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Boot Problem

gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
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Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Boot Problem

Have been using Mint 11 for months on 2 computers with no problems until today when the boot process failed on one computer& I was left with the message,
stopping system V runlevel compatibility.
The boot menu is therefore not available to me.
I Suspect this was caused by installing a program in windows 7 and then entering registration details. This is a legit program which has always run correctly when windows was the only OS installed on the computer so I assume the boot up process has been damaged in some way.
I do have a copy of Rescatux, Gparted and a backup of my home files on disk but wondered what the best way forward is ?
By best I mean simplest or should I take this opportunity (or disaster) to format the whole system and do a complete reinstall but move up to Mint 12 ?
Thanks
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7 REPLIES 7
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Boot Problem

It sounds like it has upset your grub loader.
Boot from your Mint 11 cd and follow the instructions here (http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=7201.0)
ejs
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Re: Boot Problem

Quote from: gleneagles
stopping system V runlevel compatibility.

That message is well past grub, it sounds like the sort of thing that would come from the init program, which I guess for Mint is upstart. Although if you no longer get the boot menu, then I assume you no longer get the "stopping system V runlevel compatibility." message either?
VileReynard
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Re: Boot Problem

What happens if you boot into a previous kernel (GRUB keeps at least two, unless you have changed it).

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gleneagles
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Re: Boot Problem

Thanks for the responses to the original post,
Had a go at booting from the Mint CD and followed the instructions shown in the link but without success.
Booting into a previous kernel ended with a long list of processes which were all terminated and then the system just hung.
To cut a long story short I just wiped the drive & then reinstalled Windows followed by Mint 12 so everything is sorted BUT just out of curiosity is it common for a program installed via windows which is in it's own partition on the disk to be able to effect something outside that partition. I ask as I have managed to install a number of programs into the windows partition without any adverse effects ?
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HairyMcbiker
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Re: Boot Problem

Not normally unless they are virii or write to the disk in a specific place - like some old DRM stuff used to do.
The two should normally be separate and remain so.
ejs
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Re: Boot Problem

It could also have been that something done inside Mint 11 broke something, but wasn't noticeable until you attempt to reboot it later.
HairyMcbiker
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Re: Boot Problem

True but I haven't had anything like that other than when I tried installing E17 and borked the system.