the command startx launch the desktop session?
Hey (blush) I’m ‘always’ in trouble aren’t I? It went to a blank screen with a blinking cursor but it had a message that I could hit the’ tab’ key to work through my options. I did hit the tab key but it was all double-dutch to me. I did try a few commands like ‘start’ and ‘login’ and even my username and password but that did nothing. I’m currently on my Win 7 computer at the moment. I’m not actually getting to a login screen text or otherwise I don’t think. I am wondering whether installing Peppermint to the USB also put another option in my grub menu I must admit.
I guess if I had to, I could always do a complete reinstall. I would lose some stuff but not heaps… probably losing all my bookmarks would be the biggest pain lol.
Cheers
Michael
I’m not sure what you did. From what I understand, you installed Peppermint Linux along Ubuntu MATE. But it shouldn’t have broken UM.
What you’re describing with the tab key makes me think you’re in “recovery” mode: I guess the options you’re seeing are a root prompt that would allow to fix the system when it’s broken. If that’s the case, it’s not a good sign.
In any case, whatever has been added to GRUB shouldn’t change anything for UM. At worse, you installed a new GRUB to the USB device that has an entry for Peppermint but selecting UM should still point to the version previously installed.
The easiest thing to do would indeed to reinstall Ubuntu MATE. When booting on a live session, you should be able to access your home dir and backup what you need (bookmarks and such) before reinstalling. Is that the case? Do you see your original home dir from a live session (not the home of the session, you’ll have to mount your hard drive or SSD and find it there)?
Well, that’s the thing. I didn’t install Peppermint alongside Ubuntu Mate at all. I installed it to a USB drive specifically to play with it.
I think you’re right - I think I might be in some kind of recovery mode. Because I did see something in the ‘gobbledygook’ about root/root prompts.
I wonder if somehow the USB also has the grub for Mate, because it was coming up with the Peppermint background screen from live mode when it offered all those different boot options. What would happen if I chose the SSD as primary boot option instead of Ubuntu Mate on the SSD as the primary boot option?
At the moment, on the new computer, it’s actually an installed Peppermint that has booted up from the USB. Am I able to actually install Mate again over itself by booting into a live session from my DVD of Ubuntu Mate?
It would be absolutely wonderful if I could find all my stuff in Home from a live session - I’ve never even thought of that as an option. I still have a lot of my stuff on the Win 7 computer just not the last 6 months or more lol. It would be absolutely wonderful if I could save all my stuff in Home through a live session - but I’m not sure I completely get how mounting the SSD would automatically show me that stuff?
Some quick questions / thoughts if I did reinstall. I have never managed to get my Brother working as a scanner on any Linux distro, but that isn’t critical. The printer part worked without me doing anything because the printer driver was included in the Ubuntu package clearly. I won’t try to install the scanner drivers i don’t think. And Wine, will i need to do the WineHQ install except from Artful Aardvark instead of Bionic beaver? Or are the Bionic beaver wine repos in place now? And Compiz. Last time I enabled Compiz in Tweak but CCSM didn’t come in. Has that been fixed to be automatic now or will I need to download CCSM again as well? I had some minor glitches with the Brisk menu as well but that may have been because I fiddled with the Netbook option with only one panel and saved apps to the panel any way i could lol. Maybe Brisk is less glitchy in another desktop option?
After 3am here lol. Just another ‘sleepless’ night lol.
Cheers
Michael
Ok my guess is that when you installed peppermint to the flash drive you left the place to install the bootloader as your ssd which overwrote your UM version of Grub, try booting with out the usb plugged in and with it plugged in, You can live boot and get your files and move them temporarily to another disk by opening the file manager, mounting your ssd and finding the home directory then there will be a folder inside that with your username and inside of that will be all the files from your home directory, however I’m not entirely sure why peppermint would have messed up your UM instal unless your are meaning a messed up grub, are you getting the plymouth boot screen with UM logo on it or not even that
Well, that's the thing. I didn't install Peppermint alongside Ubuntu Mate at all. I installed it to a USB drive specifically to play with it.
It doesn't matter. When I said it installed it along it, I wasn't thinking on the same disk specifically: if UM is on your harddisk while Peppermint is on a USB key (or USB harddisk), if they both appear in the GRUB, they're installed alongside each other. On your PC overall.
I think you're right - I think I might be in some kind of recovery mode. Because I did see something in the 'gobbledygook' about root/root prompts.
That's the thing that's the more problematic: if choosing to boot from UM gets you to recovery mode, it's possible that the installation of Peppermint screwed your UM one. You can try to update GRUB from Peppermint (you can boot on that one, right?) in case the UM entry in GRUB is wrong but I think it wouldn't boot at all in that case.
Am I able to actually install Mate again over itself by booting into a live session from my DVD of Ubuntu Mate?
Yes.
but I'm not sure I completely get how mounting the SSD would automatically show me that stuff?
It won't be automatic. You'll be able to browse the SSD once mounted, on which you'll find a "home" directory at its root, whith your personal folder inside.
