- This topic has 34 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Jul 2-5:53 am by dirkd.
-
Posts
-
HateDogsBarking
Worst case scenario is having to backup the home folder and reinstalling.
As you already have noticed I do not have a background in Computer Science. But do I understand that it is still possible to make a backup of my “Downloads” folder? If true then that would be my goal for now and then reinstall antix, if you are okay with that.
Meanwhile a screen full of errors with sudo apt install xorg.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by HateDogsBarking.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by HateDogsBarking.
PPC
@Hatedogs – That would be the less complicate way to go… Do you have access to the media (USB pendrive or CD/DVD-rom) you used to install antiX on your computer?
If not, do you have access to another computer and a pendrive you can use to put antiX on and use that to boot your computer with the non working antiX install?
I don’t have any background in computer science, just experience… Years and years of learning the (then big, now smaller) Linux kinks…
For me, the way to go is to boot your computer from a live antiX version and then copy to a pendrive, all the files you want to keep, before reinstalling antiX (and I do recommend antiX full).
If you need help doing all that, ask here (but I’m almost going to bed, it’s almost 10:30 pm here)P.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by PPC.
Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it that there are so many people here trying to help. It shows this is a very healthy community with good people. 🙂
Currently I am logged into Antix from a usb. How do I find my files now?
If you have the resources – always have a pendrive (even a older 4 gig model) with antiX installed, to use to rescue your files from a non bootable computer.
You seem to be someone without fear of trying new stuff (I gather as much from how hard you tried to install stuff on your computer, without even knowing how to run the printer driver installed you had already downloaded)
Keep trying to do stuff, we are never too old to learn, and if, you have back up copies, you can break your linux install as much as you want- reinstalling antiX and copying back youre files and folders can be usually done in 15- 25 minutes. You you create a copy of your system to a pen drive, it’s even faster!
Oh, and read about frugal installs! They are great for testing stuff, and install in about 1-2 minutes (I kid you not)P.
Xecure
Currently I am logged into Antix from a usb. How do I find my files now?
I think the easier way is as I described before.
When booting to a live system, select the session Space-icewm (if you cannot see it, boot and, after launching the desktop, go to the menu > Desktop > Other desktops > Space-Icewm).
Open the File manager (it will now be SpaceFM). On the left side you will see your partitions. If you did a normal install, your home folder should be located in the partition named rootantiX (if yoou created a home partition during installation,it will be in the home partition). Click on it to mount that partition (it will open it in a new tab). Navigate to the home folder > user
…
B. Start a live system with Spacefm-Icewm desktop.
1. In the file manager, click on your rootantiX partition. inside, go to home/user/antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Xecure
SpaceFM is a better file manager for these kind of things.
Anyway, I found the issue. Luckely I also have a 19.1 base iso around, so I found the issue.
When dist-upgrading, I found that apt-antix, after upgrading, wanted the user to replace the antix.list If a user says no, the result is that the buster entry for the antix repo stays as
.../antix/buster buster main nonfree
intead of being replaced with
.../antix/buster buster main nonfree nosystemd
This means that systemd programs are NOT being blacklisted if the user doesn’t accept the change.
I needed to select No to be able to reproduce the error.I have just recovered from all the problem.
Here is the solution in case you want to try to fix it.
1. restore apt list
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
Change the second line (starting with deb). It looks like:
deb http://........./antix/buster buster main nonfree
go to the end of the line and add nosystemd It should look like this:
deb http://........./antix/buster buster main nonfree nosystemd
Control+X to exit (it will ask you to save, say Y and then Enter)2. Update the package list
sudo apt update3. Install xorg
sudo apt install xorg4. Install updates
sudo apt dist-upgradereboot.
Edit: Hopefuly this fixes it for you.
Then, after, you can uninstall system-config-printer-udev if you want (it won’t work anyway).- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Xecure.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Xecure
Anyway, it is not a bad idea to set a backup up just in case.
Where I live is now almost 00h, so I will have to also leave.
If you cannot fix it and don’t want to wait, backing up all the user folders will help you recover your configuration in the futre (and the files, that are the most important).
I wish you luck with whatever you decide.
Let us know how it goes and if you need help figuring things out.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Thank you Xecure. I will try further tomorrow then. My live usb does only have the following other desktops available: Rox-iceWM, min-IceWM.
Guess I should create a new live usb with a more recent (or full) Antix instead of Antix base. Or can I also backup my files (less than 50 mb) using one of the above dekstops (including IceWM). You don’t need to reply now. Tomorrow is fine. Thank you again.
seaken64
You can backup files from the hard drive using an antiX LiveUSB. It doesn’t matter if it’s Full or Base version. But you will need to be “root” temporarily, while you move the files over to the USB. Boot from the Live USB and then open a “root terminal” (you find it on the menu under Applications|System) then start up the spaceFM file manager by typing “spacefm” at the terminal prompt.
Navigate to the internal hard drive. (You may need to use the Devices menu and click on “Show Devices” to see the drive devices). It will be a device named something like “sda1”. Inside of that hard drive file system will be a folder named “home” and inside that will be a folder with your username. (the path will look similar to /home/username, but will be specific to your installation). Right click on that folder (“username”) and COPY it. Then open the LiveUSB file system and navigate to the /home/demo (or /home/root) folder and click on it, then right click inside that folder and PASTE the files. The files will now be copied over to the LiveUSB.
