A word of warning: I just tried the advice from this forum for a clean install. I’d installed a fresh Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS and thought I’d try MATE so I installed the meta-packages and chose my session from the chooser. I liked it so I reinstalled with Ubuntu MATE 16.04.2 LTS. However, this caused dire problems, eg the randr was broken and it would keep trying to display on the laptop’s screen even when it was closed. The first time I tried to log in it failed completely, and I couldn’t get to a console login to see why. Might just be random, and YMMV, but I’d say if installing the meta-packages gets you close enough, do that, or install into its own partition to test it out.
I think the new kernel might be causing issues for some (including users on 16.10 and 17.04) and for others, it fixes some issues. The kernel is pretty much the difference from an original 16.04 and one installed fresh from 16.04.2.
The “original” 16.04 ISO with the older kernel can be found here:
For those who originally installed a fresh 16.04, installed all the updates to 16.04.2, and wants to “opt in” to the new kernel, this is the command:
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends xserver-xorg-hwe-16.04
Proceed with caution in case it introduces new problems not present before.
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