(SOLVED) Major problem booting Zorin 12.1 Ultimate

I came back after a weekend away, having powered off my Zorin 12 Ultimate laptop before going away.

On doing a boot from the power button, things started normally with the logo pulsing then the screen going black, as normal.

Rather than the Desktop appearing and being populated, the screen then pulsed with small white text then black for about five/six times.

Finally the screen stoppped pulsing and showed about 60 lines of text, finishing with :

"[OK] Started User Manager for UID 121 tty1
Zorin OS12.1 Ubuntu-W65-W67RD (my machine)
Ubuntu-W65-W67RD login:"

I tried just pressing Enter - no go and powered off. I then powered on again, this time putting in my password - only to be met with "incorrect password".

What is going on? I have the machine set to go straight to Desktop with no login, so it should not have asked for a password and does not recognise the only password I have ever used on the machine.

Suggestions please. Fortunately my Zorin 9 laptop is working fine - hence my urgent topic.

I would like to do something like a safe boot and normal lid close or power off shutdown to get things back to normal

I wonder if this might help, it sorta sounds the same issue.
https://forum.parallels.com/threads/sol ... en.339625/

First off when the prompt ends with login:you enter your username which should then start another prompt asking for password - you won't see any characters at all so you need to be careful. If you do succeed at logging in in the terminal the command line that next appears should be your username@machinename$: then enter

Code:

startx

From a security point of view I have never favoured autologin and from experience of other threads with autologin issues on earlier versions I would avoid like the plague.

Thanks both and many thanks for your promptness - I will try Swarf's tip first.

A few questions to be answered - if anyone knows:

What has happened to make my machine start like this?

Will it always start like this from now on or revert to letting me in directly as it used to do?

Will the lightdm tip restore normal login performance?

What is autonomic?

1. I tried Swarf's startx method and was told:

"xauth: file/home/ubuntu/.Xauthority does not exist"
and a little later
"xinit connection to x server was lost" and "x server shut down"

I was met by the same result, "x server shut down", when I retried things - as you do.

2 I tried the Quarkill method and was told:

"dpkg -query lightdm is not installed and no information is available"
also
"/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: lightdm is not installed"

"sudo reboot now" gave the same invitation to enter username and password, but cleanly with no flashing black and little white writing pages.


Whilst I had got into the command line and entered startx, I noticed that 69 packages can be updated and 42 updates are security updates - would it help if I installed them from the command line - if so, how?

Also should I reinstall /home/ubuntu/.Xauthority and lightdm - if so, how?

Naturally, I don't want to do another (third/ fouth?) fresh install and loose all the additional programmes and settings I have painstakingly added over the last six months.

Hi, I may be wrong but you should not be receiving anything that states 'ubuntu' - I suspect you have a corrupt update that has pulled in some updates to Ubuntu so you may have a hybrid install? I believe because Zorin is based on Gnome it actually uses GDM for the glowing Z - ldm is where you get the 4 dots and just the OS name in the middle of the screen with the dots moving from left to right or lighting up left to right. To install the updates, can you get GRUB at all and choose Safe Mode? Then run DPKG but be sure you have a wired connection to the internet, once you have updated, DON'T select continue but shut down and reboot.

I chose ubuntu as my username, so this was what I expected to see. My Zorin 12 Ultimate machine starts with a pulsing Z and is therefore using GDM, I guess - certain in fact - I never enabled the NVIDIA drivers, which I guess use lightdm. The Quarkill lightdm workaround therefore does not seem relevant - but thanks Quarkill anyway.

Looking online, I find that https://askubuntu.com/questions/300682/ ... ority-file gives a solution of:

Ctrl+Alt+F1 when I'm in the login screen. (I guess that I am already there having entered my username and password)
Then change the ownership of .Xauthority which is previously owned by ROOT by executing. The following command:

chown username:username .Xauthority (in my case chown ubuntu:ubuntu .Xauthority)

Perhaps this would get startx working again?

Alternatively, could I do a gksudo nautilus and put a copy on .Xauthority into /home/ubuntu/ with permissions for ubuntu to use it?

I have never tried to get GRUB and never run safe mode - although I did wonder about doing it (left hand shift whilst the pulsing Z in showing, I believe). Is it worthwhile to get into GRUB and do the updates before trying anything else? How do I run DPKG when in GRUB, please?

Thanks again for your help.

