What Just Happened to My Installation?

[leeraconteur]

wake up.
I have an update notification.
"You have 21 updates"
I install through adept.
I ctrl-alt-backspace.

What do I see? All of my wallpaper, my compiz, my plasmoids, all the graphic interfaces that ARE THE REASON WHY I CHOSE 8.10, they are all GONE and I am staring at a plain jane, none 3d interface with the off tan theme from Ubuntu 6.10 .

Why do you do this?
Why do linux distros do this?
I had the SAME PROBLEM with PCLinuxOS last year. I updated and lost all my graphical interface settings and had to reinstall.

Do you not care?
Are you careless?
Arrogant?
Incompetent?

This is unacceptable. I don't care if the OS is 'free'. I expect an upgrade to NOT REMOVE SYSTEM FEATURES like my desktop, my plasmoids, my layout, my 3-d cube, and all the rest.

Why do you not care about the time your users spend?

Really?

What is the problem with linux distro creators?

[aged hippy]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I never had that problem, maybe it was something which you had done....

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I never had that problem, maybe it was something which you had done....

This attitude is unacceptable.

I get a notification to update.

I update.

My system then breaks.

I must assume that I should not update as the OS doesn't know what it is doing and what to keep.

Your attitude is unacceptable. This is the default attitude of Linux fans. It is always the users fault.

If a product breaks, the maker is responsible. Not the user.

This is why linux cannot break 1.00% of OS market share.

How do I undo what this update has done? How do I shut off updates?

[aged hippy]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

Well, all i can say is Welcome to the Kubuntu Forums.

Did we get out the wrong side of the bed this morning?

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

Well, all i can say is Welcome to the Kubuntu Forums.

Did we get out the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Your attitude is useless.

I need solutions, not a smartass.

Don't assume that because I have 4 posts that I have no experience with Linux or OS' or Computers.

I was programming Basic in 1975, I run the network at the office, I know command line in DOS and BASH.

Again:
Solutions.
How do i fix this?
Can I undo the package updates and where is the list of the most recently upgraded packages?

Don't tell me to reinstall. I have a life and cannot waste my time.

There was an upgrade suggested by the repo/server/OS. I upgraded. I then lost all of my graphics settings and now cannot find some programs I installed.

Again:
Solutions.

[cantab]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I ctrl-alt-backspace.

You shouldn't generally do that. ctrl+alt+backspace is a forced restart of the graphical environment. It doesn't give programs the chance to save their settings, and can stop things at bad times. If you hit ctrl+alt+backspace before Adept had truly finished, well there's your problem! Ctrl+alt+backspace is for when your desktop environment completely freezes.

Also, yes Linux distros' updates break things sometimes. So does Windows.

If not having things get broken is critical to you, you should run a distribution and version focussed on stability rather than features. Kubuntu Hardy, Debian, or CentOS might be good choices.

Also I think it's possible to reduce the updates you get, so you get only security updates, not the usual new features and new bugs. I'm not quite sure how though.

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I ctrl-alt-backspace.

You shouldn't generally do that.

"Shouldn't" is a meaningless word.
Obviously it DID DO THIS. Restarting the x-server is a completely normal and acceptable operation, and if the OS works properly it WON'T killfile all of my graphics settings.

So seeing as this did happen, what are my options to fix this?

Is this yet again another 'bug' with compiz/beryl/kd4 that means that YET AGAIN I have to re-install or do without the new features?

Solutions. All of my plasmoids/kd4/beryl/compiz/wallpaper is GONE. Packages for running 8.10 graphical enviroment WERE UNINSTALLED BY THE UPDATE. I cannot get the cube to work as it did 30 minutes ago.

Solutions.

[aged hippy]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I ctrl-alt-backspace.

You shouldn't generally do that. ctrl+alt+backspace is a forced restart of the graphical environment. It doesn't give programs the chance to save their settings, and can stop things at bad times. If you hit ctrl+alt+backspace before Adept had truly finished, well there's your problem! Ctrl+alt+backspace is for when your desktop environment completely freezes.
[ ... ]

Was what i was hinting at.... We shouldn't be too quick to blame the OS when it may well be something which we ourselves have done.

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I ctrl-alt-backspace.

You shouldn't generally do that. ctrl+alt+backspace is a forced restart of the graphical environment. It doesn't give programs the chance to save their settings, and can stop things at bad times. If you hit ctrl+alt+backspace before Adept had truly finished, well there's your problem! Ctrl+alt+backspace is for when your desktop environment completely freezes.
[ ... ]

Was what i was hinting at.... We shouldn't be too quick to blame the OS when it may well be something which we ourselves have done.

I waited until Adept was finished.
I then closed the window.
I then used Firefox.
I then ctrl-alt-backspace.
I then see a 6.10 desktop environment.

If the OS is so fragile that it destroys all graphical settings with a c-a-b, then this is a toy.

[cantab]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

At the login screen, there should be a session type option or similar. See if there's a different session that will make a difference.

If not, try

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

I am baffled as to how it can have regressed back to 6.10. What's your version history, ie have you upgraded with each new release, or did you skip some?

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

At the login screen, there should be a session type option or similar. See if there's a different session that will make a difference.

If not, try

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

I am baffled as to how it can have regressed back to 6.10. What's your version history, ie have you upgraded with each new release, or did you skip some?

~$ sudo apt-get update
~$ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
kubuntu-desktop is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.


I installed 8.10 2 days ago.
No upgrade.
Empty unallocated space, formatted to ext3, fresh install of 8.10

I WAS happy with it. It was stable (I thought), it had nice look and feel, and compiz worked quickly and easily.

WAS happy.

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

I am back to Gnome 2.24.1 Version 10/24/2008.

No Kde at all. This 'update' completely removed KDE4 as I look in add/remove packages the KDE4 box is UNCHECKED.

Unacceptable.

Obviously I cannot trust Canonical recommended updates

This is an issue with other flavours I have used. Updates break the OS.

[cantab]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

Since you only installed 2 days ago, my best suggestion is to reinstall, and hold off the upgrades for a while. This does sound like an ubuntu bug.

[dibl]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

wake up.
I have an update notification.
"You have 21 updates"
I install through adept.
I ctrl-alt-backspace.

What do I see? All of my wallpaper, my compiz, my plasmoids, all the graphic interfaces that ARE THE REASON WHY I CHOSE 8.10, they are all GONE and I am staring at a plain jane, none 3d interface with the off tan theme from Ubuntu 6.10 .

Wow.

Thanks for the warning -- I am going to be very careful when I run updates tonight.

But, Ubuntu 6.10? Do you mean "looks like" or "actually is"? I have no clue how one would get a 6.10 splash onto a 8.10 system -- I think it would be a tricky maneuver, at best.

There should be a .kde folder in your home directory. If so, I would first back it up by renaming it to ".kde_bak" or something similar. Then, you should be able to

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

and get the default KDE 4 GUI again. Once that's done, you can rename/restore your backed up .kde folder and you should be back to your prior settings.

"Should" being the unwanted but operative term.

[leeraconteur]

Re: What Just Happened to My Installation?

Since you only installed 2 days ago, my best suggestion is to reinstall, and hold off the upgrades for a while. This does sound like an ubuntu bug.

"KDE4 is maintained by the Ubuntu community. The Ubuntu community provides support and security updates, which will be enabled, too."

No updates for me once I get this 'fixed'.