Graphical desktop failed to start

[Colin Law]

On 18 April 2014 17:37, David Fletcher <dave at thefletchers.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 2014-04-18 at 17:25 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
>> On 18 April 2014 16:53, David Fletcher <dave at thefletchers.net> wrote:
>> > I just booted my computer, and the desktop didn't start, it just left me
>> > with a terminal to log in.
>>
>> Had you done some upgrades?
>
> Whenever available.

I meant had you done some upgrades in the run before it failed?  If
yes, then when you rebooted it failed, but further upgrades fixed it
then possibly the first time it had not picked up all the upgrades so
you had an inconsistent set.

>
>>
>> Did you try re-booting?  Probably you did but you did not say so I have to ask.

You did not answer this question so I have to waste my time asking it again.

>>
>> >
>> > Logging in as the administrator, I was able to do the update - upgrade,
>> > then shutdown -r now, and it rebooted, this time giving me the desktop.
>> >
>> > If this had happened on a friend's laptop, that I installed with Linux
>> > as an upgrade to XP, there'd have been all hell raised. I'd have had to
>> > do an 80 mile round trip to try to sort the damned thing out.
>>
>> Why could you not just have walked her through the login and update?
>>
>> >
>> > I'm running Ubuntu 12.04, but she isn't, thank goodness.
>>
>> 12.04 is the least likely for this sort of thing to happen with.  What
>> is she running?
>
> Mint Maya with Mate.
>
> Its other trick is to not shut down properly, so that I need to hold the
> power button in to get the machine to turn off. I thought this kind of
> thing ended when windows 95 went EOL.

How often is that happening?

Colin