I have been looking online for help but I have not seen anything but stuff for GNOME. I got my computer second hand and I want to reset my Linux Ubuntu.
How do I do this?
Asked
Active
Viewed 430 times
1
-
1What do you mean by "reset"? – Pilot6 Jul 04 '15 at 18:42
-
usually you just reinstall, as there is no factory reset, plus you probably want your own username and password – Mateo Jul 04 '15 at 18:45
-
i want to make it the same as right after you install it because i want to have it ALL my settings and i enjoy doing the start up wizard. and in that case how do i reset it? – Blast Cloud Jul 04 '15 at 18:47
-
http://askubuntu.com/questions/6328/how-do-i-install-ubuntu – Mateo Jul 04 '15 at 18:49
-
You can create a new user. There will be default user settings. And really re-install is not hard or long. – Pilot6 Jul 04 '15 at 18:50
-
1Possible duplicate of How do I reset my Unity configuration? – DJCrashdummy Nov 26 '15 at 02:30
1 Answers
3
If you got it from someone else, the safest (and probably easiest, especially if it is a old version) thing to do is reinstall.
You can download a new version from here, make a installation media (either DVD or USB) and install it using the instructions here – there is also this question here on how you can install Ubuntu. When prompted, you can choose to wip the disk and install Ubuntu. There is potential that existing software on the device has been made malicious/broken, so you want to be sure you have cleared the data on it, so reinstalling probably is best
Alternatively, you need to delete files not provided by packages (everything in the home directories, and occasionally some files elsewhere), and reinstall nearly every system package (which downloads ALOT - almost as much as a new disk image - it also likely will take longer to process).
Wilf
- 30,194
- 17
- 108
- 164