Fix Problem has occurred and the system can’t recover in Linux

Fix Problem has occurred and the system can’t recover in Linux

How to resolve the error:
“Oh no! Something has gone wrong. A problem has occurred and the system can’t recover. Please contact a system administrator!“

You probably came across this error after upgrading packages or performing a full system upgrade. This could probably be termed as the “black screen of death” in Linux operating systems. This exception is thrown immediately after the boot process ends, when the ‘Gnome Display Manager’ is being loaded to display the login screen. The error is as a result of an error in configuration of unpacked packages!

 

NOTE:// For purposes of proof of concept, I use the famous Kali Linux OS. This however, doesn’t mean that this concept cannot be applied to other Linux OSs. What will vary in case of a different Linux OS is the commands!

This error to most means that they have to reinstall Kali Linux from a USB stick all over again, losing all their data. Data loss is probably one of the most painful feelings that one can experience, knowing that all your meticulously consolidated data is just gone. Gone!. Word of Advice: Always Backup your data Regularly! In case a backup exists, even reinstalling a fresh Kali distro is one of the viable options!

Fortunately, instead of going through all the trouble of a fresh installation, you could just find a way around this error. Follow the stepwise instructions to land at your Desktop again. Trust me, there will be no better feeling in that moment!

 

Step 1: Recovery Mode

When you install Linux operating systems, they come bearing recovery options. In case of Kali Linux, the recovery mode can be found under: ‘Advanced options for Kali Linux/GNU Linux’

Click on the option with ‘Recovery Mode‘, to boot to Kali Linux Recovery Mode.

NOTE:// After successfully booting to the Recovery Mode, note that there is No GUI, so you are limited to the “TeleTYpewriter” or “TTY“, which means that all operations are done via text commands. Worry Not, if you haven’t interacted with TTYs before, because all you need to fix the error is in this article.

 

Step 2: User Password in TTY

The first thing that you are prompted for in the TTY recovery mode is the user Password, which you must enter correctly before proceeding.

NOTE:// After entering the correct password, the next thing you note is that you are actually in a Terminal session. Therefore, you can enter any commands here as you would in the normal terminal, which is the direction we will take from here (Terminal Commands).

 

Step 3: Fixing the Error

Enter the following commands in the order they appear!

NOTE:// The sudo prefix can be omitted if you are working in a ROOT session!

sudo dpkg --configure -a

This command configures all packages that have been unpacked but are unconfigured.

sudo apt full-upgrade

This command attempts to perform a full system upgrade.

sudo apt --fix-broken install

This command attempts to fix a system that has existing broken dependencies.

 

Step 4: Confirming that the Error was fixed

After the step above, the error “Oh no! Something has gone wrong. A problem has occurred and the system can’t recover. Please contact a system administrator”, should be fixed.

To confirm this, we need to shutdown the system and then boot into the normal Kali Linux boot option. To shutdown in TTY, use the command:

systemctl poweroff

The boot process should now go through to display the login screen, and after entering the correct details (username && password), you should land in your desktop.

NOTE:// The username && password are the same you used before the system crash. Also important to note is that, if you landed on this error while performing a ‘full-upgrade’, then you will most likely see changes, during and after booting, which reflect the changes incorporated in the new release that your system was updating to!

 

Fix Problem has occurred and the system can’t recover in Linux
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