Thanks Jared. I ran the test and the output is below. The SSD is a 1TB Western Digital less than two years old. I had installed a clean Ubuntu 18.04, which I'm still running. I copied over my files (no conf ones though) and everything was fine until about a month ago now.

A weird thing that I didn't bring up is that when I check the boot setup (F2 or F12 on startup) I find my user name, ubuntu, listed as a device and it seems to always end up at the top of the boot order. I don't know what it is or how it got there. It's obviously not a drive of any sort. When I change the boot order to my SSD all goes fine except for the issues I have already stated. But I really want to thank you and really don't want to lose my SSD! But if that's what is happening then nothing left to do. I hope this output gives you some idea.

Thanks again

Brian

~$ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda
smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-47-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WDS100T2B0A-00SM50
Serial Number:    181228800969
LU WWN Device Id: 5 001b44 8b6aebe6a
Firmware Version: X61130WD
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   Unknown(0x0ff0), ACS-4 T13/BSR INCITS 529 revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA >3.2 (0x1ff), 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Tue Apr 23 15:32:20 2019 MDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)    Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:         (    0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x11) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    No Auto Offline data collection support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    No Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (  10) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 4
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME              FLAG     VALUE WORST     THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct         0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours                  0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       2693
 12 Power_Cycle_Count             0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       2430
165 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       34380513503
166 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       1
167 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       33
168 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       21
169 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       564
170 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
171 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
172 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
173 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       3
174 Unknown_Attribute            0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       1698
184 End-to-End_Error               0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect          0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout           0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       14
194 Temperature_Celsius         0x0022   077   048   ---    Old_age   Always       -       23 (Min/Max 9/48)
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count   0x0032    100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
230 Unknown_SSD_Attribute   0x0032    100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       188980527148
232 Available_Reservd_Space  0x0033    100   100   004    Pre-fail  Always       -       100
233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032    100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       3597
234 Unknown_Attribute           0x0032    100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       5421
241 Total_LBAs_Written           0x0030    253   253   ---    Old_age   Offline      -       4262
242 Total_LBAs_Read               0x0030    253   253   ---    Old_age   Offline      -       7820
244 Unknown_Attribute           0x0032    000   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged


On 4/23/19 10:15 AM, Alucard wrote:
Hi Brian,

My 2¢.

If my OS was that hosed, I would just start over. There is a point where the rabbit hole gets too deep to climb out of.

Have you looked at the hard drive to see if that HDD/SSD is failing?

sudo apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda

If you have never looked at SMART data, then you will want to probably send us/me the output. You will probably be better off doing this from a live USB/CD. If you want a GUI for smartmontools, look at GSmartControl.

If the drive is failing, then fixing the OS is a moot point.

Regards,

Jared

On 4/22/19 9:45 PM, Brian O'Keefe wrote:

Thanks Harold. Responses inserted for ease and clarity. Many thanks again

On 4/22/19 9:23 PM, Harold Furbiter wrote:
Here is a receipe for boot from an older kernel, and how to set it to a default.
 

If you have a few Kernels in your system you can set manually what Kernel version will start:

  1. Reboot your PC with pressed Shift button for display GRUB after BIOS will start. You will see something like: GRUB start page

I have booted into older kernels or safe mode this way in the pas. Now I cannot reboot as all that comes up is the them color screen, no login, nothing. So I have to do a hard shutdown. I do not get a Grub menu holding down shift key upon starting. I get a flat theme color screen. Nothing more
  1. Select "Advanced options for Ubuntu" and memorize index of this menu line(count starts from 0) On the picture index is 1

Since I can't access Grub menu I can't do any of the following except edit grub setup file, which I have not done because of above issue

      2.      Select concrete Kernel

  1. Select concrete kernel for boot and also memorize index of this menu line(count starts from 0) On the picture index of chosen Kernel is 2

  2. Start system. This action is for one boot on concrete kernel. If you want to start from concrete Kernel all time you should do next steps:

4.1. Open and edit GRUB setup file:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

4.2. Find line GRUB_DEFAULT=...(by default GRUB_DEFAULT=0) and sets in quotes menu path to concrete Kernel(Remember menu indexes from steps 2 and 3). In my system first index was 1 and second was 2. I set in to GRUB_DEFAULT

GRUB_DEFAULT="1>2"

Save file.

4.3. Update GRUB information for apply changes:

sudo update-grub

4.4. After reboot you automatically boot on Kernel by chosen menu path. An example on my machine 1 -> 2

4.5. Check Kernel version after reboot:

uname -r

 
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 10:54 PM
From: "Brian O'Keefe" <okeefe@cybermesa.com>
To: nmglug@lists.nmglug.org
Subject: Re: [nmglug] Weirdness

Thanks again,

Tried them all to no avail

On 4/15/19 6:33 PM, Harold Furbiter wrote:
You could try:
sudo /sbin/init 6   (see if it reboots)
reboots to a blank, colored screen, no log in
sudo /sbin/init 1   (see if it give you a prompt)
Gives me a rescue mode prompt that I cannot use as I can't enter any of the options
 
maybe su to root and try init
sudo su - root  (you need '- root' to insure your path is root's)
 
you might try booting from a older or oldest kernel:
Can't access the grub menu for older kernels. Using shift key during boot just gives me the blank colored screen
 
dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'
 
Gives you a list of bootable kernels available on your system. Try booting from the oldest version.
Is there a way to reboot from a terminal with an older kernel as I cannot access the grub menu. this is a recent issue, within the last couple of weeks.
 
Cheers,
 
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 8:32 AM
From: "Harold Furbiter" <wwcorigan@mail.com>
To: nmglug@lists.nmglug.org
Subject: Re: [nmglug] Weirdness
Then you have a corrupt kernel. On boot try booting to an older kernel.
 
 
 
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 at 6:15 PM
From: "Brian O'Keefe" <okeefe@cybermesa.com>
To: nmglug@lists.nmglug.org
Subject: Re: [nmglug] Weirdness

Thanks for the input Harold,

Same result, just hangs on the splash screen. Can't logout, esc. key does nothing, can't switch to a console. Just have to do a hard shutdown.

On 4/11/19 8:59 PM, Harold Furbiter wrote:
Out of curiousity have you tried init 0 ?
 
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 11:26 AM
From: "Brian O'Keefe" <okeefe@cybermesa.com>
To: "NMGLUG.org mailing list" <nmglug@nmglug.org>
Subject: [nmglug] Weirdness

Hi All,

Since I may not make meeting (niece visiting and Thurs. is her last day) I'm putting my issue out for comment and hopefully answers. As many of you know I used to updgrade instead of clean installs and did that since Ubuntu 6.04. I had also added many apps from third parties and also modified many, many conf files to keep things working. I had a meltdown and lost much of my data but following a partial recovery, thanks to a certain group member, I installed a clean version of 18.04 onto a new 1TB SSD. I have ot tinkered at all with 3rd party software nor modified any conf files or been a bad boy in any way!

My issue ids that I cannot shut down my box in anyway other than a hard shutdown. I also cannot restart it. I have tried the GUI option as well as switching to text mode and using "sudo shutdown now" or "sudo restart now". In those cases I get the splash screen with the "traveling lights" and Unutu but it hangs there. The traveling dots hang on the first dot of the splash screen and nothing happens. I had hoped that text mode would give give me an indication of the issues but I can't stay in that mode for some reason. 

Thanks for any help.

Brian

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