Hi, First off I may not know my left from my right - read a recent post which said 'right shift' key (my left doesn't work any more - perhaps it never did - might be something to do with being left-handed! LOL!). Just to state I have never had any .Xauthority issue all the time I have used GNU/Linux so I can't state whether the solution you found will work or otherwise. In respect of getting DPKG to run in Safe mode, you need to get to GRUB menu, then Choose the 'Advanced' Option - this will give a list of current and earlier kernels with a safe option under each - choose the safe option under your current kernel - this will launch a menu to give you various options: dropping to command with Network, DPKG etc. You need to have a wired connection for this to work or to ensure you don't lose a connection if you were using wifi for example. DPKG will search for missing packages in relation to your install, bring them and install them. After it has completed, do not choose Continue - shut the computer down and reboot. (Acknowledgments to Wolfman).

Hi
I had the same problem. And i found that the command startx worked for me.

Hi
I had the same problem. And i found that the command startx worked for me.

It will work but you shouldn't have to keep repeating the exercise - fortunately I have had no such issues.

It appears that an .Xauthority file is in my /home/user/, when I have gone in to the command line and entered "ls -lah" - but that it has no content - 0Kb. Its read write permissions look OK (-rw-------).

The x server appears to run and then shuts down when I try a reboot once I am in and have entered "sudo reboot now". No errror messages.

I am not certain when to use sudo - online it seems it should be used sparingly - so how should I reboot once I am in?

I have not tried startx recently - I have been going out by pressing the power button once to power down and again to restart

Had this issue as well yesterday and suspect it had to do with some updates. I did run spt-get update and apt-get upgrade from the command line and was able to start again normally.

I also run into this issue a few days ago after an "normal" update.
For me reinstalling of gdm solved the problem: sudo apt install gdm3 --reinstall
Then start/restart gnome: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 restart --or startx

I also did an "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" from the command line yesterday - the screen went blank whilst working, so I left it for an hour - till the HDD light was permenently off.

I have not tried a normal restart yet as I was told by Zorin 12 Ultimate support that a recent NVIDIA driver update could have affected things. They recommended removing the NVIDIA drivers by using GRUB.

This is where it gets interesting:

1. I have NVIDIA drivers installed, but after reading on this forum of the problems they cause, I have never used them. Why should they have affected anything if they are not selected?

2. GRUB is so well hidden in Zorin 12 that I have been unable to access it. I used to see it at every start up on Zorin 9. Zorin Ultimate Support said press Shift repeatedly on start up. Fine but:

When? - when the Bios fires up - when the glowing Z shows up

Which Shift? - some say left - some say right - Zorin Ultimate Support gave no guidance.


What I got by pressing alternating left and right Shift, in pulses of four, was:

Result - nothing like Zorin 9 - in fact nothing like what was suggested - no boot menu and no Zorin OS (recovery mode).

What I got was a green/blue box on black with my username in it. Tried my password and hey presto - back to the green/blue box - madness!

Fiddled with the black boxes up at the top right and found an account settings. Looked in there (security, I think) and a four digit password showed (I had set the laptop up so no password is required to boot) my password is eight digits. I unlocked the settings and selected no password which had somehow been checked to require a password.

Tried the green/blue box on black with my username on it and had my password recognised, I guess ( why, when I had set no password, I wonder - what a mixed up world!) and entered a strange, hollowed out, clone world of Zorin 12 - but not as I know it - strange bluey green background with some minute black icons top right and "activity" top left - weird. Noticed in passing that settings (in one of the black icons) had rather nice icons - far better than in Zorin 12. Finally found that clicking on activities gave some icons down the left hand margin that I recognised.

Got to the command line and tried " mount -o rw, remount / - not so fast you need to be root - or some such reply! So this was not GRUB then!!

Tried "sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade". Not much activity in either, but looked OK, so perhaps the earlier upgrade had worked.

Got into software and found updates, which I selected. I left the machine to it. One hour later, it seemed to have stalled and now locked out again on a splash screen, which had appeared from nowhere. I think it responded to my password - confused and bruised!

Confidence in Zorin 12 Ultimate at a very low ebb - I don't think that I have cocked anything up yet.

Best Wishes FP

Hi, If you have installed nVidia drivers then they will be in charge until you deselect them in Settings - last tab when you click on Settings button after cancelling Software Updater. Before my updates started preventing me from using the Shift Key (I had read on an Ubuntu forum/splurge that people were complaining that there was no information about the need to press the Shift Key (Left) at boot time - I used to do this when after the BIOS/POST screen the blank screen with the green/blue border presented itself and it worked - not since. Now I have attached my Windows Drive (I normally have it disconnected in the Tower (Zorin is in the hot bay) and following a recent update GRUB appears - so if you add another drive (not possible unless you have a notebook that supports two drives I know) with either Windows or other GNU/Linux distro, you will get GRUB.

