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RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 5:28 am

I screwed up, tried to delete partitions in windows. I livecd booted to Mint and in os-prober it says "/dev/sda1:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition:Windows:chain". I am at "GRUB RECOVERY" at the start of my computer. is there a way to solve this?
edit: All it says under computer is "filesystem" and Mint files and programs are in there.
 
Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:45 am

So you deleted the Mint partitions?
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:29 am

RAMBO wrote:
I read that ext2 should be used for Mint/Maya 13-Linux/Unix /boot rather than ext4 because of problems with Grub with ext4, is ext2 a better option for stability considering my system? Also, can I just skip the /home partition during install or would this cause instability-I think it would be better to start from scratch for each distro I test out, the /home partition contains your settings and personal folders right?


You should use ext4. ext2 has been deprecated for sometime, and all the manpower is behind ext4, as far as ext filesystems go. ext2 also lacks journaling which makes it more susceptible to corruption. For a very crude analogy, ext2 is to ext4 what Fat32 is to NTFS. There are more subtle differences that make that analogy false, but it's within a one hundred mile radius of the truth.

I usally just use a / and swap partition then backup my data for laptops. My desktop has a /home partition, but that's my main data store. Yes, /home is where your profile lives.

Unix-like operating systems are really flexible as far as partitions are concerned, unless they use systemd which is, let's say, dumb, to be civil, and it's one of their best features, regardless of what Red Hat programmers who have never admined a day in their lives think.

Madman wrote:
That pie chart thing? It was ok, although not as cool as this scanner for Windows - http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/

Either way, it's possible to figure out what's happening if needed, but that's not very easy if multiple mount points are used.


I don't see how Scanner is better. To each his own.

That's almost how I feel about Windows. It's possible to figure out what's happening, if needed, but it's pretty hard if I don't have third party tool. I've found du and df work pretty well.
 
bjm
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 11:45 am

RAMBO wrote:
I screwed up, tried to delete partitions in windows. I livecd booted to Mint and in os-prober it says "/dev/sda1:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition:Windows:chain". I am at "GRUB RECOVERY" at the start of my computer. is there a way to solve this?
edit: All it says under computer is "filesystem" and Mint files and programs are in there.

It's difficult to say without seeing your partition scheme, but you may need to re-install grub as the partition order has changed since your removal of the Windows partition. You can boot the Linux Mint live CD and open a terminal, then do the following:

1. First, check your partition scheme to find your Linux Mint root partition. In terminal, type in:
sudo fdisk -l

You should see something similar to:
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       18725   150403072   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           18725       19458     5884929    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           18725       19458     5884928   82  Linux swap / Solaris

What you'll want to note is the "sda" or "sdb" letters and the numbers after them. "sda" denotes the hard drive, while 1-4 denotes primary partitions and 5+ are logical partitions. Once you find the hard drive that Linux Mint's root is on, proceed to step 2. (Though from your first post, you mention only one hard drive, so you should only have "sda"). If you'd like to do this in a GUI, you can also open Gparted. It should be on the Linux Mint live CD. If you're going to use Gparted to check the partitions, just be sure to unmount any partitions before proceeding. Our only purpose is to find the sda# of your Linux Mint root.

2. Next, mount your Linux Mint root partition by typing in terminal the following:
sudo mount /dev/sda# /mnt

Replace the "#" with the partition number of your Linux Mint root.

3. Now, you can re-install grub2 to point in the proper locations:
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

Reboot, and that should get you back into Mint. If it still fails, paste your fdisk-l results into the thread. That will let us know your partition scheme.
 
EsotericLord
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 2:16 pm

Side Note, as a Windows PC tech for a local college, reading this article is an amazing example as to why Linux hasn't come anywhere close to breaking into the mainstream market. This is a tech savvy guy just trying to get one of the simplest versions of Linux running comfortably.

