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View Full Version : What do you do when you screw up...



aimran
September 14th, 2007, 06:56 PM
...your ubuntu install? Say edit something in xorg only to break it?

Do you reinstall Ubuntu?

Or try to fix the problem?

n3tfury
September 14th, 2007, 06:59 PM
i like to try and fix things. learn something every time.

Lord Illidan
September 14th, 2007, 07:01 PM
Fix it.. if I can't repair it, then as a last resort, reinstall.

Spike-X
September 14th, 2007, 07:02 PM
I simply restore xorg.conf from the backup I made before messing with it, and proceed from there.

Bungo Pony
September 14th, 2007, 07:02 PM
If I can't boot into Linux, I'll boot up in Windows, search the net on how to fix it, and fix it while in Windows. That's what was great about the DOS-based Windows days. You could fix Windows while in DOS.

jrusso2
September 14th, 2007, 07:09 PM
...your ubuntu install? Say edit something in xorg only to break it?

Do you reinstall Ubuntu?

Or try to fix the problem?

Its part of the learning process, always back up important files before editing them.

Then make sure you have some good tools installed in console so you can make repairs.

Things I like to have are Midnight commander, Pico, w3 console web browser so I can make repairs in console mode if I need to.

aimran
September 14th, 2007, 07:11 PM
I guess I'm one of those bad examples of Linux users :D

Breakdown of my process:

1. Install something fancy, following orders to the tee. System breaks down.
2. Reinstall system and repeat step 1, making sure I didn't make a mistake in following orders.
3. If step 2 doesn't solve things I'll reinstall system and not proceed any further. Wait a couple of weeks and someone will have posted a solution on this forums.

Yeah sue me for being a lazy *** ;). Admittedly I don't learn anything but at least my friends don't see me working my *** off trying to fix the Linux problem. "Oh, there you go - Linux is so hard to handle, why bother mate?".

Skye
September 14th, 2007, 07:11 PM
It really depends how badly I've screwed up. If it's something as simple as a xorg.conf misconfiguration or a grub snafu, no problem. But if I accidentlly rm -rf /, well, then I'd probably need to reinstall. It all depends, I suppose.

kteagan84
September 14th, 2007, 07:12 PM
Oh God I wouldn't dare reinstall at this point! The thought scares me....

I just play it safe, and when I "screw up" I just do what I can to fix it.

Lord Illidan
September 14th, 2007, 07:14 PM
Live CDs also help a lot to fix problems..

dca
September 14th, 2007, 07:45 PM
I don't do anything, I just cuss for a solid twenty five minutes...

Sunflower1970
September 14th, 2007, 07:56 PM
I first try to fix it. When that doesn't work, I then reinstall.

insane_alien
September 14th, 2007, 07:58 PM
try to fix it if i can't, copy and paste over from my back up. works every time.

aks44
September 14th, 2007, 08:07 PM
I simply restore xorg.conf from the backup I made before messing with it, and proceed from there.

Same here, so I didn't vote as there is no adequate option. ;)

beercz
September 14th, 2007, 10:38 PM
What do I do when I screw up?

Laugh!

(I have a full up to date backup :-))

Kingsley
September 14th, 2007, 10:41 PM
I cry and go back to Windows.

Just kidding guyz.

ryno519
September 14th, 2007, 10:42 PM
sudo cp <FUBARD FILE>.backup <FUBARD FILE>

PurposeOfReason
September 14th, 2007, 10:44 PM
That really depends. I mean, once I tried to install the mac menu bar hack thing, GRUB wouldn't even load so I reinstalled. Other than that, I tend to fix it.

RandomJoe
September 14th, 2007, 10:49 PM
The only time I felt compelled to reinstall from scratch (as opposed to all the times I did "because I felt like it") was when I got hit by the L10n worm. There was a "L10n find" utility that would clean things up, but I wasn't going to trust it...

I have WAAAAY too much stuff installed / set up / configured just the way I want it to reinstall very often anymore. Used to do it fairly often "just because".

p_quarles
September 14th, 2007, 11:06 PM
Chances are the only thing that would ever get broken is X, and I could easily fix that from the command line. But, if I somehow destroyed GRUB, then I'd probably tool around with the recovery disk a little, and then reinstall.

Getting a handle on rsync just makes reinstallation too easy. Every system setting and every important document is sitting in a drive on another machine connected via 100mbps ethernet, so it wouldn't take long to get everything back to where it was. I highly recommend it.

lisati
September 14th, 2007, 11:09 PM
If all else fails, find someone else to blame, and give them a FRIENDLY hard time over it.

southernman
September 14th, 2007, 11:47 PM
When I first started I had this convoluted ideal that it was easier to just reinstall, than to do any backtracking or tinkering. I've sense seen the light and pulled my box back to life with the help of SystemRescueCD (has a browser to research if need be), and not trying to many new things at once.

Live and learn.