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On 07/10/10 10:57, james kilty wrote:
Hello My friend who went over to Ubuntu has lost his login screen. He gets a terminal window. Apparently he deleted some files - he mentioned nautilus. I suggested sudo aptitude install -f. This downloaded a rather large number of files such as gstreamer but I took it that it would replace any deleted file needed by the system. Alas, this did not work. He can open nautilus but does not have full access as it is missing the top menus and he cannot open programmes such as evolution which is urgent. Perhaps an essential file exists but has been corrupted. There is no on screen error message. I also suggested sudo dpkg-reconfigure Xorg sudo Xorg -configure and a few other things I got from various forums and searches. My last suggestion, before reinstalling over everything was to install into a new partition (he used all the disc) copy over his .evolution and see if he can access his emails as this is urgent for him. The emails are password protected and we may also have to copy over the password file (whose location I'd need to know). I don't know if Grub2 will find the original install and offer it as an option. Otherwise, if we can back up the key files is it safe to reinstall over the old install if we make sure it does not reformat the disc. Previously I have seen safe installs which do seem to not only leave /home/user/ alone but may also leave already installed files intact so it might not replace a corrupted file - perhaps someone could let me know about this. He is coming over this afternoon and I wondered if there would be anyone available to assist if I gave more details and posted them. I have suggested opening log files and we'll start with Xorg.0.log. Thanks in advance James
I've had this beforeMy solution was to make sure there was a desktop (reinstall gdm) - make a new user and log in there and if possible work with that. If its the root user thats in trouble make sure the new user is in the admin group.
Tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq