Troubleshooting TTY1 issue and Creating a Bootable Drive

Troubleshooting TTY1 issue and Creating a Bootable Drive

Introduction

If you're experiencing problems with your Linux system booting directly to a terminal (tty1) and encountering errors when trying to start the graphical interface, this guide will walk you through troubleshooting steps, backing up your data, and creating a bootable Linux Mint USB drive—all from the command line.

Table of Contents

  1. Understanding the Issue: Booting to tty1

  2. Starting the Graphical Interface Manually

  3. Handling Login Issues

  4. Backing Up Your Data to a USB Drive

  5. Using Timeshift to Restore Your System

  6. Creating a Bootable Linux Mint USB Drive

  7. Conclusion


1. Understanding the Issue: Booting to tty1

When your Linux system boots directly to a terminal interface (tty1) and asks for your login credentials, it usually indicates an issue with the graphical user interface (GUI). After logging in, you might encounter errors related to sound drivers or other components, as shown in the image below:

This could be due to a misconfiguration, corrupted files, or issues with the display manager or breaking of the packages associated with the GUI.


2. Starting the Graphical Interface Manually

If your system isn't automatically starting the GUI, you can try starting it manually:

sudo service lightdm start

If you encounter an error like lightdm.service not found, it indicates that the display manager isn't installed or configured properly. Your machine may be using other interfaces like gdm3, etc. Check for them the same way I tested for lightdm.

Solution:

  1. Install LightDM (if not installed):

     sudo apt-get install lightdm
    
  2. Start LightDM:

     sudo service lightdm start
    

If the GUI starts but you're asked to log in again and receive a "failed to start session" error, there may be deeper issues with the configuration or user profile.

In that case you most likely need to reset the whole system.


3. Backing Up Your Data to a USB Drive

To back up your data to a USB drive from the terminal:

  1. Insert the USB Drive and identify it using lsblk:

     lsblk
    

    Your USB drive should appear as something like /dev/sdc1. If it appears as just /dev/sdc, it might need partitioning.

  2. Create a Mount Point:

     mkdir /mnt/usb
    
  3. Mount the USB Drive:

     sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
    
  4. Copy Your Data:

     sudo cp -r /home/your_username /mnt/usb
    
  5. Safely Unmount the USB Drive:

     sudo umount /mnt/usb
    

Handling Unpartitioned USB Drives

If your USB drive shows as /dev/sdc without partitions:

  1. Create a New Partition:

     sudo fdisk /dev/sdc
    

    Follow the prompts to create a new partition, then format it:

     sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1
    

    You can specify the partition type while using the mkfs command.

  2. Mount and Copy Data as described above.


5. Using Timeshift to Restore Your System

If you have Timeshift installed, you can restore your system to a previous snapshot:

  1. List Available Snapshots:

     sudo timeshift --list
    
  2. Restore a Snapshot:

     sudo timeshift --restore
    

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the restoration. Afterward, reboot your system:

sudo reboot

This will reboot the system to the time the snapshot was taken with all the configurations and rivers present at the time of the snapshot.


6. Creating a Bootable USB Drive

If you need to reinstall Linux or create a live USB for troubleshooting, here's how to create a bootable USB drive:

  1. Download the ISO:

     wget -O linuxmint.iso https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/linuxmint/stable/21.2/linuxmint-21.2-cinnamon-64bit.iso
    

    Here, I have downloaded the iso file of Linux Mint you can download as of your preferences.

  2. Identify Your USB Drive using lsblk and unmount it:

     sudo umount /dev/sdc1
    
  3. Write the ISO to the USB Drive using dd:

     sudo dd if=linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
    

    With this the drive will be a bootable drive and you can fix or completely reinstall the system with this drive.


7. Conclusion

Dealing with boot issues and system recovery in Linux can be challenging, but with the right tools and commands, you can navigate through most problems. Whether you're backing up data, restoring your system with Timeshift, or creating a bootable Linux Mint USB drive, this guide has provided you with the essential steps to get your system back on track.