Ubuntu 12.04 changed itself to xubuntu and stopped working

[Colin Law]

On 30 July 2015 at 16:37, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 30/07/2015, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 30 July 2015 at 11:11, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I have an Acer V3-772G laptop computer, which has an Intel i-7 4702MQ
>>> Haskell CPU/graphics controller and an nVidia GEForce GT-750M graphics
>>> thing.
>>>
>>> I have on the system, Debian 7, Debian 6, Ubuntu 14.04, and, what was
>>> Ubuntu 12.04, installed.
>>>
>>> After two yars of trying to get the computer working, I have found
>>> that, of those operating systems, only the two Ubuntu systems have the
>>> necessary drivers.
>>>
>>> To get the interrface that I wanted, I installed the mate desktop
>>> environment, along with a number of other desktop environments, and
>>> have been using the mate desktop environment as the preferred desktop
>>> environment, on both of the Ubuntu installations.
>>>
>>> In the last week, the Ubuntu 12.04 installation changed the boot
>>> splashscreen, to a blue one, and, after the blue splashscreen, the
>>> screens (I use an external monitor) go blank, and nothing else is
>>> displayed auntil I do a crash/reboot, using the power switch (holding
>>> it down until the system stops breathing).
>>>
>>> I have found that the blue screen displays "xubuntu", and in searching
>>> for that, I have found that xubuntu is an xfce version of Ubuntu.
>>>
>>> I had not wittingly switched the system from being Ubuntu, to xubuntu.
>>>
>>> In using the recovery mode booting, and getting to a root shell
>>> prompt, I tried to use apt-get remove xfce, in the hope that that
>>> would get rid of the switch from Ubuntu to xubuntu, and it reurned
>>> "xfce not found".
>>
>> Did you have autologin enabled?  If so then first try disabling it so
>> that it should take you to a login screen where you can choose which
>> ui to use.
>
> That is how it was set up, before it changed itself to xubuntu, and,
> after I had logged in to the mate desktop environment, it had
> defaulted to that login - the environment was still selectable, but,
> unless I changed it at the login screen, it defaulted to the mate
> desktop environment.
>
> I do not remember exactly what had happend the last time that I have
> logged in to it - I have been uding Ubuntu 14.04, for a while (a week
> or so, or a couple of weeks) now, but, it may have been that I tried
> the xfce desktop when I logged in, and it decided "stuff this, get rid
> of ubuntu, and switch to ubuntu".

So have you tried disabling auto login as I suggested?  If it is
enabled that is.

Colin

>
> I have no longer got a 12.04 system to check, but have
>> have a look at /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf if it exists.  In there you
>> should find a section [SeatDefaults] with a line
>> autologin-user=<your user name>
>> Make a backup of the file in case you mess it up and then in the
>> original delete the text after the = in that line and reboot, which
>> should take you to a login screen.
>>
>> Colin
>>
>
>
> --
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> ..............
>
> "So once you do know what the question actually is,
>  you'll know what the answer means."
> - Deep Thought,
>  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
>  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
>  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
>  written by Douglas Adams,
>  published by Pan Books, 1992
>
> ....................................................
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