Urgent: Linux Mint Crashed due to playing with system files

[rockor]

Hi I recently moved back to Jaunty as I didn't like Karmic much and so I had installed Linux Mint based on Jaunty i.e. Mint 7. Now since it was looking like the repos of this version were not active, so I added the repos of Karmic in it and installed all the softwares I needed.

It had been working fine when today I went on to install KDE. During installation, it asked for default login mamnager, so i set it to GDM. Then somewhere it showed that your presession and postsession file are being replaced. Do you want to do so? I said replace. And then when i rebooted, it showed this:

mountall:symbol lookup error:mountall:undefined symbol : 
udev_monitor_filter_add_match_subsystem_devtypeinit :
 mountall main process(317) terminated with status 127

I tried to boot from the rescue mode( or safe mode) but still same error.
I have absolutely no clue now how to fix it. I had some very important data in it and I had installed many softwares in it. Please somebody rescue me. Also even if you don't have any idea of rescuing, then tell me how to retrieve my bookmarks in Firefox and Opera without booting into it, so that I can atleast save my data and all my bookmarks....

[rockor]

ok now i have backed up all my data and my bookmarks (by copying hidden folders in my home folder).

So now somebody please give me some hint towards this. It's urgent. Otherwise i'll have to reinstall my mint......

[reed9]

Mixing repos from Jaunty and Karmic was a blad plan. While it's probably possible to fix, it will likely be far easier to reinstall.

To get any data you want off the machine first, boot into a live CD. You can access your partitions and copy whatever you need off to a flash drive or whatnot. Firefox settings are stored in a hidden folder in your home directory, labeled .mozilla. I don't use opera, but there should be a similar folder, either in your home directory or maybe in .config/

Copy those to a flash drive, and copy them back to your new install to restore all settings and data.

[reed9]

By the way, I would recommend creating a separate home partition in your next install. That way, if you mess things up and want to reinstall, or even just to make doing clean upgrades easier, you won't lose your personal files and settings.

This install guide is for the Dell Mini 9, but it walks through installing and creating a separate home partition.
Ubuntu on the Dell Mini: Screenshot Tour: Installing Ubuntu 9.04 on the Dell Mini 9

[rockor]

By the way, I would recommend creating a separate home partition in your next install. That way, if you mess things up and want to reinstall, or even just to make doing clean upgrades easier, you lose your personal files and settings.

This install guide is for the Dell Mini 9, but it walks through installing and creating a separate home partition.
Ubuntu on the Dell Mini: Screenshot Tour: Installing Ubuntu 9.04 on the Dell Mini 9

Thanks for the reply. Well that's a good idea to keep a separate home. This way I will never lose my settings and all my data. Thanks again for the link. So finally i am going 4 a reinstall....

[reed9]

This way I will never lose my settings and all my data.

Never say never. Anytime you're partitioning drives, you should back up important data in case something goes wrong. I mean, you should keep backups anyway, but this is a situation with increased risk of loss.

That said, I've done many reinstalls, or installs of different distros, and the only time I've lost data is from user error - I accidentally chose to create a file system on the home partition, and formatted over it.