Kubuntu won't boot

[rikona]

On 2021-07-28 06:56, Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-users wrote:

> On Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:25:21 -0700, rikona wrote:
> 
>> [...]
>> 
>> By changing the boot order I was able to do a "try it" boot from a
>> Kubuntu CD, and I can see all the disks [within permission limits]. So
>> far this runs OK as well, but I can't run the many pgms I had set up 
>> on
>> the box, and likely not enough space to do that either [indexed search
>> pgm is massive].
>> 
>> I never did a backup, since it was running so well, so that is the
>> FIRST thing I need to do but can't figure out how to get around the
>> permission problems.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> you can backup all Linux partitions, at least those using the ext file
> systems, by a simple copy command with root privileges
> 
> sudo cp -ai source target

This fails, possibly because I have names with spaces. I can copy a 
single file with no spaces. Using sudo from the DVD, it does not ask for 
a password, unlike with a disk boot. Why no password?

<snip>

>> I have a few TB of data, on multiple disks, so a
>> large backup is needed.  I normally use grsync, but it is refusing re
>> permissions - can I get that to back up all the disks WITHOUT the
>> permission problems, or do I have to wait until the box is running
>> normally to get everything? Is there a better way to fix permissions
>> and back up everything now?
> 
> A very common default user ID is 1000, live Linux tend to use another
> user ID by default. However, this shouldn't matter for backups, just
> backup with root privileges and preserve the original privileges. I
> don't know how to do this with rsync, let alone grsync, but cp and tar
> as described above are idiotproof, excepted of the _globbing_ pitfall.
> 
> The main globbing pitfall in short:
> 
> The * does not recognise all items. Hidden items, those starting with a
> dot are ignored, but only for the parent. IOW * does recognize the item
> foo   , but not   .foo   , but it does recognise the item   foo/bar
> and also   foo/.bar  .
> 
>> [...]All suggestions much appreciated... [even the "don't bother me"
>> ones] :-)
> 
> Using a Live Ubuntu take a look at log files, especially of the display
> manager and xorg first. You even can take a look at the binary systemd
> log files by using the    string    command, without the need to do
> anything more complicated.

I don't seem to have permission to look at log files. Owned by root on 
the original box. How can I do that? Might be nice to look at boot log. 
:-)

Thanks for the suggestions.