I may have been in error about the NVIDIA drivers.

My machine in not using lightdm, which I believe is associated with NVIDIA. The use of GRUB to remove NVIDIA drivers is therefore probably not needed. Opinions, please.

What I will do is the workaround dackyx suggested - Question: do I type all of this, the --bits?:

"sudo apt install gdm3 --reinstall
Then start/restart gnome: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 restart --or startx"


Swarf, you said:

"I used to do this when after the BIOS/POST screen the blank screen with the green/blue border presented itself"

Was this the screen after the BIOS screen disappears - the black screen before the pulsing Z appears?

Also, I have an external drive with my "backups" data on it - will connecting this make GRUB appear? I could purchase another drive and put MakuluLinux-9-Xfce-x86.iso on it. Would that make GRUB appear automatically on start up or do I have to take an action?

Zorin 12 Ultimate support think pressing Shift repeatedly, whilst booting, will summon GRUB - are they wrong?

I may have been in error about the NVIDIA drivers.

My machine in not using lightdm, which I believe is associated with NVIDIA. The use of GRUB to remove NVIDIA drivers is therefore probably not needed. Opinions, please.

What I will do is the workaround dackyx suggested - Question: do I type all of this, the --bits?:

"sudo apt install gdm3 --reinstall
Then start/restart gnome: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 restart --or startx"


Swarf, you said:

"I used to do this when after the BIOS/POST screen the blank screen with the green/blue border presented itself"

Was this the screen after the BIOS screen disappears - the black screen before the pulsing Z appears?

Also, I have an external drive with my "backups" data on it - will connecting this make GRUB appear? I could purchase another drive and put MakuluLinux-9-Xfce-x86.iso on it. Would that make GRUB appear automatically on start up or do I have to take an action?

Zorin 12 Ultimate support think pressing Shift repeatedly, whilst booting, will summon GRUB - are they wrong?

1. The -- bits are like additional instructions to the main command so yes they will be needed - not seen it in the context of --or ... though!

2. If you installed a different distro that uses init instead of system.d which is what Ubuntu and Debian migrated to which caused a major rift in users in respect of Debian, then yes, your Zorin GRUB will get overwritten by the other distro so it will show up your new distro as the first option and Zorin as a second option. And yes, pressing the Shift key when the screen appears after BIOS but before Z. My initial findings were to use the Left Shift key only but another post on a different forum recently said Right shift key. I have noticed key changes in 'supertux' game have occurred recently so that might be down to an update or an extension to gnome shell I am running that may overwrite key allocations!

Thanks for your reply, Swarf. I will postpone updating gdm, Because:

Some good news and bad news.

Good news:

a. I fired up my Kratos 1000 with the Zorin 12 Ultimate on it and it opened straight away into the screen with "activities" top left. It would have helped if in Zorin Appearance (when I have looked at it in the past and not been able to decipher what was on offer) that this screen had been identified by a name - only the most experienced can recognise what it or the others are from the few sketchy lines - I have to call it " the screen with "activities" top left".

b. With some internet searching, I had already begun to suspect that the appearance had been changed to something I did not recognise. I had also seen Zorin Appearance icon about third or fourth down the list after I had clicked on "Activities" last time I ran the Kratos 1000 laptop.

c. Simple change to appearance then and the job is a good one!!

Not so fast!!!


Bad news:

a. No sign of Zorin Appearance in the items shown after clicking "Activities". Also no way of scrolling beyond the six or so items shown. Yet another hidden feature, I wonder - I wouldn't be surprised!

b. Undaunted, I put "Zorin Appearance" in the search box as requested by Zorin Ultimate Support. Nothing doing. Got a Box up saying "Problem in linux-image 4.4.0-78"; "The problem could not be reported"; "This is not an official Zorin package" (Surprising this, I thought); Please remove and third party package and try again".

c. Thought on another idea - Zorin Appearance used to be in Settings! Went to settings Zorin Appearance nowhere to be seen - it has disappeared just when I wanted to use it - how perverse!!!

How do I get my Zorin Appearance back, please?

Hi, It should be under: Menu | System Tools | Zorin Appearance:

I have the Applications extension showing just to show the location for you.

If you have synaptic package manager installed (available from Software) search for Zorin Appearance and mark for reinstallation:

Thanks, Swarf - I will try reinstalling Zorin Appearance using Synaptic package manager - which it still there.

Then I should be able to get through to the default screen (top left selection in the grid in Zorin Appearance, I believe). I hope that everything is where I left it.

What a palaver from a system update!

