Can't boot notebook at all anymore

[MR ZenWiz]

On Sat, Jun 24, 2017 at 1:52 AM, Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com> wrote:
>
> Not necessarily because hardware is broken, a kernel upgrade,
> and/or graphics driver upgrade etc. could cause a regression regarding
> hardware compatibility. Perhaps the OP should try to boot an older
> kernel.
>
That's a maybe, but as I sai,d it was working just fine last weekend.

Well, perhaps just fine is overstated - there are issues with the HDMI
connection for an external monitor (I posted about this, too,
earlier).  Sometimes it works, sometimes no, and it always raises
numerous display config windows.  However, when it does work, it posts
one monitor layout selection window.  That's liekly beside the point,
except for what it indicates about hardware issues.

I'm wondering if the unit was just dropped too many times...

> As already pointed out by Colin, checking the SMART data should be
> done, e.g. by running
>
> $ sudo -i
> # for drive in $(smartctl --scan|cut -d- -f1); do smartctl -HA $drive; done
>
That's next.

> On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 23:53:49 -0700, MR ZenWiz wrote:
>>I ran the disk test and everything seemed to be fine.
>
> What disk test? What output do you get?
>
The live CD disk check - no errors, everything scanned fine.

>>After the reinstall, still no boot.
>
> Does GRUB complain? If so, what messages do you get?

GRUB starts fine, although sometimes it comes up with the graphics
splash screen and sometimes with the text roving dots splash screen.
Sure seems like flaky hardware to me.

> Does the startup process beginn? IIUC it does and you get "couldn't
> find /sbin/init", right?
>
Yes - lots of process outputs, including FPDMA (?) errors - I'm going
form memory since this didn't happen after the reinstall.

> Using a live media, what is the output of
>
> $ ls -l /mountpoint/sbin/init /mountpoint/lib/systemd/systemd
>
> Replace "/mountpoint" by the corect mount point.
>
ls -l on /mnt/sbin/init says it points to /lib/systemd/systemd.  I
tried sudo cp /lib/systemd/systemd /mnt/lib/systemd/systemd while
running form the live CD, but that didn't seem to have any effect.
(cp /sbin/init /mnt/sbin/init errored saying they're the same file.)

Thanks.