how to repair 11.10, dump unity, and use gnome

[Jeff Shearer]

I tried to upgrade to 11.10. Actually the upgrade went well until I tried to "improve" my desktop. At this point I am back to being able to boot, use email, and the Internet. But I have a long way to get back to a fully useful workstation.

It seems I am not the only person having these problems and it seems it is this Unity shell. so I want to fix my install and use gnome from now until forever.

I booted to the 11.10 .iso hoping to see a repair installation, but no such luck.

Please tell me what is the best way to get 11.10 fully functioning without Unity and hopefully not a full clean install, but one that preserves my documents and settings.

Thanks

[roelforg]

I tried to upgrade to 11.10. Actually the upgrade went well until I tried to "improve" my desktop. At this point I am back to being able to boot, use email, and the Internet. But I have a long way to get back to a fully useful workstation.

It seems I am not the only person having these problems and it seems it is this Unity shell. so I want to fix my install and use gnome from now until forever.

I booted to the 11.10 .iso hoping to see a repair installation, but no such luck.

Please tell me what is the best way to get 11.10 fully functioning without Unity and hopefully not a full clean install, but one that preserves my documents and settings.

Thanks
What problems are you having?

The only info you've given is that you're experiencing a sub-optimal experience.

If speed is the problem; i advise trying Lubuntu or Xubuntu

[Jeff Shearer]

Good points. I do not have the launch bar, when I press on the meta key, i get no dialogue, and the icons and associated functionality that were at the top right, such as chat, email, blue tooth, shutdown, are no longer visible. If you don't mind, I'd just like to get my installation working, not switch to some other variant. Let's keep it simple.