System hangs during boot

[bfb]

I am having a problem with a fresh install:
On a Dell Inspiron Mini 1012, the boot process hangs during some systemd stuff
On SECOND run : I.e it works fine on first run after install but hangs  after re-booting. This is my first try with the series 3 on this machine which was running 2.8 perfectly.

System hangs during boot after printing three or all of these lines;

[  OK  ] Created slice system-systemd\x2drfkill.slice.
        Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status of rfkill0...
        Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status of rfkill1...
        Starting Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of leds:dell::kbd_backlight...
I THINK

This bug is caused by the file /var/lib/systemd/backlight/platform-dell-laptop:leds:dell::kbd_backlight created by (I guess) [email protected]

As that file is re-created at shutdown, I have to mask the service systemd-backlight@leds\:dell\:\:kbd_backlight.service with:

sudo systemctl mask systemd-backlight@leds\:dell\:\:kbd_backlight.service

so kernel-4.4.0-93 doesn't hang at boot.



BUT I can’t get into the system to do this.
I tried going in in recovery mode, but it demands a root password for maintenance.

Can anyone help?

[trinidad]

Edit your initrd entry in the grub menu to get a rw bash shell first, F10 to boot it, and then set a root password. There's a post on recovery mode somewhere on the forum.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions...t-bin-bash

TC

[bfb]

Thanks but I am so dumb I can't get past the hang to do anything so I can't edit anything at all.
I tried setting a supervisor pw in Bios but the recovery doesn't accept it

[trinidad]

When your grub menu appears select advanced options. Hit e to edit the menu for the first kernel. Find the line with the vt handoff terms entered, (Comes just before the initrd line). Backspace out the line up to and including ro ( the space before the UID hex. Type in:  rw init=/bin/bash  and then hit F10. Try running your command in the bash terminal that appears. Don't know where you found it but I'm not sure the syntax will work. You can try it. Enter your sudo password when prompted and see if the mask command works. If your terminal prompt returns without any error message bash accepted the command. Don't worry about editing the grub menu. Changes are not saved involving boot instructions when you use the e command from grub menu. Use the up down arrows to navigate grub menu edit.

BIOS password has nothing to do with this unless of course your BIOS are already locked with one.

Here. Found Ubuntu link for you.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-reset-los...erus-linux

If you have no grub menu keep hitting shift while the system boots up until the message grub loading appears.

TC 

[bfb]

Thanks very much for that. I would never have found that out for myself and it is very much appreciated
I can confirm that the workaround

sudo systemctl mask systemd-backlight@leds\:dell\:\:kbd_backlight.service

stops the hang at boot on netbooks that have no backlight.

I think it would be a good idea for such machines to run that command on the very first run, before ever re-booing (after updating for example)
If that were done it would avoid the complications above.

[TheDead]

I have a DELL mini10 gathering dust at home. I'll check later if I get the same problem in LL.3.6 32bits.
Oh, and did you do the updates before the 2nd boot?

Cheers!

[bfb]

No I dared only do the sudo systemctl mask systemd-backlight@leds\:dell\:\:kbd_backlight.service  command then re-booted
the Update worked fine after that

[firenice03]

My Mini 10 has been fine with no hangs etc.. Running an update I did see there were some grub updates... I'll check after it completes and reboots... Currently running LL3.6 32 bit (upgraded from 3.4)


**UPDATE**
After update and a couple reboots, all is well...

[TheDead]

I installed 3.6 x32 las night on my mini10 from USB.
Rebooted.
Installed all the updates.
Rebooted and this time the screen went black after the yellow feather and rebooted by itself (looked like a crash?).
I thought that I had the same problem has OP but nope, the 3rd boot went all the way to desktop.
4th and 5th were OK too.
Strange, but maybe something in the updates and/or auto-reboot "fixed" something. Never had LL "crash" on boot like that yet.

I won't try again unless asked by dev team, the Atom/1GB in the mini10 takes forever to install -any- OS.

PS : Did not test it a lot, was late, but the mini10 still has an issue with PulseAudio where you need to disable CPU scheduling in .config it seems.

Cheers!

- TheDead (TheUxNo0b)

[bfb]

Mine is now running fine thanks to the help received here.
It has also updated to kernel 4.4.0-95 with no problems, and another update (of flashplayer and a few other things today)

Cheers everybody I am most impressed that Lite 3.6 works on such an old and low-powered machine.