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Ubuntu won't load up after the encryption screen, updates messed up

kr flag
Lawolawo

Edit: Thank you for the two comments (not sure where the other one went), I promise to be more careful in the future haha. I managed to save my files thanks to the suggested actions, so thank you very much. Now I'm just going to reinstall everything. Cheers.

First I'd like to just say I'm not great with computers in general, so sorry in advance for anything silly I might say.

I've been using Ubuntu for about 2 years now (still a complete casual at it) and I've kept getting software update messages that I sometimes ignore and sometimes accept. When I accept them it always says that the update could not complete. I either go for a partial upgrade or just quit. This time though I thought I'd press continue. So Ubuntu updates, after which everything goes crazy. I can't access user settings, can't log off / power off via the drop down menu, the icons for volume, brightness, connectivity and all messed up etc... So I decided to just cut the power and restart.

Now all I can do is enter my password for the encryption like normal, and then it loads a little until it just jumps back to the Acer splash screen and just sits there for hours.

I've tried booting into GRUB and selecting different the 2 different versions (are they called kernals? Not sure) there, and using the dpkg option in recovery mode to fix stuff but I get:

Reading cache Cannnot upgrade An upgrade from 'bionic' to 'focal' is not supported with this tool.

I was thinking of reinstalling Ubuntu (apparently there's an option to keep old files and reinstall) but when I tried to reinstall using the same USB / file I used originally 2 or so years ago, the installer can't even detect an operating system anymore. Should I download the latest Ubuntu version on to the USB or do I need the same version I used originally? The version it may have been trying to update to? I believe I saw 'welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.5' while I was messing around, so that's either what I had or was updating to)

I have lots of notepads and pictures that are my number 1 priority in this whole situation, I'd hate to lose them. Preferably I'd just go back to how things were before the update (I don't have any backups because I'm an idiot). Please keep in mind I know very little, so any simplification of how I can fix this update would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
It sounds like you have been conflating normal updates with release upgrades to a different version of Ubuntu. Regular updates are a necessary part of good system maintenance and should be completed regularly. If they aren't working in the software center, use `apt` in the command line to get verbose details about what's not working. It sounds like you now have a failed release upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04. I suggest that you reinstall 20.04 cleanly. As mentioned above, you can use a live session to access your data. Now is also a good time to design a backup strategy.
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