[SOLVED] Cannot restart Ubuntu after replacing Unity with Gnome and purging lightdm

OtagoHarbour · 09-25-2012, 09:54 PM

I am running Ubuntu 11.10. I used the directions here to replace Unity with Gnome. It seemed to work fine until the end of step 2 when I rebooted the computer. When I chose the default option, I just got a black screen. When I choose the restore option and then "Restore normal boot" I get

Code:

Starting load fallback graphics devices    [fail]
Starting GNOME Display Manager [ok]
Starting Userspace bootsplash [ok]
Stopping GNOME Display Manager [ok]
Stopping Userspace bootsplash [ok]
Starting web server apach22    [fail]

(among a lot of [OK]s)

It finally gets to Stopping System V runlevel compatibility [ok] where it hangs. I left it overnight and just had a blank screen when I checked it in the morning.

I can "Drop to root shell prompt" and "Drop to root shell prompt with networking". I did see here that one should be able to fix the problem by choosing remount and then doing

Code:

apt-get install lightdm

I tried this as root shell with and without networking and got the message

Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneric-updates/main lightdm i386 1.0.6-0ubuntu1.7
Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu'

Apparently there is no 'us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu' but I don't know how to get

Code:

apt-get install lightdm

to look somewhere else.

What is the best way to resolve this problem?

Thanks,
Peter.

suttiwit · 09-27-2012, 10:07 AM

Try

Code:

sudo apt-get update

and try again...

Also, lightdm is the login screen you see everytime you start up. It wouldn't be a good idea to remove it.

OtagoHarbour · 09-27-2012, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suttiwit

Try

Code:

sudo apt-get update

and try again...

Also, lightdm is the login screen you see everytime you start up. It wouldn't be a good idea to remove it.

Thank you for your reply. I agree. It was a very bad idea to remove it. I have found that my problem was I was not connected to the Internet when I tried to reinstall lightdm from the root prompt. I found out that I needed to first enter

Code:

dhclient eth0

Since my computer was connected to the router per an ethernet cable. That gave me Internet connection, thus enabling

Code:

apt-get install lightdm

to work.

Thanks,
Peter.

suttiwit · 09-27-2012, 11:39 PM

rep me.