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Abridged Antecedents

I run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a x68_64 computer. A few days ago I run sudo apt-get -f install for a general overhaul of broken dependencies. I did so in order to remove the conflicts between Paraview for amd64, which I wanted to install, and Skype and Google Earth that run on i386 libraries asked for by Paraview. This operation, in and of itself, went well since I managed to have these three programs properly running on amd64 mode.

However, sudo apt-get -f install also removed a number of other packages ostensibly running on multi-architecture mode. Among these Brasero. When I run sudo apt-get install brasero, I mistakenly gave permission to remove a large number of libraries, in the order of hundreds. This happened because I hastily understood that these libraries were to add rather than to remove (to this extent, my bad thus).

Unwittingly I gave way to a spree of autoimmune exuberance. As a matter of fact at the end of the process, the graphic desktop manager and the internet connectivity went off. Now I do manage to start in recovery mode though, and get a responsive command line terminal. I can see the file system.

I have already posted on this incident this on a Ubuntu forum to no avail so far. I think all necessary information is summarised here though. I wonder if someone in this community could help me out. I will bother about cross-linking the two threads when the problem has been sorted.

State of the Play

Now the state of the play from the recovery-mode command line:

  • ping yields a 'user unknown'
  • xterm yields a 'display is not set'
  • both lightdm and gdm yield a 'currently not installed'
  • dpkg-reconfigure lightdm yields a 'broken or not fully installed'
  • apt-get install lightdm gives a streak of 'failed to fetch' arguably because the internet has been cut out (checked out that the cable is in place)

Additionally the following (hyperlinked) log files of the package managers document the operations that led to this situation:

Tentative Solution Strategy

I am not so much in favour of reinstalling the whole OS curtly.

I was wondering if, first, I can install some key libraries (as deb packages) from an external drive so as to restore the internet connectivity. Then, restore/repair all other missing libraries (desktop manager and all the rest) by using the command line and the internet.

Questions

  • Is this strategy sensible/workable?
  • Which (bundle of) deb packages would be able to restore the internet connection?
  • Which command would enable me to reinstall all missing essentials once the internet connectivity works again? Or, at least, save as much donkey work as possible?

I look forward to reading your answers and remarks.

Solution

This problem has been sorted in the Ask Ubuntu forum. Credits to user Sneetsher for the competent and effective guidance in the StackExchange chatroom.

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