Can you imagine the confusion an outside person would have if you tried to expose them to stuff like this after the decades of the stupid simplicity of Windows?

Could probably get rich and famous if you could successfully make a version of *nix for the everyman.
 
bjm
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 2:42 pm

EsotericLord wrote:
This is a tech savvy guy just trying to get one of the simplest versions of Linux running comfortably.

Well, to be more accurate, it's a tech savvy guy who did tech savvy things (deleted partitions) which affected the booting. But nevertheless, I do agree with your overall point.

Could probably get rich and famous if you could successfully make a version of *nix for the everyman.

It's always been my opinion that in order to make a successful version of a Unix/Linux platform for the masses, you can't use the traditional Linux APIs. If you do, you'll need to either fork and maintain them or create your own entirely. The main advantage to that is being able control the stability of the platform. It's considered normal in the Linux space to just recompile the entire application to update to a new API. Linux end-users don't typically do that today, but the package managers still do. This won't scale on the mass market level. So, what do you get when you control your APIs and try to make a *nix-based desktop OS? Mac OS X. What do you get when you control your APIs and try to make a *nix-based mobile device? Android.

But don't let the "Linux Desktop will rule the world!" fanboys cloud your judgement. The traditional Linux desktop and its APIs can still be judged on their own merits despite an inherent weaknesses (IMHO) as a mass market OS. The top Linux distributions are making excellent progress pursuing their own ideas as to what constitutes a desktop OS and will continue to attract a growing userbase. And I think for many readers of Tech Report, a Linux desktop is certainly viable.
 
Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 8:42 pm

EsotericLord wrote:
Side Note, as a Windows PC tech for a local college, reading this article is an amazing example as to why Linux hasn't come anywhere close to breaking into the mainstream market. This is a tech savvy guy just trying to get one of the simplest versions of Linux running comfortably.

Can you imagine the confusion an outside person would have if you tried to expose them to stuff like this after the decades of the stupid simplicity of Windows?

Could probably get rich and famous if you could successfully make a version of *nix for the everyman.

Sorry, you're wrong. Linux Mint setup is 10x easier than Windows setup, including if you do a proprietary GPU driver install. Try it! Win8/7/XP/... setups are a lot more intimidating for regular users. And Windows setup is just that, Linux Mint setup gives you a system with ready to work environment, including graphic editors, office productivity suite, web browsers, flash plugins, installed drivers, multimedia players and media format plugins, and very secure setup by default.

This really is a story of advanced user trying to do advanced things like deleting OS partitions from outside OS.

Dual boot is not simple, actually, no, it is very simple is you use Linux, because he managed to get it working. And it is, if you set up Mint second, which takes care of everything without you lifting a finger.

If you really want to feel pain, try setting up Windows as a second OS on a PC containing Linux install and some free unpartitioned space, that will be pain, I tell you. 8) Please post back after a month when wou have figured out it's almost impossible, and given up.

And no, I'm not a Linux fanboy, long time Windows user myself, starting from DOS days.
Last edited by Madman on Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bjm
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:07 pm

Madman wrote:
If you really want to feel pain, try setting up Windows as a second OS on a PC containing Linux install and some free unpartitioned space, that will be pain, I tell you. Please post back after a month when wou have figured out it's almost impossible, and given up.

The above steps I posted for RAMBO should resolve that issue also. The issue when Windows is installed after Linux is that the Windows Setup simply overwrites the MBR without asking if you care or not. (It's a bit presumptuous on Microsoft's part, but really, can you blame them?) If GRUB was on the MBR before Windows, then installing Windows afterwards would simply mean GRUB was overwritten with NTLDR (if XP was installed) or BOOTMGR (if Vista/7/8 was installed).

So, at that point, you have two options: 1) You can add a Linux boot entry to NTLDR or BOOTMGR to boot Linux (tools like EasyBCD make that easy) or 2) You can re-install GRUB into the MBR and add the appropriate entries for Windows and Linux. The above steps to RAMBO is option #2, since he already had GRUB installed but I presume it was mis-configured (due to his removal of a partition and the way GRUB counts partitions).
 
Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:18 pm

bjm wrote:
So, at that point, you have two options: 1) You can add a Linux boot entry to NTLDR or BOOTMGR to boot Linux (tools like EasyBCD make that easy) or 2) You can re-install GRUB into the MBR and add the appropriate entries for Windows and Linux. The above steps to RAMBO is option #2, since he already had GRUB installed but I presume it was mis-configured (due to his removal of a partition and the way GRUB counts partitions).

Yes, but try to get Linux and Windows working with Windows DVD only and installing Windows 2nd, and not resorting to Linux to fix the mess.

That's why I said, Mint is actually miles away in terms of ease of use in advanced scenarios. With Windows DVD only, you might just as well give up.
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:25 pm

EasyBCD is a Windows tool. It can be used to install a GRUB/GRUB2/LILO entry into the Windows boot loader to boot into Linux. You don't have to re-install GRUB. If you're restricting the scenario to strictly only the Windows DVD and not going to the web to download EasyBCD, well.. that's simply not fair. The Windows install DVD simply was not designed with the expectation that another non-Windows operating system is installed. Which, given the target market for the Windows install DVD, makes sense.
 
RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:26 am

I forgot my username and password, I had to reinstall multiple times and chose different passwords each time, yeah intelligent of me. I have read the posts reguarding recovery then root, but the boot screen does not give me the option to boot into recovery mode. It starts with bios options, goes blank for 20 seconds and then goes right into the log in manager. I had the boot options when I installed Mint 13/Maya on a seperate partition from windows, but I deleted windows and installed Mint 13/Maya on the whole HDD in my last install-I chose "erase everything" and did not create my own partitions. I can LiveCD boot and I tried to find etc/shadow to find my username, but I cannot find it. I have tried no passwords and everything else I can remember. Please help.

Edit: I panicked, I wanted to get everything up and running before the Mars Science Lab landing.
Last edited by RAMBO on Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:44 am

[quote="bjm"] Well, to be more accurate, it's a tech savvy guy who did tech savvy things (deleted partitions) which affected the booting. [quote="bjm"]

I went into windows and thought I could delete all of the Mint 13/Maya partitons under diskmanagement at once instead of uninstallling and then reinstalling it. I deleted the swap partition and then diskmanagement would not let me do anything else, I restarted and ran into my failure. I wish I had seen that one coming-oops.
 
RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:36 am

bjm wrote:
It's difficult to say without seeing your partition scheme, but you may need to re-install grub as the partition order has changed since your removal of the Windows partition. You can boot the Linux Mint live CD and open a terminal, then do the following:

1. First, check your partition scheme to find your Linux Mint root partition. In terminal, type in:
sudo fdisk -l

You should see something similar to:
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       18725   150403072   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           18725       19458     5884929    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           18725       19458     5884928   82  Linux swap / Solaris

What you'll want to note is the "sda" or "sdb" letters and the numbers after them. "sda" denotes the hard drive, while 1-4 denotes primary partitions and 5+ are logical partitions. Once you find the hard drive that Linux Mint's root is on, proceed to step 2. (Though from your first post, you mention only one hard drive, so you should only have "sda"). If you'd like to do this in a GUI, you can also open Gparted. It should be on the Linux Mint live CD. If you're going to use Gparted to check the partitions, just be sure to unmount any partitions before proceeding. Our only purpose is to find the sda# of your Linux Mint root.

2. Next, mount your Linux Mint root partition by typing in terminal the following:
sudo mount /dev/sda# /mnt

Replace the "#" with the partition number of your Linux Mint root.

3. Now, you can re-install grub2 to point in the proper locations:
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

Reboot, and that should get you back into Mint. If it still fails, paste your fdisk-l results into the thread. That will let us know your partition scheme.

