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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Upgrade lost main menu pulldown



chuckp
November 1st, 2009, 10:06 PM
This is a cross-post, it is also posted in the Karmic Koala Upgrade Experience thread.

I have a major problem. I upgraded from 9.04-amd64 to 9.10 last night, using the Upgrade Manager.

My system is an HP DV7 laptop, and the hardware is working flawlessly, as far as I can tell.

The upgrade process crashed after the software install portion completed. At least I hope it completed. Cleanup and the restart did not run. There were two errors during the software install, both were in OpenOffice. The first was 'emailmerge', the second I can't recall at the moment, although it was also a small item like the first, not one of the major components.

The crash returned me to my 9.04 desktop. When I restarted manually, a monochrome Ubuntu icon came up for a moment, then the system rebooted and the same icon came up again, then the new 'select username' display came up and I was able to log in. I do NOT like this new option!

The problem is that the main menu pulldown has disappeared. I have no way now to directly open any application, access preferences, perform any administration tasks, or perform any other function from that menu.

How can I fix this? I am not a guru, or even close, but I do know how to open a new console, and I have been studying linux on my own intermittently for about 10 years. I am probably equivalent to a second year comp-sci major, minus the programming skills.

If it's possible, I would much prefer to have the original Debian main menu, rather than the severely limited Ubuntu version. I like having access to all of the available applications. There are a number of them I like to use that Ubuntu does not list.

I have run Debian for the last five years or so, and switched to Ubuntu as a trial when I got this new laptop. I stayed with Ubuntu because it was able to detect and configure my Epson scanner, which Debian has never managed.

I can live without the scanner if I have to. I cannot live without the main menu.

HELP!