The important thing is to remember that the LiveUSB is a separate file system from the file system on the hard drive. They will look similar but the devices are different. The hard drive will probably be “sda1” and the LiveUSB may be “sdb1”, or something else. You are going to copy your home directory FROM the hard disk TO the LiveUSB.
Once you have it copied you can proceed to re-install to the hard disk. You can copy back whatever you need (such as the Downloads folder) after the hard disk system has been re-installed.
OR – you could use the LiveUSB system to setup your antiX system until you have it the way you need it. THEN install it to the hard disk. The LiveUSB system is everything. It is antiX through and through.
Seaken64
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by seaken64.
Xecure
Guess I should create a new live usb with a more recent (or full) Antix instead of Antix base.
If you are installing new, it is better to use a newer antiX, and if possible, the FULL version.
The dev team has tried to keep antiX base as close to CD size as possible, but in recent years (with packages getting so big), a lot of useful programs no longer come out of the box and need to be installed instead. Full will always include all things needed for it to work for most cases.Or can I also backup my files (less than 50 mb) using one of the above dekstops (including IceWM).
You are right. I was trying to make everything a bit easier for you, with all the system working to help you get there faster.
On the same Icewm that you normally use, you can launch SpaceFM by:
1. Navigating to it. Menu > Applications > System > SpaceFM
2. Using App Select. Menu > App Select. Search for SpaceFM (it should be the first entry).On the left side panel, you should see all available partitions (including your live system). Open the one that says rootantiX. This is the partition containing your antiX installed system. You user folder should be inside home (with your user name), so it should be easy to find and recover. If you have another USB device (or if your USB device also has a live storage partition), you can copy the whole user folder there.
I must congratulate you on your perseverance. We have done a lot of things and you have kept up with us. When our system breaks, this is something that creates a lot of stress. Many go in to panic, most people quit, but you kept persisting and at the same time learnt new stuff about linux and about your antiX system.
Hopefully, with the FULL version, we can get you printer to also work properly.
Let us know if you encounter any problem or you have any doubts. We will help as best we can.
antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.Thank you again Xecure. I managed to backup some important files (yes, should have done that before trying to install new software).
Currently I am not going to try installing the printer again. But I will bookmark these pages so that maybe in a few weeks or so I will try it again. Have a nice day!Glad Xecure managed to help you out. But don’t worry about what happened- you did manage to install the driver, after all. If you need the printer, probably the safest thing to do is, if you reinstalled antiX, to try to reinstall the driver as soon as you reinstalled your system, so, if messes up your system, you loose nothing more than the time it takes to reinstall antiX (some 15-20 minutes, on most machines).
Also, I would advice you, once again to take a look at Frugal installs- they are great for learning stuff without risking messing up a “normal” full disk install- basically what that means is that the contents of your boot device (live USB or disk) are copied to a folder on your hard drive and then you can boot from your boot device directly to that “frugal” install- if you have enough space in your hard drive, you can make back up copies of that frugal install and, if you mess one up, boot from the live USB, delete replace the messed up frugal install with the back up copy- and you get a pristine OS in 2 minutes!
And ALWAYS have backup copies of important stuff! If you have broad band and have a google account, I would recommend backing up important stuff to GoogleDrive (you said it was less than 50 Mb of files).P.
Thank you PPC, That indeed sounds interesting to try out a Frugal install. I will do it. 😉
sybok
In order to minimize issues when my system breaks down (e.g. after I get adventurous), I keep the following:
1) When I install Linux, I set up separate ‘/’, ‘/home’ and ‘/data’ partitions. The ‘/data’ partition can be easily shared among different Linux distributions.
2) Occasional backup of ‘/etc’, and ‘.’ files/folders from my account ‘/home/<username>/’
3) Occasional backup list of installed software, e.g.
dpkg -l | grep '^ii' | awk ' { print $2 } ' | tr '\n' ' ' > ~/installed_list.txt
and copy the file to a “safe” destination, e.g. the ‘/data’ partition.Then reinstall while preserving home and run command such as
sudo apt install < installed_list.txtDid not know about the frugal install. Could have saved some time.
- This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by sybok. Reason: Added comment on frugal install
dirkd
What a coincidence, but today I ran into a very similar, if not exactly the same issue. Luckily on a throwaway testing system, but still very annoying.
I made a fresh install of Antix-17.4. I changed the repos from stable to testing. Here’s part of my debian.list
# Use for maximum stability INSTEAD of the ‘rolling’ TESTING release concept.
#deb http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
#deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free#deb-src http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
# Debian Testing.
# Testing enabled for ‘rolling’ release.
deb http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
#deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing-security main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-freeNote that the nosystemd flag is missing, which I didn’t notice at the time. Why is it that a new installation has a wrong debian.list???
Everything went well, untill I decided to install SMPlayer with the metapackage installer. Here’s part of the apt log file. If I understand it correctly,
that’s where my xorg installation gets wiped out. Next time I logged out, I couldn’t get back in… 🙁(For some reason the forum software doesn’t let met post the log – So I moved it to an attachment)
Quite unrelated, but maybe someone can help me with that too. Somewhere along the way the icons in Control Centre change from the very nice Faenza type (which is supposedly the default for Antix17) to the downright horrible Papyrus. It’s not that important, but if possible, I would like to avoid it.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