I do not know if this will help with my new problem, but it could not hurt. I forgot my username and password, I do not see the boot options (Mint, Mint recovery, Memtest) as I once did when I had Linux Mint 13/Maya installed along side my windows XP. I have read the forums on Linux Mint's website, but no dice as of yet. This is after I reinstalled over Win XP. I did not update anything after install.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000112d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 308404223 154201088 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 308406270 312580095 2086913 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 308406272 312580095 2086912 82 Linux swap / Solaris
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:41 am

RAMBO wrote:
I forgot my username and password, I had to reinstall multiple times and chose different passwords each time, yeah intelligent of me. I have read the posts reguarding recovery then root, but the boot screen does not give me the option to boot into recovery mode. It starts with bios options, goes blank for 20 seconds and then goes right into the log in manager. I had the boot options when I installed Mint 13/Maya on a seperate partition from windows, but I deleted windows and installed Mint 13/Maya on the whole HDD in my last install-I chose "erase everything" and did not create my own partitions. I can LiveCD boot and I tried to find etc/shadow to find my username, but I cannot find it. I have tried no passwords and everything else I can remember. Please help.


If you don't have any other OSs installed grub doesn't ask you which to boot into it just does the default thing. You can force grub to show itself by holding the escape key before the bios screen disappears.

Choose the "rescue" option nearest to top of the screen and then drop to the root shell when the next menu appears. You can now change your user's password with:
passwd USERNAME

Then reboot with:
reboot

IIRC you aren't really supposed to edit shadow, passwd or group by hand using standard text editors (although I think that's more for multi user servers where other users might be trying to change passwords at the same time)

EDIT:
Just to clarify that as time goes by and you install updates the list of kernels you can choose from on that grub screen will grow. Each kernel version can be booted normally or in recovery mode and the newest kernel (probably the one you want) is always at the top. Right now you should have only one kernel (that can be booted normally or in recovery mode) in your grub list since you haven't installed any updates.

Sounds complicated but really all I'm saying is that you usually only have to worry about the top two options on that list.
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RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:51 am

cheesyking wrote:
If you don't have any other OSs installed grub doesn't ask you which to boot into it just does the default thing. You can force grub to show itself by holding the escape key before the bios screen disappears.

Choose the "rescue" option nearest to top of the screen and then drop to the root shell when the next menu appears. You can now change your user's password with:
passwd USERNAME

Then reboot with:
reboot

IIRC you aren't really supposed to edit shadow, passwd or group by hand using standard text editors (although I think that's more for multi user servers where other users might be trying to change passwords at the same time)

Awesome thank you, how would you see your username, as I had the foresight to forget that as well.
 
Flatland_Spider
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:59 am

EsotericLord wrote:
Side Note, as a Windows PC tech for a local college, reading this article is an amazing example as to why Linux hasn't come anywhere close to breaking into the mainstream market. This is a tech savvy guy just trying to get one of the simplest versions of Linux running comfortably.


This is an example of why messing with partitions is dangerous, nothing more nothing less. The OP could have been installing Win8 on a second partition, and the results would have been the same.

This is high level stuff, and it's not something I'd expect everyone to do.

Can you imagine the confusion an outside person would have if you tried to expose them to stuff like this after the decades of the stupid simplicity of Windows?


I'd expect the same kind of confusion that results from people switching to a recent version of Office or when people switch to Win 7 or Vista.

Could probably get rich and famous if you could successfully make a version of *nix for the everyman.


Hahaha! You could also get rich and famous if you could play guitar too. :) (The joke is anyone can play guitar and most guitar players aren't rich and famous, just like anyone can create an operating system.) You forgot the trademark and attribution, because I'm sure some one else already has that saying locked down.

Madman wrote:
Yes, but try to get Linux and Windows working with Windows DVD only and installing Windows 2nd, and not resorting to Linux to fix the mess.


