Binary package hint: computer-janitor
Context:
I am trying Ubuntu Jaunty within a virtual machine. I'm updating it regularly, but I did not recently cleaned it up.
Therefore yesterday evening after the installation of a new kernel, I decided to remove the 2 older ones, and why not give it a go with Computer Janitor.
Steps taken:
1. Launched Computer Janitor;
2. After a while, it showed 2 older kernel that could be removed and a package that was called something like 'readline' (with something before or after);
3. I said ok, removed those packages.
What happened next:
1. It took quite a while and during the process, strangely things started to bug, like the Network Manager applet which crashed and cut me off internet, then firefox was gone, etc.
2. once it was done, I went to the 'System' menu to see with Synaptics what had happen, I was really surprise to see the menu almost empty, and all the others too. There was still Synaptic but it was telling me that gksu was not installed on my system and thus could not be launched.
My conclusions:
1. it seems that Computer Janitor removed much more than just the few packages that was listed (from memory only 3 packages where displayed, the 2 older kernel et this readline-cmd or something approaching)
What I was expecting:
1. Computer Janitor showed just a few packages that it will remove, it should just remove those, no more. Or warn the user before.
2. I was not expecting to crash my system! ;-)
Furthermore, I have tried to install the ubuntu-desktop package again, but I obtain errors that even a geek like me does not understand! Something like I have one broken package that prevent installation. Any tip to restore my system without re-installing it would be awesome. (Note, that if I have to trash it, it is no problem, it is just a vm with nothing important on it)
I manage to got at least my system back!
Here are the steps to recover it (note that some steps might not be useful, but I'm unsure):
1. reboot in recovery mode
2. choose the root prompt with network
And then:
dpkg-reconfigure -a
dpkg --configure -a
At that point, I had a missing file /sbin/udevadm which prevents any further change to my packages system. So I launch another VM with just Ubuntu Live CD, I have installed SSH (using synaptics), and I did a scp on the Ubuntu Live VM to get that missing udevadm file. So something like:
scp ubuntu@
Then I did again:
dpkg --configure -a
It did work this time, and I went on:
apt-get -f install
apt-get --fix-missing install
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get clean
apt-get autoremove
aptitude install ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-standard)
reboot
I have my system restored (or almost, the java, and a few other packages where still missing). No data loss.