[Solved] drama, panic, horror: the reboot broke my MX Linux [Solved]

[ADomani]

Hi !

I've been using MX Linux (from memory: version 21, Debian 11 xfce) happily for a relatively long time, with no particular issues to note.

And today, following a reboot (which I can do from time to time without problem), it's the drama! panic, horror .
instead of finding myself on my usual desktop, I find myself facing a desktop that "seems" to resemble the original desktop, and the applications or scripts that normally load at boot are not launched.

Since my last reboot (about 3-4 days ago) I haven't done anything "special".
I remember:
> 2 updates, which I would say "classic".
> removing the "Flacpak" package

The rest being "standard" work

I have some knowledge of Linux but mainly on servers, but when it comes to GUI environments I can say I'm a nobs, which is why since I made my GUI a long time ago at the small onions, I don't touch them anymore, too afraid to "break" everything.

In short, it's a bit of a panic, because this machine is a key point in my network.

For information:
- currently I am cloning the disk of the system partition (still my 1st reflex)
- I have regular backups via "Timeshift" (2 per day, and 2 per week) on the second HDD, however I've never needed to use it for restoration, I don't know for the moment how it works.

Before touching anything, I come to ask you for advice and help.
-> Of course, how to recover my classic install
-> are there things to do or not to do
-> and for later: understand what happened, because suddenly, I will have stress at each reboot

Here, hoping that you can help me and / or advise me, because frankly I can not see myself starting from zero, after all these months of configuration

thank you very much in advance
AD

[j2mcgreg]

There's the possibility that you are a victim of chip creep. Try removing and reseating the ram stick(s) and reseating the SSD/HDD cable(s).

[oops]

Your regular backups via "Timeshift" should do the trick,

When correctly restored, you can also use: mx-snapshot (a bootable iso to reinstall your system, and months of configurations)
viewtopic.php?t=76709

[thinkpadx]

what the heck is chip creep? seriously - and no not referring to lay's or cape cod chips. never heard of it.

[ADomani]

There's the possibility that you are a victim of chip creep. Try removing and reseating the ram stick(s) and reseating the SSD/HDD cable(s).

Do you really think it's a hardware issue?
The machine is never moved, it is in an airy place and here, today, it's not very hot;)

But why not...

Once the SSD has been cloned, I will try to boot on an MX Live, just to "see".
I will follow your advice, just in case.
Thanks for getting back anyway.

[dolphin_oracle]

I'm not sure from the original post that anyone can tell you what happened.

And today, following a reboot (which I can do from time to time without problem), it's the drama! panic, horror .
instead of finding myself on my usual desktop, I find myself facing a desktop that "seems" to resemble the original desktop, and the applications or scripts that normally load at boot are not launched.

what does "original" desktop mean? what desktop are you using? the default scripts that come with MX or something else?

please provide the following:

quick-system-info
contents of /etc/fstab
output of sudo blkid

[Stevo]

I find myself facing a desktop that "seems" to resemble the original desktop, and the applications or scripts that normally load at boot are not launched.

If I understand you correctly, it's the same as creating a new user and logging into their pristine home folder?

[j2mcgreg]

@ADomani wrote:

Do you really think it's a hardware issue?
The machine is never moved, it is in an airy place and here, today, it's not very hot;)

Here's a good explanation of chip creep:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_cree ... 0vibration.

Note that you can get a similar effect with cables because as they age, their plastic sheaths and connectors can dry out and shrink a bit.

[ADomani]

Joy ! I found my MX Linux as before!!!

I will explain the problem (simple in the end) it could be useful to others:

1/ I logged in as root via the recovery console

2/ one thing that I didn't specify, it's really transparent for me, is that my "home" user is located on another partition/hdd.

3/ this partition is mounted in "bind" via /etc/fstab: "/mnt/SSD_DATAS1/<UserName> /home/<UserName>none bind"

4/ by checking my 'home' folder I saw that there was the strict minimum while on the remote partition everything was present...

5/ you understood, I look at "/etc/fstab", and without understanding why the mount line is not present (?!)

6/ whatever for the moment I add it as it should, I reboot and... Bingo!!

Now I have no idea why this fstab line disappeared, it's been months and months since I touched it, it remains a mystery for the moment.

But cool! a lot of stress for in the end a lesser evil!
it's that they ended up sticking to their MX Linux :)
I was afraid it was an update that went wrong, but no.

So I'm going to see if it's "simple" to migrate from my version 21.3 to versions 23

is it going smoothly or not?

(I'm marking this thread as solved)

and thank you to everyone who replied to my message!!

Phew!!

[ADomani]

Your regular backups via "Timeshift" should do the trick,

When correctly restored, you can also use: mx-snapshot (a bootable iso to reinstall your system, and months of configurations)
viewtopic.php?t=76709

Thanks, that will be useful!