[SOLVED] ubuntu 10.04, only terminal display & no desktop

[devils casper]

Could you post your machine's specs? Do you have Nvidia or ATI Graphics Card?

[deepikarc]

Hi everyone,
wanted to say that I got my Desktop back. Really relieved. These r the steps followed :

1)First I connected my laptop to the internet device with ethernet cable. Then type

ifconfig

and you'll see that eth0 is functioning. How did I get to knw that -- RX packets and TX packets were giving NON ZERO numbers, and giving IP addresses. This was a signal to :wired internet connection is available.

2)Now to enable the internet, I had to open a file and do some changes. So this is what I did : Type :

sudo gedit/etc/network/interfaces

. Then in that file, added the following lines :

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

. Then run :

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

. Then to see if internet was working fine or not. I typed :

~$ firefox

. After that webpage opened and the internet was working fine. I was so happy at this moment, but still had to solve the real problem of fixing my Desktop.

3)Then executed the following commands :

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

. Then came out of the terminal, and logged in again and WALA --- My DESKTOP was BACK. I was just toooo happy at this moment.

4) Now the next thing that I wanted to fix was the wifi (wireless internet connection). So for that first of all detached the ethernet cable.
Then opened a file, by typing :

sudo gedit/etc/network/interfaces

. And deleted the previous 2 liness that I added :

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

. Made sure that only these 2 lines r present :

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

. Then restarted the network manager by typing :

sudo service network-manager restart

. And then, the symbol of wifi was coming on the panel.Clicked on the wifi connection that I wanted, and that was it. Even my wifi was now working.

So everything is back to normal. But during this trouble I learned a lot. And am really thankful to the ubuntu and linux forums to be there, without w/c I couldn't have solve the problem at all. All the above commands and procedures, I got it from the forums, through different threads posting their problems. Internet is just amazing, makes the world come to one place and share their ideas and a great help.