Desperate help needed, can't boot into linux

[FernandoHernandez]

Oh boy...I royally screwed up my linux.

I'm fairly new and i recently switched from gnoem to kde just to try a little something new. in the process of finding potentially useful software I came across a program called "kleansweep" which...seemed like a good idea at the time...though I can't say the program didn't warn me I might screw things up if I didn't know what I was doing. But I'm a fool and I did it anyway.

What happened was after The Cleaning was complete, I got some error messages when I tried to run dolphin, whatever the image viewer default in kde4 is called, and the zip/tar/etc manager. It was all the same error, and i can't quote it to you verbotim right now, but it had to do with missing mime files. unfortunately I had some errands to run and decided I'd figure it out when i got home - after all, things were, despite the errors, still running and seeming to function well, and I ran firefox and Amarok without a peep.

But when i got home and decided to reboot, I found I couldn't even get to my desktop and try to tinker with things...on my OS selection screen (oh for the record i have a dell), I choose to boot into kubuntu, and it goes as usual until i get to the first kubuntu loading screen. then my screen goes black again and the text output is as follows...

.:74: Can't open /etc/default/rcS
error: '/etc/init.d/rc' exited outside the expected code flow.
init: rcS main process (751) terminated with status 2
.:74: Can't open /etc/default/rcS
error: '/etc/init.d/rc' exited outside the expected code flow.
init: rcS main process (751) terminated with status 2

(Yes, it does show that same message twice like that)

I tried a few times and got the same result, and even on the 3 second interval where it says 'press esc for menu' I gave that a shot, but I'm not exactly an expert at running diagnostics outside an OS environment. I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm scared i've ruined it all.

So my question has a few parts...

-Can I fix this enough to boot into kubuntu and try to replace those mime files I removed (kleansweep did make a backup .tar file of everything before wiping)?
-If I get this far, how do I replace the files from the backup back to where they belong? does linux have an equivalent to windows' "system restore"?
-Is there a way to fix this?!
-Do I have to uninstall kubuntu, if so, how do I do this? I've never removed a partition before without formatting my entire harddrive.
-If I uninstall and reinstall kubuntu, will I be able to keep my settings or have to completely start over?

I'm sorry for the newbie questions here, but i've royalled messed up, and I'm panicking. I hope there's a way to undo what I've done.

Any help is appreciated, but please try to keep it in layman's terms, I don't wanna make things worse.

[rokytnji]

Description:
KleanSweep allows you to reclaim disk space by finding unneeded files. It can search for files basing on several criterias; you can seek for:
* empty files
* empty directories
* backup files
* broken symbolic links
* broken executables
* dead menu entries (.desktop files pointing to non-existing executables)
* obsolete thumbnails (thumbnails of non-existing images)
* duplicated files
* orphaned files (files not found in RPM or DEB database).

KleanSweep consists of KDE-based (C++) graphical frontend and small helper Perl script that performs actual searching. All searches, except for orphaned files, duplicates and dead menu entries are as fast as usual 'find' would be.

This is initial release and may contain bugs. I take no responsibility for any damage caused by this program.

Note: it may compile/work in KDE < 3.4.x, but was only tested in 3.4.2.

Reading the warning it looks as if you were running KDE 4 or 4.1 or 4.2 which is not been tested with this software. I really can't tell you whether you can back up your Home Folder and do a reinstall because I don't know what Klean Sweep deleted or am I familiar with this software.

As far as reinstall goes, What I do is just use the live CD and open Gparted and unmount swap partition first. Then Delete that partition. Then move on down the line deleting the rest of my Linux Partitons till I have one Large unallocated space on the hardrive. Then do a guided reinstall on Largest Unallocated Space on Hardrive. That will install everything back to stock including swap space like a brand new clean install. Like I said though, I don't know what kleen sweep could have done to any of your files in Home Folder. Especially the Hidden Folders. Good luck

[mikej]

Oh boy...I royally screwed up my linux.

I'm fairly new and i recently switched from gnoem to kde just to try a little something new. in the process of finding potentially useful software I came across a program called "kleansweep" which...seemed like a good idea at the time...though I can't say the program didn't warn me I might screw things up if I didn't know what I was doing. But I'm a fool and I did it anyway.

What happened was after The Cleaning was complete, I got some error messages when I tried to run dolphin, whatever the image viewer default in kde4 is called, and the zip/tar/etc manager. It was all the same error, and i can't quote it to you verbotim right now, but it had to do with missing mime files. unfortunately I had some errands to run and decided I'd figure it out when i got home - after all, things were, despite the errors, still running and seeming to function well, and I ran firefox and Amarok without a peep.

But when i got home and decided to reboot, I found I couldn't even get to my desktop and try to tinker with things...on my OS selection screen (oh for the record i have a dell), I choose to boot into kubuntu, and it goes as usual until i get to the first kubuntu loading screen. then my screen goes black again and the text output is as follows...

.:74: Can't open /etc/default/rcS
error: '/etc/init.d/rc' exited outside the expected code flow.
init: rcS main process (751) terminated with status 2
.:74: Can't open /etc/default/rcS
error: '/etc/init.d/rc' exited outside the expected code flow.
init: rcS main process (751) terminated with status 2

(Yes, it does show that same message twice like that)

I tried a few times and got the same result, and even on the 3 second interval where it says 'press esc for menu' I gave that a shot, but I'm not exactly an expert at running diagnostics outside an OS environment. I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm scared i've ruined it all.

So my question has a few parts...

-Can I fix this enough to boot into kubuntu and try to replace those mime files I removed (kleansweep did make a backup .tar file of everything before wiping)?
-If I get this far, how do I replace the files from the backup back to where they belong? does linux have an equivalent to windows' "system restore"?
-Is there a way to fix this?!
-Do I have to uninstall kubuntu, if so, how do I do this? I've never removed a partition before without formatting my entire harddrive.
-If I uninstall and reinstall kubuntu, will I be able to keep my settings or have to completely start over?

I'm sorry for the newbie questions here, but i've royalled messed up, and I'm panicking. I hope there's a way to undo what I've done.

Any help is appreciated, but please try to keep it in layman's terms, I don't wanna make things worse.

Hello My friend I have the same problem that you describe after using the F...ing kleansweep . What did you do to fix the problem? Can I save my OS with out uninstalling Ubuntu ?

[Jonathan183]

If you really want a challege then try to fix your current install ... but backup any data you may want to keep first (booting from a live CD). After that shutdwon the system, remove the external storage and reboot the system from the live CD. Find the archive files and extract them back to where they should be.

My suggestion is boot from a live CD, backup your data to an external drive/USB pen drive and do a fresh install. To remove symlinks or folders for startup you have run the program with root rights. If you setup the system with a home partition in addition to a root partition there is no need for you to reformat the home partition, but you may find you have to create new user home areas anyway. If you have enough capacity on your external drive then copy the archive files created.

In either case you don't need to uninstall Ubuntu, just go through the install process again ... good luck.

[mikej]

Thank ypu for your advice. I am new to Linux and i am trying to fix it with the help from an other guy to Ubuntu.gr forum. If we manage to fix it I wiil post his solution here too.