system crashed after xserver-xorg-core update

[Henk Koster]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:40:54 +0200, Harschnitz wrote:

> As a new Linux (Ubuntu) user I had 2 PC's successfully up and running 
> since yesterday. Today, since the first update (xserver-xorg-core), both 
> PC's are unable to run normally.
> 
> As a novice I would appreciate a step by step routine that could sort 
> this problem.
> 
> NB The systems were fully up to date status August 21.
> 
> Rob Harschnitz.

These things happen sometimes with an OS that tries to remain close 
to the latest developments. Luckily, the /var/cache/apt/archives directory
contains all the previously installed packages, among which is the 
xserver-xorg-core package version 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10.

So, all a novice (or anyone, for that matter) has to do to reinstate 
the ex ante situation is

$ sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-core=1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10

and reboot (or start the gdm window manager). Since the offending
package had version number 10.3, you should in  future only install a
newer version that.