0

Hi guys I accidentally did an autoremove and somehow my gnome desktop was completely wiped out leaving me with just the shell access to my ubuntu 18.04 - I'm trying to reinstall the ubuntu desktop but it doesn't work and keeps giving me an error.

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 ubuntu-desktop : Depends: ubuntu-session but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: gnome-software-plugin-snap but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: libreoffice-pdfimport but it is not going to be installed
                  Recommends: ubuntu-software but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I've tried using taskel - just about anything but it gives the same error. I've managed to install kubuntu-desktop using the same command but whats wrong here. I really would want to get my original desktop back. Please help.

Ali
  • 111
  • 1
  • 4

1 Answers1

3

Well if you don't have a ton of important files I would back up the important ones and do a fresh install. If you want to try to get the gnome desktop back install this package. It will pull all the needed dependencies. sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop good luck. If your looking for unity install this sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

kc1di
  • 382
  • Lifesaver. This avoided me doing a full reinstall after destroying my Ubuntu by installing Python 3.8. Downgraded to python 3.6 and couldn't start session. Reinstalling xserver-xorg sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg plus installing the gnome desktop saved it. – forgetso Apr 20 '20 at 05:48