They could also try installing Windows from newest to oldest instead of the reverse. That's a fun.
 
Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:03 am

cheesyking wrote:
Choose the "rescue" option nearest to top of the screen and then drop to the root shell when the next menu appears. You can now change your user's password with:
passwd USERNAME


Sounds fishy, that would mean anyone can turn on a PC, keep ESC for a few seconds and get full root privileges.

I think this is only possible if you boot from Linux DVD.

RAMBO wrote:
Awesome thank you, how would you see your username, as I had the foresight to forget that as well.

Boot via Live DVD, mount the system drive, and open the "/[mountpoint]/etc/passwd" with Pluma.

By default you'll be opening memory (Live DVD) version of the file, so you need to get one from the actual system via mounting. Maybe someone can suggest a better way.
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RAMBO
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:11 am

Flatland_Spider wrote:
EsotericLord wrote:
Side Note, as a Windows PC tech for a local college, reading this article is an amazing example as to why Linux hasn't come anywhere close to breaking into the mainstream market. This is a tech savvy guy just trying to get one of the simplest versions of Linux running comfortably.


This is an example of why messing with partitions is dangerous, nothing more nothing less. The OP could have been installing Win8 on a second partition, and the results would have been the same.

This is high level stuff, and it's not something I'd expect everyone to do.

It is difficult, but I wish to learn. I will be in school doing it in about a year, but my instructors told me jump in and worry not about mistakes, I can fix them and possibly have a leg up when I start class.

Edit: I tried Ubuntu on another HDD and erased all of my bookmarks by generating a new key. Its years of stuff that I do not want to lose. I cannot remember if I synced on this HDD but if I did not I am screwed as fas as that goes.
Last edited by RAMBO on Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:12 am

cheesyking wrote:
IIRC you aren't really supposed to edit shadow, passwd or group by hand using standard text editors (although I think that's more for multi user servers where other users might be trying to change passwords at the same time)


Definitely don't edit shadow by hand.

You can edit passwd or group, and there may be times when you'll need to, like reassigning user ids and group ids to different numbers. Using the tools is usually quicker though.
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:14 am

well it's a bit hackish but unless you've been doing anything weird you can just look at the folder names in /home:
ls /home

Under most circumstances your directory in /home will be the same as your username. However this needn't be true hence my saying this is a bit hackish.

A more orthodox method would probably be to use:
cat /etc/passwd

cat prints to contents of a file to the screen, you often use it like this:
cat FILENAME | less

the "|" is the pipe symbol which takes the output of one command and feeds it into another
the "less" is a pagination command (so you can use your cursor keys to scroll up and down in a file that's too big to fit on the screen
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:24 am

Madman wrote:
Sounds fishy, that would mean anyone can turn on a PC, keep ESC for a few seconds and get full root privileges.

that's the default setup on most linux desktop distros. Of course you're not getting into the desktop with full root privileges and as you go on to point out if you have physical access to a machine then all you have to do to get round a password on recovery mode is pop a CD in and boot off that.

If you really want to you can add a password to recovery mode but if someone has physical access to your PC then the only real way to secure it is to use full disk encryption and even then sophisticated hackers can recover the encryption keys from the ram of a running machine (or a machine on standby) so even that isn't completely fool proof!
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:33 am

RAMBO wrote:
It is difficult, but I wish to learn. I will be in school doing it in about a year, but my instructors told me jump in and worry not about mistakes, I can fix them and possibly have a leg up when I start class.


We have to start somewhere, and I'd be lying if I said I've never accidentally blown away the wrong partition. I've gotten much better in my old age, but the risk is still there.

