I've broke Ubuntu

[roylond]

I tried ubuntu a few years ago and had to give up. I thought I'd give it another try and installed 10.4 lts. on a spare machine. I was looking around and things were familar. I was informed that there was an upgrade available and so went for it. After the upgrade to 12.04 lts all I have now is a column of small icons down the left of the screen and nothing else works. Any ideas anyone or should I reinstall 10.04 lts. I am completely new so don't know what I am doing.
Thanks

[Mopar1973Man]

Yea... That 12.04 for sure. In the upper left is the "start button" which gives you a search box to type into. THen you can search for apps or files.

[sandyd]

Have you tried installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS directly without upgrading? (assuming that the Unity Dash and other things do not work)

[roylond]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

[roylond]

No I was given the 10.04 cd to try it and upgraded from there.

[cmcanulty]

Install fallback version and it looks a lot like 10.04 and good for 5 years. You don't need to reinstall just install and choose classic at logon it will remember after first login
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-ins...4-precise.html

[zero2xiii]

Hay,

Upgrading from LTS to LTS in this situation is not recommended at all. To many things have changed, esp in gnome 2 to 3. So a clean install is recommended.

Albeit the "fallback" suggested MIGHT work, a whole lot of other configuration files will cause other issues in programs and stuff. So doing a clean re-install might be best, and after than install the fallback so you can use a more familiar environment if you wish. I have found unity not THAT bad, once you get used to the work flow and the way things move and such... But it does have a few down sides. Might try the new one some time soon.

Cheers and good luck

[deadflowr]

Hay,

Upgrading from LTS to LTS in this situation is not recommended at all. To many things have changed, esp in gnome 2 to 3. So a clean install is recommended.

By Who?
By you or me or the devs who made it?
The devs wholeheartly recommend using the upgrader.

To OP the top icon on the left side, with the ubuntu logo, is called the dash. It is now the new menu system.
Inside it has a search feature, and several categories.
At the bottom of the dash are five icons.
The first is home, which is the default screen for when you open the dash.
The second is for apps.
The third is for files.
The fourth and fifth are music and video.

Simplest thing to get to understand it, is to type "help".
This will load the help app which will bring up the new desktop guide.


Also, by pressing and holding the super key, a window will appear and list keyboard shortcuts.

[newb85]

For future reference, the version number tells you when it was released, in a yy.mm format. So, 10.04 was released in April of 2010. Ubuntu puts out a new release twice a year in April and October, so you can know from looking at the number that it's not the newest version available.

[grahammechanical]

What is the problem here? A user whose familiarity with Ubuntu is very small and who loads 10.04 and sees a familiar looking desktop but who then upgrades to 12.04 and finds that the desktop has changed to a completely unfamiliar work surface. Is that the situation? What evidence do we have that "nothing else works?" What is the user expecting to happen? What is he looking for?

It is my experience that if we get a top panel and a launcher then we have Unity up and working. And everything else works as well. The problems arise when we get to a desktop without a top panel and the launcher then we also know nothing else will work unless the user activates a different video driver.

@royland

Please tell us what happens if you click the top icon in that left panel and type help in the search panel. That should load the Ubuntu Desktop User guide. I suggest that you need to become familiar with the way things are done with Ubuntu and its Unity user interface that did not exist back in 2010.

Here is an online version.

https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-help/index.html

Perhaps you can also explain how you broke Ubuntu. It is nice of you to admit that you are to blame, but is Ubuntu really broken? Please give greater detail on the symptoms that cause you to believe that Ubuntu is broken. Also, be advised that 10.04 has now reached end of life and will no longer receive security updates.

Regards.