Limitations

Before you proceed, first determine if this is actually a system issue. If your system boots fine, this is likely an application issue. We recommend you first visit the Focus Support page and search for a topic using the list or the search box. These are almost always more current and correct for your hardware than HOWTOs or forum posts you might find on the web. You should continue here only if your system does not completely boot or if you are getting warnings about missing dependencies or libraries.

Recovering an installation may be preferable because applications, settings, and other data will not need to be restored. However, like with all OSes, a badly broken system can take hours to recover and still be problematic. While a Clean Install requires recovery of data, it usually takes well under 30 minutes and can solve issues you do not have time to research or understand. For these reasons, we recommend you always keep a clean installation as an alternative and limit the time you dedicate to recovery efforts.

Any system work always has inherent risks. Mistakes happen, and in this context, that can mean data loss. It is important, therefore, to keep your data safe using a backup solution on an external disk. See the Backup Guided Solution to save your data before proceeding if possible.

Recover from BusyBox Shell

Sometimes the system will boot but drop to a BusyBox Shell as shown below.

This frequently results from a corrupt filesystem, as detailed by this Ask Ubuntu ticket. The solution is to enter the command exit into the shell to report the corrupt filesystem. You may then repair it using fsck <device-file> as shown below.

After the filesystem repair is complete, type in reboot or exit to reboot the system. If the repair was good (which it usually is), the system should now boot normally.

Fix Your System Using FocusRx

Focus systems have a recovery tool called FocusRx which can identify and resolve many issues:

• Check if the /boot partition is too full and fix it
• Check and remove any xorg.conf file
• Repair broken or incomplete packages
• Update and reinstall key libraries
• Analyze NVIDIA GFX, CUDA, and DL libraries and harmonize so they work
• Fix many third-party repositories and remove duplicates and conflicts
• Update the initial RAM disk

You can run FocusRx as shown below.

• Connect to an Ethernet cable and AC power.
• Reboot the system. If the default kernel does not boot, use the kernel selection screen, Advanced Options to select a different kernel if available.
• If you can boot to a GUI, sign in and run Startup Menu > Kubuntu Focus > FocusRx.
• If you cannot boot to a GUI, but instead see a black screen and cursor, press [ctrl][alt][f2] to get a virtual terminal. Sign in as your user and then enter focusrx -f.
• In FocusRx, elect to run package-check when prompted
• If the tool shows your system disk is 100% full, remove unneeded files to free at least 10 GB before proceeding.
• Follow the prompts and reboot when finished.

Use a Live USB for Recovery

Please Download the ISO Disk Image and create a bootable, live USB. Then return here to proceed.

Boot using the USB stick as shown below.

• Insert the USB stick in a USB type A port on your Kubuntu Focus System.
• Turn on the computer. Once you see the logo, press F2 repeatedly on your keyboard to enter the BIOS.
• Select Boot Manager from the options on the screen, using either the touchpad or your cursor keys.
• Select the USB drive from the list of available drives.
• Select Start Kubuntu from the boot menu.
• Select Try Kubuntu from the graphical prompt.

Use chroot to Recover a System

1. Use the live USB procedure (above) to boot into the Try Kubuntu mode. Then open a Konsole terminal and enter the lines as shown below.

2a. ENCRYPTED DRIVE ONLY: Decrypt the drive and mount the root filesystem.

2b. UNENCRYPTED DRIVE ONLY: Mount the root filesystem.

3. Back up your data.

If you haven’t yet backed up your data, please do so NOW! See the Take a Snapshot with USB Drive to save your important files to a separate drive. You can find your user data under /mnt/home/. While each subsequent step below is usually safe, each brings additional risk because of an unknown system state or human error. Better safe than sorry.

4a. ENCRYPTED DRIVE ONLY: Mount the boot and boot/efi filesystems.

4b. UNENCRYPTED DRIVE ONLY: Mount the boot/efi filesystem.

5. Prepare and use chroot.

6. Once the system has successfully switched to chroot mode, you may run FocusRx (above) to fix packages and other common issues.

7. Here are a few more steps you might try if FocusRx does not solve the problem:

• Attempt to fix broken packages using apt by typing sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade (this is also done by FocusRx).
• Use apt or aptitude to inspect, install, or uninstall packages that may have caused the problem; GUI tools like Discover or Muon are not available. The aptitude interface will run in a terminal and can be navigated using the keyboard.

See this article for additional details on using chroot.

8. When you are finished fixing the chroot environment, enter exit into terminal. Close the terminal and restart. If the repairs worked, the system should start as normal.

Disclaimer

We try hard to provide a useful solution validated by professionals. However, we cannot anticipate every situation, and therefore cannot guarantee this procedure will work for your needs. Always backup your data and test the solution to determine the correct procedure for you.

THIS SOLUTION IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOLUTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.