Booting into recovery mode

Booting into Recovery Mode

If your system isn’t booting properly, you can use Recovery Mode to diagnose and fix issues.
Follow the steps below to access it.

1. Boot into GRUB

Turn on your laptop and repeatedly tap the Esc key as it starts up.
Stop pressing once the Star Labs logo disappears - this should bring up the GRUB menu:

2. If You Press Esc Too Many Times

If you see the screen below, you’ve gone one step too far.

At the GRUB command line, type:

Press Enter, then tap Esc again until the menu appears.
If it still doesn’t show, restart your laptop and repeat step 1.

3. Select Recovery Mode

Use the arrow keys to highlight Advanced options for Ubuntu, then press Enter.
From the next menu, choose the second option — the one ending with (recovery mode).

4. Boot into Recovery Mode

Press Enter to start the laptop in recovery mode.
After a short moment, you’ll see the Recovery Menu:

5. Recovery Options Explained

Here’s what each option does:

• resume – Exit recovery mode and start your laptop normally.

• clean – Remove leftover installation files from installed programs.

• dpkg – Resume incomplete installations (often useful after an interrupted update).

• fsck – Check and repair file system errors (useful after power loss).

• grub – Scan for installed operating systems and add them to the GRUB boot menu.

• network – Enable internet access (wired only by default).

• root – Open a terminal with administrator access — useful for:

  • Installing or removing software

  • Editing configuration files

  • Manually repairing GRUB

6. Connecting to a Wireless Network

If you need to connect to Wi-Fi while in recovery mode, use this command - replacing NETWORK and PASSWORD with your own details: