[02:02] <sanbar> I was in the middle of a net upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10.  It got messed up.  Now, when booting, I stop at
[02:04] <sanbar> \checking battery state.  I am not sure how to go about fixing my Ubuntu 11.05/11.10 machine.  Can anyone start a troubleshooting session with me to see about this?
[02:05] <Unit193> Stopping in the middle of a distro upgrade can be a killer, if you can't get it to boot at all you should be able to run   sudo do-release-upgrade.
[02:05] <sanbar> from the recovery console?
[02:06] <Unit193> If you can boot into that.
[02:06] <Unit193> Other option would be a chroot.
[02:06] <sanbar> Yes, thanks - just a minute
[02:06] <Unit193> !chroot
[02:06] <ubot2> A chroot is used to make programs believe that the directory they are running in is really the root directory. It can be used to stop programs accessing files outside of that directory, or for compiling 32bit applications in a 64bit environment - see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BasicChroot
[02:08] <sanbar> Unit193: My main concern is my data (in /home and /etc, etc).  I have a primary hard drive on the machine with Windows on it.  What about installing Ubuntu to that drive, then copying over all my data and state information onto it from the horked drive if I can access it as a second drive via mount?
[02:08] <Unit193> LiveCD and you should be able to just grab the data.
[02:09] <sanbar> OK, that makes sense - you mean to like my networked Windows computer?
[02:10] <JoseeAntonioR> sanbar: Have you got a Windows partition?
[02:10] <Unit193> That'll work as well.
[02:10] <sanbar> A separate drive with Windows on it
[02:10] <sanbar> JoseeAntonioR: ^
[02:10] <JoseeAntonioR> sanbar: Then I recommend transferring to the Win drive, and then restoring the files
[02:12] <sanbar> Oh, I could use my thumb drive for the data - that is the best option I think with LiveCD
[02:13] <JoseeAntonioR> sanbar: If all your data fits in one, then it's fine
[02:13] <sanbar> JoseeAntonioR: Yes, I think it will, but not sure - I can bzip it though
[02:14] <JoseeAntonioR> Great, hope it works
[02:21] <sanbar> JoseeAntonioR: Thanks
[02:42] <escott> !sysrq
[02:42] <ubot2> In an emergency, you may be able to shutdown cleanly and reboot by holding down Alt+PrintScreen and typing, in succession, R, E, I, S, U and B. For an explanation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key
[02:44] <JoseeAntonioR> escott: Wow, great tip
[02:45] <escott> JoseeAntonioR, sorry that wasn't meant for this channel, ubottu is AWOL over in #ubuntu
[02:45] <Unit193> Well, I'll have to remember it nontheless.
[02:45] <JoseeAntonioR> But anyways, great tip! Thanks!
[02:55] <JoseeAntonioR> Hi, IAmNotThatGuy!
[02:55] <IAmNotThatGuy> Hello JoseeAntonioR
[14:42] <s-fox> Hello.
[15:50] <s-fox> Goodbye.