I managed to break ubuntu --- HELP

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ockron

14 posts

Geek

Topic # 96528 30-Jan-2012 10:33

Good morning all,

Let me start by saying that have been using Ubuntu for a while now and enjoyed the experience this far.

I upgraded to 11.10 last year and was happily chugging along until I decided to change my background image this morning.
I thought I would delete the one I was using and replace it with a new one ... BIG MISTAKE!!!

As I deleted the one I was using my system just froze (HELLO WINDOWS) and now it's just frozen :(

I shut the system down (forced shutdown) but now I cannot log into my main profile ... It just hangs.

Can anyone please help me?!

wongtop

538 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 38

Reply # 574866 30-Jan-2012 11:02

Can you login with a live CD and backup your home directory before you do anything else?

That way as a worst case you can reinstall then restore your home directory.

knoydart

864 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 139

Trusted

Reply # 574885 30-Jan-2012 11:47

Can you force the machine to boot in safe mode and then carry out either a roll back or fix at that point? My dual boot toughbook (with XP) offers the choice but I'm on 11.04.

regards

Knoydart

ockron

14 posts

Geek

Reply # 574899 30-Jan-2012 12:33

That could be the answer ... how do I boot into "safe mode"?

knoydart

864 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 139

Trusted

Reply # 574914 30-Jan-2012 12:53

This is an educated guess based on 11.04.

2 options are either:

On start up, during the boot sequence you get the choice to boot in safe mode or even last known good state. You might have to use an F key of some kind to stop the boot process and go down an alternate route

Second option is (if you have a log on screen with password) is instead of using logging on, you have an options or power button. Here you may have the option to restart in safe mode or log in, in a different mode.

Suggest you have a quick search for safe modes for 11.10 to confirm what options you have none the less.

ockron

14 posts

Geek

Reply # 574947 30-Jan-2012 14:15

OK ... I've made a startup disk and busy saving my "home" directory.

Although I cannot backup or copy my "home" directory. I get the error message that I do not have permissions to read it.

wongtop

538 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 38

Reply # 575008 30-Jan-2012 16:46

Sorry - tried to PM you but can't. Are you able to log in as you on the live CD and thus own your home directory again. Otherwise you will have to give yourself superuser status.

You should be able to find some hints in here about moving your home directory.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving

kontonnz

137 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 22

Reply # 575012 30-Jan-2012 16:55

I Think the only really sensible option is for you to pray for forgiveness for installing open source software I suggest you sell your soul and join us poor tormented souls back in the windows OS world, where their is such things as system restore and repair windows from the boot disk/cd/other. or the magic press F8 to reset back to default config.

wongtop

538 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 38

Reply # 575024 30-Jan-2012 17:28

Can you use the live cd to just put the (or a) image back where the system is expecting it to be?

alexx

608 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 38

Reply # 575027 30-Jan-2012 17:32

It seems weird that deleting a background image could do that.
Can you even login as root, or do Ubuntu security defaults not allow that anyway?

However, backup home directories first (one way or another) is a good idea. Then perhaps if you know the filename of the deleted image, I wonder if putting the image back (or another with the same file name) will fix the problem?

#include <standard.disclaimer>

ockron

14 posts

Geek

Reply # 575030 30-Jan-2012 17:43

kontonnz: I Think the only really sensible option is for you to pray for forgiveness for installing open source software I suggest you sell your soul and join us poor tormented souls back in the windows OS world, where their is such things as system restore and repair windows from the boot disk/cd/other. or the magic press F8 to reset back to default config.

LOL after 6 years of Linux (3 different OS's .. Mint, Fedora & Linux) I think I'll keep up for a fix.

Thanx for the suggestion though, :)

ockron

14 posts

Geek

Reply # 575031 30-Jan-2012 17:44

wongtop: Can you use the live cd to just put the (or a) image back where the system is expecting it to be?

I suppose I could ... If I knew how ...

gzt

10403 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1629

Reply # 575319 31-Jan-2012 14:05

Lo-tech way out is create a new user (from the commandline if neeed), and copy your data across to it if you need to.

ockron

14 posts

Geek

Reply # 575559 31-Jan-2012 21:32

Hi all.
Thank you for all the advise and help. In the end all I could do was re install the OS.

I tried fixing it from the CD but it continued using the old Unity setup.

So now I have a fresh install that works 100%.