Boot halts at blank screen with blinking cursor

[pearsonian]

i have the identical same issue.unable to resolve it.cannot update anything from terminal in recovery as says not enough disk space but i cannot delete anything.Tried booting into live usb and lets me go into my files but im not allowed to delete anything so how to free up space??

[Aravisian]

Can you please boot to Recovery Menu, then Drop to Prompt.
If you are using Zorin CORE (Not Lite), in the prompt run

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

sudo service gdm3 restart

Clear Logs:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=100M

Clean apt:

sudo apt clean && sudo apt autoremove

Once done, back out of the recovery menu and test proceeding with a normal boot.

[pearsonian]

[pearsonian]

didnt work.still black screen with cursor blinking in top left corner.I think my disk space is also very low so cannot do updates or upgrades.

[Aravisian]

@pearsonian

I think my disk space is also very low so cannot do updates or upgrades.

Do you know the sizes of Home and Root partitions?

[pearsonian]

[Aravisian]

Wow, 200gigs are used... Did you install a lot of stuff - or is that due to logs filling up?

Do you have personal files that are not saved or backed up - and you are avoiding a Wipe and Reinstall of the OS?

[pearsonian]

.im guessing that 200gigs is from files i downloaded and not stuff installed.i have managed to get into the files from a live usb stick.it lets me transfer to another usb stick so i can rescue my files.it wont let me delete anything nor transfer directly to external sdd or hdd.what have i done there? have i used the entire drive as a partition for the os and should i have set aside say 20gb for the os as a separate partition and created a separate partition for my personal files?

[Aravisian]

@pearsonian

i have managed to get into the files from a live usb stick.it lets me transfer to another usb stick so i can rescue my files.

Then I highly recommend reinstalling Zorin OS.
There may be an issue that has filled /var/logs to epic proportions. A fresh start is better.

[pearsonian]

i have managed to solve the issue.The problem seemed to be zorin os wanted to update and needed 488mb to do so.my ssd drive was completely full and i must have installed the os on the root partition and not a separate one.I booted zorin from a live usb went into my home folder and after many attempts managed to delete some big directories using the sudo rm-rf command.As soon as i had freed up enough space the os now works again.Next time im guessing i should put the home directory in a separate partition.