Smart people your instructors. You won't learn anything if you don't break stuff, and you'll get much farther if you work on stuff like this on your own time as well. The thing about school is that it works best when it's refining your skill set rather then equipping you with a new one.
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:38 am

cheesyking wrote:
well it's a bit hackish but unless you've been doing anything weird

Yeah looking at what I have asked it does sound like that but it is not what I am doing. I don't do that crap. I just want my bookmarks back and I thought Firefox would have stored my stuff. I should have waited before I installed over my entire HDD. This sucks
Last edited by RAMBO on Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:44 am

What is the current problem? Firefox bookmarks on unaccessible partition?
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:59 am

RAMBO wrote:
cheesyking wrote:
well it's a bit hackish but unless you've been doing anything weird

Yeah looking at what I have asked it does sound like that but it is not what I am doing. I don't do that crap. I just want my bookmarks back and I thought Firefox would have stored my stuff. If nothing else you guys can print what I have asked and said and delete or edit your posts. Ill get some pics on here so you can see the difference of the firefox sites if I do have those bookmarks on there. Then again I dont see how that would prove anything to you either. Im just want my stuff back and I think Im doing all this in vein-cant remember if I synced Firefox before I crashed yesterday. I should have waited before I installed over my entire HDD. This sucks


Let me get this straight...

You've been using firefox sync, you wiped both your windows and mint installs destroying your local copies of firefox data and now you've tried getting it back on another machine but can't get at the synced data?

This is probably the place to start:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ive-lost-my-firefox-sync-account-information

Basically yes, you should have waited before wiping your hard drive and it's always a good idea to have a backup of anything important before you mess with partitions (whatever OS you're doing that in).
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Madman
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:21 am

Yup, it's highly recommended to 5x check everything before touching partitions and pressing OK on promts saying "This WILL destroy data".

If you have only deleted the partition headers, data could be salvagable, if you did a reinstall on top, most likely it isn't. Please describe the current situation including every step you did, and what you want to acomplish before doing write operations to disk.
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:22 am

cheesyking wrote:
This is probably the place to start:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ive-lost-my-firefox-sync-account-information

Basically yes, you should have waited before wiping your hard drive and it's always a good idea to have a backup of anything important before you mess with partitions (whatever OS you're doing that in).

I installed Mint over everything I had, then I installed Ubuntu over Mint, then went back to Mint and had to install a few times because the installs were buggy. I tried another hard drive and when I generated a new key on that it erased everything. I thought I still might have those on this install but couldnt remember. Yeah I think I lost it all, crap.
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:31 am

So you have been reinstalling multiple systems, and bookmarks were synced over the network?

And now you have 2 HDDs with 2 different Linux installs, and you cannot boot either of them? Does any of them contain synced bookmarks, even if inaccessible?

What do you mean by key? Something that allows you to access bookmarks from internet into your Firefox browser? Or something else?
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bjm
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:44 pm

Given the number of installations/re-installations that had occurred, it's difficult to say where any of your data is. But I would recommend that before proceeding any further, boot into any Linux recovery CD, navigate the /home folder and then locate your user directory. Once there, open the .mozilla folder and then try to find your old Profile (.mozilla is a hidden folder, so be sure to enable viewing of hidden items). I'm not sure how you re-installed, so you might even have multiple /home folders if you re-installed into a different partition. If you find it, archive it and back it up.

You can also search all of your disks for any file ending in ".json". This is the backup file for Firefox bookmarks. If you find any of them, copy them to a new disk or email them to yourself. You can restore each one of them to see if they contain your bookmarks. Steps are available at MozillaZine in section 4. Restoring bookmarks from backup.

Unfortunately, if you overwrote your original home directory that contained your bookmarks, they might not be recoverable.
 
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Re: Thinking of Ubuntu 12 or Linux mint 13 install, need adv

Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:54 pm

bjm wrote:
Once there, open the .mozilla folder and then try to find your old Profile (.mozilla is a hidden folder, so be sure to enable viewing of hidden items).

There is a handy shortcut I just found out about recently. Ctrl+H in the file manager unhides hidden folders temporarily.

Now, if only I knew how to open a path like in Windows, where you click on the address bar, and type the long path in, if you want to.
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