Need to restore my system to its state before crazy uninstall.

**Randy Schilling** · October 25th, 2012

I used synaptic to remove libjpeg-turbo8 and libjpeg-turbo8-dev packages and
my system is collapsing before my eyes as I write this.

This is unbelievable. Weeks of work is gone.

Is there an easy way to undo this, like take my system back to a previous state?

Rlease help - Randy

**Randy Schilling** · October 25th, 2012

I used synaptic to remove libjpeg-turbo8 and libjpeg-turbo8-dev packages and
my system is collapsing before my eyes as I write this.

This is unbelievable. Weeks of work is gone.

Is there an easy way to undo this, like take my system back to a previous state?

Please help - Randy

**dniMretsaM** · October 25th, 2012

You have to tell us what went wrong before we can tell you how to fix it. What happened?

**cariboo** · October 25th, 2012

Please don't create multiple threads on the same subject, I have merged your two threads.

**stinkeye** · October 25th, 2012

Originally Posted by Randy Schilling

I used synaptic to remove libjpeg-turbo8 and libjpeg-turbo8-dev packages and
my system is collapsing before my eyes as I write this.

This is unbelievable. Weeks of work is gone.

Is there an easy way to undo this, like take my system back to a previous state?

Rlease help - Randy

Try

Code:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

which depends on all of the packages in the Ubuntu desktop system.

**crushkittykitty** · October 25th, 2012

Ok this is what I do grab a live cd and a usb and pull all your stuff off then do a fresh reinstall. That is if I cant figure out what went wrong. The main thing is to save your work. Got an extra hard drive you could just make a folder on that hard drive and move all your stuff then reinstall.

**Randy Schilling** · October 25th, 2012

dniMretsaM,
Thank you for looking into my problem.
I won't be able to explain what happened with as much detail
as I would like
because I'm no longer able to login to my Ubuntu system.

I have 2 systems, Ubuntu and Windows, controlled by Grub2.
When I choose the Ubuntu system, startup stalls at a black screen and the statement: *Checking battery state.

I am a novice LAMP user. I had just successfully completed LAMP intallation
and configuration and I was trying to setup a family web page using
Coppermine Photo Gallery.
Coppermine reported the follwoing error involving jpeg,

Fatal error: Call to undefined function imagecreatefromjpeg()
in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/rjs357/cpg/install.php on line 2145

My previous post, "Want jpeg support in gd image library and php?"
contains more details of this problem.

I found a reference that said I should recompile php with certain options
and that my libjpeg files needed to be in my /usr/lib/ directory.
I found these files in /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ instead,l and so, right or wrong,
I decided to remove libjpeg programs, planning to reinstall them in /usr/lib/.

I entered Synaptic and set two packages,
libjpeg-turbo8 and libjpeg-turbo8-dev
(I might be slightly off with these names) for complete removal.
I should have read more carefully what Synaptic said it was
going to remove because it started removing possibly hundreds of programs.
I watched as many of my most important programs fell from my Unity launcher. After Synaptic was done, I could no longer log into Ubuntu,
as I said previously. I don't know any other details to tell you.

I know that Windows has a system restore command.
If Linux has such a command, I would ask that you explain to
me how to return my Ubuntu to its state at 7:30 CST on 10/24/2012.
If so, please keep in mind that I can no longer access my Ubuntu
desktop and I have no experience with Ubuntu's recovery systems.
Please provide as much detail as you can.

If this is not possible and I have to reinstall all my work, I wonder
if Synaptic creates a log of what it removed? This log would help a lot.
How would I access such a log?

Are there other options? Several people have responded to this thread
but none of them contain enough detail for me. Please, more detail,
especially on how to preserve my work, all of which is in /home/rjs/.

Thanks again. Randy

**jonnyboysmithy** · October 25th, 2012

So you uninstalled a lot of programs leaving your ubuntu desktop unusable.
I'm guessing somehow the package ubuntu-desktop got uninstalled.
In that case your configuration files are probably gone (customized settings like wallpaper keyboard shortcuts).
Folders like Pictures Music, Documents should still be there all intact.

The way I see it there are two ways of going about it:
1. Use a liveusb/livecd to boot up and then copy your data and afterwards do a reinstall.
or
2. Reinstall the programs that got uninstalled.
Let your computer boot up. Don't log in at the regular login screen instead press ctrl+alt+f1 and login (you won't see your password as you type it).
Then run the command

Code:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

That should install all the programs necessary for you to log in.
After you are done you can run

Code:

sudo reboot

to restart the machine and see if that worked.
If you cant get it to boot far enough to do that you may want to do number1 as above or you can tell us what is happening and take it from there.

**oldfred** · October 25th, 2012

Try looking in /var/log/apt for history files.

I purged some old kernels a few days ago and this is what it saved.

Code:

Start-Date: 2012-10-23  10:45:49
Commandline: /usr/sbin/synaptic
Purge: linux-headers-3.2.0-23:amd64 (3.2.0-23.36), linux-headers-3.2.0-24:amd64 (3.2.0-24.39), linux-headers-3.2.0-25:amd64 (3.2.0-25.40), linux-headers-3.2.0-26:amd64 (3.2.0-26.41), linux-headers-3.2.0-27:amd64 (3.2.0-27.43), linux-headers-3.2.0-29:amd64 (3.2.0-29.46)
End-Date: 2012-10-23  10:46:59