I have tried to install Pop-Desktop on Ubuntu, but now I want to turn back to default DE

Question

I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

I've tried to download pop-desktop on Ubuntu with:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop
sudo apt update
sudo apt install pop-desktop

and I've got the error:

 dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
 Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/pop-gnome-initial-setup_3.36.1~1612193315~20.04~4367c76_amd64.deb
 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

While I was checking on the web, I've learned that this can be because of conflicting packages. Now I want to ask how to undo what I just did.

sudo apt remove pop-desktop didn't work and it returned with something like

 package pop-desktop not found

After all, a few things are changed in Ubuntu. E.g. Colour of the login screen is grey, the highlighting colour is light blue, and for the "Upgrade OS" settings it says "Pop!_OS version 20.10 is available".

I would like to know if doing sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop helps to fix it? By the way, I've already done sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:system76/pop

I'm new here. Sorry if the formatting is weird.

Answer 1

Installation/APT Errors.

There are two ways to fix it.

1. First, force-overwrite the files:

   sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/pop-gnome-initial-setup_3.36.1~1612193315~20.04~4367c76_amd64.deb
   

   Then run:

   sudo apt-get -f install
   

2. Alternatively, you can remove the .deb files as you're gonna remove that package anyway:

   sudo rm -rf /var/cache/apt/archives/pop-gnome-initial-setup_3.36.1~1612193315~20.04~4367c76_amd64.deb
   

   Run force install:

   sudo apt -f install
   

Turning back to the default desktop environment.

Follow these steps to remove all components of Pop!_OS:

1. Add the repository again because we're gonna purge it:

   sudo add-apt-repository system76/pop
   

2. Purge the repository:

   sudo apt install ppa-purge
   sudo ppa-purge system76/pop 
   

   This will remove all conflicts/depends/packages/changes done by the PPA.

3. Remove the list files for the repository:

   sudo rm -r /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system76*
   

4. Update:

   sudo apt update && sudo apr upgrade
   

5. Reboot to confirm the changes.

6. Next, remove all packages whose name starts with pop. Since this can be destructive if you have any packages not related to Pop! but whose name begins with the string pop, first run this to just print what packages will be removed:

   sudo apt --dry-run purge pop=-* system76*
   

   Look over the list of packages to be purged carefully and make sure they are all related to Pop!. Once you are confident that they are, go ahead and run the command:

   sudo apt purge pop-* system76*
   

The above will completely remove all components of Pop!_OS.

Restore Ubuntu

Now, let's restore Ubuntu and it's components.

1. Restore the default Ubuntu packages:

   sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop^
   

   The above command is massive and will install every package which comes by default with Ubuntu. Don't worry, it won't reinstall any package, it will just install missing packages.

2. Fix any issues with package manager and clear cache:

   sudo apt clean 
   sudo apt autoclean 
   sudo apt autoremove 
   sudo apt update 
   sudo apt upgrade 
   

Restore the default repositories.

This step is not at all necessary but is highly recommended.

1. First, confirm if the above steps were successful.

   lsb_release -a
   

   If it shows Ubuntu, then you can proceed. If not, then try rebooting.

2. Run this one-line copy-paste friendly command:

   sudo mkdir ~/answer && cd ~/answer/ && sudo wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ishad0w/788555191c7037e249a439542c53e170/raw/3822ba49241e6fd851ca1c1cbcc4d7e87382f484/sources.list && sudo sed -i "s/focal/$(lsb_release -c -s)/" ~/answer/sources.list && sudo mv ~/answer/sources.list /etc/apt/ && sudo rm -rf ~/answer && sudo rm -rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d && sudo mkdir /etc/apt/sources.list.d && sudo apt update
   

3. Run a full upgrade:

   sudo apt full-upgrade
   

You're welcome :)

If you've any questions/problems you can post a new comment/ping me in chat or Ask a new question.

Good luck :)

Answer 2

The answer is here: dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)

Of course you’ll have to change the path to the path in your error output. In this case: /var/cache/apt/archives/pop-gnome-initial-setup_3.36.1~1612193315~20.04~4367c76_amd64.deb