The graphical desktop doesn't start

[MauroDiam]

Hello people, I have installed Debian 10.5 on my notebook HP 14-an020la, but when I try to boot up Debian, selecting it in grub, after a while it hangs. It reaches the userspace initialization, systemd, but it freezes after Gnome Display Manager is started. In that point, there is a flash in the display and then the next message appears at the bottom:
"fsckd-cancel-msg: Press Ctrl+C to cancel all filesystems checks in progress".
You can see all this in the next image.

I've tried leaving the computer in that state for more than one hour, but nothing changed. Also, I've tried installing Debian 10.4, but I got the same result. I'm installing Debian in some partitions where I've installed Debian 9 before. I'm formatting the partition for the root location (/) but I'm not touching the partition for the /home location because I have some data there.
I've tried to open another terminal and check if the partitions' filesystems were mounted, and indeed, they were. But when I entered /home I couldn't see any file, when I was expecting to see a lot of files there.
Which could be the problem?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I've tried to open another terminal and check if the partitions' filesystems were mounted, and indeed, they were. But when I entered /home I couldn't see any file, when I was expecting to see a lot of files there.
Which could be the problem?

So the system doesn't "hang" at all then? Please change the thread title to accurately reflect the problem (ie, that the graphical desktop doesn't start).If there are no files in /home then your user's home directory is gone.

I suppose it would be silly to ask if you had a backup from which you could restore those files?

EDIT: please post the actual commands that you used for your checks so that we can see if you're making any mistakes.

[stevepusser]

Can you also tell us what vintage hardware that notebook has?

Have you tried entering the key combo that the message suggests?

[MauroDiam]

Hi guys, thanks for your answers. @Head_on_a_Stick, unfortunately I haven't a backup but the data aren't really so important. To check the data in /home I pressed Alt+F2, I logged in and then I typed the following:

Code: Select all

$ df
$ cd /home/mauro
$ ls -halF

But I couldn't see any file.

@stevepusser in the following link you will be able to see the hardware the netbook has:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05397170/

I tried entering the key combo you can see in the image, but it didn't change anything.

[p.H]

Sounds like missing AMD/Radeon firmwares.
Try to install firmware-amd-graphics.

[sgosnell]

IME (admittedly somewhat limited, but spanning a decade or so) the most common cause of failure to boot to the desktop is missing or outdated firmware. You can download all the firmware packages from the Debian repos, put them on a USB stick, and install them with dpkg from the terminal. Enter the root password at the prompt, install the firmware and optionally a newer kernel, depending on the hardware you have, and reboot.

[MauroDiam]

Hi guys, good news, I installed the outdated firmwares and then I was able to reach the login screen. So, I just have to say thanks a lot for your help . The firmwares I had to install were "firmware-amd-graphics" and "firmware-realtek" and, for both cases, I selected the "buster" option. The only strange thing is that when I enter the password in the logging screen then the display flashes several times and then appears the desktop screen. Which could be the reason of those flashes?