[upgrade raring->saucy] Dash not working

[deadflowr]

If you create a second user, can that user use the dash properly?

[Jonathan Precise]

@deadflowr: Nope

***

@monkeybrain20122: The problem is that

unity --reset

is deprecated:

ERROR: the reset option is now deprecated

Tried reinstalling: unity-lens-applications, unity-lens-files, The google-drive scope, and hud. Tried purging them and installing them again. It's the same broken dash.

[deadflowr]

Try reinstalling the ubuntu-desktop metapackage
but first clean apt.
run

sudo apt-get clean

and

sudo apt-get autoclean

then

sudo apt-get update

then

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

[Jonathan Precise]

Still the same after following those steps. Even killing /usr/bin/X and logging back in, still the same.

[monkeybrain20122]

Probably a clean install is the way to go. It will be a lot faster than trouble shooting this.
Backup the data and also save your sources.list and sources.ist.d

make a list for your installed programs so can be reinstalled easily http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=261366&page=12

Then do a clean install. After that replace the sources.list and sources.list.d with the backup (if you use ppas)
Then reinstall programs following link above.

[chkneater]

Yeah its definitely an upgrad prob... 13.10 is still relatively new and I hate to say it but a full install is your best bet. What happened with me tho, is using the LIVEDVD I checked the "install 13.10 alongside 13.04" and it overwrote it anyways, so don't unmount 13.04 when it asks you during install otherwise it will try to overwrite it evidently.

Also one thing I did after getting my all my stuff erased when trying to upgrade was a made a seperate NTFS partition to save important things and also so I can unplug my ext HDD and access files using a windows system. Just a tip, not necessary.

[Jonathan Precise]

Is there any alternative to re-installing, as currently I do not have a back-up drive? I have too many programs I have made (that are packaged but have not installed them to any directory in my $PATH variable), a lot of google-chrome bookmarks I want to conserve, a lot of customized files in the config directory /etc and /usr/share, a ton of 3rd-party repositories (that were disabled manually on upgrade), a whole xampp installation with mediawiki moodle phpbb and wordpress, and a whole other bunch of stuff I just don't wan't to loose.

(I have made backups to another partition that is now very low on space , which is why since I-don't-remember-when I have stopped backing up.)

Help?

[monkeybrain20122]

Your chrome settings are in .config/google-chrome. If you back this up and move it to the new installation you will save all your bookmarks, addons and the open tabs when you reinstall chrome. So that is not a problem.

I think it is probably one of the customized files in the config directories that messed up your dash so I wouldn't save those. Not sure what you mean by packages that you have made but not installed. Do you means something you "make" but have not done "make install"? With checkinstall you can create a .deb in the build directory and you can save those, but I don't know how to create the .deb without installing it at the same time.

You may be able to move the xammp installation as all the files are in a single folder in /opt if I remember correctly.

So probably not much disk space will be required for these..

P.S. upgrade usually works only if you have a relatively pristine system. If you have a heavily customized system with a lot third party apps, ppas etc then you should definitely do a clean install instead (I have a separate /home so that is rather easy in terms of keeping settings and data)

[Jonathan Precise]

Not sure what you mean by packages that you have made but not installed. Do you means something you "make" but have not done "make install"?

No, I'm a developer, and have made a couple of .debs. However, I have them installed to a non-standard directory (my home directory)

[monkeybrain20122]

No, I'm a developer, and have made a couple of .debs. However, I have them installed to a non-standard directory (my home directory)

So if they are installed everything should be in a few directories in your /home, right? ($HOME/bin, $HOME/lib, $HOME/include, $HOME/share etc) Can you just move those?