System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

[Bret Busby]

On 22/06/2018, Sarunas Burdulis <sarunas at math.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> On 2018-06-21 16:27, Bret Busby wrote:
>> On 22/06/2018, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
>>> You can try unmounting the disc using
>>> sudo umount /dev/sdb
>>> If that completes then the system should recover, but I suspect it
>>> will not complete because the disc is not operating correctly.  In
>>> which case as far as I can see your only option is to unplug it.  In
>>> fact if is malfunctioning it may be that the longer you leave it
>>> connected with the system trying to access it the more likely it is
>>> that it will fail completely and lose all your data, so the safest
>>> thing may be to unplug it.
>>>
>>> Colin
>> "
>> root at bret-Inspiron-580-UbuntuMATE:/home/bret# umount /dev/sdb1
>> umount: /media/bret/hp hard drive1: target is busy
>>         (In some cases useful info about processes that
>>          use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1).)
>
> How about:
>
> umount -l /dev/sdb1
>
> From umount manual:
>
> -l, --lazy   Lazy unmount.  Detach the filesystem from the file
> hierarchy now, and clean up all references to this filesystem as soon as
> it is not busy anymore.
>

That command has also apparently, hung.

After about 25 minutes, I have the cursor blinking on an otherwise
blank line, immediately under the line where the command was entered.

It seems to me, that the software update of the Ubuntu base part, has
broken the system.

I am trying to copy the /home/ partition contents to a USB "thumb
drive" (so tha I can try to switch the data to another computer that
has not been broken by the security update), with the problems that
trying to copy the contents of the home partition, entails - file
management is not the best.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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