Graphical desktop failed to start

[David Fletcher]

On Fri, 2014-04-18 at 17:47 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
> 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.

I might have done some upgrades last thing before I previously switched
it off. Can't remember for sure.

> 
> >
> >>
> >> 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.

Not immediately. I used the tty1 it presented me with to log in and see
if it had any upgrades available, which it did, so I applied them then
rebooted.


> 
> >>
> >> >
> >> > 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?

Weekly, perhaps.

I don't use the desktop machine every day. Today I'm using it to edit
openstreetmap because it has a much bigger screen than the 10" netbook
that I use more often.

Dave