Linux Format forums

Xelous · Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Posts: 16

That sounds like such a stupid title for this post, let me write out what I'd like to put:

If you install a Ubuntu distro with Unity (So a new one) on a machine without the graphics hardware to support it then the desktop/installer itself notifies you that it can not run in Unity mode and defaults to a very friendly environment set up - I prefer this set up to Unity - and it avoids installing the xubuntu-desktop or anything else.

My question is: What is the command/instruction/action that this defaulting step takes? Can I replicate it in the simple one fell-swoop which the installer performs?

I ask, because I regularly use VmWare to install fresh copies of Ubuntu Virtual machines, to test and destroy the distro with my massive machinations of most morbid muck-ups. And whenever one installs the fugly clunky unity on VmWare it defaults to this nice gnome 2 appearing set up as used in the 10.04/10.10 releases... But when I come to install the distro live, to my spanking new laptop, it has the graphics power to run the Unity desktop so I get lumbered with Unity.

Please note - I don't like to just sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop because it changes the boot screens and other such items

So, any ideas folks?.. Specifically what the installer there does?... or perhaps someone could show me a way to see the commands performed by the installer (aka a kind of "history" but for the install?) - I've checked the syslog and some other places but all to no avail.

Cheers

Xel

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:05 pm Post subject:

I think you can select "unity2D" at the lightdm login.
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wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:15 pm Post subject:

ajgreeny · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:50 pm Post subject:

You must be using ubuntu 11.04, I presume, as 11.10 will default to unity 2D, not the "friendly" desktop you speak of.

You can however, use a classic gnome look-alike desktop even in 11.10 (and soon in 12.04), but you will need to install gnome-session-fallback plus dependencies (a lot of them, if I remember correctly) and then you can choose "classic" from the session menu in lightdm login screen.

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1859961 for some details, and search for more info on www.googlubuntu.com
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wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:02 pm Post subject:

Xelous · Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Posts: 16

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

Worked a treat, and its even worked on 12.04 (Which I've just got sorted out onto the laptop), lovely jubbly.

Thank you very much folks! Very Happy

Xelous · Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Posts: 16

Erm....

.... arrrr......hmmmm.....

Anyone got a minute for this one?... Okay, so I had the Unity interface (Ubuntu 12.04) I performed the above recommendation and could log on with Gnome 2D and all was fine with the world...

However, over the weekend I did a "sudo apt-get update" and a "sudo apt-get upgrade"... I did these to be ready for some new work this week, and just left the machine doing indexes whilst I cooked Sunday lunch...

When I came back to the machine... Erm... Well... it was all screwy...

For example, the trusty CTRL+ALT+T no longer brings up a terminal. The terminal has no surrounding frame, just a thin right hand edge which expands to a scroll pair of buttons.

There are a myriad of other little problems with the look and feel of the machine but the most annoying is how it just does not feel like it did... Not least because now vmware reports it is unable to compile the vmmon module (a known issue, which I was unaware of, when I performed the upgrade)...

I'm about to flatten the machine and start over with a fresh 12.04 to check things over, but I'm now just wondering if I might not go over to Mint.

But - if anyone has an ideas what the heck happened to my gnome session fallback settings, specifically about the terminal not working on CTRL+ALT+T and the terminal itself looking so strange - let me know...

Xel Rolling Eyes

wyliecoyoteuk · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:09 pm Post subject:

you could try (from a unity session)

Xelous · Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Posts: 16

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt... Still screwy as a phillips screw driver... Confused

I even repeated it with a purge in the middle, still no help Crying or Very sad

Xelous · Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Posts: 16

Got this fixed - here's the order - slightly different for some reason...

1. Log into a Unity session you've not initialised before - in my case this was Unity2D - if I logged into a session I had activated, then it remained screwy.

2. As per Wiley's post:

sudo apt-get remove gnome-session-fallback
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo reboot

3. Log in again as any session:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback
sudo reboot

Now you can log into the gnome session again... I hope it doesn't get screwy again, because I now have no uninitialised session to drop into to perform this again.

When I was working through this, if I went into an initialised session (so the gnome or unity proper - which I had used) then it simply seemed to restore the new copy of "gnome-session-fallback" with the same screwy settings Sad

Its fixed now though... I'd like 12.10 (when its out) not to break this again Rolling Eyes