I have been recently unable to perform regular system updates when they became available but had not concerned myself with it as everything seemed to work fine as it was.
l recently decided to utilize my Konsole in an attempt to update the system and chose to update from 6.5.1 to 6.5.5.
all was looking good and i began loading the files, upon completion l rebooted and my display presented the usual log in box requiring the password. I entered the password and it appeared to be initiating but all that happen was the log in box reappeared…several attempts to log in and several complete system shut downs to reboot have been attempted but with the same results.
I am not a Hacker by a long shot so am not fully conversant in Linux but am concerned as l have several important documents l am no longer able to access.
Will i somehow be able to recover my laptop without having to reinstall the 6.5.1 version?
So you have gone without updating your system for ~three and a half months.
Some information-gathering questions:
Can you recall any specific errors or messaging from when you were attempting to update previously?
Did you notice any messaging when updating from the terminal?
Can you give some basic hardware details, specifically for the graphics card and any driver for it that you may have installed?
Ubuntu very recently upgraded the kernel to 6.17. This could potentially affect a video driver or something. Luckily, you can try booting to a previous kernel version from Grub, by selecting the second item in the menu and choosing the first option, which lists "6.14” and see if that gets you to the desktop.
If that does work, try updating from the command line again and see if that pulls in any more updates:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
Note any messages or errors after each command.
You can also try updating even if you can’t get to the deskop, if you are connected using an Ethernet cable. Hit ctrl-alt-f2 (or 3,4, etc) to switch to a tty, log in, and then try updating there. Ctrl-alt-f1 returns you to the main screen.
If necessary, you can boot to any live Linux USB to get at your files