Ubuntu Studio booting to Grub

[Tippon]

I installed Ubuntu Studio 16.04 x64 onto my laptop, hoping that it would be a bit quicker than Windows 10. Everything went well, and I set up disk encryption and home encryption, mainly to see if it was useable on my laptop. While I was using the laptop I had a notification for some system updates. They downloaded and started to install, and the laptop locked up. The screen went black and it was completely unresponsive. I forced a shutdown by holding the power button, and now all I can get is a Grub command line (not the rescue command line).

I realise now that the laptop may have just been running very slowly, even though normal usage was better than in Windows. I’m guessing that Grub just needs to be repaired or restored, but I get a secure boot error when I try running some commands, I think ls was one of them.

Is it worth trying to repair, or just wiping and starting again? There’s nothing important on it, but I’m wondering if it’s worth it as a learning exercise.

[Ed P]

The Ubuntu family ALL have a very nasty ‘feature’ that often locks out any other activity while downloading updates. I suspect that there is a bug in the way it handles resource allocation generating deadlocks.

I made my comment generic (i.e cpu, disk i/o, network) as it is difficult to pin down the bad actor. I know that I can cause deadlocks in a Ryzen powered vm simply by only allocating one core and 1GB ram then launch Firefox immediately after launch when the update daemon normally comes into action. That this is a cpu/ram deadlock is demonstrated by adding a core and upping ram to 2GB.

Just reinstall it and leave it alone while it is updating. Unless you need ALL the features of Studio I’d suggest that you look at a ‘lighter’ distro such as lubuntu. If you need a good editor then install kdenlive onto lubuntu – it is a really good video editor.

[Dave Rice]

Have to say I came to prefer Lubuntu (lxde) and Xubuntu (xfce) to even Mint.

[Tippon]

Thanks both. I may try Lubuntu then.

I was using Ubuntu Studio so that I could try it before I install it on my main PC, and see if it’s any good for me, so I might still play with it for a bit first. Either way, a reinstall is on the cards.

[Ed P]

Unless you need a Studio’s real-time kernel you may be better off with a bog standard Lubuntu + apps.Audio dsp seems to be the one real area of use for the not so average person e.g. Slippy and the like.

This Quora article lists the programs that are preinstalled in Studio. Tbh I have no idea what half of them do!

[D-Dan]

For information only since you are going the fresh install route, but you can repair a non-booting system with a liveCD and chrooting into the broken OS. This includes repairing GRUB.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

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