Q4OS Forum

debiandonder

Member

Registered: 2019-02-09

Posts: 34

Q40S gone

I had some system freezes while using Firefox and other programs. I had no control of the keyboard or mouse or the buttons on the PC. I had the KDE version installed.

After the last freeze, I only got a "unidentified file system" and something about recovery.

What can cause the whole operating system to get so damaged that it won't boot and just disappears?

Would making a startup disk, repair the operating system after a big bugger up?

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Q40S gone

Anything is possible. Sounds like a hard drive issue, possibly damaged boot sector......
Boot the machine using live media
If you can access the hard dive, copy off any data you want to keep.

Then install gsmartcontrol via command line sudo apt-get install gsmartcontrol
Its a GUI app that will allow you to test the disk for bad sectors and other errors.
A couple of bad sectors is fine - but lots may mean the drive is at the end of life - physical age is not an indicator in itself.
The extended test can take a while!

After that - assuming the drive reports OK you could reboot and keep tapping esc. That should - if you're lucky - bring up the grub boot menu. You want to access the Recovery boot.

That may just dump you out at a command prompt, or may bring everything back to life.

Either way I would just do a full re-install as quite frankly it is usually what you wind up doing in the end.

debiandonder

Member

Registered: 2019-02-09

Posts: 34

Re: Q40S gone

Thank you so much for your reply.

I did test the RAM with memtest, but after one and a half hours I gave up, it could be the hard drive too. I is difficult to say because my PC is over six years old.

When Q40S disappeared I went looking for a CD of my previous Zorin 9 OS (Ubuntu 14.04 based) and installed that. I saw that I was running Linux kernel 3.3 or something and downloaded Debian 9 net installer. I had some problems with mirror download site and ended up with no desktop environment.

I installed the old Ubuntu again and downloaded Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, which I am using now.

All of this stuff is very technical for me, but I will like to try Q40S again when the stable version is based on Debian 10, because it has a newer Linux kernel, 4.18, instead of 4.9. Everything seems to work better with this later Linux kernel.

Last edited by debiandonder (2019-04-09 13:29)

sickpig

Member

Registered: 2019-01-08

Posts: 52

Re: Q40S gone

or try q4os testing, i believe that is based on debian testing with newer kernel

debiandonder

Member

Registered: 2019-02-09

Posts: 34

Re: Q40S gone

So, I presume that I can use Centuarus in a live environment? They don't recommend using is on a production PC.

I can't find out anywhere when Debian 10 will go into stable release and when Q40S based on Debian 10 will reach stable?

Some months off, I guess.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Q40S gone

I have found the latest TDE Trinity Centaurus/Buster to be solid. TBH provided you use a separate /home there's not a lot to go wrong.

debiandonder

Member

Registered: 2019-02-09

Posts: 34

Re: Q40S gone

I have found the latest TDE Trinity Centaurus/Buster to be solid. TBH provided you use a separate /home there's not a lot to go wrong.

I must have not read carefully at first but I saw that the Q40S KDE version based on Debian 10(Buster) will become stable in a few weeks according to the website.

sickpig

Member

Registered: 2019-01-08

Posts: 52

Re: Q40S gone

ubuntu is based on debian testing

jotapesse

Member

From: Algarve, Portugal

Registered: 2019-03-23

Posts: 67

Re: Q40S gone

ubuntu is based on debian testing

Yes, but Ubuntu is not the best example. It has many changes on top and binaries packages built-in that make it quite incompatible with Debian, although it's base is the same. You should never mix Ubuntu packages with Debian for example, you may render your system unusable. I also find Ubuntu much more unstable than Debian Testing.

I have been using Debian Testing as my daily driver working system for years now with very small issues. But if you aren't willing to deal with the occasional Testing issues than you should opt for Debian Stable + Backports which gives you the best compromise for a stable base and updated applications. Q4OS and others distros offer this base and some customisation on top, making it more user friendly for everyone, and also Testing if you want to go that route.

---

jotapesse - Obrigado / Thank you.

debiandonder

Member

Registered: 2019-02-09

Posts: 34

Re: Q40S gone

I tried Q40S with the KDE desktop which is based on Debian stable and I also enabled the back ports.

It worked for a while but later began freezing while using web browsers. The last freeze of the system, left me with a white text message about "unrecognized file system" and some message about recovery mode.

I didn't know what to do after that and installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS from a CD a had from 2014.

Now I have Lubuntu 18.04 LTS and no freezes at all. I don't know what went wrong with the Q40S installation, all I know is that Debian 9 stretch/stable was anything but stable on my system.

sickpig

Member

Registered: 2019-01-08

Posts: 52

Re: Q40S gone

Backports might have screwed it up. Otherwise its quite stable imo.