MATE 15.04. restore system default setting

Support & Help Requests
1

Hello,

Im a new Windows migrate with Ubuntu Mate 15.04 being my first linux-based system. I really love it, however, I had some sound issue so I tried solving it by installing and reinstalling some packages and it seems I ruined most of the system.

I cannot even properly run MATE desktop anymore. Is there any way that I could restore the system to the point or similar when I installed it without reinstalling the whole OS? Or maybe a way to find out what is actually missing?

Thank you!

Peter

2

Hi Peter

Sounds like you need a crash course in console (tty) usage :slight_smile: This is advance stuff, but not that hard with a little help.

At the login screen press Ctrl + Alt + F1 and log in.
Now lets see whats broke with the fix broken packages command.

sudo apt-get -f install

Now look for error messages in the output and post them the best you can.

There is no restore in linux like windows. Backup can be created. Linux is different, but works fine. Just remember Linux is not Windows and things are done different. And nothing wrong with playing around and learning something new.

Here are a few commands that are useful when learning the command line
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto#Maintenance_commands

2 Likes
3

Depending which route you wish to take:

  • Re-install, and create future “snapshots” of your system.
    [Clonezilla][1] is a great tool for creating entire backups of your system. You could perform a backup as soon as you install the system. If at a later date, you wish to “restore to system default setting”, it’ll be like a new computer exactly as you had it.

  • Dive into the terminal and repair the broken cogs.
    If you can pinpoint and inform us of what happened that “broke” it, we can make suggestions to help “revert” it by doing the opposite. An alternate to @anon42388993’s advice would be to type history to list your previously executed commands. For instance, if you removed PulseAudio using apt-get (which has a lot of links with essential Ubuntu MATE packages), then you can revert that by installing the meta packages to install the missing packages:

    sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-desktop ubuntu-mate-core

Unlike Windows, Linux can be very verbose and provide transparent information that really helps fix problems without the need to re-install. :slight_smile:
[1]: http://clonezilla.org/

2 Likes
4

Thank you guys for your replies. Really appreciated!

It helped a lot. Dealing with the terminal for the first time in your life is a tricky process but I somehow managed to pull it off and my Ubuntu Mate is alive again. Though, I still seem not to be able to control the volume of players, or youtube etc. with the help of hotkeys. It is not a big deal anyway.

Peter

5

Thanks guys. I’m new to UM and I’ve already made it my everyday OS… no more windoze - YAY!.. but the learning curve is steep for first timers.

My volume controls went missing and this certainly help me get everything back.

Cheers