All's well that ends well though!

I powered up to the "activities" screen, opened Synaptic Package Manger to be met with this message:

"You have one broken package on your system"
"Use "Broken" filter to locate it"

I found Zorin Appearance (which was not installed) and installed it, linux-image 4.4.0-78 was installed along with some other items.

I found the "Broken" filter and by now there were no broken packages - so - good to go, I thought!

Added Zorin Appearance to favourites, found it - clicked on - what the heck - Blue screen of death!!!

I seem to think that, when I was in Synaptic Zorin section, Zorin OS box was empty - must recheck this - but I do get the pulsing Z on start up from power off.

Everything seems to work - activities top left a few black boxes outlined in white top right, a black background (periodically a small blue box medium top right - what is that?) - no Zorin logo showing anywhere, so no means of clicking it to get more features.

Weird!!

I read something online about Zorin 12.1 and Zorin Desktop 2 - which I should have as I have updated to 12.1, I think.

How can I confirm that I actually have 12.1?

Anyway it appears as though I am stuck in Activities Overview - although without the Zorin logo and lower screen features that I see online.

I will try tapping logo/super key and see if that takes me back to sanity.

Settings | Details

I pressed the logo key and found that it only alternated between two screens:

a. Basically black screen - I suspect that this is Activities Overview

Activities text in Blue box, top left
Date, top centre
Search near top centre
Favourites, block vertically stacked on the left
Blue box near top right - more blue boxes as application are opened - can be removed by swiping right - always one left
Nine grid box, bottom left - three rows of three dots - click and all applications icons appear.
no Zorin logo anywhere


b. Basically blue screen - I suspect that this is some screen that can be selected by Zorin Appearance, but which I have not selected and don't recognise or want. I think that my desktop should be displayed on the blue screen. I think that there is a trick to get a desktop back - can anyone remember how?

Black full width narrow ribbon at top
Activities text left on ribbon
Date, centre on ribbon
Black box headers, right on ribbon 1. keyboard layout and english 2. settings, security and power off
no Zorin logo anywhere

Settings > details > reveals Zorin 12
Question - how do I know that Zorin 12.1 installed successfully?

Everything seems to be there - all my favourite and applications. Nautilus shows everything is there including my desktop - which is otherwise nowhere to be seen. All my documents, downloads photos, music etc. are there but with different icons than I am used to seeing.

I have got into Synaptic package manger:

a. It shows no NVDIA items installed whatsoever. Question: In spite of this, should I still run a command line purge of NVIDIA as Zorin Ultimate Support suggested?
Note: In software updater, in the last box, various NVIDIA drivers appear with bell push selectors.
b. I reinstalled gdm3

I ran Settings > details > Zorin 12 > OS updates. It seems to hang up
with 50% of the blue line completed. I left it for an hour - no joy - will leave another two hours.

Does anyone recognise either of the screens that I can access or suggest a way of getting Zorin appearance to work so that I can see the standard screen and my desktop again?

In passing, in Synaptic package manager, amongst others:
Zorin-os-ultimate is not checked as installed (12.0)
Zorin-os-standard is checked as installed (1,04)
Zorin-os-minimal is checked as installed (1.04)
Zorin-os-desktop is not checked as installed (1.04)

Have you got gnome-tweak-tool installed? You'll need this to turn on Zorin panel and Zorin menu. When you get to login screen, left-click the cog and select Zorin desktop and not Zorin default.

I could not find > login screen > cog in Tweak Tool so could not select Zorin desktop and not Zorin default. As a result I have been unable to turn on Zorin pane and Zorin menu yet. Please can you give me more specific information on where the login screen option features.

I wonder if I was actually in Gnome tweak tool - worryingly I saw no cogs in any option. I will check in Synaptic Package Manager to ensure only Gnome TweakTool is installed and do a reinstall.

I found that Tweak Tool > Desktop > icons on desktop was selected off. I selected them on and now I have my desktop back!

My writer application is reducing in size, when it feels like it and seems to be restored to full size by clicking it – also just a close x top right – how do I get minimise and middle size options back?

I have checked and reinstalled Gnome Tweak Tool – no unity tweak tool installed.

There was something else that I noticed Tweak Tool > Appearance, there was a black triangle with an internal exclamation mark next to Shell theme – I think that this could be significant – but how do I rectify things? There is no response to clicking the down arrow on the shell theme box.

I have managed to get the minimise and maximise buttons back on my applications.

Surprisingly, having been forced into using it, I am beginning to understand and like the activities overview screen and the better icons that I see on my Desktop.

