Module 13 · When Something Goes Wrong 25 min

Every computer breaks sometimes. That's not a disaster, it's normal. Windows breaks. Macs break. Linux breaks. The difference between someone who panics and someone who calmly fixes it is just knowing what to try, in what order. This module gives you that order.

By the end of this module, you will:

• Know the six things to try, in order, when anything stops working
• Recognise the four most common Linux error messages and what they really mean
• Know where to find help (and how to ask for it well)
• Stop being scared of error messages, they're usually friendly once you read them

The Golden Rule: read the error dialog

If you do nothing else, do this. Read the dialog before reacting. On Linux the GNOME error pop-up tells you, in plain words, what went wrong. The same four messages cover the vast majority of everyday snags you will see on the desktop:

What the dialog says	What it almost always means, and what to do
"Not enough space on disk" (Files copy dialog, Software Updater)	Your drive is nearly full. Open Files, right-click the Trash in the sidebar → Empty Trash. Then look in Downloads for big things you don't need. If still full, open System Settings → About → Storage to see what's eating the space.
"You don't have permission to access this file" (Files, System Settings padlock)	The file or setting is locked, either it belongs to another user account on the machine or IT has restricted it by policy. Don't try to override it. On a managed laptop, ask IT. On personal kit, check Files → right-click → Properties → Permissions.
"Could not connect to network" (Wi-Fi indicator, Firefox, email client)	Wi-Fi off, wrong password, or your VPN dropped. Click the top-right Wi-Fi / network indicator: confirm Wi-Fi is on, the right network is selected, and (if needed) the VPN toggle is green. If you're on Ethernet, unplug and replug the cable.
"The application is not responding" (GNOME force-quit dialog)	The app froze. Click Force Quit. Reopen the app, your work was almost certainly auto-saved (LibreOffice, Firefox, GNOME Text Editor all do this). If the same app freezes repeatedly, reboot the laptop and try again before escalating.

Notice that none of those are mysterious. Read what the dialog says, click the obvious button, and most of the time it works.

The six things to try, in order

When something on Linux stops working and you do not know why, walk through these six checks. They sound simple, that is because they are. Most problems get fixed somewhere in the first three steps.

Where to find help

Even people who have used Linux for 20 years search for answers every single day. That is not a sign of weakness, it is how Linux works. Here is where to look, in order of usefulness:

• The exact error message in Google, copy and paste, add your distro name. 90% of the time you will find the answer in the first three results.
• Ask Ubuntu (askubuntu.com), community Q&A specifically for Ubuntu. Massive archive. Search before posting; almost always already answered.
• The Ubuntu Forum (ubuntuforums.org), older but still extremely active.
• Reddit r/linuxquestions and r/ubuntu, friendly, beginner-tolerant. People will help.
• The Mint forum, the Fedora forum, etc., if you are using a different distro, every distro has its own forum and they are all welcoming.

If your computer will not boot at all

This is the only properly scary one. You turn the laptop on, and instead of getting to your normal desktop, you see a black screen, or a strange menu, or a wall of text. Do not reinstall. On a managed government laptop, do not try to repair the boot loader yourself either, every boot problem listed here has a recovery path that goes through IT.

What you see	What to do (civil-servant version)
Black screen, then nothing	Hold the power button for 10 seconds to force off, wait 10 seconds, power back on. If it still won't boot to the desktop, stop and contact IT, note exactly what you see (black screen, blinking cursor, error text). Take a phone photo if there's any text.
Forgot your login password	Contact IT. On a managed laptop they can reset your account; on personal kit your distro's official documentation walks you through the GUI password-reset path. Never try to bypass it via boot menus on a work machine.
Linux got really slow after the last update	From the lock screen, click the cog icon and pick the previous session if your distro shows one. Otherwise reboot once, log in, run Software Updater again (a follow-up patch is often released within 24 hours). Still slow? Report to IT with the date the slowdown started.
Desktop is frozen but the cursor moves	Wait 60 seconds, GNOME often unfreezes itself. If still stuck, hold the power button to force off and power back on. Report repeat freezes to IT with the application name involved.

Updates & backups: the small toolkit

Specific symptom → specific check → specific fix for the most common update and backup snags. Same six-step mindset, applied to the M10 toolkit.

Symptom	First place to look	What to try
Update fails, "could not get lock"	Another update operation is already running	Wait a couple of minutes and try Software Updater again. On managed laptops this usually means IT's push job is in flight, let it finish.
Disk is full, can't update	Files app → right-click a folder → Properties shows used / free space	Open Software & Updates → clear old snap revisions; empty the Trash; offload large folders to your backup drive. On a managed laptop, escalate to IT (they have policy tools for this).
Update broke something	Timeshift → Restore latest snapshot (personal kit)	On a managed laptop, escalate to IT, they have central snapshot/restore tooling.
Forgot encryption passphrase	You can't recover	Make a new backup chain. Then write the passphrase down on paper, kept somewhere safe.
External backup drive isn't detected	Files app sidebar, is it mounted?	Try another USB cable / port. Try the drive in another machine to rule out the drive itself.