When you boot Ubuntu MATE (or any Linux distro), it mounts the drive it's on as root (/). When you go in your home folder, it just goes in the folder with your name that is in the home directory that is at root level of the disk.
When you boot from a LiveCD, the root is the CD (or USB key) and the home inside is the one of the live session. But you can still mount other drives, like your SSD, on which you'll find every file and dir that usually correspond to the root of the system.
And Wine, will i need to do the WineHQ install except from Artful Aardvark instead of Bionic beaver? Or are the Bionic beaver wine repos in place now?
WineHQ has not published a Bionic repo yet, you can still use the Artful one.
And Compiz. Last time I enabled Compiz in Tweak but CCSM didn't come in. Has that been fixed to be automatic now or will I need to download CCSM again as well?
CCSM is not installed with MATE, it's by design. The developers want to provide a working Compiz session without overwhelming the user will tons of options, so there's no configuration, only tailored settings. People who want more have to install the CCSM.
Maybe Brisk is less glitchy in another desktop option?
I don't know, I don't use Brisk (I prefer the advanced MATE menu), I'm not familiar with its settings and possibilities.
Hey Bernie. It sounds quite possible that the bootloader did stay with the SSD. The video I followed only got me to put a ‘swap’ and a ‘/root’ file on the USB. I just assumed that the ‘/boot’ would be put into the ‘/root’ on the USB when Peppermint installed itlelf from live mode. I’m not totally sure now but I think if I install without the USB I just get the blank screen with cursor and installing with the USB gives me the different options and if I choose Ubuntu Mate, it then goes to the blank screen with the cursor. I will fiddle that again in the morning after I’ve had ‘some’ sleep lol. The boot screen, when I get one, isn’t the UM logo, it’s the Peppermint one. Too tired to try now lol. When I wake up lol. Cheers. Michael.
Okay, later this morning, I will first try to see if i can find what’s on my SSD through the Peppermint on the USB by mounting the SSD and looking. Then I’ll try what Bernie said above and try starting up with/without the USB and confirm what I get.
I installed/used Compiz/CCSM for two reasons. One I do like some of the other Compiz effects and two I heard that using the Compton GPU compositor doesn’t work very well when you have a NVIDIA GPU (NVIDIA didn’t support DRI3 or something?)
I must admit that I found the simpler Brisk menu easier to use. Just a personal thing I guess.
Sleep then brekky then trying stuff lol.
Cheers
M.
Okay, it looks like I at least got my latest stuff from Documents in Home downloaded to another USB. . That is the most important stuff. If i could somehow get my latest Firefox bookmarks that would be even better but beggars can’t be choosers lol. Will check it out more in the morning after some sleep and brekky. Thanks guys. Michael.
it sounds like peppermint really did do something to your install, replacing the boot screen, that should not happen when installing to USB
Well, the method I used was to boot up the live DVD, then use G Parted to put two partitions on the USB (swap and /root) and then install by clicking on the install icon on the Peppermint live desktop and choosing the ‘something else’ and installing it to the /root partition on the USB. I didn’t set the second part (/root) till I got to the ‘something else’ install option. Maybe I needed to actually set 3 partitions instead of 2. Maybe I needed swap, /boot and /root to make it work properly. But, I was just following the video directions of someone who makes a lot of Linux YouTube tutorials. That said, this video was a couple of years old.
As an aside, a big reason I went down the Compiz CCSM track was because I still get some screen tearing. The screen tearing isn’t horrific but it is noticeable. If I put in a DVD like Avatar for example I do get the occasional flicker of screen tearing. The most noticeable effect though is just from scrolling on webpages. I regularly get a small rippling effect as I scroll the mouse wheel. I do set my NVIDIA X Org system to ‘force full composition pipeline’ and this does seem to help minimize but certainly not prevent the above happenings. I have tried turning off hardware acceleration in Firefox but i’m not sure it actually helps much to be honest. If anyone could come up with some premium settings to negate screen tearing when you have a pretty modern NVIDIA GPU I’d certainly be thankful lol.
Will do some trials of the other stuff you asked about above soon and get back to you with the results.
Cheers.
Michael
Okay, to terzag and Bernie. I’m actually back in to Ubuntu Mate, but I have to be honest, I don’t know how I did it and I don’t know if it will be stable with this set up. When I set BIOS to boot from the USB, all I got was a blank screen with a flickering cursor. When I set it to boot from my SSD (note - not the SSD directed to the Ubuntu Mate part which is what it is usually set to just the SSD in its entirety), it booted to the Peppermint splash screen and gave me 4 options. I’m pretty sure this is exactly the same result as when I boot to the Ubuntu Mate part of the SSD as I normally would. This seemed to be the same screen I had on booting up last night for example.
1 - boot to Peppermint - this was fine and it allowed me to login
2 - boot to Peppermint Advanced - this offered me a choice of kernels including a generic kernel, an upstart kernel and a recovery kernel. I simply chose the first and again it allowed me to log in
3 - boot to Ubuntu Mate - I didn’t try this one
4 - boot to Ubuntu Mate Advanced - I chose this option and it gave me a choice of two kernels, generic and recovery. I chose recovery.
This took me to a pink screen recovery menu which was read only and had the following options (I think I saw this last night sometime as well):
resume
clean
dpkg
fsck
grub
network
root
system-summary
I chose the grub option and followed by nose and the screen prompts (guessing the best choices as I went along) and it finally put me straight into Ubuntu Mate my normal screen. Not sure if I should have but I immediately ejected and powered off the USB.
Are there any commands you would like me to run in terminal that would help you understand what has happened/what needs to happen to make it safe for me to continue normally?
I think it should be okay for me to just leave my system running until it is right again… or, if you think a clean install is the best option then let me know and I will just re-install. I’m guessing it would be best not to load that particular USB for the moment lol.
Cheers and thanks again for all your continued support.
Michael
I generally do not actually install to a usb (generally just live boot to
install to disk) in fact I may have only done it once or so, so I am not
familiar with the method you used or really any method, I just have ruined
enough installs in my short time on linux to know that it is not that hard
to mess up an install or grub, while installing something else
That’s the first time I’ve ever tried installing to a USB as well. Might well be my last! It’s just that I like checking new distros out (can’t help it lol) and the live DVD is somewhat limiting. I thought the install to USB might actually tell me more about how well the distro worked with my equipment. I plan to build more computers (for fun) and one will just be for playing with new distros that come out. Those will be hard drive installs though… and any other hard drive I have on that computer will be disconnected during that process. Cheers. Michael.
IMO, when you installed Peppermint to the USB disk, it installed GRUB also on it, but I’m still confused as to why the option “boot to Ubuntu Mate” doesn’t work. Unless you didn’t try it at all?
What happens if you choose either of these options?
- boot to Ubuntu Mate
- boot to Ubuntu Mate Advanced, then choose the generic kernel
If they work, it should just be a matter of reinstalling GRUB on the SSD.
I have to be honest, I haven’t been game as yet to go back out and reboot lol.
I chose the ‘recovery’ kernel in Ubuntu because I suspected that I might need to go through some sort of ‘recovery’ process. And, that led me to the pink screen and lots of other guesswork screens before it got me back on here as is ,so to speak.
Now that I’ve backed all my documents up, and I will also back up my bookmarks again and then save it all again to my USB, and, if you say I need to risk trying the generic kernel if that option shows up, I’ll go risk it. I would also like to put my BIOS back to the usual setting as well, which is directed to the Ubuntu Mate part of the SSD rather than just the ‘generic’ SSD.
If I get back here through the generic kernel , or even just through the standard Ubuntu Mate option, then I’m sure you can guide me through the reinstalling of GRUB on the SSD. If I don’t get back here I’ll simply have to reinstall lol.
If that’s the go, just tell me… I’ll be ‘obedient’ 
Cheers
Michael
yeah I’ve been a bi of a distro hopper in the past, lets see went Fedora 25
I think UM LMDE in there somewhere, LxPup, Deepin, more recently Pop OS,
those on my laptop, I could not tell you how many I’ve tried on my desktop
because it may be near a hundred, plus many on my RPi, so yes I’ve ruined
plenty myself, I just get my files if there are any and move on, though I
pretty well stick with UM as my main distro NOW
Well, yes, but it usually drops you on a root prompt with the filesystem mounted as read-only. It's usually used when the system doesn't boot at all anymore and you know what you're doing.
So, try first the normal boot rather than the recovery mode. 
To be honest, I’ve always been a huge fan of UM. My system, probably because of my fairly new hardware and reasonably specced GPU, has been really ‘unstable’ for a lot of distros. UM has been one of the best at each level I’ve had on here (17.10/16.04.4/17.10.1). The Ryzen 5 CPU needs a kernel of at least 4.11 to be safe, preferably higher, and the GTX 1060 definitely contributes to the issues I get with screen tearing. I’ve found that the mid to heavy desktops seem to handle the hardware better than the lower ‘weight’ desktops. I will choose between UM and Mint Cinnamon for this computer (I built it and specced it from scratch - never even opened a case before this lol). I just want this system to be as stable as possible, then I intend to go back and change my old Windows computer over to Linux as well. I might even ‘donate’ that to my bro to try to get him to be a Linux convert Then I intend to build another one, not as high spec lol, probably using the Ryzen 5 2400G as my starting point with NO GPU lol. Because of the NVIDIA drivers, and my Brother MFC printer, trying out Fedora wasn’t really an option. And Debian and openSUSE still have kernels at too low a level for their stable branches for me to bother with them. Plus, I find those distros just ‘more difficult’ to get around than those based on Ubuntu and even some of the other Debian derivatives. MX 17 impressed me a lot. I think Peppemint and Linux Lite are also quite promising. This 18.04 base has been the most stable yet, so really looking forward to some of the new distros that will come out. Been a steep learning curve for me… no doubt it will stay that way for quite a while yet lol. Cheers. M.