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My system crashed and after rebooting I'm left with a corrupt/broken desktop environment. I can see the toolbars and dock, however none of the icons are loading and cannot get ANY windows to display (even terminal).

I did ctrl + alt + f2 to get to the terminal and tried reinstalling gnome.

sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-desktop

However, this didn't change anything.

I also tried the fix in this post but wasn't able to find 'Linux Filesystem' partition.

Kaigo
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1 Answers1

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First confirm that this is a system related issue, and not due to your user configuration. Temporarily create a new user account and log on there. If it also happens in a fresh default account, then the system is broken indeed.

If the system is broken, you can proceed to a system reinstall without - at this point - removing current configuration. As a well kept secret, you can reinstall the system without formatting the current system. Doing so will keep all currently installed applications and current user configuration intact.

Obviously, the target file systems have to be healthy. Before proceeding to the install, check the file systems. You could do so from a live session using the terminal, or using the tool "Disks" if that is available in the live session.

Then start the installer, and select "Something else". Manually assign the partitions the same way they are assigned in your current system, but make sure to uncheck the checkbox "Format". That way, the partition will not be erased: installed applications, user data and configuration data will remain, and system files will be overwritten.

If that fails, (or if you make a mistake) your only option will be a fresh reinstall. Needless to say that you should make sure your user documents and data are safeguarded on an up to date backup.

vanadium
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  • Wow, does this reinstall pattern have a specific name? – Levente Feb 24 '21 at 11:53
  • @Levente, it is "Something else", so at the user's expertise and responsability. – vanadium Feb 24 '21 at 12:47
  • Good first suggestion; a new user also has the same issue. So I went through the install and selected 'something else' however when pressing install now, I get No Root File System is Defined and when I try define a root fs it forces me to format, bummer. – Kaigo Feb 24 '21 at 14:38
  • Not sure what is wrong there or if you are doing it all right. Perhaps the partition first needs to be checked and repaired before you can assign it this way to a new installation. Yet, easiest and most secure option for recovery remains a fresh reinstall. Takes not more than an hour before you are 95% up again. – vanadium Feb 24 '21 at 17:04
  • A broken file system may be important here. You obviously can only do the install with healthy file systems, so you will make sure that is the case first. Added this to the post. – vanadium Feb 24 '21 at 17:09