If only I can alternate back to the default appearance when I want to – and get the Zorin Pane and Zorin menu back!

I'll do a full reply later Dad's Taxi calls

OK, the cog is not in Gnome Extensions - it is at logon - if you have autologin then I don't think you can get it back?:

https://vimeo.com/219218718

Shame I have auto log on then.

Coming back to what I saw:

"There was something else that I noticed Tweak Tool > Appearance, there was a black triangle with an internal exclamation mark next to Shell theme – I think that this could be significant – but how do I rectify things? There is no response to clicking the down arrow on the shell theme box."

Is this significant? Does Tweak Tool > Appearance pick up Zorin Desktop, if enabled? Does having Tweak Tool >Appearance functional mean that Zorin Appearance, Zorin panel and Zorin menu will start working again?


I can enable it seemingly by (someone else's solution):

"I solved this problem myself, and it was an extremely trivial solution:

1. Open Gnome Tweak Tool.
2. Click on the Extensions menu item, and move the User themes slider to On.
3. Close Gnome Tweak Tool and open it again.

You should now be able to choose a Shell theme in the Appearance menu."


Almost certain I could use the laptop as it is without Zorin Appearance, Zorin panel and Zorin menu but I would rather have them back.

Also, Any tips about getting OS update from Home Server in "Software" working cleanly again, please?

Best Wishes F.P.

Hi, I have made another video - had some issues stopping Gnome Desktop capture so you get to see it almost two times - to get gnome-tweak-tool you can launch it from the terminal by just entering:

Code:

gnome-tweak-tool

Here is the other video:

https://vimeo.com/219222247

Thanks, Swarf. It looks like I will have to follow your tutorial to get the extra Gnome Tweak Tool Extensions working.

I had installed them once - before I reinstalled the OS after some trauma or other.

It seems as though that avenue will be productive.

Does this mean that I don't need to worry about "Tweak Tool > Appearance - a black triangle with an internal exclamation mark next to Shell theme"?

Hi, I'm trying to remember if I had the same issue until I installed the Zuki theme?

I followed your tutorial on Gnome Tweak Tool extensions and Gnome advice, then finally entered "gnome-shell-extension-prefs". Success!

I hen used Gnome Tweak Tool > extensions and switched on:

Zorin background plus
Zorin dash
Zorin menu
Zorin overview
Zorin panel
Zorin taskbar

I am not certain which other extensions would be good to switch on - any recommendations?

For some reason or other, both my desktop icon size (and style) as well as the text size are pretty well what I have been looking for since day 1 - EUREKA!!!

I just need to have a successful update from the main Server and I can mark this thread Closed. Ten days of grief but with potentially a great outcome - thanks again. F.P.

I tried Zorin 12 Ultimate Support's suggestion of “sudo dpkg --configure -a” and then tried Zorin menu > software > update. This ran very slowly with no details of what was going on. I gave it one hour then 2, 3, 4 hours before closing the lid for the night. The blue bar got to half way and appeared to stop for the last hour or more - I wish there was some indication of activity.

The next day, something else caused me to power off and restart so that update was cancelled. I had a program loaded called “software updater” it sounded promising and I am not certain if I loaded it or if it came with Zorin 12 Ultimate. This was promising as it enabled me to select what was to be updated - I omitted the latest Kodi update, which I have read would install DRMS - and away it went showing me what it was doing. Then it stopped saying the package manager was broken with some command line to run - I tried copying it but when I got to the Terminal it would not paste. “software updater” had by now closed after it had sent a problem identifier back to base - frustrating! It also said that a third party PPA may be responsible for updates not running. How could I identify which PPA could be causing problems?

I ran Synaptic Package Manager, which, perhaps surprisingly, showed that there were no broken packages. As I thought that it might be relevant, I reinstalled dpkg and dpkg-dev.

I then tried “software updater” again - Eureka!! Success! Should I run “software updater” in future rather than “Zorin menu > software > update ” - where I previously found a link to update and which 50% completed? Interestingly enough - it still shows an outstanding Zorin OS update outstanding - do I have to download this as well - I thought that I just had? What is going on here?

Hi, to check your PPA's look here:

'Stop' Software Updater, then click on 'Settings' then on 4th Tab - you can reset sources to defaults - bear in mind the PPA that is causing the issue once removed will mean any particular application reliant on this will either not work or fail to update.

I prefer either Software Updater or from the Terminal:

Code:

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

(You don't need to include -get in Gnome Shell)

All seems to be running well - after what was a major hiccup.

All's well that ends well - after 6 months my Zorin 12 Ultimate is really working well.

Thanks for everyone's help.