Kubuntu-Desktop package

[Spadge]

I sort of broke everything yesterday and had a right old time getting absolutely anything to work again. Stuck in emergency repair mode CLI only for a while, struggling to find a "held broken package" when no packages were listed as held.

I eventually got it to a stage where it would let me install the Kubuntu-desktop package, and it didn't reinstall everything you'd expect.

For instance, it gave me a broken lightdm to log in with, rather than SDDM.

Is there something I'm missing here? Is that not the "reinstall to fix everything" package any more?

Thanks.

[ronw]

Sounds like you have a strange sources.list or something installed that isn't playing nice by insisting on lightdm. I don't see kubuntu-desktop depending on or even recommending lightdm:

$ aptitude show kubuntu-desktop 
Package: kubuntu-desktop                 
State: not installed
Version: 1.323
Priority: optional
Section: universe/metapackages
Maintainer: Kubuntu Developers <kubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Uncompressed Size: 59.4 k
Depends: alsa-base, alsa-utils, anacron, ark, baloo-kf5, bc, breeze, ca-certificates, dolphin, fonts-dejavu-core,
         fonts-freefont-ttf, foomatic-db-compressed-ppds, genisoimage, ghostscript-x, inputattach, kde-cli-tools,
         khelpcenter, khotkeys, kinfocenter, kio, kio-extras, kmenuedit, kmix, ksnapshot, ksysguard, kwin, kwrited,
         libpam-systemd, libsasl2-modules, libxp6, memtest86+, okular, openprinting-ppds, oxygen-sounds, plasma-desktop,
         pm-utils, powerdevil, printer-driver-pnm2ppa, rfkill, sddm-theme-breeze, software-properties-kde, systemsettings,
         ubuntu-drivers-common, unzip, wireless-tools, wpasupplicant, xdg-user-dirs, xkb-data, xorg, zip
Recommends: about-distro, acpi-support, akregator, amarok, apport-kde, apturl-kde, avahi-autoipd, avahi-daemon, baloo-utils,
            bluedevil, bluez, bluez-alsa, bluez-cups, cdrdao, cryptsetup, cups, cups-bsd, cups-client, cups-filters,
            dragonplayer, firefox, fonts-droid, fonts-guru, fonts-kacst-one, fonts-khmeros-core, fonts-lao, fonts-liberation,
            fonts-lklug-sinhala, fonts-nanum, fonts-sil-abyssinica, fonts-sil-padauk, fonts-takao-pgothic, fonts-thai-tlwg,
            fonts-tibetan-machine, frameworkintegration, gnupg-agent, gpgsm, gstreamer-qapt, gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio,
            gtk2-engines-oxygen, gtk3-engines-oxygen, gwenview, hplip, ibus-qt4, im-config, k3b, kaddressbook, kate, kcalc,
            kde-config-gtk-style, kde-config-gtk-style-preview, kde-config-sddm, kde-config-tablet, kde-config-touchpad,
            kde-config-whoopsie, kde-telepathy, kdeconnect-plasma, kdegraphics-strigi-analyzer, kdenetwork-filesharing,
            kdepim-kresources, kdepim-runtime, kerneloops-daemon, kimageformat-plugins, kio-mtp, kmail, knotes, konsole,
            kontact, konversation, korganizer, krdc, kscreen, ksshaskpass, ksystemlog, ktorrent, kubuntu-driver-manager,
            kubuntu-notification-helper, kubuntu-settings-desktop, kubuntu-web-shortcuts, kwalletmanager, kwin-addons,
            laptop-detect, libnss-mdns, libqca2-plugin-ossl, libreoffice-base, libreoffice-calc, libreoffice-impress,
            libreoffice-kde, libreoffice-style-oxygen, libreoffice-writer, milou, mobile-broadband-provider-info,
            muon-discover, muon-notifier, okular-extra-backends, oxygen-icon-theme, pam-kwallet, partitionmanager,
            pcmciautils, phonon-backend-gstreamer, phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer, pinentry-qt4, plasma-dataengines-addons,
            plasma-nm, plasma-runners-addons, plasma-wallpapers-addons, plasma-widget-kimpanel, plasma-widgets-addons,
            plymouth-theme-kubuntu-logo, plymouth-theme-kubuntu-text, policykit-desktop-privileges, polkit-kde-agent-1,
            print-manager, printer-driver-brlaser, printer-driver-c2esp, printer-driver-foo2zjs, printer-driver-min12xxw,
            printer-driver-ptouch, printer-driver-pxljr, printer-driver-sag-gdi, printer-driver-splix, pulseaudio,
            pulseaudio-module-bluetooth, python-qt4-dbus, qapt-deb-installer, qt5-image-formats-plugins, skanlite,
            ttf-ancient-fonts-symbola, ttf-indic-fonts-core, ttf-oxygen-font-family, ttf-ubuntu-font-family, udisks2, upower,
            user-manager, xdg-utils
Conflicts: kubuntu-desktop
Description: Kubuntu Plasma Desktop/Netbook system
 This package depends on all of the packages in the Kubuntu desktop system. Installing this package will include the default
 Kubuntu Plasma Desktop or Netbook installation. 
 
 It is safe to remove this package if some of the desktop system packages are not desired.

[Spadge]

The point remains; installing kubuntu-dekstop doesn't install SDDM or any other display manager, which can really break stuff. It also makes you worry what else it hasn't installed that someone trying to fix a broken KDE desktop would need.

I guess I had lightdm left over from 14.10. Just as well, really, as it gave me some errors to fix that eventually got me able to log in and work out that SDDM was missing.

It was a long day.