Kubuntu stability disaster

Kubuntu has been acting up every once in a while; it freezes on me, and when this happens I usually restart as the mouse does not respond, let alone the UI. But today I had to shut down with the adept package manager open (it wasn't doing anything), and it seems as if I've done something to overturn the whole OS, b/c now it won't boot properly. After selecting Linux as my OS of choice in GRUB and watching the boot screen for a moment, the screen goes black and this text shows up with a command line:

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) built-in shell (ash)
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

The initramfs is the command line entry... I have no clue what to do and am somewhat disappointed to see Linux just fall apart so easily. Typing the command "help" doesn't help at all - the command just regurgitates an incoherent list of jumbled commands with no information. Windows XP could have handled this whole thing quite easily.

 

What version are you using? 6.06, or 6.10? Also, check the CPU temps in KSysGuard to make sure they are not too high.

 

I'm using 6.10 Edgy Eft. CPU temperatures are normal.

 

update; I heard from the Kubuntu forum that adept brings a lot of problems with it, and that under the circumstances I described I may very well have corrupted the OS. I'll just reinstall Linux and get the synaptic manager instead. Thanks for offering to help matt.

 

bc135,
It's always nice to have a LiveCD so that you can still get some work done even if your OS is hosed.

PS. Just an idea. I once worked for about 2 full days with a LiveCD

 

You can go to safe mode, can't you?

 

I can, but I just get another command line, and I have no idea how to use it. I will probably just format and reinstall as the whole OS was installed very recently. It'll take less time to reinstall rather than hunt for the problem and fix it.

 

BusyBox is the barebones shell that Ubuntu and its derivatives use. Looks like it falls back to that in the even that the os is hosed. If you press Alt+F2-F4 during install one of the other console screens will bring up a BusyBox console where you can use basic linux commands to see just what the installer does.