Xubuntu 20.04 disaster

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2020-11-19 at 13:46 -0800, MR ZenWiz wrote:
> Since then, nothing works, in either kernel.  The system only comes
> up in emergency boot mode, and a df check shows that the /home
> filesystem is completely empty - all her files are gone.

It would be very unusual for a software update to delete files not
related to the operating system, so I suspect the files are still
there. Use something other than df to make sure - ls is good :-)

I would boot from a USB stick and inspect the system that way. If you
locate the "missing" files, obviously copy them to safety before doing
anything else.

Either way the fastest way back is to re-install from scratch.

And (this is much more for the benefit of others than for you, as you
did mention it): The time between backups is the amount of data you are
prepared to lose. With a current backup, problems like this are no more
than an irritation - re-install, plop the files back, done.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer

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