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I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 and I wanted to upgrade my boost from 1.58 to the latest version because one of the programs I was planning to use requires it. One thread suggested that I need to uninstall the older version first before installing a the newer version. So I did using:

sudo apt-get remove 'libboost-.*'

Little did I know that hitting enter and yes was the stupidest thing to do. I'm not unfamiliar with removing programs so I did not read what is on the terminal (which programs were to be removed) and my fingers were really faster than my eyes. So when I noticed that the programs in my dashboard (e.g. libreoffice) started to disappear I thought I had to stop the run, which I did. However, the damage has been done. Upon restarting my computer, it's been stuck on the ubuntu splash page with the five dots still changing their colors. It's like that for almost 2 hours now. I'm stupid and I badly need help. Oh, my poor data.

Thank you.

jop
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1 Answers1

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  1. Switch to a virtual terminal so you can execute commands by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F2

  2. Become root by running sudo -s

  3. Reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package using apt install ubuntu-desktop --reinstall

  4. If nothing happens and apt says it's already installed, remove the package using apt remove ubuntu-desktop and run the reinstall command (step 3) again.

  5. Once done reboot the system by typing reboot

Kristopher Ives
  • 5,669