How do you get 16.04 to boot?

[Pastor JW]

On 07/01/2017 11:09 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Sat, 1 Jul 2017 20:00:58 -0700, Pastor JW wrote:
>> It does a hard drive check then goes to a dark grey screen which
>> remains unchanging.
> Hi,
>
> always? Even after booting with "upstart"? If you boot again without
> "upstart" after booting with "upstart", the check runs again?
>
> Just in case run
>
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt install smartmontools
>
> and follow this guide:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Troubleshooting#File_Issues
>
> It's unlikely an X issue, but just in case also run
>
>    grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
>
> The Wiki of another distro describes how to use "journalctl":
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd#Journal
>
> It might be that Ubuntu's journalctl logs provide a different content,
> than those Arch Wiki logs, but how to use the command is equal for all
> distros.
>
> More hints could be found here (but for the moment you could skip
> reading those hints):
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/TroubleShooting#Ubuntu_troubleshooting
>
>> nothing else comes on screen.  Yes the laptop screen is working.  The
>> light on the keyboard comes on that says the wireless is turned on.
>> However, the only way to get it to work is to hit the escape early, go
>> to the advanced options and click on the the kernel choice that has
>> "upstart" behind it, whatever that is, then it come with a ramdisk
>> comment, then it brings up my login screen and and I can get online.
>> I have to go through all these manual steps to make it work.
> The ramdisk message likely is a bootloader message, just informing you
> about what is done, it's much likely not an error message. You should
> get the same message when not using "upstart".
>
> "Upstart" "handles starting of tasks and services during boot" [1]. By
> default 16.04 does not use "upstart". The default is "systemd". I'm
> surprised that you could switch init systems.

So it is the systemd startup thing that is not working for some reason.  
I only use the LTS and upgrade direct from the old to the new at about a 
week after the .1 release. It dpes not boot normally but only by escape 
then to advanced options and then choose the kernel with (upstart) in 
its name.
> "Switching init systems
>
> If you are running Ubuntu vivid (15.04), you can easily switch between
> upstart and systemd at will since both packages are installed at
> present. As of March 9 2015, vivid was changed to use systemd by
> default, before that upstart was the default.
I don't find vivid listed anywhere in my system.  I have never found a 
switch like this anywhere either.
> Switch to upstart for a single boot
>
> In grub, select "Advanced options for Ubuntu", where you will find an
> "Ubuntu, with Linux ... (upstart)" entry. This will boot with
> init=/sbin/upstart.
>
> If you have upstart-sysv installed and thus boot with upstart by
> default, there will be an "Ubuntu, with Linux ... (systemd)" entry,
> which will boot with init=/lib/systemd/systemd.2"
> - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SystemdForUpstartUsers#Switching_init_systems
>
>
>
>
>
> Common Setup
>
> Remove the following from the kernel command-line via the grub menu:
>
>      "quiet"
>
>      "splash"
>
> Upstart
>
>      Add "--debug to the kernel command-line via the grub menu.
>
>      Optionally add "console=ttyS0 to the kernel command-line via the
>      grub menu if you have a serial console.
>
> systemd
>
>      Add "systemd.log_level=debug  to the kernel command-line via the
>      grub menu. Optionally add one of the following too:
>
>          "systemd.log_target=kmsg"
>
>          "systemd.log_target=console"
>
> Starting a rescue shell
>
>      Run:
>
>             $ sudo systemctl enable debug-shell.service
>
>      Reboot.
>      If the system fails to boot, you can now switch to tty9
>      (CTRL+ALT+F9) for a getty console login."
> -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SystemdForUpstartUsers#Debugging

It still won't boot without going to the advanced options and choosing 
the the kernel with "upstart" behind it.  None of the other kernels 
listed will boot.

>> On 07/01/2017 02:16 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrot
>> If the live media should be 16.04, too, you could install it by running
>>
>> sudo apt update
>> sudo apt install systemd-container
>>
>> https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-updates/systemd-container .
It says, "systemd-container is already the newest version (229-4ubuntu17)"