Can Only Boot in Recovery Mode | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

buoyant tendon May 5, 2026, 10:52 PM

#

i'll share my troubles here too, since it's quicker to navigate a conversation on discord rather than on a forum.

i'm running Linux Mint: Cinnamon 22.3 w/ Kernel 6.17.0-23

worked fine for the first few days, but now it boots to a black screen (or stops at "loading initial ramdisk" if i go through advanced settings in Grub). tried using kernel 6.11.0-29 and it booted correctly once or twice, then had the same issue. identical situation with a 6.8.0-111.

someone recommended installing new graphics drivers from Intel, and the process either just didn't work or it had no impact on the issue.

link to the forum thread in case anyone wants a tiny bit more context: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=468446

i'm a bit upset because i really don't know what caused this problem in the first place, i want a computer that just works without becoming a new project to work on every week. talking to my friend about it, she said: "my only thought is that because of ubuntu servers being down some necessary component didn’t install correctly?" which sounds logical to me but that's only a stab-in-the-dark hypothesis as far as i'm aware.

thank you in advance for any responses!!

weak jay May 5, 2026, 11:33 PM

#

boot with 6.8 (non-recovery)

#

then show result of inxi -Fxxxz

#

or boot with live USB if you must. then connect to 'net, sign to discord in firefox, and send the same report above

weak jay May 5, 2026, 11:35 PM

#

buoyant tendon i'll share my troubles here too, since it's quicker to navigate a conversation o...

this

buoyant tendon May 5, 2026, 11:38 PM

#

will do! i'll get back to you asap

#

i'm going to uninstall and then reinstall 6.8.0-111 in hopes that it will do it's usual routine of booting correctly on the first attempt

weak jay May 5, 2026, 11:41 PM

#

buoyant tendon i'm going to uninstall and then reinstall 6.8.0-111 in hopes that it will do it'...

keep in mind, that if any newer kernels are installed, they will always autoboot by newest

#

so u gotta use Mint Advanced options from GRUB menu to get to older one.

buoyant tendon May 5, 2026, 11:52 PM

#

weak jay so u gotta use Mint Advanced options from GRUB menu to get to older one.

gotcha, that's how i've been going about it

#

6.8.0-111 didn't work on reinstall so i'm going to try 6.8.0-110 lol

#

unfortunately, i've tried removing all 6.8 kernels and booting with -111, -110, and -107 seperately, and all of them are booting to a black screen. 6.8 is the oldest version that the update manager displays as an option for me to install

weak jay May 6, 2026, 12:08 AM

#

can you boot live USB, in normal way, not compatibility mode?

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 12:09 AM

#

...sorry, you did say that earlier and i forgot, my bad. i'll try that now i think that'll work

weak jay May 6, 2026, 12:11 AM

#

yes. if it works, send the full inxi mentioned

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 12:14 AM

#

📎 message.txt

weak jay May 6, 2026, 12:17 AM

#

ok i be away a bit . i'll check it later

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 12:17 AM

#

no russh

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 12:47 AM

#

i might just reinstall linux mint onto this computer for an attempt no. 2 because there is clearly just some insane issue with my installation and hopefully starting fresh will avoid whatever the problem is

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:31 AM

#

within an hour of reinstalling linux mint i have reproduced the issue

#

it is my understanding that it happens after attempting to install .net framework 4.8

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:33 AM

#

run cat /proc/swaps

#

on this new install, and tell result

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:34 AM

#

is it fine if i go thru recovery mode to do this

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:37 AM

#

try nomodeset

#

press e at grub menu

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:37 AM

#

mm gotcha

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:37 AM

#

replace the term splash near end with nomodeset

#

if you get in, then good

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:38 AM

#

after changing the text what should i do, just boot?

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:39 AM

#

do the cat swaps thing above and also inxi -SMGxxx ; free -h

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:39 AM

#

buoyant tendon after changing the text what should i do, just boot?

yes

#

hit f10

#

or whatever it says at bottom

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:40 AM

#

it booted but it appears similar to recovery mode where the display settings cannot be changed

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:40 AM

#

safe mode

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:40 AM

#

ah gotcha

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:41 AM

#

weak jay do the cat swaps thing above and also `inxi -SMGxxx ; free -h`

in this message, are these two commands divided by a semicolon or all one command?

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:41 AM

#

as written exactly

#

however they will print out as two independent command results

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:41 AM

#

result for cat swaps command:
Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/nvme0n1p6 partition 34815996 0 -2

#

okay very offset for some reason

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:42 AM

#

yeah take photo of results

#

it becomes more presentable

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:42 AM

#

gotcha

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:42 AM

#

just maximize terminal

#

and run all things . and show in one pic

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:43 AM

#

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:45 AM

#

ok

#

i think whatever u put absolutely wrecked something for the intel video driver.

#

not this safemode, but earlier

#

also, that's an insane waste of drive space if u dont hibernate this machine to have that much swap

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:47 AM

#

weak jay also, that's an insane waste of drive space if u dont hibernate this machine to ...

noted

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:47 AM

#

2 Gigs ought to be tons, when 32 Gigs of RAM

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:47 AM

#

gotcha gotcha

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:47 AM

#

welp. ur call what u want to do cuz Idk

#

either reinstall, and make an immediate timeshift snapshot

#

or if have one already , pre- .net stuff, then restore

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:48 AM

#

gotcha

#

i wonder why that fucks up the computer so bad

weak jay May 6, 2026, 2:48 AM

#

is it some WINE thing?

#

.net is microsoft stuff

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:50 AM

#

weak jay is it some WINE thing?

in order, by memory, of what i did both times:

-i installed Q4Wine
-i downloaded Musicbee, and tried to install it using Q4Wine
-"you need .net framework 4.8"
-i follow instructions online to install .net framework 4.8

#

how do i work around this lol

weak jay May 6, 2026, 7:48 AM

#

forget WINE. see the YT vid by someordinarygamers on 'Winboat'

#

and do a timeshift snapshot before any other messing around

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 12:54 PM

#

i made a snapshot immediately after installing linux mint this time lol

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 2:29 PM

#

attempted to install winboat, same issue booting to a black screen is occuring again. booting to recovery mode and loading a snapshot worked initially, and rebooted correctly, however a manual reboot afterwards brings me back to a black screen.

#

im giving up on linux this is just simply not worth the entire days ive spent trying to make it work

#

it seems to be after attempting to use wine-related programs that things go to shit for whatever reason

weak jay May 6, 2026, 6:31 PM

#

mentality should be to switch eco-systems, and not rely on Windows apps

#

but if no other choice, use Windows.

buoyant tendon May 6, 2026, 6:56 PM

#

i ended up installing CachyOS and though i like linux mint better in theory, COS has been all functional so far

#Can Only Boot in Recovery Mode