Ubuntu 18.04 stuck on boot in tty with no network

ept0915

3/16/24, 8:31 AM

I've had a problem with my python3 installation while trying to upgrade it from 3.6 to 3.8 in order to make streamdeck-ui work, and it seems that I broke Ubuntu on my desktop.

On boot, I briefly see the purple screen with loading dots, then it goes to tty and gets stuck there. Network is also unavailable, so I can't use apt in an attempt to clean things up. I don't even have ifconfig. When typing reboot, I also see the purple screen and loading dots, which makes me think something's wrong with X server, but I'm not sure and I don't know what to do.

Here is the config I have : AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 16GB RAM, Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS. I only have wired network, which needs credentials to use (could it be the reason why it's unavailable in tty ?).

I tried what's described here : https://www.howtogeek.com/196740/how-to-fix-an-ubuntu-system-when-it-wont-boot/ The network option has no effect and I can't read the messages (when there are some, they disappear too quickly). The failsafeX is not provided in my case.

I tried this : https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/462044/cant-run-startx-on-tty But commands like ubuntu-drivers are not available so I can't even follow the entire thread.

I also tried this : Repairing broken installation from Live USB without losing data Whatever partition I pick, I get stuck to the "No root file system is defined" popup. The live USB I use doesn't provide the simple "reinstall ubuntu" option that I've seen elsewhere.

I made a backup of most of my /home folder but there are still things I'd like not to lose (i.e. vscode, obsidian). I'm not sure how to make full backup of those, considering I don't have access to them anymore.

Please let me know if you have any idea or need more info.

Any help will be most welcome.

0 + 4

boot

xorg

tty

18.04

David

3/25/24, 7:22 PM

Ubuntu relies quite heavily on the version of python it ships with. Messing with or trying to upgrade to a different version will break your system. This will most likely require a reinstall to fix. Do not mess with the default.

ept0915

3/27/24, 8:52 AM

Thanks @David, this is the conclusion I was slowly and sadly heading to... perhaps naively (and because I obviously missed some important knowledge on linux at one point of my journey with it) I thought it mostly relied on C family languages, not that much on python. I noticed we could have several python versions at once though. Do you think it is safe ? So that I can use the various packages I'd like to use.

David

3/27/24, 9:08 AM

There are ways to have more then one version of python one is to use Docker and if you search this site you will find many questions with answers on how to have more then one version of python on the machine but not change or mess with the default.

ept0915

3/28/24, 10:09 AM

Thanks again @David, guess I'll start digging on the topic then !

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