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I'm using Ubuntu 16.04.4 and seeing some weird behavior. After the system boots, I can't launch some applications. The system seems to be thinking for few seconds and then nothing happens.

When I press Ctrl+Alt+t terminal doesn't start, it doesn't start from search menu and from plank also. But from context menu on desktop (Open Terminal option) starts immediately. Also I can't start Software Updater. Firefox and Pycharm start normally.

This happened after I changed python3 link to python3.6 by running

sudo ln -s python3.6 python3
Zanna
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Alexander Zot
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1 Answers1

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Since a number of applications on Ubuntu are based on Python, and the Python libraries they use are installed to locations specific to the version of Python being used, changing /usr/bin/python3 or /usr/bin/python will likely cause a number of system-provided applications from working. Use xterm (which does not use Python) or the TTYs to change /usr/bin/python3 back to python3.5 (the default on Ubuntu 16.04), and keep it that way. (Also see: How to change python3 from python3.5 to python3.6, where the top answer advices against doing what you did.)

Olorin
  • 3,488
  • Yeh... its True. Changed back and now all works. Still is weird: python can't find packages in /usr/lib/python3 directory which was not moved or something... – Alexander Zot Apr 17 '18 at 06:53
  • python would be python2 (... python2.7), unless I misunderstood what you meant. – Olorin Apr 17 '18 at 07:28