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Been running ubuntu 19.10 for months. Suddenly, after a reboot today, I get this message after logging in via the gui greeter:

"Oh no! Something has gone wrong. A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please log out and try again."

Same screen shown in this post: Can't use my desktop on Ubuntu 19.10 after upgrading from 18.04

The only option is to logout, which takes me back to the greeter screen.

I can login via TTY fine, fwiw.

user2901351
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3 Answers3

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You could try one of these:

  • Create new user and verify you could login with it

    sudo adduser username && sudo usermod -aG sudo username

  • Reinstall gnome:

    sudo apt purge *-gnome-*
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

User customization settings could be lost, but maybe user's customization is the cause of this buggy behavior.

Gryu
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  • MOST USEFUL. Thank you @Gryu. Since I could still login via TTY, I did so, and ran apt purge -gnome- . . . and then rebooted, expecting to see only a TTY session. Instead, the greeter came back, but this time in grey instead of the usual ubuntu purple. Successfully logged in. Display is all wonky now, but I can fix that... Will post results of install ubuntu-desktop. Thank you. – user2901351 Mar 04 '20 at 11:56
  • very interesting: after running apt install ubuntu-desktop and rebooting, I am back to the same original problem. Will purge again and continue probing. – user2901351 Mar 04 '20 at 12:15
  • After repeated tests... Reliably, purging -gnome- allowed me to get to a desktop, but with glitchy functionality, missing components, and no ability to look up applications via gui --- and reinstalling ubuntu-desktop took me back to problem state. Ended up offloading all my data and wiping the machine clean, re-installing. Thanks much for your help, though. I learned a few things. – user2901351 Mar 05 '20 at 10:16
  • Ok. But have you tried new user creation and login with it after gnome reinstalling. – Gryu Mar 05 '20 at 12:06
  • Going to try this next, @Gryu -- because after my rebuild... everything was working fine until I ran this command to remove amazon shit: apt purge ubuntu-web-launchers. Immediately after running that, the amazon icon on the dock disappeared, but then the entire screen flickered, and firefox crashed. I rebooted, and came back to the original problem that started this all. SO: now going to properly follow your entire suggestion. – user2901351 Mar 05 '20 at 14:11
  • It looks like a bug. I'll try to reproduce it when will be at home – Gryu Mar 05 '20 at 14:14
  • Grrreat. Will post more info as I get it. Also: it's 19.10 server – user2901351 Mar 05 '20 at 14:23
  • I tried removing that and reboot. Nothing changed. I use Ubuntu Wayland. – Gryu Mar 05 '20 at 18:37
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I also aff a problem with gnome not working. I solved it with following commands :

sudo apt install lightdm
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Note : gnome desktop manager is 'gdm', not 'lightdm', but I read it is about to be replaced by lightgdm (here)

Serge
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be careful and don't forget about changes to your desktop manager! Reconfigure it via sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 . With all the problems in past with gdm etc.... people need to know simple fix for results encountered. Been there, done that!

MrBill
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