Problem with DE in Ubuntu

[tinpanalley]

I had Ubuntu running fine, installed the plasma desktop environment using this. Switched to plasma. 
I wanted to switch back to Ubuntu but no everything I choose at the login screen boots to black.

Any ideas?

[Ashleyyyy]

tasksel looks like an ancient tool, it likely messed something up. i'd just reinstall. 

[tinpanalley]

Crap... ok. So, since I've heard about the magic of linux, can I take everything I had customised to this point and somehow reapply it to a new install? By the way I'm on Virtualbox if it matters.

(Also, what would have been the better way to do this? I just got that by searching.)

[Drama Lama]

I‘d try a reinstall 

[KaratekHD]

You could also log into a terminal (CTRL+ALT+F1) and fire up 

Spoiler

startx

If it fails, post the output

Edited June 21, 2020 by KaratekHD

[KaratekHD]

1 hour ago, tinpanalley said:

Crap... ok. So, since I've heard about the magic of linux, can I take everything I had customised to this point and somehow reapply it to a new install? By the way I'm on Virtualbox if it matters.

(Also, what would have been the better way to do this? I just got that by searching.)

There are some nice ways to keep your files and configs while reinstalling, but they require you to keep your /home directory on an other partition. Most elegant way to do this is probably using LVM, but that's a bit tricky for people new to Linux. If you use a distro with Btrfs support, like OpenSUSE for example, you could just rollback to an old state (this and this might help). But personally, I'm not a huge fan of btrfs, but you should try it out for yourself.

 

For installing Plasma, I would just use apt, at least that was the way to do this back when I used Ubuntu:

Spoiler

sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop

 But it will be a much cleaner experience if you (re)install a distro with Plasma, like OpenSUSE, KDE Neon or Kubuntu. I can only suggest trying it because Plasma is just great, but that's my opinion.

[tinpanalley]

20 minutes ago, KaratekHD said:

You could also log into a terminal (CTRL+F1) and fire up 

  Reveal hidden contents

startx

If it fails, post the output

Ok, the only problem is I now can't get Ubuntu or Plasma to start. I may just have to start completely from scratch.

Having played with Ubuntu, I think what I need is something with more customization options, more theme options, I really can't stand the iOS look and feel of Ubuntu. And I don't mind searching around for programs so I don't need to have tons already installed. I was just trying Plasma because on a page citing the best DE for Ubuntu, Plasma came up and it as the only one I liked.

[KaratekHD]

11 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Ok, the only problem is I now can't get Ubuntu or Plasma to start. I may just have to start completely from scratch.

Having played with Ubuntu, I think what I need is something with more customization options, more theme options, I really can't stand the iOS look and feel of Ubuntu. And I don't mind searching around for programs so I don't need to have tons already installed. I was just trying Plasma because on a page citing the best DE for Ubuntu, Plasma came up and it as the only one I liked.

You can access a terminal without starting a DE by pressing CTRL + ALT + F1 . From there, you can sign in and type the command "startx", which will most likely start a graphical session.

Edited June 21, 2020 by KaratekHD

[tinpanalley]

2 minutes ago, KaratekHD said:

You can access a terminal without starting a DE by pressing CTRL + F1 . From there, you can sign in and type the command "startx", which will most likely start a graphical session.

Yeah, my terminal skills aren't really up to scratch, and if I'm gonna go with a new distro anyway might be better to lose those Ubuntu settings. Can you recommend any distros? Or a good site that describes them?

[KaratekHD]

10 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Yeah, my terminal skills aren't really up to scratch, and if I'm gonna go with a new distro anyway might be better to lose those Ubuntu settings. Can you recommend any distros? Or a good site that describes them?

In my opinion, openSUSE is the best Distro out there. It's the free version of SUSE Enterprise Linux, and is officially supported by SUSE. They have two versions, Leap if you want a stable system to work with, and tumbleweed for developers and enthusiasts. If you don't want to tinker a lot in the terminal, I'd suggest openSUSE Leap. They make it really easy to manage your System, thanks to their Tool "YaST". You can tweak most parts of your System using YaST, without touching a terminal. Next release is coming in eleven days, so maybe you should wait a few days and install that, so you don't have to upgrade later. OpenSUSE comes with different DEs, you can choose one during installation. Plus, they make it easy to setup a separate /home partition, so you can keep your files if you ever want to reinstall the OS.

For me, it does it's job done really well, and I don't want to switch to another Distro. It is mostlikely an alrounder Distrobution. For 

You can learn more at opensuse.org. 

[nox_]

10 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Yeah, my terminal skills aren't really up to scratch, and if I'm gonna go with a new distro anyway might be better to lose those Ubuntu settings. Can you recommend any distros? Or a good site that describes them?

https://distrowatch.com/

Try Solus, Budgie DE is worth a look.

I personally daily drive openSuse, very happy with it.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Yeah, my terminal skills aren't really up to scratch, and if I'm gonna go with a new distro anyway might be better to lose those Ubuntu settings. Can you recommend any distros? Or a good site that describes them?

You liked plasma, I would recommend Majaro KDE, its built from Arch. You get the advantage of up to date packages and access to one of the largest repositories, the AUR, and mostly up to date Wikis.

[tinpanalley]

4 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

You liked plasma, I would recommend Majaro KDE, its built from Arch. You get the advantage of up to date packages and access to one of the largest repositories, the AUR, and mostly up to date Wikis.

Well, it's not so much that I liked plasma, but what I read about online made me at least prefer it to Ubuntu and Gnome. I just felt like Gnome is visually ok and had certain tweaks you can do to the look but I feel like there are limitations to the things I really want to change. But otherwise, it feels fine. Just like being able to tweak things visually more than what Ubuntu allows. I also read this thing about how it permits ads in places and I'm not cool with that at all.

It's funny when I use distrochooser, I get the weirdest recommendations. I guess those sites aren't a perfect source for finding distros. I did have a look at OpenSUSE Leap and Solus and they seem just great for me. I want the widest range of applications available to install, a customizable DE, easy access to the command line terminal just so that over time I can slowly learn how to use it (I first started with computers on MS-DOS), something with a strong community so you never have to dig deep for help, ease of running Windows programs if necessary, and something that is more likely to never have problem with peripherals and drivers.