[PLUG] Help! Update won't boot (SOLVED)

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:59:45 -0700
Ben Koenig <techkoenig at gmail.com> dijo:

>Sorry this isn't working out.
>
>We should really try the Ubuntu Method first before diving in to this 
>chroot stuff. Even though that is exactly what all these tools use.
>
>Install Boot Repair onto the live cd:
>
>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
>sudo sed 's/trusty/saucy/g'
>-i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yannubuntu-boot-repair-trusty.list sudo
>apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && (boot-repair &)

That worked! I'm back!

When I rebooted it brought up the Grub boot menu, which did not appear
before, but it proceeded to boot to the default. Oh well. 

As soon as I was booted I tried to launch Claws Mail so I could write
this reply, but it turns out that the upgrade to 14.04 uninstalled it.
WTH? So I tried to launch Synaptic package manager in order to
reinstall it, but Synaptic had been uninstalled also. Double WTH.

I reinstalled both and when launched they appeared as before, so the
config settings in ~/ must be OK. I also note that the date and time in
my Xubuntu panel has disappeared. I suppose I'll spend the next several
days finding other stuff that the dist-upgrade broke. Sigh.

Also, when I went to install Synaptic (using Ubuntu Software Center
rather than the terminal) I got a popup saying that in order to install
Synaptic it needed to uninstall:

	collection of boot loaders
	(theme metapackage)
	syslinux-themes-debian

I let it go ahead and uninstall it, but it sounds ominous. A cursory
check with Google did not disclose exactly what it does. However,
searching in Synaptic revealed 20 or so packages that start with
"syslinux," including several "syslinux-themes* packages, including a
"syslinux-themes-ubuntu-trusty," and none of them are installed. 

A thousand thanks to all who helped!